Ironing Out the Kinks in the UN’s New Human Rights Initiative

In December 2013, Jan Eliasson, the United Nations deputy secretary-general, went on a selling spree. In a series of briefings, he presented a new initiative to UN member states and to the rest of the world.

In his address to the General Assembly, Eliasson said, not mincing words: ​“In improving the way we deal with potential crises we hope to respond more effectively when there is a risk that serious violations of international human rights or of humanitarian law could turn into mass atrocities.”

This statement was the essence of the UN’s Human Rights Up Front initiative, an action plan to improve the organization’s coordination and early warning and early response systems to serious abuses of human rights.

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