The new Secretary-General of the United Nations will inherit a significant array of human rights challenges, and must urgently deal with the capability of United Nations institutions to protect and promote human rights globally. It is vitally important that she or he places human rights at the heart of the United Nations’ agenda.
Amnesty International, CIVICUS, the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, Human Rights Watch, the International Federation for Human Rights and the World Federalist Movement-Institute for Global Policy here set out eight key human rights priorities that we would like the candidates for the new Secretary-General to publicly embrace during the selection process. A general overview of the 8 priorities is as follows:
- Strengthen the impact of the United Nations on human rights
- Champion the rights of marginalized people
- Seek to prevent and end mass atrocity crimes
- Combat impunity
- Defend civil society
- Ensure gender equality
- Deliver a new deal for refugees and migrants
- End the death penalty
To read about each of these priorities in more detail, click here.