Leiden University researcher recommends on strengthening the UN system

At an international high-level conference, Valentina Carraro, Deputy Coordinator of the interdisciplinary programme Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) presented her research on human rights in the UN Human Rights Council and Treaty body systems. One of the most practical recommendations she offered was to create a shared database of recommendations delivered to each state by UN human rights bodies.

The conference, which was organised by the Vienna Diplomatic Academy and carried the tantalising title ‘Reinvigorating the United Nations’, looked at a variety of global challenges and transformations occurring in various fields, such as of global health, human rights and climate change. UN officials, diplomats, academics and civil society actors discussed how to address current challenges that the UN system is facing when dealing with these phenomena.

Streamlining work
Carraro, who is an expert on human rights and anti-violence governance, discussed recommendations for possible improvement of the UN system directly to the most relevant international actors. One of the most important recommendations she offered, was to create a shared database of human rights recommendations that UN bodies have delivered to each member state. This would help streamlining these bodies’ work by reducing repetitions and contradictions in their output.

‘A valuable outcome of the conference was to hear directly from practitioners what they thought to be the biggest challenges that the UN system is facing in these different policy areas,’ says Carraro. ‘For example, how UN bodies, governments, and civil society need to better coordinate in addressing complex challenges such as climate change or pandemics.’