Policy report

OSLO+2 –The contribution of human rights and development cooperation to prevention

28 September 2022

The eighth annual yourHRC.org Guide to the Human Rights Council elections provides comprehensive at-a-glance information on the 2022 Council elections (which are scheduled to take place on 11 October at the General Assembly in New York)

The report considers the role of development actors in the realisation of human rights and the achievement of the SDGs’ central promise to ‘leave no one behind,’ as a critical contribution to the prevention of serious human rights violations, crises, and conflicts. It also looks at existing early warning/early response…

<
>

Policy report

Understanding and responding to the protection needs of climate activists and movements

6 May 2022

The main objective of this document is to offer concrete, practical advice and guidance on how organisations can increase support for climate activists across the world.

<
>

Policy report

Building a coherent Human Rights Council-Security Council relationship – The prevention of human rights crises, violent conflict and atrocity crimes

27 April 2021

Part I of this report looks at prevention as a framework for understanding the relationship between the UNSC and the UNHRC, while Part II presents a series of case studies showing how the UNHRC–UNSC relationship has operated in the past.

<
>

Policy report

Realizing rights, changing lives: The impact of the United Nations human rights system on the enjoyment of children’s rights

12 November 2020

The six country case studies presented in this groundbreaking new report by UNICEF and URG, show, beyond question, that the UN human rights compliance mechanisms, complemented by the wider UN system, have had and continue to have a clear and measurable impact on the domestic enjoyment of human rights.

<
>

Tool

The Human Rights Council in 2019

6 December 2019

A written analysis of the main events and development at the Council in 2019, as well as data on the quantitative evolution of the Council’s work since the body’s establishment in 2006.

<
>

Policy report

7th meeting of the Istanbul Process

9 September 2020

The report on the 7th meeting of the Istanbul Process seeks to summarise some of the key points made during each part of the meeting, and to collate some of the best practices shared in that context.

<
>

Policy report

A World Made New: Beyond COVID-19 to a low-carbon, resilient and inclusive world

13 May 2020

This new policy brief issues a call for governments to leverage economic rescue and stimulus packages to build a better, more socially just, greener and more resilient post-crisis world.

<
>

Tool

Inside Track HRC43

21 February 2020

Concise information and insight on the upcoming 43rd session of the Human Rights Council

<
>

Policy report

The Prevention Council: The business case for placing human rights at the heart of the UN’s prevention agenda

3 February 2020

The report calls on the international community to learn from past mistakes and place a robust Human Rights Council prevention strategy at the centre of the Secretary-General's revitalised prevention agenda.

<
>

Policy report

OSLO+1

13 November 2019

Informe de la segunda reunión informal de socios para el desarrollo sobre: Apoyo internacional para la implementación nacional de las recomendaciones de derechos humanos de la ONU, incluyendo como una contribución a los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible

Esta fue la segunda reunión informal sobre cómo podría aprovecharse mejor la cooperación internacional para apoyar la implementación nacional de las obligaciones y compromisos internacionales de derechos humanos...

<
>

Policy report

Policy or aspiration: Shedding light on the Human Rights Up Front initiative

29 October 2019

The question of ‘what happened to Human Rights up Front’ is an oft-repeated refrain in meetings with New York civil society. However, little consistent and clear information has been provided by the UN secretariat on the status of the initiative...

<
>

Policy report

Ocho años del proceso de Estambul para combatir la intolerancia religiosa: un balance

7 October 2019

El principal marco de política intergubernamental para combatir la intolerancia religiosa, la estigmatización, la discriminación, la incitación a la violencia y la violencia contra las personas basadas en la religión o las creencias se establece en la resolución 16/18 del Consejo de Derechos Humanos (Consejo) y su resolución hermana en…

<
>

Tool

The Inside Track NY

30 September 2019

<
>

Tool

2019 Election guide

27 September 2019

The report is the fifth annual yourHRC.org Guide to the UN Human Rights Council Elections. It provides general information on the 2019 Council elections (scheduled for 16 October at the GA in New York), when States will compete to win seats for new three-year terms (2020-2022)...

