“S.O.S. Rule of Law” at the UN Human Rights Council

“S.O.S. Rule of Law” at the UN Human Rights Council

ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSION
S.O.S. RULE OF LAW
Wednesday, 20 June 2018, 13:30 – 15:00
ROOM XXIV, Palais des Nations
Geneva

Organized by the Global Committee for the Rule of Law “Marco Pannella” (GCRL), the Nonviolent Radical Party Transnational Transparty (NRPTT), the Siracusa Institute, in collaboration with the Permanent Mission of Italy to the International Organizations in Geneva.

Speakers

Dr Gianni MAGAZZENI Chief of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Branch – Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Amb. Maurizio SERRA Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations Institutions in Geneva

Amb. Giulio TERZI DI SANT’AGATA President of the Global Committee for the Rule of Law “Marco Pannella”, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy

Oreste FOPPIANI PhD, Head of the Department of International Relations, Associate Professor of International History & Politics, Webster University, Geneva

Laura HARTH Representative to the United Nations Institutions of the Nonviolent Radical Party Transnational Transparty

The discussion will start with a video message from the United States by

Dr Benjamin B. FERENCZ
Chief Prosecutor for the United States in the Einsatzgruppen Case at the Nuremberg trials

Background

In May 2016, the GCRL and the NRPTT have officially denounced the global regression of the rule of law and democracy, in a first round-table entitled “S.O.S. Rule of Law”, as a side-event at the UN Human Rights Council. Speakers included Permanent Representatives of Italy, Canada, Ireland, Mexico and Morocco, plus the presence of 23 other country delegations.

Since then events have far from improved, but rather worsened. Attempts to re-write the very corpus the international Rule of Law is based on, to attack the universality, indivisibility and interdependence of human rights, and to undermine the effectiveness of UN Institutions and national Institutions in their responsibility to protect them, have only become more frequent.

However, it is not too late to hold this debate again and to act. The implementation of the democratic Rule of Law worldwide is the primary answer to most, if not all, major crises we see in the world. As Marco Pannella used to put it not long before his passing, this is a multilateral effort that we must undertake together, in a common transition towards the Rule of Law, also through the recognition of the right to know as a fundamental human right.

For more information: Laura Harth harthlaura@gmail.com

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