Universal Rights Group

💡 Is being the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights an impossible job❓

➡️ In February 2018, URG Director Marc Limon published a blog on the early departure of the previous for , Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein. The blog examined the real underlying reason: the multifaceted nature of the High Commissioner’s mandate.

➡️ This theme has attracted renewed interest following the current High Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet’s announcement that she too will step down early. Marc Limon provides analysis again in a second blog on the role of the High Commissioner, reflecting on whether a single person can publicly criticise while also reaching out to them regarding or for agreement on key issues, for example, reform of the system.

In the blog, the case is made that the world needs both roles:
🔹 Quiet diplomacy, international and support to the machinery
🔹 Public advocacy and accusation of serious violations

The underlying question, then, is whether it is possible to have a High Commissioner assuming both roles at the same time. On this point, the following solutions are suggested:

👉 Limit the High Commissioner’s focus to public and the Deputy High Commissioner's role to
👉 Appoint different deputies for the three main roles of the mandate
👉 Create a new position (i.e., UN Human Rights Council’s Secretary General) for Secretariat functions


📚 Read the 2022 blog: https://bit.ly/3A0qFoR
📚Read the 2018 blog: https://bit.ly/3vA6V8G

Time to ask again: is being the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights an impossible job? | Universal Rights Group In February 2018, I published a blog on the early departure of the previous High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein. The blog responded to David Petrasek’s article in OpenGlobaRights entitled ‘Another one bites the dust’ (8 February 2018). The article attempted to look past...

🌊Today is World Oceans Day! This year, it will be celebrated under the theme, ‘Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean.’

💡 Did you know that?
🔹 The produces at least 50% of the planet’s oxygen.
🔹 Oceans absorb about 30% of carbon dioxide produced by humans, buffering the impacts of global warming.

As evidenced throughout the past years, for universal recognition of the to clean, healthy and sustainable environment ( ) and to work together to protect and revitalise the ocean and everything it sustains.


📚 Read our blog on the case for swift action on recognition of R2HE ⤵️

#TheTimeIsNow - UN recognition of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment: Past developments and future prospects | Universal Rights Group Last week, the URG, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, Dr. David Boyd, in partnership with New York University, held an expert seminar to look ahead towards the possible UN General Assembly recognition of the right to a....

🌿 Today is the International Day of Plant Health! 🌿

🌱 The United Nations, through resolution 76/256, which was unanimously adopted by the General Assembly on March 29, decided to establish an International Day of Plant Health every year on May 12.

🌱 This day represents a key opportunity to highlight the crucial importance of protecting plant health, as both our health and the health of our planet depend on plants. Nevertheless, climate change continues to alter ecosystems and to damage biodiversity. As highlighted by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutierrez in his 2020 Call to Action, ‘the climate emergency threatens the rights and dignity not only of millions of people worldwide but also of people not yet born.’

🌱 Against this background, the momentum created last year by the Human Rights Council should be built on. Resolution 48/13, recognising the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment was adopted by Council with:
✅43 votes in favour
🔵4 abstentions
❌0 votes against

📢 for the General Assembly to recognise the R2HE and register with the existing consensus around the world.

For more information, read our publications on the ⤵️

The right to a healthy and sustainable environment | Universal Rights Group The right to a clean and healthy environment was left out of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (and therefore the two Covenants) because it was drafted before the advent of the modern environmental movement in the 1960s and 70s. However, over recent years, there has been a growing interest a...