Interview Ambassador Federico Villegas, President Human Rights Council

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The UN Brief spoke with Argentine’s Ambassador to the UN Office in Geneva and International Organisation, Federico Villegas, who was appointed as president of the UN Human Rights Council for 2022, to discuss how the international community is on-board to make the mandate for the new Special Rapporteur as impactful as it needs to be. 

The Special Rapporteur, Ian Fry said, in its first press conference last June, that the onboarding of Russia, India, and China was a “work-in-progress”. (scroll down)

During Ambassador Villegas tenure we are seeing a number of reports that foster the promotion and protection of human rights in areas that till recently were not on everyone's radar, such as the impact of new technologies on gathering evidence, and also its double edged sword, as some tools can be used for surveillance of political dissidents and journalists. 

One area that is just now gathering the deserved attention is the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons. Meaning addressing age discrimination in its various forms, in employment and healthcare, and in particular the latest report of the the independent expert, Dr. Claudia Mahler, on the intersection of gender and ageism.  

Addressing Systemic Racism

Some progress has been made to address systemic racism since the horrific images beamed across screens all over the world showing police brutality towards African-Americans and people of African descent in the US (by the way these types of violations of human rights by law enforcement happen in other countries too, but the murder of George Floyd by a police officer, that was recorded on a smartphone by a by-stander, sparked outrage and social mobilisation in May of 2020). 

High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, issued a report that introduced a four-point agenda to end systemic racism and human rights violations by law enforcement against citizens of African descent, also the Human Rights Council established the International Independent Expert Mechanism to Advance Justice and Equality in the Context of Law Enforcement. 

What should we expect of these initiatives? How to move from debate to implementation by country-members? What needs to happen?