A policy report of Universal Rights Group (URG) on ‘ Combatting Global Religious Intolerance: the Implementation of Human Rights Council resolution 16/18 ’ has rightly pointed out the complexities of the issues surrounding freedom of religion or belief and the fight against global religious intolerance. The report provides useful historical insights about the UN’s journey to confront and combat racial and religious intolerance. It is interesting to note that on 25th November 1981 …
At the end of 2015, climate policymakers will meet in Paris for the 21st Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention Framework on Climate Change (COP21). There, it is hoped, countries will sign a universal, legally binding agreement to tackle global warming. It is well understood that a new, ambitious accord on climate change is vital for the planet …
Thursday, 29th January 2015, Geneva When the Human Rights Council was established in 2006 following a decision of UN Heads of State, its founders envisioned it as a body with a core mandate to ‘address situations of violations of human rights, including gross and systematic violations, and make recommendations thereon.’ Nine years on, state enthusiasm for the Council continues to grow …
De acuerdo con un informe reciente del Pew Research Center , la violencia y la discriminación de los gobiernos contra los grupos religiosos, así como la hostilidad social por parte de una variedad de actores, han alcanzado niveles sin precedente en todas las regiones, excepto en América. El informe sobre la libertad religiosa más reciente del Departamento de Estado de EE. UU. refuerza este sombrío panorama: concluye que …
According to a recent report by the Pew Research Center , violence and discrimination against religious groups by governments, as well as social hostilities by a variety of actors, have reached new heights in all regions except the Americas. This bleak picture is supported by the findings of the latest report on religious freedom by the US State Department, which concluded that 2013 saw “the largest displacement …
The work of the Human Rights Council is definitely underestimated. This point immediately struck me when I was elected President of the Council for the year 2015, and international and German media representatives approached me for interviews. “Isn’t the Council a tiger without teeth?” “What can the Council achieve without being able to impose sanctions like the Security Council?” “Looking …
The Post-2015 Human Rights Caucus – a broad coalition of development, environmental, feminist, trade union and human rights organizations worldwide, which the Universal Rights Group is proud to be a member of – had produced the following response to the United Nations Secretary-General’s Report “The Road to Dignity by 2030: Ending Poverty, Transforming All Lives and Protecting the Planet” (The ‘Synthesis Report’): “We warmly …
Last week’s appalling attack against journalists and police officers at the satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, and the cascade of comment and counter-comment that has followed, remind us once again of both the importance of, and the sensitivities that surround, the relationship between freedom of expression, freedom of religion or belief, and non-discrimination. Identifying and understanding the contours of that relationship …
Beyond 2015 – a global civil society campaign which the URG is proud to be a part of – has published a reaction paper to the UN Secretary General’s synthesis report, The road to dignity by 2030: ending poverty, transforming all lives and protecting the planet , an important contribution to the post-2015 process. In the reaction paper, Beyond2015 provides a review of the Secretary General’s broader call for an ambitious, universal agenda, with equality and equity, participation, people and planet at the …
World leaders have called for an ambitious long-term sustainability agenda to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the end of 2015. The post-2015 development agenda is expected to address the unfinished business of the MDGs. Requested by UN Member States to pull together inputs from all strands on the post-2015 development agenda, the UN Secretary General presented on 4 …
