CHAPTER 5: IGO DIPLOMACY AND THE INTERNATIONAL CIVIL SERVICE

The United Nations Secretary-General

The United Nations Secretary-General is the chief diplomat of the UN and head the UN secretariat. The secretary-general is elected to a five

year, renewable term where the Security Council makes a recommendation to the General Assembly which then must approve the nominee with a two-thirds majority.

Informally, candidates for secretary-general cannot be nationals of one of the P-5, they must be acceptable to the P-5, and candidates are chosen on a rotational regional basis.

The United Nations Secretary-General

UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1992-1996) Helped create the Office of the High Commissioner for

Human Rights (OHCHR) to better coordinate UN human rights activities.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan (1997- 2006) was the first to make human rights and humanitarianism top priorities for the office. Annan appointed the International Commission on

Intervention and Sovereignty in 2001, which coined the phrase “responsibility to protect” and negotiated the norm’s adoption at the 2005 World Summit.

Ban Ki-moon (2007-present)

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

The position of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights was created in 1993 and is the official head of the OHCHR.

The mandate of the OHCHR involves enhancing the level of protection and respect for human rights internationally.

It maintains a network of partnerships with other UN agencies, governments, NGOs, regional IGOs, and businesses to assist and guide human rights protection.

It advises governments on technical issues, such as setting up national ombudsman offices, and helping states incorporate international human rights in their domestic judicial and legislative systems.

In addition to supporting the HRC, it also assists with the treaty monitoring bodies/committees and helping states meet their treaty obligations.

OHCHR

The OHCHR is also integrally involved in supporting, loosely coordinating and checking other UN human rights bodies, especially the charter-based and treaty-based bodies. The charter-based bodies include the multilateral

Human Rights Council (HRC) and the accompanying Universal Periodic Review, the “special procedures” of the HRC, and independent commissions of inquiry appointed by the HRC.

The treaty-based bodies are the committees and monitoring bodies that oversee the implementation of international human rights law.

Special Procedures: Rapporteurs

Special rapporteurs investigate country-specific and thematic issues relating to human rights or humanitarian situations. The first special rapporteur was appointed

in 1979 by the Commission on Human Rights to investigate and report on human rights abuses in Chile.

The first thematic rapporteur was appointed in 1982 to examine summary and arbitrary executions and remains active today.

Special Procedures: Rapporteurs

If human rights abuses are verified, rapporteurs usually act first by communicating with the concerned government (s) and making recommendation regarding corrective measures.

The media allow special rapporteurs to engage in “megaphone diplomacy” to reach a wider audience. Megaphone diplomacy advances human rights

and humanitarian principles by building public awareness and informing the public debate.

Independent Commissions of Inquiry

The OHCHR also supports the work of commissions of inquiry which are appointed on an ad hoc basis by the HRC to investigate gross violations of human rights.

Comprised of a small number of independent human rights experts (usually 3-5 members), commissioners work the other UN bodies and NGOs to interview refugees and witnesses and take testimony. Since HRC became operational in 2006 it has appointed

thirteen fact-finding and commissions of inquiry. Three of the more recent inquiries are ongoing,

investigating human rights violations and war crimes in North Korea, Syria, and Gaza.

United Nations Treaty Monitoring Bodies

The treaty monitoring bodies are committees of independent human rights experts who supervise state implementation of ratified treaties. The committees serve an important

diplomatic role because they interact with state officials, encouraging and prodding states to conform to international human rights standards.

Committee diplomacy

All the committees receive and review reports submitted by state parties.

Some committees, but certainly not all, receive and consider individual petitions and complaints. This quasi-judicial function represents a legal evolution because it

allows individuals the procedural right to seek protection and redress for human rights violations.

Some committee are authorized to conduct inquiries into human situations.

All the committees issue “general comments” which amount to independent, expert interpretations of treaty provisions and articulate new directions for human rights protection.

Some drawbacks as to actual outcomes of committee work.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

The UNHCR is responsible for protecting and assisting refugees, internally displaced persons, and stateless persons. The position was created in 1950 by the General Assembly

initially with narrow three-year mandate to respond to the post WWII European refugee crisis.

