Report on the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council

by Geneva Blog, Blog, Human Rights Council, Human rights institutions and mechanisms, URG Human Rights Council Reports, URG Human Rights Council Reports

Quick Summary The 52nd regular session of the Human Rights Council (HRC52) was held from Monday 27th February to Tuesday 4th April 2023. As the main session of the Council, HRC52 began with a High-Level Segment (HLS). The 2023 HLS included speeches by more than 130 world leaders, including three heads or deputy heads of State, eight heads or deputy …

What are the human rights priorities of world governments at HRC52?

by Geneva Blog, Blog, HLS, Human Rights Council, Human rights institutions and mechanisms

An independent analysis of the High-Level Segment of the Human Rights Council The High-Level Segment of the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council, held from February 27 to March 3 2023, saw the active participation of more than 130 world leaders, including three heads or deputy heads of State, eight heads or deputy heads of government, and 117 ministers …

Building momentum towards the realisation of environmental rights in Africa

by Joseph Burke and Tom Bicko Ooko Blog, Blog

In the powerful words of the global environmental icon,  Professor Wangari Maathai , ‘[t]here comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness so that she stops threatening its life-support system.’ The twin resolutions by the UN Human Rights Council (resolution  48/13 , adopted on 8 October 2021) and the UN General Assembly (UNGA) (resolution  76/300 , adopted on …

What are the human rights priorities of world governments in 2023?

by Amalia Ordóñez Vahí, Research Fellow, URG, Lola Sanchez Arcos, Researcher, URG and Ana Botchoidze, Intern, Universal Rights Group Beyond the Council, Beyond the Council, Blog, Climate change, Contemporary and emerging human rights issues, General Assembly, Human rights institutions and mechanisms, SDGs, Thematic human rights issues, UNGA

Human rights analysis of high-level speeches during the general debate of the UN General Assembly Every autumn, leaders from around the world come together in New York for the UN General Assembly (GA) general debate. This gathering brings together Heads of State, Heads of Government, Foreign Affairs Ministers, and other dignitaries to address global issues and their impact on their …

The Human Right Council in 2023: on its journey to adulthood

by Geneva Blog, Blog, By invitation, By invitation, International human rights institutions, mechanisms and processes

A message from the 17th President of the Human Rights Council, H.E. Ambassador Václav Bálek (Czech Republic)  The most ratified human rights treaty in the world, the UN  Convention on the Rights of the Child, stipulates that adulthood begins at the age of eighteen. During the Czech Presidency, the Human Rights Council enters its 17th year. Therefore, in the spirit of the …

Human rights and the Security Council: practical steps to build effectiveness

by Joanna Weschler Blog, Blog, By invitation, By invitation

In a newly released report, Human Rights and the Security Council: A Relationship in Need of Thoughtful, Creative and Constant Cultivation , published by the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights @JBI_HumanRights, its author, Joanna Weschler, argues that despite the difficult political dynamics at present, the Security Council still has an impressive range of tools, working methods and practices at its disposal that – if used creatively and with ongoing attention – can …

Why is the Human Rights Council intent on ignoring human rights abuses in the occupied regions of Georgia, and what might Georgia do to strengthen international scrutiny?

by Marc Limon, Executive Director of the Universal Rights Group and Ana Botchoidze, Intern, Universal Rights Group Blog, Blog

Since 2017, Georgia has tabled resolutions under agenda item 10 of the Human Rights Council with the aim of increasing international scrutiny of the human rights situation in the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, occupied by Russia since 1991-1993. Today, however, OHCHR reporting mandated through those resolutions, as well as Council debates held in response to the reports, …

Twitter’s descent reminds us of the dangers of free speech absolutism

by Marc Limon, Executive Director of the Universal Rights Group Blog, Blog

Free speech absolutists have not been having it their own way recently. A decade ago normative interpretations of freedom of expression under international human rights law and under relevant resolutions of the Human Rights Council were fairly finely balanced between the ‘anything goes’ ideology espoused by the United States (US) as well as by American human rights lawyers and experts …

COP27 and the centrality of human rights in climate action

by Amalia Ordóñez Vahí, Research Fellow, URG Blog, Blog, Climate change, Thematic human rights issues

‘We’re on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator’ warned UN Secretary General, António Guterres, at the opening of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on 7 November 2022. Guterres presented a grim dichotomy: ‘humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish. It is either a Climate Solidarity Pact – or a Collective Suicide Pact.’ COP27 was the first …

Report of the 35th Special Session of the Human Rights Council on the deteriorating human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran

by Geneva Blog, Blog, Human Rights Council, Human rights institutions and mechanisms, Special session

On Thursday 24 November 2022, the Human Rights Council convened a special session to address ‘the deteriorating human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, especially with respect to women and children’. The Special Session was requested via an official letter dated 11 November signed by H.E. Katharina Stasch, Permanent Representative of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Nations …