At its 58th session, the Human Rights Council adopted Draft Resolution A/HRC/58/L.24/Rev.1, establishing an open-ended intergovernmental working group tasked with elaborating an international legally binding instrument on the promotion and protection of the human rights of older persons. The Resolution was presented to the Council by a core group of States comprising Argentina, Brazil, the Gambia, the Philippines, and Slovenia. It was adopted by consensus on 3 April 2025. This article examines the international legal framework and the broader context that built the momentum leading to the adoption of this historic Resolution. The Overlooked Dimension of Older Persons’ Human Rights With the global population aging at an unprecedented rate, ensuring that this issue remains high on the international agenda is more critical than ever. By 2030, one in six people worldwide will be aged 60 or above, and the global population in this age group will reach 1.4 billion (WHO). The landmark adoption of this Resolution represents the first practical step toward ensuring…
Human Rights Council
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‘Biased’, ‘Selective’, ‘Antisemitic’: Accusations against the UN Commission of Inquiry on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Last week UN independent expert Miloon Kothari publicly questioned why Israel is a UN member and accused Jews of controlling social media, which is a long-recognised antisemitic trope. These are two separate but interlinked issues: firstly anti-Israel bias, and secondly antisemitism. In an interview with Mondoweiss Kothari stated: “I would…
Russia and the UN Human Rights Council: A Step in the Right Direction
The United Nations General Assembly has voted to suspend Russia’s membership of the UN Human Rights Council. This is only the second time in the Council’s 16 year history that a member has been suspended under GA resolution 60/251 paragraph 8 for committing ‘gross and systematic violations of human…
A dishonest attack on UN human rights mechanisms
On 1 May 2021, I received an email from Dr Grégor Puppinck of the European Centre for Law and Justice, requesting to interview me as former Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council. The purpose of the resulting report by the ECLJ was presented in a way that would appeal to many a Special Raporteur:…
The ‘scandal’ of foundation support for UN human rights Special Procedures
In July 2021 the European Centre for Law and Justice published a report entitled The Financing of UN Experts in the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. It is based on anonymous interviews and anonymous quotations, said to reflect interviews with 28 past or present Special Procedures mandate-holders. It purports to expose the links…
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