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
Between Principles and Pragmatism: How African states vote at the UN Human Rights Council
by Hassan Shire, Executive Director of DefendDefenders (the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project) and the Chairperson of AfricanDefenders (the Pan-African Human Rights Defenders Network), based in Kampala, Uganda, Nicolas Agostini, Representative to the United Nations for DefendDefenders
What would a comprehensive analysis of the voting record of African states at the UN Human Rights Council look like? The question isn’t easy, but we hope that the answer DefendDefenders and AfricanDefenders formulated will quench the thirst of those—diplomats, human rights advocates, or mere Council observers—who pay attention to the African Group… or worry about its voting patterns. As African human rights NGOs, we watch what African states do in regional and multilateral fora closely. As the Council approached its 50th session, we realised that to date, no one had analysed their voting behaviour in a systematic manner. This…
previous URG Insights
Report on the 50th session of the Human Rights Council
by the URG team
Quick summary The 50th regular session of the Human Rights Council (HRC50) was held from Monday 13 June to Friday 8 July 2022. The Human Rights Council marked its 50th session through a high-level interactive discussion that provided stakeholders an opportunity to reflect on the achievements made and the lessons learned since its 1st session (concept note – video). On 1 July 2022, an urgent debate was convened on the human rights of women and girls in Afghanistan. The voting on draft resolution 50/L.62 on the ‘situation of human rights of women and girls in Afghanistan’ was suspended until Friday…
Report on the Urgent Debate on the human rights of women and girls in Afghanistan
by the URG team
On July 1 2022, during the 50th session of the Human Rights Council, which opened on June 13 2022, an urgent debate was convened on ‘the human rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.’ The urgent debate was requested in an official letter from H.E. Mrs. Lotte Knudsen, Permanent Observer of the European Union, and H.E. M. Jérôme Bonnafont, Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations in Geneva, addressed to the President of the Human Rights Council, H.E. Federico Villegas, on 23 June 2022. Urgent debates can be initiated during a regular session of the Human Rights Council to…
The French Development Agency organised an international conference to consider new ideas and approaches to linking human rights and development
by Farid LAMARA, Expert in Human Development and Senior strategic advisor, Agence Française de Développement, Sarah HAYES, Independent Consultant Human Rights and Sustainable Development
Against a background of the retreat of human rights worldwide, growing doubts about the ability of the international community to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, growing inequalities, and the ecological and climate crises, on Human Rights Day 2021 (10 December) the French Development Agency (AFD) organised an international conference on ‘Human Rights and Development.’ It brought together 500 actors from the development community, covering both the global North and South, and considered how development actors can play a key role in securing improvements in the enjoyment of human rights while at the same time recharging progress towards…
Time to ask again: is being the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights an impossible job?
by Marc Limon, Executive Director of the Universal Rights Group
In February 2018, I published a blog on the early departure of the previous High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein. The blog responded to David Petrasek’s article in OpenGlobaRights entitled ‘Another one bites the dust’ (8 February 2018). The article attempted to look past Zeid’s stated reasons for leaving his post (in effect, that the worldwide retreat from human rights had made his position untenable) to the real underlying reason: namely the multifaceted nature of the High Commissioner’s mandate, a mandate that requires the mandate-holder to both publicly criticise States and to work closely with them within…
latest policy report
May 2022
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,…
previous policy reports
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…The Human Rights Council in 2021
What were the main developments, achievements and flash-points at the Human Rights Council in 2021? What were the Council’s principle outputs and what kind of…Placing digital technology at the service of democracy and human rights (3D2)
From 16-17 November, a high-level meeting of State representatives, UN officials, technology company representatives, and civil society, took place in Montreux, Switzerland, as well as…URG next event
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28 Sep 2022
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16 May 2022
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12 Apr 2022
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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