Vitit muntarbhorn biography channel

Thai professor and human rights expert

Vitit Muntarbhorn (born 1952) (Thai: วิทิต มันตาภรณ์, RTGS: Withit Mantaphon) is an international human rights expert and professor of law at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. Muntarbhorn was designated in September 2016 as the first UN Independent Expert on violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity by the Human Rights Council before succeeded by Victor Madrigal-Borloz in 2018.

Biography

Muntarbhorn, born in November 1952, was educated at Oxford and Free University of Brussels, and was called to the Bar in England before going on to lecture in law at various universities in Austria, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Switzerland and Thailand. He served as the United NationsSpecial Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography from 1990–1994. In 1994, he coedited with C. Taylor a paper on human rights in Thailand. In 2004, he was awarded the UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education.

Muntarbhorn was nominated to the position of United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) in 2004. His term ended in June 2010. During his six years of service, North Korea repeatedly rejected his requests for meetings.

Muntarbhorn remains involved in various UN activities, principally as a member of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations of the International Labour Organization, and has served as an expert or consultant with the OHCHR, UNHCR, UNDP, FAO, UNICEF, UNESCO, the WHO and the United Nations University. He was involved in the elaboration of the Yogyakarta Principles on LGBT rights.

In 2018, he was recipient of the Bonham Centre Award from the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies.

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Human Rights

October 2023

On 27 October, Security Council members held an Arria-formula meeting on “violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law investigated by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine”. The meeting was co-organised by Albania, the UK, and the US. The three members of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Ukraine briefed: Erik Møse (Chair), Pablo de Greiff, and Vrinda Grover.

March 2023

On 20 March, Security Council members held an Arria-formula meeting on “Integrating the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) Persons into the Council’s Mandate for Maintaining International Peace and Security”. The meeting was organised by the United States. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (US) chaired the meeting and US Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI+) Persons Jessica Stern  participated as part of the US delegation. The UN Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) Victor Madrigal-Borloz briefed.

On 17 March, Albania and the US convened an Arria-formula meeting titled “the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)”. The meeting was co-sponsored by Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK). UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DPRK Elizabeth Salmón, Chief of the Prevention and Sustaining Peace Section at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) James Turpin, and two refugees from the DPRK briefed. The meeting was not broadcast on UNTV after China raised an objection to webcasting it on the official UN channel; however, it was streamed on the Albanian mission’s Facebook page. 

December 2022

On 9 December, Security Council members discussed the human rights situation in the Democratic People’s