As human-rights protections slip worldwide, the authors argue that the Inter-Parliamentary Union, in a group photo, October 2019, above, can establish a “critical link between international agreements and domestic progress on human-rights issues.”
China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, in a UN Security Council meeting, Sept. 25, 2019. China’s rising economic clout globally is playing out in the UN on human-rights matters, most recently on the persecution of the Muslim Uighurs in China. MANUEL ELIAS/UN PHOTO
Twenty-three nations, including Britain, the United States, Germany, France and Japan, slammed China at the United Nations recently, citing its persecution of Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang province.
Agnès Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, center, has been the sole voice in the UN system to demand a criminal investigation into resolving the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the American-based journalist who was slaughtered on Oct. 2, 2018. Here, Callamard is speaking on the subject at Columbia University.
Andrew Bremberg, Trump’s nominee as ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva. The vote by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on his candidacy has been delayed as a leading Democrat has demanded more details on a separate matter: the White House’s new migration agreements. GAGE SKIDMORE/CREATIVE COMMONS
The vote by the Human Rights Council on July 12, renewing the role of the UN expert on sexual orientation and gender identity and reflecting more global support to protect LGBTIQ rights than in the past, the author writes.
I woke to a flurry of messages from LGBTIQ activists across the world, coordinating activities. It was July 12 and the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva was about to vote on renewing the mandate of the independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity — the SOGI expert, as it is called in the UN.
Nils Melzer, the UN special rapporteur on torture, was criticized by hundreds of international human-rights lawyers recently for his “problematic definition of rape,” as expressed in an essay he wrote online about Julian Assange of Wikileaks. JEAN-MARC FERRE/UN PHOTO
Andrew Bremberg, Trump’s nominee for US ambassador to the UN in Geneva, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 20, 2019. Aspects of his anti-abortion views, whether rape victims should be entitled to abortions, infuriated Senator Bob Menendez, the highest-ranking Democrat on the committee. Bremberg, above, in 2018. GAGE SKIDMORE/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Kelly Knight Craft, shown here as the American ambassador to Canada, is Trump’s nominee for the top envoy role at the United Nations. Her Senate confirmation hearing, held June 19, 2019, for the UN ambassadorship elicited many questions from senators regarding her posture on climate change. She and her husband, Joseph Craft III, have extensive coal investments.
Women from North Darfur performing a traditional dance during a celebration organized by the UN mission there. The author of this essay, an international rights lawyer, argues that Omar al-Bashir, the now-ousted president of Sudan, should be transferred to the International Criminal Court for prosecution of atrocities. ALBERT GONZALEZ FARRAN/UNAMID
The people of Sudan finally ousted President Omar al-Bashir from power, on April 11, 2019.
Victor Madrigal-Borloz, a Costa Rican and current UN independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity. The expert’s role was loudly protested by countries in the Middle East-North Africa region and elsewhere when it was established in 2016. Yet some nations in that area are now progressing on LGBTQ rights, the writer says.
