Justin Sobion, a St Mary’s College alumnus and son of late Attorney General/Minister of Legal Affairs Keith Sobion, was appointed as an Associate Human Rights Officer in the Office of the President of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, last month. The current President of the Human Rights Council is Vojislav Šuc, Permanent Representative and Ambassador of Slovenia to the United Nations in Geneva.
The President has four staff members advising and supporting him with his work at the Human Rights Council and Sobion is the only staff member from T&T and the Caribbean Community (Caricom) region.
Sobion is a UWI and Hugh Wooding Law School graduate and was called to the Bar in T&T in 2002. He was also awarded a Masters (LLM) in International Law from the University of Cape Town, South Africa in 2008.
As an Attorney at Law, Sobion specialises in International Law. His main areas of practice are Litigation, Dispute Resolution, Human Rights, Constitutional law, Environmental law, Arbitration and Mediation services, International Law of the Sea, International Trade Law, Fisheries Subsidies negotiations (WTO), Intellectual Property Law (WIPO) and Humanitarian Law.
Like his father, who is also an alumnus of UWI, and principal of the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica, Sobion is passionate about regional integration (Caricom) and supports the full implementation of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
As an international law consultant, Sobion advises clients on matters relating to public international law, environmental law and international trade. Some of his work projects have included undergoing legal research, providing advice and publishing articles on the impact of Brexit and the Caribbean Community, the Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks, Biodiversity and Environmental law in the Caribbean/New
Justin Sobion Zealand and constitutional reform. Last year, he was also appointed as a rapporteur at the Africa CEO Forum in Geneva and continues to serve as a Director in his family Foundation, namely the Keith Stanford Sobion Foundation.
Over the past couple years, Sobion has been working on the biography of his father which has a publication date of later this year. The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system made up of 47 states responsible for the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe.
ABOUT VOJISLAV ŠUC PRESIDENT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL, 12TH CYCLE (2018)
Vojislav Šuc has been serving as Permanent Representative of Slovenia to the United Nations Office at Geneva since January 2014. Prior to his appointment to Geneva, Šuc had been Head of the Diplomatic Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2010. He served as Slovenia’s Ambassador to Sweden, Finland, Latvia and Estonia from 2006 to 2010.
Šuc was the Head of the Division for North and Latin America and the Caribbean at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia from 2000 to 2006, and served as Consul General of Slovenia in New York from 1996 to 2000.
A career diplomat, Šuc entered the Yugoslav Foreign Service in 1982. He served as Secretary for Human Rights and Disarmament at the Permanent Mission of Yugoslavia to the United Nations Office at Geneva from 1986 to 1990. He entered the Foreign Service of Slovenia in 1991, holding a number of posts, including as Head of the Department for Multilateral Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 1996.