Creating the Office of the Un High Commissioner for Human Rights and the 1993 World Conference - (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

This unique and timely collection describes the evolution of the human rights activities of the UN during the period 1987-97, with a focus on the 1993 World Conference of Human Rights and the subsequent creation and early years of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. All the authors were insiders - diplomats, NGO representatives, media personnel, independent human rights experts and UN staff members, including heads of the UN human rights programme - and all played active roles in the events concerned. The first UN High Commissioner, José Ayala Lasso of Ecuador, is among them. The volume draws on their experiences, perspectives and expertise.

'It is thus with great enthusiasm that I welcome the efforts to record for history, and for humanity, what transpired at the dawn of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, for it is in knowing our past that we can better confront our future.
- José Ayala Lasso (From the Foreword)

'This book contains valuable insight into the evolution of the Office and the need to build on its achievements, emphasizing its value as a powerful vehicle for change, progress, dignity and justice for all.'
- Volker Türk (From the Preface)

About the Author

Gudmundur Alfredsson is an Icelandic lawyer, with an SJD from Harvard Law School (1982). He held teaching positions at universities in Akureyri, Beijing, Lund, Nuuk, Riga, Strasbourg and Washington DC. He was Director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Lund (1995-06) and UN staff member (New York and Geneva, 1983-95). He is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal on Minority and Group Rights and the Yearbook of Polar Law (both published by Brill Nijhoff), and author of more than 250 scholarly articles, book chapters and IGO-and NGO-reports.

Gianni Magazzeni served 39 years in the UN: first in disarmament, in NY, and then in human rights (HR), in Geneva. He was special assistant to various Heads of the HR Program, SGs of the Vienna Conference, and the first High Commissioner for HR, contributing to the development of information/operational activities. In charge of technical cooperation/geographic teams, he oversaw the rapid expansion in field presences. He was Head of the Human Rights Component of UNAMI, in Baghdad, during Iraq's worst sectarian violence. Responsible for National Institutions and Regional Mechanisms, then for the Americas, Europe and Central Asia regions, he was in charge of the HRC Universal Periodic Review (UPR), with new tools developed to facilitate country-based implementation. Currently, Magazzeni is President of the Executive Board of UPR Info, a Geneva-based NGO.