As the world faces possibly the gravest set of crises in UN history, with staggering human suffering as well as economic costs and other consequences, system-wide prevention efforts for peace must be urgently strengthened.
The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and Peace and Conflict Studies at the Department of Political Science, Lund University are co-organising a public seminar to discuss the role of the UN in these prevention efforts.
The seminar features Erik Friberg, a Human Rights Officer at the United Nations Human Rights Office/OHCHR in Geneva, who has been looking into creating methodologies for early warning in prevention efforts.
The event takes place at Eden Hörsal in Lund on 14 September from 15:00 to 16:30.
“The UN Secretary-General places a strong focus on prevention and has called for a surge in diplomacy for peace,” says Friberg. “The importance to invest further in such efforts has been reinforced in a string of recent UN reviews, summits and initiatives.”
While a deterioration in human rights situations is often a driver of conflict, violence and insecurity, human rights protection also routinely provides part of the solutions, he says.
He says while early warning analysis may identify the structural and dynamic risk factors in situations – or the root and proximate causes – the challenge frequently remains in ensuring subsequent early action.
Friberg will present some of his work in progress on creating methodologies for early warning in prevention efforts and he will give a more general introduction to the work of the United Nations Human Rights Office.
About Erik Friberg
Erik Friberg iwhich he joined in 2005 and has held positions at e.g. as Deputy Head of the OHCHR Regional Office for the Pacific. He has supported the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review and special procedures mandates, and worked on methodology and training on integrating human rights in UN peacekeeping and humanitarian action. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Law at Lund University (LL.M., 2002) and the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation in Venice (E.MA., 2003). He is currently pursuing a UN sabbatical programme, hosted by RWI, reviewing experiences and lessons learnt in order to develop a catalogue of early action methodologies and tools as part of UN/OHCHR guidance in this area.
Date and time: 14 September, 15:00-16:30
Location: Eden Hörsal at Paradisgatan 5, 223 62 Lund, Sweden