Thomas 'Tom' Hiram Andrews is an American non-profit executive, and a former Democratic Party politician from Maine.
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. The headquarters of the Council are at the United Nations Office at Geneva in Switzerland.
Special rapporteur is the title given to independent human rights experts whose expertise is called upon by the United Nations to report or advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective.
Märta Elisabeth Rehn is a Finnish former politician and diplomat. She served as the Minister of Defence of Finland during 1990 to 1995 and as an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations during 1998 to 1999. She was also a member of the Finnish Parliament and parliamentary leader of the Swedish People's Party of Finland, and a member of the European Parliament.
Fionnuala Ní Aoláin is an Irish academic lawyer specialising in human rights law. She is the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism for the United Nations Human Rights Council since August 1, 2017.
Ahmed Shaheed is a Maldivian diplomat, politician and professor. On 24 March 2016, he was appointed for the sixth year running as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Shaheed is also the Chairperson of the Geneva-based international human rights think-tank, Universal Rights Group, which was launched in January 2014. He now lives in England, as Visiting Professor of Human Rights Practice at the University of Essex.
Yozo Yokota was a professor of Law who acted as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar from 1992 to 1996.
Rajsoomer Lallah was a Mauritian lawyer and judge who played a leading role in International Human Rights cases.
Marzuki Darusman is an Indonesian lawyer and human rights campaigner who served as the Attorney General of Indonesia from 1999 to 2001. He currently serves as the chairman of an UN Human Rights Council mission on Myanmar since July 2017. He is the Director-General of the Human Rights Resource Centre for ASEAN.
The Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food is a Special Rapporteur appointed by the United Nations, who reports on the right to food. The mandate was established in 2000 by the former Commission on Human Rights which appointed the first Rapporteur, Jean Ziegler. In 2008 the second Rapporteur, Olivier De Schutter, was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, the successor to the Commission. In 2014 the third Rapporteur, Hilal Elver was appointed. In 2020, the current Rapporteur, Michael Fakhri, was appointed.
Agnès Callamard is a French human-rights activist who is the Secretary General of Amnesty International. She was previously the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, and the former Director of the Columbia University Global Freedom of Expression project.
Farida Shaheed is a Pakistani sociologist and feminist human rights activist. In 2012, she was appointed the United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, while she held that role in the field of education from 2022. She heads the Shirkat Gah women's resource centre in Pakistan, and is known for her extensive work on gender and class analysis, both in Pakistan and more globally.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran is a United Nations Special Rapporteur whose mandate is to monitor and investigate human rights violations in Iran. The current Special Rapporteur is Javaid Rehman. He is the sixth special rapporteur to Iran, following the tenures of Andrés Aguilar (1984–1986), Reynaldo Galindo Pohl (1986–1995), Maurice Copithorne (1995–2002), Ahmed Shaheed (2011–2016), and Asma Jilani Jahangir (2016–2018).
Yanghee Lee is a South Korean developmental psychologist and professor at Sungkyunkwan University. She is most noted for her work in international human rights organisations. Lee is highly recognized nationally, regionally, and internationally for her expertise in human rights. She has published numerous articles and books on human rights and children’s rights.
François Crépeau, is a Canadian lawyer and Full Professor at the Faculty of Law at McGill University, as well as a former Director of the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism.
Catalina Devandas Aguilar is a Costa Rican lawyer who served as the first United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities from 2014 until 2020. She currently serves as Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations at Geneva. Previously, she worked for the World Bank and took part in the establishment of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities with the United Nations Secretariat. She has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair.
Leilani Farha is a Canadian lawyer who is the Global Director of THE SHIFT, a housing initiative. Between June 2014 and April 2020, she was the United Nations special rapporteur on adequate housing.
The Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Myanmar is a special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations created in 2018 to respond to the Rohingya genocide starting in August 2017 and its effects in Myanmar. According to the mandate established by the UN General Assembly in its resolution 72/248 in 2017, the Special Envoy "works in close partnership with all stakeholders including local communities and civil society, and regional partners, notably the Government of Bangladesh and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), regional countries, and the broader membership of the United Nations."
The Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, formally the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, is a Special Rapporteur who works for the United Nations and reports on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories. The mandate was established in 1993 by the former Commission on Human Rights.
Chaloka Beyani is a professor of international law at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He has worked and published extensively in the fields of international human rights law, international criminal law and international humanitarian law, as well as on issues relating to humanitarian assistance and population displacements, in particular internal displacement. In 2023 Beyani was nominated by Zambia for election to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The Netherlands co-nominated Beyani. Zambia had previously put Beyani forth for the 2017 International Court of Justice judges election, but withdrew his name prior to the candidate selection process. If elected, he would have been the first Zambian judge at the ICJ. After five rounds of voting in the Security Council and one round of voting in the General Assembly, Beyani was not elected.
