UN rights council appoints 8 new independent experts
On Friday the U.N. Human Rights Council appointed eight new independent experts (aka ‘special rapporteurs’). Here’s the list, with nationalities in brackets, courtesy of the fantastic Claire Kaplun.
1- As member of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Mr. Ariel DULITZKY [Argentina/United States of America];
2- As member of the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination, Ms. Faiza PATEL [Pakistan];
3- As Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Mr. Christof HEYNS [South Africa];
4- As Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Mr Heiner BIELEFELDT [Germany];
5- As Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Mr. Kishore SINGH [India].
6- As Special Rapporteur on the adverse effects of the movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes on the enjoyment of human rights, Mr. Calin GEORGESCU [Romania];
7- As Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Burundi, Mr. Fatsah OUGOUERGOUZ [Algeria].
8- As Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Mr. Marzuki DARUSMAN [Indonesia];
Upgraded to WordPress 3.0
Went for the automatic upgrade. So far, no glitches…
Have also rearranged the sidebars a bit, so they’re easier on the eye.
Journalists: Don’t forget non-US readers
Sunday’s story about an escaped elephant rumbling through Zurich was interesting from a journalistic point of view for two reasons.
First, it was amazing to see how many errors some publications were able to insert when they nicked my story.
Second, looking at the bit.ly metrics I noticed that while Yahoo News readers clicked on the video link 3,550 times, some 3,030 clicks came from Finnish tabloid Ilta Sanomat. That’s Finland, a country with 1/60th the population of the United States.
Lesson for journalists: don’t think all of your readers are going to come from the US.
Video: Swiss lawmakers react after vote rejecting UBS tax evasion deal
Source: bundeshausTV.ch
Rights to the end
I spent quite some time in the Human Rights Council today looking for a priest. I was hoping for a confession – from him – as to why the Vatican has failed for 13 years to submit a key report on child rights to the UN. I didn’t find him.
However I did bump into Britain’s Bob Last, an able diplomat and witty observer of the ins-and-outs of the Council. I recommend you read his blog here: The Last Word
Spain’s Moratinos speaks about Gaza flotilla incident
FT.com’s Rob Grimshaw presents the paper’s iPad app (audio)
Twitter: the 1/2 principle
I’ve noticed an interesting pattern with Twitter: for every two new followers, I seem to lose one. Likewise, I seem to follow half as many people as I have followers.
For now, I’m working on the assumption that the extra follower is the result of Twitter spam. One spammer/PR person for every genuine follower: What do you think?
Sunday Kermit
Frog at Geneva botanical gardens
Plain text only Outlook
A quick tech tip for those of you who, like I, are forced to use Outlook and hate the way it replies with bloated HTML e-mails by default. “Wongablog” explains how you can display all e-mails as plain text, including replies.
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About
Musings of a wire reporter in Geneva. Feel free to contact me with your questions about journalism, Switzerland, or anything else I write about on this blog.
