Posts Tagged ‘Nomination’

Filippo Grandi new United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

November 12, 2015

On 11 November 2015 the Secretary-General of the United Nations, following consultations with the regional groups, announced that Filippo Grandi of Italy is to be the new United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). filippo_portrait_lng

This is good news for the organization and the millions of refugees as Filippo brings enormous humanitarian experience with him: He was Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from 2010 to 2014 and it’s Deputy Commissioner-General from 2005 until 2010.  He served as the Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and has a long-standing career with UNHCR (1988-2004), notably as Chief of Mission in Afghanistan and Chief of Staff in the High Commissioner’s Executive Office.  His vast field experience includes various positions in Sudan, Syria, Turkey and Iraq, having also led emergency operations in Kenya, Benin, Ghana, Liberia, the Great Lakes region of Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo and Yemen.

Filippo Grandi was born in Milan in 1957. He has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the State Universities of Venice and Milan, and from the Gregorian University in Rome.

Source: Secretary-General Nominates Filippo Grandi of Italy United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases

Posted in human rights, UN | 1 Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Europe’s Sakharov Prize in trouble with regard to Arab nominees

October 11, 2014

Under provocative title “Can Arabs be Human Rights Defenders?”  the on-line newspapers Mada Masr and Jadaliyya published a piece setting out how 3 Arab nominees were suddenly dropped by their nominators in the European Parliament  over a few Israeli-bashing tweets that were indeed on the verge of acceptability (even in the context of rough twitter talk) especially when calling for or condoning killing of Zionist civilians.

I referred to the nominations in my post: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/nominees-for-sakharov-prize-2014-announced/.

I consider the post’s title  provocative (or perhaps ironic) as even a cursory glance of human rights documentation – including this blog – shows that there are hundreds of human rights defenders in the Arab world whose credentials are not disputed or totally defensible.

Please read the whole piece for yourself as this is both a complicated and sensitive matter.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in awards, EU, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Human Rights First disappointed by Nomination of new Ambassador to Bahrain

September 12, 2014

The travails of the Al-Khawaja family in my previous post [https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/09/12/bahrain-travails-of-a-family-of-human-rights-defenders/] are unlikely to end soon if it depends on US policy towards Bahrain according to Brian Dooley of Human Rights First.  Following the 10 September Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing on the nomination of William Roebuck to be Ambassador of the United States of America to Bahrain, he issued the following statement: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in HRF, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Nominations for the Lawyers for Lawyers (L4L) Award as from today

January 25, 2013

As of today one can also nominate for the Lawyers for Lawyers Award a lawyer, or a group of lawyers, who work to promote the rule of law and human rights in an exceptional way and who have been threatened, obstructed or in any other way hindered because of their work as a lawyer. An additional criterion is that this lawyer, or group of lawyers, may benefit from the publicity and recognition of the Lawyers for Lawyers Award.

The Lawyers for Lawyers Award, organised by the Netherlands-based NGO with the same name, will be presented for the second time in Amsterdam on 23 May 2013. An independent jury, consisting of  Heikelien Verrijn Stuart, Theo van Boven, Egbert Mlogoyjer and Els Swaab, will decide which lawyer will receive the award. The prize consists of a donation of €10.000. Anyone can submit a nomination, but a lawyer or group of lawyers cannot nominate themselves. The closing date for submission of nominations is 15 February 2013.

Only nominations done on the website will be taken into consideration. The nomination form is available here and other information is available here.

Posted in human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,