IPS Participates in Policy Dialogue on UN Investigations and Accountability

From 31 August-1 September, ELAC Deputy Director and IPS Executive Director Federica D’Alessandra and Senior Visiting Fellow of Practice Ambassador Stephen Rapp contributed to the policy dialogue ‘Towards a new accountability? The role of UN-mandated investigative mechanisms in securing accountability for human rights violations at the national, regional, and international levels’, co-organised by Universal Rights Group and the United States Mission to the United Nations in Geneva. Representatives of our team spoke about the interim findings of our research on Anchoring Accountability for Mass Atrocities, alongside Daniel Kronenfeld, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of the United States; H.E. Ilze Brands Kehris, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights ;Mona Rishmawi, Chief, Rule of Law, Equality and Non-Discrimination, OHCHR; Sam Zarifi, Secretary-General of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ); Catherine Marchi-Uhel, Head of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria (IIIM); H.E. María Alejandra Costa Prieto, Deputy Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Uruguay; Professor Larissa van den Herik, Leiden University; Marta Valiñas, Chairperson of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; Professor Philip Alston, New York University; and Yasmin Sooka, Chair of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, among others. Meanwhile, our research team, which also comprises Visiting Fellows of Practice Sareta Ashraph and Kirsty Sutherland, continues its work on this issue. Our final report is expected in early 2022.