It’s high time human rights practitioners join conversations on taxation

by Louis Mason, Universal Rights Group and Sandra Petrovic, Universal Rights Group Blog, Blog, Contemporary and emerging human rights issues

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’ …

The class-blindness of human rights

by Dr. Andrew Fagan, Director, University of Essex, Human Rights Centre Blog, Blog, By invitation, By invitation, Inequality, Thematic human rights issues

If you are reading this piece, it’s unlikely that you are, or that you originate from, a working-class background. I say this not as a rebuke. Nor do I intend to question your commitment to social justice and human rights. As a class migrant myself, I am also not claiming that the human rights community doesn’t include people who still …

What are the human rights priorities of world governments in 2021?

by the URG team Blog, Blog, Climate change, Climate crisis, Democracy, Gender equality, HRC, Human Rights Council, Human rights implementation and impact, Human rights institutions and mechanisms, In focus: democracy, Inequality, International human rights institutions, mechanisms and processes, Thematic human rights issues

An independent analysis of the High-Level Segment of the Human Rights Council The High-Level Segment of the 46th session of the Human Rights Council , held from February 22 to 24 2021, saw the active participation of more than 130 world leaders, including presidents, prime ministers, ministers, and heads of international organisations. In the statements they delivered to the Council, they addressed both domestic human rights concerns, …

Inequitable access to Covid-19 vaccines threatens the human rights of millions and must be addressed

by Tess Kidney Bishop, Universal Rights Group NYC Blog, Blog, Contemporary and emerging human rights issues, Inequality, Thematic human rights issues, Universal Rights Group NYC

Covid-19 has shone a stark light onto inequalities between countries. So far, high-income countries have recorded the most cases and deaths, but the economic impact of Covid-19 has been disproportionately harmful to lower-income countries, where governments and citizens have fewer resources to weather the storm. Despite their declarations against ‘vaccine nationalism’, richer countries have paid to get to the front …

Prospects and priorities for the Human Rights Council in 2021

by H.E Nazhat Shameem Khan, 15th President of the Human Rights Council, Permanent Representative of Fiji to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Geneva 2021 Review, Blog, Blog, By invitation, By invitation, Human Rights Council, Human rights institutions and mechanisms, Inequality, SDGs, Thematic human rights issues, Uncategorized

It is my distinct pleasure to wish you bula vinaka, the traditional Fijian greeting, meaning, roughly, ‘happiness and good health,’ as we begin a new year at the Human Rights Council. It is a singular honour for me, and for the government and people of Fiji, that the members of the Human Rights Council have placed their trust in me …

The right to a livable life in a pre and post-pandemic United States

by Jenna Lanoil, former Universal Rights Group NYC Blog, Blog, By invitation, By invitation, Inequality, Thematic human rights issues

Statistics on their own cannot show the impact of COVID-19 on the livability (the sum of factors that determine quality of life) of communities around the world. The effects of COVID-19 are widespread and far reaching, particularly on socio-economic rights, and demonstrate that what might have once been considered ‘livable’ conditions are now proving to be unsustainable. COVID-19 has rocked …

El relator especial de la ONU sobre la pobreza extrema y los derechos humanos lanza ‘armas de fuego’ contra el fracaso para abordar la pobreza

by Steven L. B. Jensen, Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for Human Rights Asuntos contemporáneos y emergentes, Blog, Blog, By invitation, By invitation, HRC, Human rights implementation and impact, Inequality, Thematic human rights issues

“El mundo se encuentra en una encrucijada existencial”. Estas fueron las palabras de apertura de la presentación del informe final del Relator Especial sobre Pobreza Extrema y Derechos Humanos, Philip Alston, al Consejo de Derechos Humanos de la ONU, en  julio de 2020. El profesor Philip Alston, uno de los expertos en derechos humanos más distinguidos del mundo, utilizó su …

UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights goes out guns blazing against failure to address poverty

by Steven L. B. Jensen, Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for Human Rights Blog, Blog, By invitation, By invitation, Contemporary and emerging human rights issues, HRC, Human rights implementation and impact, Human rights institutions and mechanisms, Inequality, SDGs, Special Procedures, Thematic human rights issues

‘The world is at an existential crossroads.’ These are the opening words in the outgoing UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights Philip Alston’s final report to the UN Human Rights Council submitted in July 2020. Professor Philip Alston, one of the world’s most distinguished human rights experts, used his five-year tenure to put a spotlight on the …

What do the US protests and the UK’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic tell us about inequality, discrimination and social rights in the ‘Anglosphere’?

by Marc Limon, Executive Director of the Universal Rights Group Blog, Blog, Contemporary and emerging human rights issues, Human rights institutions and mechanisms, Inequality, Social rights, Special Procedures, Thematic human rights issues

Violence erupts across more than 75 US cities on a sixth night of protests sparked by the death in police custody of African American George Floyd. In London, the UK Government delays the release of an official review of the impacts of COVID-19 on black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) Britons. At the end of April one of the UN’s …

Inequality, discrimination and social rights in the ‘Anglosphere’

by Marc Limon, Executive Director of the Universal Rights Group Asuntos contemporáneos y emergentes, Blog, Blog, Inequality, Social rights, Thematic human rights issues

At the end of April one of the UN’s most high-profile Special Rapporteurs, Philip Alston , finished his six-year mandate on extreme poverty and human rights . Over that time, he completed around a dozen country missions to places including Spain, Malaysia, Lao, Ghana, Saudi Arabia and China. Yet in many ways his tenure as Special Rapporteur was defined by two visits in particular: to the United States (December 2017). and …