The UN Human Rights Council

A Practical Anatomy, Interview with Eric Tistounet

Everything you always wanted to know about the main UN body that works to address human rights violations, and you were afraid to ask, is in this guide published by Elgar, written by Eric Tistounet, Chief of the Human Rights Council Branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in Geneva.

He was the first Secretary to the UN Human Rights Council when it was created in 2006, and has worked at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN agency for Human Rights (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, OHCHR) for three decades, so knows the organization inside out.

Tistounet draws analogies with the workings of the human body, an interesting take, as the human body is a living organism that does evolve and grow, and so is the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and so are its country-members, as well as the multiple stakeholders who participate in the sessions and discussions in Geneva, from private sector actors to NGOs and scholars in the fiel…