Expert Roundtable:

PILPG Circle of Former Ambassadors to the Human Rights Council: Reflections on 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Work of the Human Rights Council

Event Description

Join PILPG on February 23 for a conversation with PILPG’s Circle of Former Ambassadors regarding the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ahead of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s First Regular Session of 2023.

This year marks 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, arguably one of the most integral documents ever adopted by the United Nations. This anniversary provides an opportunity to reflect on the incredible steps that have been taken towards freedom, justice, and peace since 1948. At the same time, the anniversary allows the international community to recognize the challenges facing the world in 2023, such as insecurity and conflict, disinformation and polarization, and ever-increasing inequalities.

During this event, PILPG’s Circle of Former Ambassadors will come together to discuss 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the work of the Human Rights Council. Our panelists will reflect on the Human Rights Council’s ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights 75’ Initiative, and the challenges that lie ahead for the Council as it looks to the future. PILPG and the Circle of Former Ambassadors will hold further expert roundtable discussions surrounding the Human Rights Council Sessions and specific thematic issues throughout 2023.

This is part of the PILPG Thought Leadership Initiative. The Initiative focuses on prominent international law and international affairs topics and organizes monthly expert roundtables to share expertise and reflections from our work on peace negotiations, post-conflict constitution drafting, and war crimes prosecution. This expert roundtable will be co-moderated by PILPG President Paul Williams, and Ambassador Joachim Rücker.

Event Recording

Speakers

**Amb. Yevheniia Filipenko**

Yevheniia Filipenko is the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations in Geneva.

Prior to her appointment to Geneva, Ambassador Filipenko has served as Director-General of the Directorate for International Organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine since February 2019. Ambassador Filipenko has also previously held the position of Deputy Director-General, Head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Unit, Directorate for International Organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Ambassador Filipenko served as Ukraine’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the international organizations in Vienna from 2017 to 2018, and also served there as a First Secretary, then as a Counsellor, from 2005 to 2009. Ambassador Filipenko has also served as Minister-Counsellor at the Embassy of Ukraine in Serbia, Third and Second Secretary at the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations in New York, and as a member of the delegation of Ukraine to the United Nations Security Council in 2000 and 2001. Ambassador Filipenko began working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in 1996.

Ambassador Filipenko holds a Ph.D. from the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine. She has a postgraduate certificate in diplomatic studies from Oxford University, a master’s degree in foreign philosophy from Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University, and a bachelor’s degree from Kyiv Teaching College at the same University.

**Amb. Amanda Ellis**

Former UN Ambassador Amanda Ellis currently serves as Executive Director, Asia-Pacific for the Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation and Senior Director, Global Partnerships and Networks for the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University. She is co-chair of the WE Empower UN SDG Challenge, launched by the UN Secretary General, the President of the World Bank and the Council of Women World Leaders in 2018 to promote inclusive entrepreneurship.
Previous roles include New Zealand’s Head of Mission and Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, inaugural Ambassador for Women and Girls and Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to Francophone Africa. Ms Ellis played a key role in New Zealand’s successful UN Security Council bid, subsequently serving as co-chair of the UNSC High Level Working Group on Humanitarian Access into Syria. From 2010-13 as Deputy Secretary International Development and the first woman to head the New Zealand Aid Programme, Ms Ellis was responsible for an annual budget of over $0.6 billion. Prior to this, Ms. Ellis was Lead Specialist in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Group at the World Bank Group in Washington D.C., where she managed the World Bank President’s Global Private Sector CEO Leaders Forum and led the Doing Business gender research project which created “Women, Business and the Law.” While at the World Bank, she worked with the Economist Intelligence Unit to create the Women’s Economic Opportunity Index. Ms. Ellis also founded the International Finance Corporation’s gender program, where she developed the first lines of credit for women entrepreneurs in Africa delivered through local banks. In the late 1990s she served in senior executive roles at Westpac Banking Corporation in Australia, including as Head of Women’s Markets and National Manager Women in Business, growing a new business rapidly to over half a billion dollars in annual revenues within just three years.
Ms. Ellis is the author of two best-selling Random House books, Women’s Business, Women’s Wealth and Woman 2 Woman, lead author of five research titles in the World Bank Directions in Development series on gender and growth in Africa, the Middle East, East Asia and the Pacific and co-author of the 2020 Gender Equality and Governance Index. A founding member of the Global Banking Alliance for Women, Ms. Ellis is the recipient of the TIAW Lifetime Achievement Award for services to women’s economic empowerment, the East-West Center Distinguished Alumni Award, the Columba College Distinguished Alumna Award and NZ Business Hall of Fame.
Ms. Ellis serves on the advisory boards of the Global Governance Forum, UN Target Gender Equality, Blue Planet Alliance, Hawaii Green Growth, Bishop Museum, Institute for Climate and Peace, the East-West Center Board Of Governors and the Council on Foreign Relations Advisory Committee on economic inclusion. She is an adjunct Senior Fellow at the East-West Center in Hawaii and a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science, a member of NZ Global Women and an honorary member of BPW International and Rotary International.

