Since its establishment eight decades ago, the United Nations has played a central role in raising awareness about and advancing the rights of persons with disabilities, who constitute approximately 15 per cent of the world’s population and overwhelmingly live in the Global South. In 2006, the combined efforts of the international community and the global disability rights movement culminated in …
Glion XI: Beijing at 30
The eleventh Glion Human Rights Dialogue (Glion XI), organised by the Universal Rights Group (URG) in partnership with UN Women, Morocco’s Inter-Ministerial Delegation for Human Rights, and the Permanent Missions of China, Morocco, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates, was held from 16-17 October 2025 in Glion, Switzerland, and focused on the topic: Beijing at 30: Mobilising the United Nations …
OSLO+5 – Human rights-based approach to development and accelerating progress towards gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights
On 29-30 September 2025, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, supported by the Universal Rights Group, and the Oslo+ Steering Group (consisting of Norway, Sweden, and the European Commission), hosted the fifth Oslo+ meeting of bilateral and multilateral development experts to share good practices in evolving human rights-based approaches (HRBA) to international development cooperation (Oslo+5). The meeting brought together …
Confronting Inequality and Leaving No-One Behind: Turning the United Nations’ Human Rights System into the International System’s ‘Equality Engine’
Leave no one behind (LNOB) is the central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It represents the unequivocal commitment of all UN member States to eradicate poverty in all its forms, end discrimination and exclusion, and reduce the inequalities and vulnerabilities that leave people behind and undermine the potential of individuals …
Introducing a Human Rights-Powered Approach
As the UN enters its 80th year, it does so amid a profound financial, political, and legitimacy crisis, marked by significant shortfalls in mandatory and voluntary funding, growing contestation of the value of multilateralism, and waning confidence in the UN’s ability to prevent conflict, protect human rights, and ensure sustainable development. UN Secretary-General Guterres’ proposed ‘UN80’ reforms seek to address …
Towards a Human Rights-Based Approach to New and Emerging Technologies: Operationalizing the Framework
This report, produced by SAPI and URG, are the fourth installation of an annual paper series focusing on a human rights-based approach to new and emerging digital technologies. The first set of papers was published in 2022: Towards a Human Rights-Based Approach to New and Emerging Technologies: A Framework, followed by a second batch in 2023: A Human Rights-Based Approach …
The Human Rights Council in 2025
What were the main developments, achievements and flash-points at the Human Rights Council in 2025? What were the Council’s principal outputs and what kind of impact did the body and its mechanisms have on the on-the-ground enjoyment of human rights? Did members of the Council cooperate with the international human rights mechanisms, and with OHCHR in 2025? Does their voting …
A Human Rights Powered Approach to Gender Equality
2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA), the world’s most widely endorsed and visionary agenda for achieving gender equality, empowering all women and girls, and ensuring the full enjoyment of their human rights. Every five years, the review and appraisal of the implementation of the BPfA provides an important rallying …
Guide to the 2025 UN Human Rights Council Elections
The eleventh annual yourHRC.org Guide to the Human Rights Council elections provides comprehensive at-a-glance information on the 2025 Council elections (which are scheduled to take place on 14 October at the General Assembly in New York), when States from all regions will compete to win seats for new three-year membership terms (2026-2028). In particular, the Guide aims to promote transparency …
