10. The Human Rights Diplomacy Of The UN Secretary-General

Abstract

This chapter argues that each United Nations (UN) Secretary-General should set his or her sights on selected human rights objectives and deploy diplomacy for the achievement of those objectives. In identifying these objectives the Secretary-General should keep in mind the mandates of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) and will not seek to duplicate their efforts. Yet, the Secretary-General should make a personal choice of areas on which he or she wishes to place a personal stamp and should call human rights diplomacy in aid for this purpose. A Secretary-General might indicate policy choices. Human rights diplomacy, however, is marshalled for the achievement of selected policy initiatives. Before offering a selection of goals for the deployment of human rights diplomacy, the chapter takes a look at experiences of the past. Keywords: Human Rights Council (HRC); human rights diplomacy; human rights objectives; UN High Commissioner; United Nations (UN) Secretary-General