The State of Human Rights in the World

On the occasion of the launch of the 2013 Human Rights Watch Report, conference on “The State of Human Rights in the World”, followed by a Q&A session with JAN EGELAND, Human Rights Watch, Europe Director and Deputy Executive Director.

 

Moderated by Ghassan SALAME, Dean of PSIA-Sciences Po

 

Jan EGELAND is a deputy executive director of Human Rights Watch and the director of its European operations. Prior to joining Human Rights Watch, he was the executive director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. As UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator from 2003 to 2006, EGELAND helped reform the global humanitarian response system and organized the international response to the Asian Tsunami, and crises from Darfur to the Democratic Republic of Congo and to Lebanon. In 2006, Time magazine named him one of the 100 “people who shape our world.”

From 1999 to 2002, he was the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Colombia, and from 1990 to 1997 he was State Secretary in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has 30 years of experience in international work with human rights, humanitarian situations, and conflict resolution. Additionally, he was among the initiators of the peace negotiations that led to the Oslo Accords between Israel and Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993.