Universal Rights Group

17/08/2022

💡 Is being the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights an impossible job❓

➡️ In February 2018, URG Director Marc Limon published a blog on the early departure of the previous for , Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein. The blog examined the real underlying reason: the multifaceted nature of the High Commissioner’s mandate.

➡️ This theme has attracted renewed interest following the current High Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet’s announcement that she too will step down early. Marc Limon provides analysis again in a second blog on the role of the High Commissioner, reflecting on whether a single person can publicly criticise while also reaching out to them regarding or for agreement on key issues, for example, reform of the system.

In the blog, the case is made that the world needs both roles:
🔹 Quiet diplomacy, international and support to the machinery
🔹 Public advocacy and accusation of serious violations

The underlying question, then, is whether it is possible to have a High Commissioner assuming both roles at the same time. On this point, the following solutions are suggested:

👉 Limit the High Commissioner’s focus to public and the Deputy High Commissioner's role to
👉 Appoint different deputies for the three main roles of the mandate
👉 Create a new position (i.e., UN Human Rights Council’s Secretary General) for Secretariat functions


📚 Read the 2022 blog: https://bit.ly/3A0qFoR
📚Read the 2018 blog: https://bit.ly/3vA6V8G

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...

08/08/2022

On 28 July 2022, the UN General Assembly passed resolution A/76/L.75 affirming the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment❗The historic decision was voted in with 161 votes in favour, 0 against, and 8 abstentions 🍃

The vote followed a long fought battle by Civil Society Organisations, NGOs, and environmental activists for the international community. It came less than a year after the Human Rights Council also recognised at in Resolution 48/13 🌏⚖️

While not legally binding upon States, the resolution will help to catalyse urgent action towards environmental justice and ensure States are aware of their obligations to respect, protect and fulfil these rights.

It is hoped that the passing of the resolution, and recognition of the right, will:

🔹Promote stronger environmental safeguards through ambitious legislation and policy change worldwide
🔹Facilitate the creation of protections and support networks for EHRDs, climate activists, and indigenous rights defenders who are particularly at risk for violence
🔹Generate pathways to further include an environmental perspective in other areas of international concern, including in regards to the right to development and the peace and security agenda

📚To learn more about the potential impact of the resolution, read our reports here ⤵️

The right to a clean and healthy environment was left out of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (and therefore the two Covenants) because it was drafted before the advent of the modern environmental movement in the 1960s and 70s. However, over recent years, there has been a growing interest a...

05/08/2022

Does meeting the by 2️⃣0️⃣3️⃣0️⃣seem like an impossible task❓

On 10 December 2021, the Agence Francais de Development organised an international conference on 'Human Rights and Development' that brought together 500 actors from the development community to think of new ideas and approaches.

Some key topics included:
🔹Moving away from a solely economic vision of development and normative approach to human rights
🔹Challenges in convincing partners of the value added by integrating human rights with the development agenda
🔹The universal nature of human rights and the need to address structural inequality
🔹The need to provide additional support to civil society
🔹Particular issues in business and human rights through the value chain
🔹Indigenous Peoples as key actors in sustainable development

📘Read our by invitation blog post by Farid Lamara, Expert in Human Development & Senior Strategic Advisor, Agence Française de , and Sarah Hayes, Independent Consultant on Human Rights & Sustainable Development.

To learn more ⤵️

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 D...

06/07/2022

Environmental and land defenders suffer violent and deadly attacks daily. Yet, countries continue to fail to report this violence.

Join the International Land Coalition, World Resources Institute's Center for Equitable Development and the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre at to talk about why this gap persists.

🗓️ Today, July 6
🕐 13:30 CET
✏️ Register: https://bit.ly/3yFI6KD

08/06/2022

🌊Today is World Oceans Day! This year, it will be celebrated under the theme, ‘Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean.’

💡 Did you know that?
🔹 The produces at least 50% of the planet’s oxygen.
🔹 Oceans absorb about 30% of carbon dioxide produced by humans, buffering the impacts of global warming.

As evidenced throughout the past years, for universal recognition of the to clean, healthy and sustainable environment ( ) and to work together to protect and revitalise the ocean and everything it sustains.


📚 Read our blog on the case for swift action on recognition of R2HE ⤵️

Last week, the URG, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, Dr. David Boyd, in partnership with New York University, held an expert seminar to look ahead towards the possible UN General Assembly recognition of the right to a....

08/06/2022

📢 Today and on June 9, along with Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs🇨🇭, we will host the 3rd edition of the Oslo+ meetings.

The theme of Oslo+2 will be ‘The contribution of and cooperation to ’.

🔎 What is +2?

🗣 An informal space for bilateral and multilateral development actors to share good practices in evolving ‘human rights-based approaches to development’. This year’s meeting will seek to add a new dimension linked to international peace and security, namely: how to mobilise ODA funds to drive progress with the national implementation of States’ international human rights obligations, and their Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) commitments, as a central contribution to building national ‘resilience’ and thus to preventing human rights crises and violent conflicts, including in fragile States.

💡 Under this platform, the one and a half-day meeting will be divided into four sessions for a more in-depth interactive discussion on the following themes:
1. Mobilising the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms to contribute to ‘upstream’ prevention (Including SG report to HRC on upstream prevention)
2. Reform of the UN Resident Coordinator system, Country Teams and UNSDCFs – putting human rights ‘up front’ and an ‘all pillar’ approach to prevention
3. The economic or business case for prevention – investing in human rights
4. ‘Human rights-based approaches’ to development cooperation (including for prevention) –
latest developments and sharing good practice

Visit our website for more information!👇
https://bit.ly/3mkfZcG

31/05/2022

🌳 The Alliance for Land, Indigenous and Environmental Defenders (ALLIED) and the Universal Rights Group, with support from Freedom House and the Lifeline Fund for Embattled Civil Society Organisations, published 2️⃣ complementary reports presenting specific recommendations to donors and international civil society organisations on how to increase support for environmental human rights defenders and climate activists.
Specific recommended steps include, among others:
🌱 Increase visibility of support
🌱 Make support applications friendlier to EHRDs
🌱 Create and strengthen networks
🌱 Increase capacity
For more information visit: bit.ly/supportEHRDs

26/05/2022

🔈 Today we celebrate the week of Solidarity with the Peoples of !

