Tag: Human Rights Council

In Single Secret Ballot, General Assembly Elects 14 Member States to Three-Year Terms on Human Rights Council

In Single Secret Ballot, General Assembly Elects 14 Member States to Three-Year Terms on Human Rights Council The General Assembly yesterday elected 14 States to serve on the Human Rights Council, the United Nations body responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe. Those elected were Algeria, China, Cuba, France, Maldives, Mexico, Morocco, Namibia, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, United Kingdom and Viet Nam.  All would serve three-year terms beginning on 1 January 2014. To read more about the election procedure click here. Notably and infamously, there are six…

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Sunday Smack

Hope you all had a great week and an even better weekend! Here’s a few news stories to look back to: On world affairs: EU reaction to the NSA Affair Well, hacking world leaders’ cell phones is a serious issue. I would even double Lawfare’s Ingrid Wuerth calling it a diplomatic disaster. It is still unclear though how deep this will impact EU-US relations. UPR and Israel Israel has refused to atted its review session of the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review, being the first state ever to do so. The rescheduled review is about to take place…

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Sunday Smack

June is my favorite month of the year! With the longest daylight hours, the hot weather (which I hope will arrive in Hungary soon), all the great outdoor events – concerts and festivals, and so on. Reading outdoors until like 9 p.m. on long June nights used to be my favorite thing in the world! I have great expectations for this month and also some good ideas and plans for this blog that I hope you’ll like! Until then, here’s what I have today: On world affairs: Guéhenno: lifting European arms embargo on Syrian rebels ‘backfired’ Yes, the decision did…

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UN forum backs Web freedom after Arab Spring

UN forum backs Web freedom after Arab Spring The United Nations’ main human rights body has for the first time backed people’s right to freedom of expression on the Internet in the wake of the massive role that social media networks played in the Arab Spring. China and Cuba have tried to limit access to the Internet and voiced some reservations but joined the consensus recognizing “the global and open nature of the Internet as a driving force in accelerating progress towards development”. China has had “difficulty” in joining consensus on civil and political rights linked to freedom of association,…

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Syria: End impunity, hold accountable perpetrators of international crimes

united-nations-human-rights: I am appalled by the atrocities committed in El-Houleh. Preliminary investigations indicate that the attacks possibly directed at the civilian population have resulted in the killings of 108 people, including 49 children, and 34 women…  “Once again, I urge the Security Council to consider referring the case of Syria to the International Criminal Court,” said UN human rights chief Navi Pillay at the Human Rights Council’s special session on the killings in El-Houleh in Syria, 1 June 2012.  Read Pillay’s full speech: http://bit.ly/LdsIEt According to witnesses we interviewed, most of the 108 victims of the killings in El Houleh…

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