Human rights centre launches in Geneva

Human rights: a new player in Geneva to breathe new life into human rights Keystone-SDA

A new centre, the Geneva Human Rights Hub (GHRH), has launched in Switzerland to give impetus to projects that have become bogged down.

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Half-funded by the Swiss foreign ministry, this unit, with a staff of four, started work at the beginning of January. It comes at a time when the UN is facing a cash crisis, including in the area of human rights.

At the heart of the new centre’s concerns is the myriad of technical committees and mechanisms that assess human rights around the world from Geneva.

The time between the submission of reports by states and their hearing is constantly increasing, sometimes up to eight years. And the various UN mandates work separately rather than in synergy.

“States are no longer as willing to fund the system,” GHRH Director Felix Kirchmeier told Keystone-ATS. “Even the most benevolent ones.”

As these bodies cannot immediately change the situation in a country, but have a preventive role, “their usefulness is increasingly being called into question”. Yet even the United States, which is boycotting the Human Rights Council, is still involved with some of these more technical committees.

Facilitating role

Discussions on reform have been going on for years, but the UN is blocked until it has a mandate. “We are working as a workshop to explore new ways of operating with new instruments”, according to Kirchmeier.

In particular, the GHRH wants to strengthen follow-ups to recommendations made to countries. This coluld be achieved by grouping together and decentralising meetings in the various regions.

And the GHRH wants to showcase the good practice of several developing countries that have digitised these recommendations, to inspire other countries. As a facilitator, it also wants to help, through partnerships with scientists and engineers, to provide easier access to platforms that collate recommendations.

Swiss local interest

It also wants to improve the connection between the various players involved in human rights. In June, together with Switzerland, it will be bringing together states, presidents of UN committees and civil society.

“Many local and regional authorities, who are often on the front line when it comes to implementing recommendations, are asking to be involved or to be able to influence the hearings in their country,” Kirchmeier. The US decided last November to boycott its human rights review by other countries.

In Switzerland too, “there is potential”, adds Kirchmeier. Cities like Geneva are announcing their progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). And some cantons are more forward-thinking than the government on a number of human rights issues.

Translated from French by AI/mga

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