The four declared candidates for UN Secretary-General average 68.
Past Secretaries-General took office at 58 on average.
This matters: a fractured order, climate breakdown, democratic backsliding, post-2030 agenda.
Experience matters. So does leading the next decade ⚖️🌍
Remember this?
“My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/u...
This was @marylawlorhrds.bsky.social's last report at the UN Human Rights Council as special rapporteur. We thank her warmly for her amazing engagement 🫶
We congratulate Andrea Bolaños Vargas who has been selected to succeed Mary Lawlor 💪
Infographic titled “Strengthen and Support Human Rights Defenders” on a green background, with icon tiles listing practical actions: appoint an envoy; integrate human rights defenders in dialogues and policy development; include human rights defenders in delegations; issue public recognition and support statements; attend trials and monitor judicial proceedings; fast-track visas and asylum when risks rise; map and publicise protection resources; ease contacts with authorities; strengthen the role of embassies; report situations systematically; brief diplomats and officials; disseminate standards; nominate for awards; celebrate human rights defenders. Human Rights Compass logo at the bottom right.
Human Rights Compass pulled together practical steps to protect human rights defenders; from trial monitoring and public support statements to fast-track visas, safer engagement, and better protection resources ⚡️
🔗 progresschange.org/human-rights...
Mary Lawlor’s new #HRC61 report brings human rights defenders’ voices into the room: 300 submissions from 82 countries on why they keep going, what is breaking protection systems, what states and UN should change now to keep people safe 👏
@marylawlorhrds.bsky.social
🔗 docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/61/40
Such an important contribution from @amandaghahremani.com 🇮🇷
”We cannot throw away our principles and values, in which our legitimate critiques of Iran’s regime have been rooted, just because of our disdain for the ruling government.”
www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
The commander of the world’s largest military rejecting the law in war is a risk for everyone⚡️
The War Crimes Act codifies jus in bello. US Naval Academy teaches it. Pentagon has a rulebook on it. Pete Hegseth acts as if none of it exists 🇺🇸
➡️ US Law of War Manual: media.defense.gov/2023/Jul/31/...
Today, Yanar Mohammed – one of the most formidable feminist leaders of her generation – was assassinated in her home in Baghdad in what appears to have been a targeted militia attack.
More about her achievements www.linkedin.com/pulse/assass...
#RIP
@un-spexperts.bsky.social
02.03.2026 18:43 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
This is also Alice Jill Edwards’ final report as UN Special Rapporteur on torture. A strong handover: centre survivors, name the obstacles to justice, give states a tool they can't pretend they lack.
➡️ Big shoes to fill, candidates welcome: www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies...
Torture report in the room today at the United Nations #HRC61⚡️
Special Rapporteur Alice Jill Edwards introduced a Charter of Rights for Victims and Survivors, shaped by their voices: a practical framework for accountability, reparation, rehabilitation.
@irct.bsky.social
➡️ docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/61/42
Time for Europe to stand for rules-based international order *and* human rights rather than watching the destruction ⚡️
“Europe’s leaders are adapting to a world in which they are little more than bystanders,” write @nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/w...
While the world condemns the strike on Dubai, the UAE supplied drones to the RSF, which were used on Saturday to attack civilians in Sudan near the Ethiopian northern border.
They are fueling a genocide, yet outrage only comes when their own skyline is hit.
🔗 sudantribune.com/article/311214
Europe’s gas benchmark jumped into the close as the attack on Iran spreads and hits global markets ⚡️
An illegal and unnecessary US war is exporting instability 🇮🇷🇺🇸
Diplomacy was under way to curb Iran’s nuclear programme. Diplomacy is security ⚖️
Democracy is embeded in Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ⚖️
Trump's administration did everything it could to undermine democracy and human rights defenders, gutting civil society and independent media abroad.
The idea that bombs will now install democracy is not credible 🇮🇷⚡
As the US starts a new war, the legacy of its intervention in Afghanistan is catastrophic (despite it being legitimate and legal when it began after 9/11) ⚡️
➡️ Read Navi Pillay in @passblue.bsky.social on why Afghanistan’s treatment of women amounts to “gender apartheid” passblue.com/2026/03/01/w...
Eight minutes to announce war ⚡️
🏛️ No involvement of Congress
🇺🇳 No respect for international law
🕊️ No plan for people in Iran
⚖️ No accountability
“Regime change” is never guaranteed; civilian victims are 🇮🇷
They say this war is for the Iranian people ⚡️
Then start with Evin. Start with the political prisoners who have spent decades behind its walls 🇮🇷
Iran’s rulers are brutal. But “regime change” is never guaranteed. Civilian victims are.
Another war ⚡️
Another war that appears to be in breach of international law. And it did not need to be started: diplomacy was under way this week in Geneva to pressure Iran over its nuclear programme 🇮🇷
Iran’s system is brutal. But regime change is never guaranteed; civilian victims are.
Trump’s Foreign Policy:
Resurrecting Empire
⚡️😳⚡️
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/u...
RSF siege of El Fasher in Sudan has “hallmarks of genocide”, UN mission finds: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...
26.02.2026 13:17 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Video still showing armed fighters from the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces standing in the East Nile district of greater Khartoum on 23 April. Credit: Rapid Support Forces (RSF) via AFP/Getty Images.
At #HRC61 today, the High Commissioner’s Sudan report documents a war on civilians⚡️
At least 5359 civilian deaths recorded
Mass sexual violence, arbitrary detention and a conflict economy that rewards abuse
Thanks to the UN for giving visibility to the situation!
🔗 docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/61/24
And the jurisprudence served way beyond th jurisdiction of the United Kingdom 🏫⚖️ ⤵️
25.02.2026 11:14 — 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0💯⤵️
23.02.2026 20:36 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Protest, organising, reporting on abuse are a country’s immune system ⛑️
➡️ Today, Maryland is suing the federal government to stop the use of a warehouse as ICE centre. The detention of 5 y.o. Liam C. Ramos in Texas is fuelling a renewed push to end family detention.
#StopICE
Small state, clear line, holding the rules together: today at the UN, Liechtenstein warned that the UN is being starved of resources as wars rise ⚡️
@liechtensteinun.bsky.social backed the ICC against unprecedented sanctions, condemned reprisals against human rights defenders.
#HRC61
Read @passblue.bsky.social's “Russia’s War on Ukraine: Certain Crimes and Possible Punishments“ 🇷🇺⚡️🇺🇦
passblue.com/2026/02/22/r...
Russia continues to turn freezing temperatures into a battlefield in Ukraine.
Every missile at the grid, last night and the next, is a deliberate choice to push civilians into darkness, cold, fear, and threat to their lives ⚡️
“Openly announcing his desire to take over elections.”
Shouldn't this trigger action by Congress? Just a thought 🙈
Seams obvious, doesn’t it?
Great somebody says it 🗣️
