Human Rights

  • Tomorrow morning (17 August), the Security Council is expected to convene for an open briefing on the human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) under the agenda item “The situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of...

  • Tomorrow afternoon (20 March), Security Council members will hold an Arria-formula meeting on “Integrating the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) Persons into the Council’s Mandate for Maintaining International Peace and Security”. The meeting is being...

  • Tomorrow (9 December), following the briefing and closed consultations on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Security Council members will discuss the human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) under “any other business”, a standing...

  • More recently, and particularly in the past decade, the Council has expressed itself more frequently on humanitarian affairs, including in politically difficult environments. The proliferation of humanitarian crises in country situations on the Council’s agenda has undeniably contributed to this development.

  • Tomorrow morning (7 July) the Security Council will hold an open VTC under the agenda item “United Nations peacekeeping operations” on the topic of peace operations and human rights. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, German Federal Minister of Defence, will chair the meeting....

  • July 2020

    Peace Operations and Human Rights 

    Monthly Forecast

    As one of the four signature events of its presidency, Germany is organising an open debate on “United Nations peacekeeping operations: Peace Operations and Human Rights”.

  • On Monday (11 March), France and Peru will co-host an Arria-formula meeting on “Human rights, accountability and justice: contributions to international peace and security”. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Miguel de Serpa Soares, and former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) Theodor Meron, will brief Council members. This will mark the first time Bachelet has briefed Council members in her current capacity.

  • In March, an event took place that has raised a number of questions about the relationship of the Security Council with the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

  • This afternoon (19 March), the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, is expected to brief the Council on the human rights situation in Syria. The meeting was requested by France, with the support of the Netherlands, Peru,...

  • Tomorrow (20 December), the Security Council will hold an open debate on the theme “addressing complex contemporary challenges to international peace and security” at the initiative of Council president Japan. Secretary-General António Guterres will brief. The debate is expected to...

  • 17 April 2017

    Human Rights Briefing

    What's in Blue

    Tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday, 18 April), the Council is expected to hold a public meeting, in briefing format, under the title “Maintenance of international peace and security: human rights and prevention of armed conflict”. Secretary-General António Guterres is expected to brief....

  • Tomorrow (24 February) Senegal, Sweden and Uruguay are co-hosting a closed Arria-formula meeting with the heads of human rights components of three UN peace operations. Council members have used the closed Arria-formula format to meet with the heads of human...

  • Most conflicts on today’s Council agenda are accompanied by severe human rights violations perpetrated on civilian populations by insurgents and in many cases, also by governments or those linked to them. A surge in human rights violations has often been a sign of potentialoutbreak of a conflict, or a predictor of increased instability and conflict escalation. The need for human rights information and analysis has come to be generally accepted as an aspect of the reality the Security Council needs to consider in order to be effective in fulfilling its main objective, the maintenance of international peace and security. But this acceptance came only relatively recently, after decades of questioning the appropriateness of Council’s concern with human rights, and the level of Council’s interest has fluctuated from year to year.

  • Tomorrow (2 March) New Zealand and Uruguay are co-hosting a closed Arria-formula meeting with the heads of human rights components of five UN peace operations. Council members have used the closed Arria-formula format to meet with the heads of human...

  • 26 January 2016

    Arria-Formula Meeting on Missing Persons

    What's in Blue

    Tomorrow (27 January), the UK is planning to host an Arria-formula meeting open to UN member states, UN entities, civil society and the media, on the “The Global Challenge of Accounting for Missing Persons from Conflict, Human Rights Abuses, Disasters,...