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The Prevention Council
3 February 2020
For the UN’s prevention agenda to work, it is vital to build a business case for placing human rights at its heart.
URG Insights
It’s high time human rights practitioners join conversations on taxation
by Louis Mason, Universal Rights Group, Sandra Petrovic, Universal Rights Group
In recent weeks, conversations about taxation seem to have moved out from the shadows of bureaucratic policy making and placed front and center of the international geopolitical stage. The reason in one word: COVID-19. However, while there is a growing momentum to establish a new international tax regime that addresses pervasive inequalities, accompanied by greater political will to discuss States’ domestic wealth (re)distribution, to date, such conversations have mostly been occurring outside the field of human rights, and the link between taxation and human rights remains poorly understood. In this context, the Universal Rights Group will begin a blog series…
previous URG Insights
Making AI trustworthy: the EU’s proposed legal framework for regulating artificial intelligence
by Courtney Halverson, URG NYC
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has a plethora of uses, spanning from surprising and beneficial applications, like applying the same technology used to analyse pastries to identify cancer cells, to potentially detrimental and intrusive applications, like using facial recognition to track citizens. The European Union’s new proposal for a legal framework to govern AI suggests that the introduction of ethical, human centered regulations can both protect human rights and privacy while also incentivising the technological development of AI. As with the EU’s adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation (GPDR) in 2018, which created firm rules on data privacy and security, the…
What we talk about when we talk about accountability
by Louis Mason, Universal Rights Group, Anna-Christina Schmidl, Universal Rights Group Geneva
On 27 May 2010, addressing the Rome Statute Review Conference of the International Criminal Court in Kampala, Uganda, then-UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon heralded the ‘birth of a new Age of Accountability.’ More than a decade on, in the face of devastating conflicts and a global pandemic that has reinforced structural inequalities and led to a deterioration in the state of human rights worldwide, the neutral observer might be inclined to cast doubt on such optimism. Some have even suggested that the international community is once again moving towards an era of impunity, a ‘threatening age of the strongman;’ in…
Who controls ‘town square’: amidst a public health crisis, India battles social media companies to curb dissent
by Danica Damplo, Universal Rights Group NYC
Amidst the collapse of the public health system in India and an atmospheric rise in COVID-19 cases, social media platforms became ‘town squares’; centres of desperate coordination for supplies as well as outlets for growing frustration at the government’s failure to prevent thousands of deaths. The Government of Narendra Modi has in turn pressured social media companies to block posts and remove users, though these campaigns, launched in the name of combating pandemic-related disinformation, have also targeted political opposition accounts and criticism of the Government. On 2 June, new rules for social media platforms and digital news outlets, called the…
Generation Equality Forum 2021: A light at the end of the gender inequality tunnel?
by Vany Cortés, Universal Rights Group Geneva
In his virtual address at the inauguration ceremony of the Generation Equality Forum 2021, French President Emmanuel Macron remarked that ‘no country in the world has yet achieved complete equality between men and women’. This observation crystallises the alarming state of gender equality almost 26 years after the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and the adoption of the landmark Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The 1995 Declaration raised 12 critical areas of concern where urgent action was needed and laid out a set of commitments to achieve gender equality, development and peace for all women. Despite widespread…
latest policy report
March 2021
Building a coherent Human Rights Council-Security Council relationship - The prevention of human rights crises, violent conflict and atrocity crimes
previous policy reports
#The time is now - The case for universal recognition of the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
This new policy report tells the story of international discussions on human rights and environment, human rights and climate change, and the push for the right…OSLO+Digital – International support for the national implementation of UN human rights recommendations, including as a contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals during the COVID-19 pandemic
On 9 and 10 June 2020, the Permanent Missions of Denmark and The Netherlands to the UN in Geneva, in cooperation with the Universal Rights…The Human Rights Council in 2020
What were the main developments, achievements and flash-points at the Human Rights Council in 2020? What were the Council’s principle outputs and what kind of impact…Realizing rights, changing lives: The impact of the United Nations human rights system on the enjoyment of children's rights
The international community has invested enormous time and energy in building the international human rights system over the past 70 years. Yet for as long…URG next event
Glion VII report launch and discussion
Public event
The seventh Glion Human Rights Dialogue (Glion VII), organised by the Governments of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, and the Universal Rights Group (URG), was held on 3-4 December 2020 and focused on the topic: ‘Human rights in the digital age: Making digital technology work for human rights.’ The rapid evolution and spread of new technologies have ...future events
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24 Jun 2021
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30 Jun 2021
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01 Jul 2021
past events
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19 May 2021
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13 Apr 2021
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13 Apr 2021
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13 Apr 2021
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25 Mar 2021
The Istanbul Process is the dedicated mechanism for follow-up on the implementation of the action plan set out in Human Rights Council resolution 16/18 on combatting intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatisation of, and discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against, persons based on religion or belief.
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