Slovenia presides over UNHRC
Kungota, 17 December - Slovenia, which prides itself as a country which has made human rights an intrinsic element of its foreign policy, assumed a one-year presidency of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR) for the first time in 2018. The country focussed its efforts on promoting human rights and enhancing the council's profile.
Geneva, Switzerland
A session of the UN Council for Human Rights in July 2018.
Photo: UN
File photo
Addressing the council's session in February, then Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec assured Slovenia's full support for and commitment to the mandate of the council as the main UN institution for the protection and promotion of human rights.
Slovenia, a member of the council since its establishment in 2006, also regretted that the US, one of the members of the UN Security Council, withdrew from the council in June.
The start of Slovenia's UNHCR presidency coincided with the launch of the UN campaign to mark the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which culminated on 10 December on Human Rights Day with a number of events also held in Slovenia.
On this occasion, US human rights activist Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), who was instrumental in drafting the declaration, was honoured with a bust in Ljubljana.