📜 In the Charter, a Non-Self-Governing Territory is defined as a Territory ‘whose people have not yet attained a full measure of self-government’.

According to Chapter XI of the Charter, the Declaration regarding Non-Self-Governing Territories, Member States administering Territories, which have not attained self-government are urged to:
🔹 Recognise ‘that the interests of the inhabitants of these Territories are paramount’ and accept as a ‘sacred trust’ the obligation to promote their well-being.
🔹 Take effective measures to safeguard and guarantee the inalienable rights of the peoples of those Territories to their natural resources, including land.
🔹 Establish and maintain control over the future development of those resources.
🔹 Take all necessary steps to protect the property rights of the peoples of those Territories.
🔹 Assist peoples of those Territories in developing self-government and democratic political institutions.
🔹 Provide moral and material assistance to the peoples of those Territories.
🔹 Transmit regularly to the Secretary-General information on the economic, social and educational conditions in the Territories under their administration.

📚 Read our blog on living across national borders ⤵️
https://bit.ly/3yyg443

17/05/2022

📢 Yesterday and today, along with the Governments of Switzerland 🇨🇭 and Liechtenstein 🇱🇮, we are hosting the 8️⃣th Glion Human Rights Dialogue!

For two days, more than 6️⃣5️⃣ human rights practitioners and thinkers will discuss what does the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment mean for States, for rights-holders and for nature.

Key stakeholders were divided into 3️⃣ groups for more in-depth interactive discussion. In particular, they focussed on:

Group 1️⃣ - What is ?
🌲What are its scope and content?
🌏What is its international legal meaning?
💧Which parts of the right are included in existing and legally binding guarantees?

Group 2️⃣ - What has the right meant where it is already recognised at national and regional levels?
🌲What has it meant for domestic laws & ?
🌏What has it meant for climate jurisprudence?
💧What has it meant for the protection & empowerment of ?

Group 3️⃣ - What are the implications of UN recognition of the right?
🌲🌏💧What are the implications for member States at the national level, , , Country Teams, and international and regional instruments & mechanisms?

🚨Stay tuned! A Report on the 8️⃣th Dialogue will be available soon here 👇

The Glion Human Rights Dialogue is an annual high-level retreat, hosted by the Governments of Norway and Switzerland.

16/05/2022

🕊️ Today is the International Day of Living Together in ! 🕊️

🕊️ The United Nations General Assembly, through resolution 72/130, declared 16 May the International Day of Living Together in Peace as a way of regularly mobilising the efforts of the international community to promote peace, , , understanding, and .

🕊️ This day represents a key opportunity to reflect on the importance of living and acting together, united in differences and diversity, to build a sustainable world of peace, solidarity, and harmony.

🕊️ As stated by the President of the Human Rights Council, , are central to the multilateral system, including peace and and to rebuilding social/institutional in situations.

🕊️Learn more about the President's insights and the centrality of to the multilateral system, by reading our blog ⤵️

On April 21, 2022, Ambassador Federico Villegas of Argentina, the President of the Human Rights Council, gave a lecture at the New School in downtown New York, on the place of human rights in the UN system. Although he touched on a variety of themes, a key point was that human rights is integral to....

12/05/2022

🌿 Today is the International Day of Plant Health! 🌿

🌱 The United Nations, through resolution 76/256, which was unanimously adopted by the General Assembly on March 29, decided to establish an International Day of Plant Health every year on May 12.

🌱 This day represents a key opportunity to highlight the crucial importance of protecting plant health, as both our health and the health of our planet depend on plants. Nevertheless, climate change continues to alter ecosystems and to damage biodiversity. As highlighted by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutierrez in his 2020 Call to Action, ‘the climate emergency threatens the rights and dignity not only of millions of people worldwide but also of people not yet born.’

🌱 Against this background, the momentum created last year by the Human Rights Council should be built on. Resolution 48/13, recognising the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment was adopted by Council with:
✅43 votes in favour
🔵4 abstentions
❌0 votes against

📢 for the General Assembly to recognise the R2HE and register with the existing consensus around the world.

For more information, read our publications on the ⤵️

The right to a clean and healthy environment was left out of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (and therefore the two Covenants) because it was drafted before the advent of the modern environmental movement in the 1960s and 70s. However, over recent years, there has been a growing interest a...

09/05/2022

🔎 Today, nearly 476 million Peoples live in 90 countries across the world, accounting for 6.2% of the world population. Many of these communities live across national . Current border practices often hamper Indigenous Peoples’ full enjoyment of land rights when access to land is essential to guarantee their livelihoods, food security and cultural survival.

👉 Our latest blog looks at the existing international legal frameworks recognising these cross-border rights and the avenues that indigenous communities can take to achieve the full realisation of their territorial and cross-border rights.

Full blog available here ⤵️

Today, nearly 476 million Indigenous Peoples live in 90 countries across the world, accounting for 5,000 different cultures and 6.2 percent of the world population. Many of these communities live across national borders, such as the Amazighs in North Africa, the Mapuche at the Chile-Argentina border...