Expert Roundtable:
The U.N. Human Rights Council
Event Description
PILPG hosted an expert roundtable conversation on the United Nations Human Rights Council on September 10 from 12 pm to 1 pm EDT.
The United Nations Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations human rights system. It is made up of 47 states, which are tasked with the promotion and protection of human rights globally. The 47 seats are elected through a direct and secret ballot and are based on equitable geographical distribution. The Human Rights Council convenes in several regular sessions during the year and special sessions on topics of urgency. It also conducts thematic intersessional activities. The Human Rights Council is composed of several bodies, including the Universal Periodic Review Working Group, Advisory Committee, Complaint Procedure, and several special procedures.
With the 48th regular session of the Human Rights Council convening in Geneva from September 13, 2021 to October 8, 2021, our five panelists—Ambassador Yvette Stevens, Ambassador Zorica Marić-Djordjević, Ambassador Keith M. Harper, Ambassador Filloreta Kodra, and Ambassador Amanda Ellis—discussed their personal experiences engaging with the Human Rights Council and their thoughts about it and its effectiveness.
This event was part of the PILPG Thought Leadership Initiative. The Initiative focuses on prominent international law and international affairs topics and organizes monthly expert roundtables to share expertise and reflections from our work on peace negotiations, post-conflict constitution drafting, and war crimes prosecution.
Speakers
MODERATOR
Milena Sterio, the Charles R. Emrick Jr. - Calfee Halter & Griswold Professor of Law at Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and Managing Director at PILPG is a leading expert on international law, international criminal law and human rights. Sterio is one of six permanent editors of the prestigious IntLawGrrls blog, and a frequent contributor to the blog focused on international law, policy and practice. In the spring of 2013, Sterio was selected as a Fulbright Scholar, spending the semester in Baku, Azerbaijan, at Baku State University. While in Baku, she had the opportunity to teach and conduct research on secession issues under international law related to the province of Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh. Serving as a maritime piracy law expert, she has participated in meetings of the United Nations Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia as well as in the work of the United Nations Global Counterterrorism Forum. Sterio has also assisted piracy prosecutions in Mauritius, Kenya and the Seychelles Islands. Sterio is a graduate of Cornell Law School and the University of Paris I, and was an associate in the New York City firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton before joining the ranks of academia full time. She has published seven books and numerous law review articles. Her latest book, “The Syrian Conflict’s Impact on International Law,” (co-authored with Paul Williams and Michael Scharf) was published by Cambridge University Press in 2020.