The Foreign Service Journal, December 2010

26 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 0 from the department overnight. Our team in Geneva includes po- litical officers focused on human rights, legal advisers and a group of human rights experts from State who have come fromWashington to assist the delegation during the ses- sion. In addition, we work closely with colleagues from the Bureau of International Organizations and the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, as well as the State Department Legal Adviser’s office. The official workday begins with a daily morning meet- ing led by our ambassador, Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, the U.S. representative to the Human Rights Council. During the meeting action officers brief the ambassador on the status of the various resolutions, and we discuss the statements the delegation will make during that day’s pub- lic plenary sessions. After the internal meeting, members of the delegation may also meet with colleagues from other delegations in theWestern Europe and Others regional group. Although there is no common WEOG position on any given issue, this gathering is an opportunity to share information with our European partners and those in other parts of the world. Seeking Consensus The HRC session and most related meetings take place at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, which was built be- tween 1929 and 1936 to serve as the headquarters of the League of Nations. Before the start of the plenary session at 10 a.m., many delegates, NGO representatives and U.N. staff gather at the Serpentine Bar. This is where much of the nuts-and-bolts work of the council takes place, infor- mally, over coffee throughout the day, as delegates meet to negotiate bilaterally. With the 6 p.m. closing of the plenary session, col- leagues from the U.S. delegation return to the mission to discuss strategy for the next day and send e-mails and make phone calls to report developments back to our colleagues in Washington. The evening is also an opportunity to pre- pare notes from the day, review new resolutions and re- port texts, and catch up on developments in the news. This September’s plenary session included briefings by various Human Rights Council mechanisms (e.g., the Spe- cial Rapporteur on Human Rights in Cambodia), an expert panel dis- cussion on how the council can bet- ter integrate a gender perspective into its work, a briefing by the Sec- retary General’s Special Represen- tative on Children in Armed Con- flict and a half-day discussion on the human rights situation in Somalia. Many of these plenary session re- ports and discussions serve as the basis for the negotiated resolutions that are ultimately passed. On Sept. 17 Independent Expert on Human Rights in Sudan Justice Mohamed Othman reported that the situa- tion there had deteriorated since the April election. Many delegations, including the United States, concluded on the basis of this report that continued engagement by the in- dependent expert was necessary during the period lead- ing up to and following the referenda in January 2011. Similarly, the Sept. 20 panel discussion on how the United Nations system addresses discrimination against women highlighted the human rights implications of this issue; a report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights suggested that a mechanism at the council, such as a special rapporteur, independent expert or work- ing group, could be a useful way to address this problem. The plenary session generally breaks at 1 p.m. for lunch, but the work of the council continues. “Side events” often take place during the break — brief sessions organ- ized by NGOs, delegations or the Office of the High Com- missioner for Human Rights focused on thematic human rights issues or country-specific situations. In September the U.S. — together with France, Ireland, Mexico, Colom- bia, Uruguay, Timor-Leste and Romania — sponsored a panel discussion on ending violence and criminal sanctions on the basis of sexual orientation, which included a pres- entation by High Commissioner for Human Rights Na- vanethem Pillay and a video message from South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Many Forms of Negotiation During the final week of the session, the U.S. worked with several other member-states to organize a discussion on the recent outbreak of sexual violence in the Demo- cratic Republic of the Congo, including a briefing by the Secretary General’s Special Representative on Sexual Vio- F O C U S The U.S. delegation actively negotiated more than 20 resolutions and supported several major initiatives at the council.