United Nations Monaco co-chairs session on strengthening the Human Rights Council

From left to right: H.E. Mr Valentin Zellweger, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the Office of the United Nations in Geneva; Eric Tistounet, Chief of the Human Rights Council Branch of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; and H.E Ms Carole Lanteri, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Principality to the Office of the United Nations in Geneva © DR

H.E. Ms Carole Lanteri, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Principality to the Office of the United Nations in Geneva, took part in a Francophone Group retreat on strengthening the United Nations Human Rights Council in Divonne-les-Bains on Thursday 1 February.

During the retreat, ambassadors and experts from member countries of the Francophone Ambassadors Group in Geneva debated the current challenges facing the UN Human Rights Council. Subjects such as the effectiveness of decisions taken, budgetary constraints, the efficiency of working methods, and respect for multilingualism were discussed by the Ambassadors Group.

Together with the Swiss Ambassador, H.E. Ms Lanteri co-chaired the session on challenges relating to the internal workings of the Council. The session provided an opportunity to address the problems of delegations which follow the Council’s work, including the increasing number of texts negotiated and adopted, as well as the significant number of meetings required by the work schedule. Debates held as part of the session highlighted several responses to these challenges.

The Human Rights Council is a subsidiary body of the United Nations General Assembly. It is the primary UN organisation with competence in the field of promoting and protecting human rights and is headquartered in Geneva where it holds three annual sessions. The Council is made up of 47 nations elected by the General Assembly for a three-year period.