11. Human Rights Diplomacy Of The United Nations Security Council

Abstract

The United Nations (UN) Security Council is the world's highest political body and the most important actor and facilitator of high-level multilateral diplomacy. It can be argued that virtually all activities of the Security Council involve diplomacy - i.e. an element of negotiation and persuasion. This chapter tries to answer the questions: about the extent to which the Security Council's work concerns human rights; about how willing the Security Council has been to actively pursue human rights issues in its work; about the impact the Council has had on human rights overall; and whether there is potential for the Security Council to achieve more in regard to the promotion and protection of human rights. The chapter focuses on the human rights diplomacy of the UN Security Council that is diplomatic action taking place at the UN Headquarters in New York. Keywords: diplomatic action; human rights diplomacy; political body; protection of human rights; UN Headquarters; United Nations (UN) Security Council