**Amb. Jorge Lomonaco**
Ambassador Jorge Lomonaco is a career diplomat of 30 years, awarded the rank of Ambassador of Mexico in 2009. Ambassador Jorge Lomonaco has a record of success as an international negotiator on human rights, democracy, disarmament and international justice, including chief negotiator and lead proponent of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, recognized by the Nobel Peace Prize of 2017.

Ambassador Lomonaco has been involved in managing complex organization and extensive collaboration with representatives of all nations, members of civil society, international organizations’ officials, think tanks, the academy, international courts, expats, media, local communities, advocates and victims of human rights violations.

Ambassador Lomonaco holds decorations from the King of Spain, King of Sweden and Queen of the Netherlands, and is the recipient of various awards, including the Special Medal for Meritorious Services of the Inter-American Defense Board (2017) and the 2017 Arms Control Association´s Disarmament Person of the Year Award.

**Amb. Yvette Stevens**

Ambassador Yvette Stevens has a vast experience, working for 28 years in six United Nations entities, covering humanitarian assistance globally, as well as development and peace and security in Africa.

Following her retirement from the United Nations, as the United Nations Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator, she returned home to Sierra Leone and served as Policy Adviser to her government for three years, before being appointed as Ambassador and Permanent Représentative to the United Nations and other organizations in Geneva. In this capacity she represented her country at the Human Rights Council, first as observer and later as observer. At the HRC, she was very active, inter Alia, in the human rights of women, people living with albinism and prevention.

After her retirement as Ambassador, she was appointed by the President of the HRC, to serve as Chair/Rapporteur of a group of three to spearhead widespread consultations among stakeholders on how the HRC can enhance its role in the prevention of human rights violations. She presented her report to the Council in March of 2020.

MODERATORS

Dr. Paul R. Williams holds the Rebecca I. Grazier Professorship in Law and International Relations at American University where he teaches in the School of International Service and at the Washington College of Law. Dr. Williams is also the co-founder of the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), a pro bono law firm providing legal assistance to states and governments involved in peace negotiations, post-conflict constitution drafting, and the prosecution of war criminals. As a world renowned peace negotiation lawyer, Dr. Williams has assisted over two dozen parties in major international peace negotiations and has advised numerous parties on the drafting and implementation of post-conflict constitutions. Several of Dr. Williams' pro bono government clients throughout the world joined together to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Dr. Williams has served as a Senior Associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as well as an Attorney-Adviser for European and Canadian affairs at the U.S. Department of State, Office of the Legal Adviser. He received his J.D. from Stanford Law School and his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. Dr. Williams is a sought-after international law and policy expert. He is frequently interviewed by major print and broadcast media and regularly contributes op-eds to major newspapers. Dr. Williams has authored six books on various topics concerning international law, and has published over three dozen scholarly articles on topics of international law and policy. He has testified before the U.S. Congress on a number of occasions relating to specific peace processes, transitional justice, and self-determination. Dr. Williams is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, and has served as a Counsellor on the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law. In 2019, Paul was awarded the Cox International Law Center's Humanitarian Award for Advancing Global Justice. More information about Dr. Williams can be found at www.drpaulrwilliams.com.

Joachim Rücker has served as Special Representative of the Federal Government for the Middle East Stability Partnership from 2016-2017, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Office of the United Nations and to the other International Organizations in Geneva from 2014 to 2016, and President of the UN Human Rights Council in 2015.

Prior to these appointments, Mr. Rücker had served as Inspector General at the Federal Foreign Office of Germany in Berlin, and as Germany’s Ambassador to Sweden.
Mr. Rücker served as Special Representative of the Secretary-General at the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) from 2006 to 2008. He served as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the UNMIK/EU Pillar for Economic Reconstruction from 2005 to 2006. From 1993 to 2001, Mr. Rücker served as Mayor of the City of Sindelfingen. He worked as a Foreign Policy and European Integration Adviser, Social Democratic Parliamentary Group, German Bundestag in Bonn from 1991 to 1993.

Mr. Rücker has also held various postings with the Federal Foreign Office of Germany from 1979 to 1991, including serving in Vienna, Dar es Salaam and Detroit. Mr. Rücker has a degree and a PhD in economics from the University of Freiburg.