Regional Consultation on the 2020 Review of the United Nations Treaty Body System

Regional Consultation on the 2020 Review of the United Nations Treaty Body System

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March 282017
Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs
Alison Brysk, invitee and presenter

Mellichamp Professor Alison Brysk has been invited to participate in the 'Regional Consultation for North America and the English Speaking Caribbean on the 2020 Review of the United Nations Treaty Body System' in the area of Human Rights.

To contribute to the process leading up to the General Assembly’s 2020 review, and specifically to help inform the 2018 report of the Secretary General to the General Assembly, the Geneva Academy has initiated a global academic process to gather ideas and recommendations to put forward in the intergovernmental debate. Central to this process is a series of regional consultations. Consultations took place in 2016 in Dublin, Ireland; Moscow, Russia; and San Jose, Costa Rica (co-sponsored by Columbia University). Further consultations are scheduled for 2017 in New Delhi, India; and Nairobi, Kenya. In addition, Columbia University will co-sponsor regional consultations for North America and the English Speaking Caribbean in New York in 2017, and in Amman, Jordan in August 2017.

These consultations aim to engage experts from around the globe in generating innovative ideas for how to improve the functioning, and deepen the impact of the U.N. human rights treaty bodies. Their objective is to gather theoretically and practically grounded assessments of ongoing efforts to strengthen relationships, communication, and coordination among the human rights treaty bodies, and to identify additional opportunities for building relationships and leveraging synergies between the treaty bodies, other UN mechanisms, and regional human rights systems. The consultations will also provide opportunities to reflect constructively on the work of the treaty bodies in the context of other U.N. organs and processes and broader developments in international affairs.

The New York Consultation
Columbia University has invited experts from academia, civil society, and persons with experience working in the U.N. and regional human rights systems to participate in the New York City consultation. This consultation will take place over two days on June 1-2, 2017 at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University, in co-sponsorship with Columbia University’s Global Freedom of Expression and Information Jurisprudence Project, the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, the Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law School, and the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, and in cooperation with the Geneva Academy.