The urgent need to defend Environmental Human Rights Defenders
This video is a compilation of the voices and personal journeys of brave EHRDs from Latin America, Africa, and Asia-Pacific.
URG Insights
Can Africa help the UN Human Rights Council pass its next litmus test?
by Hassan Shire, Executive Director of DefendDefenders (the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project) and the Chairperson of AfricanDefenders (the Pan-African Human Rights Defenders Network), based in Kampala, Uganda, Professor Adriano Nuvunga, Executive Director of Centro Para Democracia e Direitos Humanos
The United Nations’ top human rights body is facing a test. Its outcome will have major implications for its credibility. This October, the Human Rights Council (HRC) might readmit Russia, which it suspended just more than a year ago, as a member. At the opening of the next UN General Assembly session, all 193 UN member states, including 54 African states, will vote to choose new HRC members. For Eastern Europe, three candidates will compete for two seats: Russia will face the much smaller Albania and Bulgaria. Given its continued war of aggression against an independent nation, Ukraine, Russia’s candidacy might look like a…
previous URG Insights
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Latest policy report
September 2023
Guide to the 2023 UN Human Rights Council Elections
The ninth annual yourHRC.org Guide to the Human Rights Council elections provides comprehensive at-a-glance information on the 2023 Council elections (which are scheduled to take…
Download View onlinePrevious policy reports
From reaction to prevention: report of transatlantic roundtable on prevention
This report summarises the transatlantic dialogue on prevention organised by International Crisis Group and the Universal Rights Group, in collaboration with the Office of the…
Read moreBuilding Bridges for At-Risk Indigenous, Land and Environmental Defenders
On 11-13 April 2023, ALLIED - the Alliance for Land, Indigenous, and Environmental Defenders - brought together ALLIED members; donors; indigenous, environmental and land defenders…
Read moreFor people; for planet: The long and winding road to UN recognition of the universal right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment
On Friday 8 October 2021, member states of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (Council) moved to adopt two historic resolutions. With the first…
Read moreAdvancing Rights, Transforming Lives
This report reviews how the UN human rights system has taken up women's rights, gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights and the degree…
Read moreUnpacking the Right to a Healthy Environment: How national and regional laws and jurisprudence clarify the scope and content of the universal right
On 8 October 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted its historic resolution 48/13 recognizing the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable…
Read more‘A diamond in the rough’: How to strengthen the Human Rights Council's delivery of technical assistance & capacity-building support (Item 10 reform)
GA resolution 60/251 establishing the Human Rights Council and setting out its mandate recognises the primary responsibility of States to promote and protect human rights.…
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future events
Human Rights Policy Dialogue: The role of regions and municipalities in the review-implementation-reporting cycle of the UN human rights mechanisms
The Human Rights Policy Dialogue on the role of regions and municipalities in the review-implementation-reporting cycle of the UN human rights mechanisms will be a working lunch that will take place on 6th October from 13h00 to 15h00 and will bring together approximately...
- October 6, 2023 - 13:00 - 15:00
- Restaurant Vieux-Bois / Geneva
- By invitation only
Launch of the yourHRC Guide to the 2023 UN Human Rights Council Elections
On Thursday 5th October 2023, the Universal Rights Group (URG) will host a digital event to mark the launch of the yourHRC.org Guide to the 2023 UN Human Rights Council Elections. The report is the ninth annual yourHRC.org Guide to...
- October 5, 2023 - 15:00 - 16:00
- By invitation only
past events
Children’s rights: how to secure convergence at the Human Rights Council?
The Universal Dialogue on children’s rights will be a working lunch that will take place on 28th September from 13h00 to 15h00 and will bring together approximately 20 key participants including State representatives, normally at ambassadorial level, from each UN...
- September 28, 2023 - 13:00 - 15:00
- Vieux Bois Genève / Genève
- By invitation only
HRC training for new diplomats
On 22 August 2023, the Multilateral Dialogue of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) Geneva and the Universal Rights Group (URG) will provide an in-depth training workshop for diplomats newly arrived in Geneva on the working methods, instruments and mechanisms of the Human Rights...
- August 22, 2023 - 9:00 - 19:45
- Château de Bossey / Bogis-Bossey
- By invitation only
Launch of UNFPA-URG report ‘Advancing Rights, Transforming Lives’
On 11 July 2023, a joint UNFPA-Universal Rights Group report, ‘Advancing Rights, Transforming Lives: UNFPA strategic engagement with the UN human rights system to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights,’ was be launched on the side of the Human...
- July 11, 2023 - 13:00 - 14:00
- By invitation only
Report of the 36th Special Session of the Human Rights Council on the human rights impact of the ongoing conflict in the Sudan
The Istanbul Process is a mechanism for follow-up on the implementation of the Human Rights Council plan to combat religious intolerance.
Impact OSS is a data management tool that helps States manage recommendations received from UN human rights mechanisms.
ALLIED is a network of civil society actors (83 organisations and 180 individuals) working to protect, celebrate, recognise and support ILEDs throughout the world.