Policy report

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 place on 10 October at the General Assembly in New York), when States from all…

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Policy report

From reaction to prevention: report of transatlantic roundtable on prevention

Meeting report

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 High Commissioner for Human Rights on 20th February 2023.

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Policy report

For people; for planet: The long and winding road to UN recognition of the universal right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment

This report seeks to tell the story of the journey towards the recognition of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment (R2E) and address the three interlinked environmental crises facing the planet – the climate, biodiversity, and pollution…

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Policy report

Advancing 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 to which these recommendations have been translated into action, with UNFPA’s support.

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Policy report

Unpacking the Right to a Healthy Environment: How national and regional laws and jurisprudence clarify the scope and content of the universal right

This report examines this body of practice, namely the features and best practices associated with the global implementation of the right to a healthy environment.

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Policy report

'A diamond in the rough’: how to strengthen the Human Rights Council's delivery of technical assistance and capacity building (Item 10 reform)

The policy brief provides thoughts on how the Council might strengthen the delivery of domestic capacity-building support in the future – how it might ‘reset and revitalize item 10.’

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Policy report

The Human Rights Council in 2022

A written analysis of the main events and developments at the Council in 2022, with data on the evolution of the body’s work since 2006, infographics on the Council's mechanisms, and an in-depth analysis of the contribution of current members.

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Tool

What is the state of human rights and democracy around the world?

Is the situation of human rights around the world getting better or worse? Which UN member States are fulfilling their human rights obligations, and which are routinely violating the rights of their people? Is democracy really in retreat around the…

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Video

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…

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previous URG Insights

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Inequality takes centre stage at the Human Rights Council

Inequality takes centre stage at the Human Rights Council

by the URG team Blog, Blog, Blog, Blog, Blog, Blog, Blog, Blog, Inequality, Thematic human rights issues

We are living in ‘an age of massive concentration of wealth, and unprecedented inequalities,’ an ‘abyss [has opened] between rich and poor [that] harms everyone.’ With these words, pronounced in his opening global update at the 54th session of the Human Rights Council, High Commissioner Volker Türk cast the spotlight on…

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Is Türk succeeding in ‘walking the tightrope’ between the different dimensions of his mandate?

Is Türk succeeding in ‘walking the tightrope’ between the different…

by the URG team Blog, High Commissioner

September will mark one year since Volker Türk’s appointment as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, after his predecessor, Michelle Bachelet, chose not to continue for a second term (no High Commissioner has served out two full terms). It is fair to say that the choice of Türk, widely predicted…

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Report on the 53rd session of the Human Rights Council

Report on the 53rd session of the Human Rights Council

by the URG team Blog, Blog, Human Rights Council, Human rights institutions and mechanisms

Quick summary The 53rd regular session of the Human Rights Council (HRC53) was held from Monday 19 June to Friday 14 July 2023. On 11 and 12 July 2023, an urgent debate was convened to ‘discuss the alarming rise in premeditated and public acts of religious hatred as manifested by…

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Report on the Human Rights Council urgent debate on acts of religious hatred

Report on the Human Rights Council urgent debate on acts…

by the URG team Human Rights Council, Human rights institutions and mechanisms, In Focus: Human rights and religion, Istanbul process, Religion, Religious intolerance, Resolution 16/18, Thematic human rights issues, URG Human Rights Council Reports, URG Human Rights Council Reports

On 11th July 2023, during the 53rd session of the Human Rights Council, which opened on June 19, 2023, an urgent debate was convened to ‘discuss the alarming rise in premeditated and public acts of religious hatred as manifested by recurrent desecration of the Holy Quran in some European and…

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Latest policy report

September 2023

Guide to the 2023 UN Human Rights Council Elections

Guide to the 2023 UN Human Rights Council Elections report cover

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 online

Previous 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 more

Building 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 more

For 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 more

Advancing 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 more

Unpacking 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.…

Read more

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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
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Report of the 36th Special Session of the Human Rights Council on the human rights impact of the ongoing conflict in the Sudan

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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.

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Impact OSS is a data management tool that helps States manage recommendations received from UN human rights mechanisms.

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ALLIED is a network of civil society actors (83 organisations and 180 individuals) working to protect, celebrate, recognise and support ILEDs throughout the world.

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