UN80: The role of the Human Rights Council in responding to the crisis of multilateralism
The UN enters its 80th year amid a profound financial, political, and legitimacy crisis. To remain resilient and relevant, the multilateral system must enhance its effectiveness by refocusing resources towards ensuring that human rights commitments deliver tangible improvements to people’s daily lives.
URG Insights
27 March urgent debate on killing of schoolchildren in Iran ‘reflective of major power shifts at the Human Rights Council’
by the URG team
One relative constant over the twenty-year history of the Human Rights Council has been that the body’s mandate to ‘address situations of violations of human rights, including gross and systematic violations’ (paragraph 3 of GA resolution 60/251) has largely been implemented in one direction only. Developed or Western States have sought to realise the mandate and developing countries, especially geopolitical opponents of the West, have – almost always - been its object. While there have been some exceptions to this rule, such as item 4 resolutions on Russia, and item 7 resolutions on Israel, it has broadly held since the…
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Latest policy report
May 2026
Ensuring Dignity and Realising Rights: Measuring the Impact of the United Nations Human Rights System on the Enjoyment of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Since its establishment eight decades ago, the United Nations has played a central role in raising awareness about and advancing the rights of persons with…
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Glion XI: Beijing at 30
The eleventh Glion Human Rights Dialogue (Glion XI), organised by the Universal Rights Group (URG) in partnership with UN Women, Morocco's Inter-Ministerial Delegation for Human…
Read moreOSLO+5 – Human rights-based approach to development and accelerating progress towards gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights
On 29-30 September 2025, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, supported by the Universal Rights Group, and the Oslo+ Steering Group (consisting of Norway,…
Read moreConfronting Inequality and Leaving No-One Behind: Turning the United Nations' Human Rights System into the International System's 'Equality Engine'
Leave no one behind (LNOB) is the central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It represents…
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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.