The UN’s 40-plus Special Rapporteurs can play a unique role in the promotion of human rights, although that job is not without challenges.

Rapporteurs are not UN officials, but carry out mandates from the organization to look into and report on human rights situations around the world.

Some rapporteurs address broad thematic topics, while others handle country-specific issues.

Veronica Reeves spoke with Philip Alston, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights and asked him to explain his work.

Duration: 3’09"