Latest tweets
Latest policy reports
For people; for planet: The long and winding road to UN recognition of the universal right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment
On Friday 8 October 2021, member states of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (Council) moved to adopt two historic resolutions. With the first of these (Council resolution 48/13), presented by Costa Rica, Maldives, Morocco, Slovenia, and Switzerland (the core group on human rights and the environment), the Council recognised a new universal human…
Advancing Rights, Transforming Lives
by UNFPA, URGThis report reviews how the UN human rights system has taken up women’s rights, gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights and the degree to which these recommendations have…
This report examines this body of practice, namely the features and best practices associated with the global implementation of the right to a healthy environment.
The present policy brief provides thoughts on how the Council might strengthen the delivery of domestic capacity-building support in the future – how it might ‘reset and revitalize item 10.’
How to secure accountability for serious human rights violations?
The report explores definitions of accountability, the complementarity between criminal and human rights accountability, victim-centred perspectives, as well as challenges and opportunities for securing greater accountability for human rights violations.…
Bridging the Human Rights Implementation Gap: A Commonwealth Survey
In January 2022, the Commonwealth Secretariat launched a survey of national frameworks for the implementation of international human rights obligations in Commonwealth member states. The primary objectives of the survey…
Report of the 8th Istanbul Process Meeting
Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva organized the 8th Istanbul Process (IP) virtually, on 16 February 2022. The meeting’s agenda was set on the theme “10th anniversary…
The Human Rights Council in 2022
What were the main developments, achievements and flash-points at the Human Rights Council in 2022? What were the Council’s principle outputs and what kind of impact did the body and…
URG Insights
Report on the 53rd session of the Human Rights Council
by the URG team
Quick summary The 53rd regular session of the Human Rights Council (HRC53) was held from Monday 19 June to Friday 14 July 2023. On 11 and 12 July 2023, an urgent debate was convened to ‘discuss the alarming rise in premeditated and public acts of religious hatred as manifested by recurrent desecration of the Holy…
Report on the Human Rights Council urgent debate on acts of religious hatred
by Geneva
On 11th July 2023, during the 53rd session of the Human Rights Council, which opened on June 19, 2023, an urgent debate was convened to ‘discuss the alarming rise in premeditated and public acts of religious hatred as manifested by recurrent desecration of the Holy Quran in some European and other countries.’ The urgent debate…
by Marc Limon, Executive Director of the Universal Rights Group
On 11 July Ambassador Alexander Maisuradze, Permanent Representative of Georgia to the UN in Geneva, delivered a cross-regional statement at the 53rd session of the Human Rights Council calling on the body to assume a leadership role in the global reinvigoration of democracy. The statement, led by a group of main sponsors from Eastern Europe…
by Marc Limon, Executive Director of the Universal Rights Group
For the past decade, the Human Rights Council has, at regular intervals, grappled with the question of how to make its work more efficient, including through the rationalisation of initiatives, mandates, general debates, and panels, and through ‘technical fixes’ such as reducing speaking times. These efficiency drives have tended to come as a consequence of…
The Council of Europe and the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment
by Amalia Ordóñez Vahí, Research Fellow, URG
On 16-17 May, the Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe’s 46 members met at the Council’s Fourth Summit in Reykjavík to discuss the human rights impacts of current challenges, including the war in Ukraine, the climate crisis and the development of new technologies. The Summit concluded with the adoption of the Reykjavík Declaration, which…
