Anna-Luise Chané

Opportunities and Challenges for South Asian Co-operation on Human Rights: A Case Study of the UN Human Rights Council

Hosting almost a quarter of the world’s population, and as active sites of cross border as well as internal conflicts in the context of rapid socio-economic development, South Asian states have often been at the forefront of human rights controversies and discussions. Unlike their regional counterparts such as the ASEAN, South Asian states—represented by the SAARC—have yet to create a mechanism for articulating a shared human rights agenda. Such a lack of clarity about common goals at the regional level has dissuaded scholars from examining similarities and differences between South Asian states in their support for particular human rights themes in the international arena. To address this gap, this study will undertake a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 691 resolutions tabled at the UN Human Rights Council to reveal the extent and ways in which South Asian states participate in this forum. In addition to examining their participation in sponsoring resolutions, we will also identify patterns of support by South Asian states for specific human rights themes. By undertaking this study we hope to highlight the opportunities and challenges for South Asian co-operation on human rights issues at the regional level.

The European Union in United Nations Economic Governance Fora

Despite being one of the “heavyweights” in international trade, finance and development, the European Union’s (EU) presence in the economic governance fora of the United Nations (UN) continues to be fraught with difficulties. Faced with the legal and political hurdles of multilateral diplomacy in a state-centric environment, the EU has had to deal with a lack of status and participation rights, the complexities of an internal coordination process involving 28 Member States, and the challenges of ensuring a cohesive external representation. This contribution provides a brief overview of the legal basis for EU engagement in the UN, the Union’s internal coordination process, as well as the framework governing its external representation. To highlight the patchwork of legal statuses and modes of engagement, we subsequently take a closer look at the EU’s relations with a select number of UN bodies in the area of economic governance. This allows us to illustrate the respective challenges in three scenarios: UN fora where the EU and the EU Member States hold membership rights, where we look at FAO; UN fora where the EU holds an observer or full participant status while its Member States have membership rights, where we look at ECOSOC, its subsidiary bodies, and UNCTAD; and UN fora where the EU Member States are members but where the EU has no formal status: here we look at the World Bank.