13th October 2014, Geneva An alliance of organisations, of which the Universal Rights Group is part, has commissioned The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) to carry out a global programme of research to build understanding of business awareness, commitment and progress regarding human rights. As part of the research, the EIU will survey over 750 businesses (including major multinationals and SMEs) …
Human Rights Council President, Bureau and Member States must respect the role and rights of NGOs
The right, and indeed the responsibility, of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to critique governments, expose and pursue accountability for human rights violations, and advocate for changes in law, policy and practice should be uncontroversial and uncontested. This is particularly the case at the UN Human Rights Council, the world’s apex body for human rights debate and dialogue, the mandate of which …
A call for measurable human rights targets in the Post-2015 Development Agenda
“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” – Albert Einstein This week UN Member States will consider the “zero draft” of goals and targets entitled ‘Introduction and Proposed Goals and Targets on Sustainable Development for the Post 2015 Development Agenda” which has been …
The environment is the new battleground for human rights – we must protect those on the frontline
Imagine waking up one morning to be told by a man from the government that new laws mean the street your family has lived on for generations is being sold to developers. Your land is to be ‘converted’ into flats in the name of national economic development; bulldozers will soon be moving in to flatten your house and rip up …
Post 2015 Development Agenda – Global Governance and the Right to Food
In 2000, the U.N. Millennium Summit declared that halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger between 1990 and 2015 is a key Millennium Development Goal. Also in 2000, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights appointed a Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food in order to “respond fully to the necessity for an integrated and coordinated approach in …
Human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals: The global governance architecture and its impact on human rights in Africa
In January 1941, the late President FD Roosevelt delivered a speech which led to the Atlantic Charter, a joint declaration with the late Sir Winston Churchill which contained their vision of a peaceful world order after the war. This new world order was to rest on four pillars,trade and finance, on the one hand peace and human rights on the …