<
>

Policy report

Is the global situation of human rights improving or deteriorating? Making the case for the empirical measurement of human rights change

7 October 2019

Measuring human rights performance is not straightforward. Yet it is as important as it is challenging. In the context of the global human rights ‘implementation gap’ that has caught the attention of United Nations (UN) member States, and human rights organisations, professionals and advocates, this policy brief sets out the…

<
>

Policy report

Vision 2021

14 February 2019

Between 2021 and 2026 the UN General Assembly is scheduled to review the status of the Human Rights Council (i.e. should i remain a subsidiary body or become a main body of the UN). URG’s new policy brief provides background information on the 2021-2016 review, and offers thoughts on how…

<
>

Video

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

The human rights project, then and now

by Dr Bertrand Ramcharan, Previously First Swiss Chair, and Professor of International Human Rights Law, Geneva Graduate Institute

The 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be celebrated on 10 December, 2023. It is timely to look back at human rights project at the start of the UN and to reflect on where it should go next. In 2005 the World Council of Churches (WCC) published a remarkable book by  John Nurser, For All Peoples and Nations. Christian Churches and Human Rights.[1] It provided an insightful account of the role of the WCC, its Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA), and the latter’s Director, Fred Nolde, in the origin and shaping of the…

Read more

previous URG Insights

Report on the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council

by Geneva

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 heads of government, and 117 ministers or vice-ministers, as well as representatives from international organisations. An analysis of the content and focus of the high-level speeches can be read here. On 7 March, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,…

Read more

Building momentum towards the realisation of environmental rights in Africa

by Joseph Burke, Tom Bicko, Universal Rights Group (ALLIED coordinator)

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 28 July 2022) that recognised the universal right of everyone, everywhere, to live in a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment  evidenced a growing global consciousness regarding our planet. The landmark resolutions, historic in themselves, were also a new…

Read more

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

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 Office and other International Organizations in Geneva, and H.E. Einar Gunnarsson Permanent Representative of Iceland to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva. This letter, addressed to H.E. Federico Villegas, President of the Human Rights…

Read more

Have the 2022 elections produced a stronger or a weaker Human Rights Council?

by Marc Limon, Executive Director of the Universal Rights Group, Joseph Burke

On 11 October 2022, the UN General Assembly (GA) in New York convened to elect new members of the Human Rights Council for the term 2023-2025. As soon as the votes were cast and members elected, diplomats and civil society representatives, as always, began to ask themselves whether the newly composed Council (which will sit from 1 January next year) will be better or worse than the outgoing one? To answer this question objectively, it is instructive to compare the human rights records and commitments of incoming members (as measured against the criteria and election set out in GA resolution…

Read more

Image

Need a
printed
version ?

Hard copies of URG policy reports and policy briefs can be ordered here
Image
Subscribe
Sign up here to receive URG news, policy reports and event notifications

latest policy report

OSLO+2 –The contribution of human rights and development cooperation to prevention

OSLO+2 –The contribution of human rights and development cooperation to prevention report coverOn 8-9 June 2022, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (Peace and Human Rights Division, and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation), with the…

Read more

Download report
View online report

previous policy reports

Guide to the 2022 Human Rights Council Elections

The eighth annual yourHRC.org Guide to the Human Rights Council elections provides comprehensive at-a-glance information on the 2022 Council elections (which are scheduled to take…

Read more

SUPPORTING ENVIRONMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS: Developing New Guidance for Donors and Civil Society Organisations

Over the last two years, the Alliance for Land, Indigenous, and Environmental Defenders (ALLIED) worked closely with defenders and local organisations in five countries: Brazil,…

Read more

Understanding and responding to the protection needs of climate activists and movements

As climate change impacts our everyday lives, livelihoods, and ecosystems, significantly harming the world’s most vulnerable populations, thousands of individuals and groups have raised their…

Read more