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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 disabilities, who constitute approximately 15 per cent of the world’s population and overwhelmingly live in the Global South. In 2006, the combined efforts of the international community and the global…
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 Rights, and the Permanent Missions…
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, Sweden, and the European Commission),…
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 the unequivocal commitment of all…
Introducing a Human Rights-Powered Approach
by Marc Limon and Lola Sánchez ArcosAs the UN enters its 80th year, it does so amid a profound financial, political, and legitimacy crisis, marked by significant shortfalls in mandatory and voluntary funding, growing contestation of…
This report, produced by SAPI and URG, are the fourth installation of an annual paper series focusing on a human rights-based approach to new and emerging digital technologies. The first…
The Human Rights Council in 2025
by The URG TeamWhat were the main developments, achievements and flash-points at the Human Rights Council in 2025? What were the Council’s principal outputs and what kind of impact did the body and…
A Human Rights Powered Approach to Gender Equality
2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA), the world’s most widely endorsed and visionary agenda for achieving gender equality, empowering…
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…
by Marc Limon, Executive Director of the Universal Rights Group, Ananya Cumming-Bruce, Researcher
On 4 February, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the body is at risk of ‘imminent financial collapse’ due to unpaid fees and a budget rule that forces it to return unspent funds. Recent years have also seen major cuts to voluntary funding to UN agencies on the part of a wide range of (especially…
by Marc Limon, Executive Director of the Universal Rights Group
General Assembly adopts resolution guiding the review and rationalisation of mandates across the UN system On 31 March, the General Assembly adopted a resolution on ‘Mandate creation, implementation, and review for an efficient and effective United Nations,’ a move the Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres called ‘historic’ and a ‘major step’ in translating ‘the ambition of the…
Report on the 61st session of the Human Rights Council
by Geneva
Quick summary The 61st regular session of the Human Rights Council (HRC61) was held from Monday, 23 February to Tuesday 31 March 2026. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk delivered a global update to the Human Rights Council on 27 February 2026. Six panel debates were held during the session. More than 80…
by Gianni Magazzeni
Recent cycles of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) have increasingly prioritised the implementation of UPR recommendations. However, Human Rights Council (HRC) Item 6 adoptions remain largely procedural, with States under review (SuRs), UN entities, and CSOs mostly focusing on whether recommendations are supported or not. The 20th anniversary of the HRC in 2026 presents an…
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