Table of Contents

Foreword; List of Contributors; Editorial Acknowledgements;
Introduction Felice D. Gaer and Christen Broecker;
Part One: The Promise of the High Commissioner: Reflections on the Past and Proposals for the Future
1. Rights Inflation and Role Conflict in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Michael Ignatieff;
2. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: From the Personal to the Institutional Harold H. Koh;
3. Address by the High-Commissioner at the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights Navi Pillay;
4. A Conversation with the High Commissioner; Transcript;
5. Future Preventive Strategies of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand G. Ramcharan;
Part Two: Promoting Universality of Rights: Global Leadership in an Era of Growing Particularism and Relativism
6. The High Commissioner and the Treaty Bodies Michael O’Flaherty;
7. The High Commissioners’ Promotion of Universality of Human Rights Sunila Abeysekera;
Part Three: Preventing Human Rights Violations and Effective Response
8. The High Commissioners and the Special Procedures: Colleagues and Competitors Felice D. Gaer;
9. Protection Through Presence: The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Field Christen Broecker;
10. Enhancing UN Human Rights Work on the Ground William G. O’Neill;
11. The High Commissioner for Human Rights and National Human Rights Institutions Tseliso Thipanyane;
Part Four: Influencing Other Bodies to Act
12. The High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Council Suzanne Nossel and Christen Broecker;
13. The High Commissioner for Human Rights and International Justice David Kaye;
Part Five: Hard Cases: Can the High Commissioner Make a Difference?
14. The High Commissioner, OHCHR, and China 1998-2005: Challenges and Achievements Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt;
15. The High Commissioner for Human Rights and North Korea Roberta Cohen;
16. The Role of the High Commissioner in Protecting and Promoting Human Rights in Afghanistan and Sudan Sima Samar;
17. The High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation Karinna Moskalenko, Masha Goldman, and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick;
18. The High Commissioner for Human Rights and Burma (Myanmar) Jared Genser;
19. The Impact of the High Commissioner on Human Rights Protection in Colombia Victor Rodriguez-Rescia;
Index.

About the Author

Felice D. Gaer is Director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights. She is Vice Chair of the Committee against Torture, a UN treaty monitoring body, and author of over 40 articles on international human rights.

Christen L. Broecker is Associate Director at the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights. She was previously the NYU School of Law Fellow at Human Rights Watch.