On 25 October, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) launched its General Recommendation 40 , on the equal and inclusive representation of women in decision-making systems. The General Recommendation culminates a process that began in February of 2023, and that aims to provide States with guidance, based on the premise that the achievement of gender equality is a fundamental …
The equal enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights is fundamental to sustainable development leaving no one behind, to democratic resilience, and to the prevention of instability and crisis. Without equal and adequate access to quality education, quality healthcare, food, water and sanitation, and housing, grievances grow, and society becomes fractured. This is especially the case for groups living in …
‘What use is growing the global economy when it is burning the planet and funnelling the majority of its wealth to the super-rich?’ This question encapsulates the priorities that the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, has pursued since starting his second term in 2023, priorities premised on a belief that the traditional model of growing …
On the 4th of April, as has been the case every year since the adoption of General Assembly resolution 60/97 in December 2005, the world observes the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action. This year, the annual commemoration comes at a time of multiple anniversaries – the 25th anniversary of the entry into force of the Mine Ban …
‘We are going backwards, inequalities are skyrocketing, climate change is burning and pounding our planet, and the number of people living in severe poverty has risen, for the first time in a generation. […] The system is broken.’ These were the sombre words chosen by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, to open the Sixth Intersessional Meeting of the …
On Wednesday 31 January 2024, United States Senator Ben Cardin and Representative James McGovern introduced the Human Rights Defenders Protection Act of 2024, a bill that seeks to protect Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) facing retaliation globally for defending human rights and democracy. Notably, Senator Cardin was also the author of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which established one of …
This article was originally published on Open Global Rights on February 1, 2024. The original article is accessible here . The UN Human Rights Council’s recognition of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is a political declaration that paves the way to establishing its legal meaning. In October 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) passed a …
We are living in ‘an age of massive concentration of wealth, and unprecedented inequalities,’ an ‘abyss [has opened] between rich and poor [that] harms everyone.’ With these words, pronounced in his opening global update at the 54th session of the Human Rights Council, High Commissioner Volker Türk cast the spotlight on inequality, an issue that has been gaining ground in the human rights …
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 (Georgia, Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine), …
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 laid out the Council’s commitment …
