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UN Human Rights Council

The Human Rights Council is the world’s peak multilateral human rights body. It is comprised of 47 Member States and meets at least three times per year in Geneva. It is mandated to strengthen the global promotion and protection of human rights, and to address human rights violations and situations of concern.

ISHR works intensively at the Human Rights Council to support the work of human rights defenders. Our strategic combination of research, capacity building, policy development, and advocacy seeks to ensure that the Council is accessible to human rights defenders, protects them against intimidation and reprisals, and is an effective mechanism for change on the ground.

We also monitor and report on States’ cooperation with the Human Rights Council and advocate to ensure that States that seek membership are held to account for their commitment to ‘uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights’.

Read more about our impact and vision in making progress and preventing regress for civil society at the UN.

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UN Human Rights Council

UN Human Rights Council

Understand the structure, purpose and mandate of the Human Rights Council and the opportunities for effective engagement.

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Reprisals: ISHR's submission on trends and recent cases in China

Following an earlier version of this submission of the same title in May 2022, this new ISHR report continues to document trends of reprisals in China in 2022-2023 with an analysis of extant cases, and further summarises the way in which it has portrayed civil society’s cooperation with the UN as a ‘criminal act’.