June 26, 2020 COVID-19 and the response to it is changing the world. Problems of climate change, pandemics, poverty, inequality, injustices, inadequate health systems, prejudice, and societal inequities have been revealed in sharper light, even as dynamic uses of new forms of communication, the internet, technology and science, pioneer new pathways to the future. Violence against women and abuses by …
‘We are being killed’: human rights defenders pay with their lives in Colombia
Wednesday 29th April 2020, Bogota In a report to the Human Rights Council following his visit to Colombia at the tail-end of 2018, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Michel Forst, recognised the efforts of the Colombian Government to create a safe environment for the defence of human rights yet bemoaned the continuing risks faced by human …
Holding the UK Government accountable against its international human rights obligations and commitments?
As Britain faces a future of ever faster and deeper change, it is more important than ever that its human rights record and related compliance with its international human rights obligations and commitments is completely transparent, so that the State can be held to account and we can see where improvements might be made. That’s why the Equality and Human …
Guide to the Human Rights Council 2019 Elections

On Monday 23 September 2019, the Permanent Mission of Norway and the Universal Rights Group (URG) hosted a lunch reception to mark the launch of the yourHRC.org Guide to the 2019 UN Human Rights Council Elections. 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 …
The future of human rights accountability edges closer: Magnitsky laws move to centre stage in the US and Europe
The extrajudicial killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey, and the international reaction thereto, could well represent a defining moment in the evolution of systems of international accountability for serious human rights violations. In particular, the US response to the killing is being shaped (or, from the perspective of President Trump, perhaps dictated) …