Happy First Birthday, UN Human Rights Council!?

 

Achievements and challenges, one year after its creation

 

Co-sponsored by the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies and the Consulate of Switzerland in Cambridge.

 

Lecture by Ambassador Blaise Godet, Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the UN in Geneva, Vice-President of the New UN Human Rights Council.

 

Discussant Mohammad-Mahmoud Mohamedou, Associate Director, Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research, Harvard School of Public Health.

 

Moderated by Jacqueline Bhabha, Executive Director of the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies.

 

The Human Rights Council was put in place by the UN General Assembly in the spring of 2006 with the support of 170 out of the 192 UN member states. Human rights proponents hoped it would bring a substantial impact on the protection and promotion of human rights worldwide.

 

• Does the new Council make a difference to the current state of human rights protection in the world?
• What are the unresolved issues?
• When will the US become a member of the Human Rights Council?