The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees sets out the legal definition of a refugee and articulates the principle of nonrefoulement, (or no return). Nonrefoulement protects refugees because signatories are

legally obligated not to return individuals with refugee status, or those seeking such status, back to a situation of persecution.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cont’d.

While only states grant asylum, the UNHCR seeks to find a durable solutions to the plight of refugees through three mechanisms.

The first is voluntary repatriation whereby officials from the UNCHR attempt mediate between the individual and their government for their safe return without harm or persecution.

The second mechanism is resettlement in a third country.

Assimilation in the country of first asylum is the last, and most likely, solution.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cont’d.

A new category of persons assisted by the UNHCR, internally displaced persons (IDPs).

UN efforts to create legal obligations regarding IDPs were discontinued and states have resisted the idea that they are legally obligated to provide humanitarian assistance. Thus, IGO diplomacy regarding refugees and those in

refugee-like situations involves moving states beyond their narrow legal obligations and to assume more responsibility for protecting those likewise-assisted by the UNHCR.

In 2014 the UNHCR estimated that world population of refugees, asylum seekers, and IDPs exceeded 50 million people.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cont’d.

The UNHCR was one of the first UN agencies to use celebrity diplomacy to increase its visibility and raise awareness of refugee and IDP populations worldwide.

By appointing celebrities, such as the American actor Angelina Jolie, as Goodwill Ambassadors, the UNHCR can build global support for its activities.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

The OCHA is the department responsible for coordinating UN humanitarian relief activities worldwide and organizing state, UN, and NGO actors to responses to emergency situations.

OCHA is headed by an undersecretary general, called an Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC).

The OCHA uses a Cluster Coordination approach in order to enhance coordination, predictability, and accountability when managing humanitarian crises.

The Regional Civil Service

The bureaucracies and independent experts that support regional human rights regimes tend to be organized around three entities: A high commissioner; a committee/commission; and a court. Europe also has treaty monitoring bodies.

With the other regional bodies, it is unclear whether regional IGO diplomacy has much of an effect on states in fulfilling their obligations for a number of reasons.

Regional Commissioners of Human Rights

The Council of Europe is the only regional organization with a high commissioner, which was established in 1999. The primary goal of the Commissioner is to

advise governments with implementing human rights as outlined in European and international instruments.

Regional Human Rights Commissions

The Inter-American Commission for Human Rights is a seven member, independent body charged with promoting and protecting human rights within the OAS system and also serves as the treaty monitoring body for the 1969 American Convention on Human Rights.

African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights supervises the implementation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Banjul Charter).

When the Arab Charter on Human Rights entered into force in 2008, the corresponding Arab Human Rights Committee became operational.

The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights is an eleven member body appointed by member states.

Regional Human Rights Courts

The European Court of Human Rights was established in 1959 by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The court was the first international court established

to make determinations on human rights matters and has created more human rights jurisprudence than any other international system.

Council of Europe are parties to the Convention and therefore fall under the court’s jurisdiction. The European Court of Human Rights hears complaints about member-states from individuals, groups, NGOs, and other states.

Regional Human Rights Courts The Inter-American Court of Human Rights was

created by OAS indirectly when it adopted the American Convention on Human Rights which called for the creation of a court to adjudicate disputes arising under the treaty. It still has not gained much traction in being a force

for the protection of international human rights. The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights

was established in 1998 by the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Only twenty six states are parties to the Court and it

did not issue is first judgment until 2009.

Discussion Questions

Discuss the human rights and humanitarian IGO diplomacy conducted by the UN Secretary General. What innovations have different secretaries-general brought to human rights and humanitarian diplomacy?

Discuss the roles of the OHCHR and UNHCR in promoting and protecting human rights and humanitarian principles.

Discuss the role of independent experts in multilateral and IGO diplomacy.

What are some of the positive and negative diplomatic consequences of the development of regional human rights bodies?