The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in the age of global backlash
| DOI | 10.1177/0924051918822854 |
| Date | 01 March 2019 |
| Published date | 01 March 2019 |
| Author | Ian Seiderman |
| Subject Matter | Column |
Column
The UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights in the age of
global backlash
Ian Seiderman
Legal and Policy Director, International Commission of Jurists, Geneva, Switzerland
Abstract
Before leaving his post in 2018, the outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad
al Hussein, made a series of critical remarks, both publicly and internally, regarding what he
considered weakening of the integrity and effectiveness of the UN in its human rights mandate.
Zeid’s comments highlighted retrogressive tendencies making the task of a strong and independent
High Commissioner exceedingly difficult. The post of High Commissioner, established in 1994
following decades of advocacy, to give a high level voice to human rights promotion and protection
as well as to manage a secretariat for most UN human rights functions, has enjoyed mostly robust
and effective leadership by its post-holders. Any High Commissioner faces challenge inherent to
the job in balancing the functions of diplomat, human rights advocate for ‘‘the voiceless’’,and agency
manager working with an insufficient and patently unfair budgetary allotment. The new High
Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, will have her work cut out, as she faces an apparent retreat from
prioritizing human rights, particularly by some States that previously championed them; ambiva-
lence by a wider UN bureaucracy; and a wave of authoritarian populist leaders and movements
around the globes that take a hostile view to the human rights paradigm. The new High Com-
missioner would do well to keep her energies squarely focused on independently tackling urgent
substantive and possibly existential human rights challenges, rather than any project of adminis-
trative restructuring of the OHCHR, even as she may pursue a working methodology that is
distinct from the approach of her predecessors.
Keywords
OHCHR, Human Rights Council, High Commissioner, Zeid, Bachelet
Corresponding author:
Ian Seiderman, Legal and Policy Director, International Commission of Jurists, Geneva, Switzerland.
E-mail: Ian.Seiderman@icj.org
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights
2019, Vol. 37(1) 5–13
ªThe Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/0924051918822854
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