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.
ISHR delivered a statement at the 54th session of the HRC, urging UN member States not to vote for Burundi, China and Russia as they are not fit to sit at the Human Rights Council.
At the 54th session of the Human Rights Council, during the debate on Sudan, Nahlla Yousif, woman human rights defender from Darfur, delivered a joint statement on behalf of ISHR, Sudanese Women Rights Action, Future for Enlightenment and Development Organization and WHRDMENA Coalition.
States running for the UN Human Rights Council responded to questions from civil society on their human rights records as they outlined their vision for strengthening the global human rights system during ISHR and Amnesty International’s annual pledging event.
As Russian authorities continue to repress human rights defenders and criminalise dissent, States should ensure that the UN Human Rights Council renews a mandate to monitor and report on the human rights crisis in the country.
The 54th session of the UN Human Rights Council (11 Sep - 13 Oct) will consider issues including reprisals, arbitrary detention, systemic racism, enforced disappearances, water and sanitation, and the rights of Indigenous peoples and people of African descent. It will also present an opportunity to address grave situations in over a dozen States. Here’s an overview of some of the key issues on the agenda.
In October, States at the UN General Assembly are due to vote to elect 15 incoming members (of the total 47 seats) to the UN Human Rights Council, and 17 countries, including Russia, China and Burundi, are running for election.
Understand the structure, purpose and mandate of the Human Rights Council and the opportunities for effective engagement.
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ISHR has published ‘scorecards’ for States seeking election to the UN Human Rights Council for 2024-2026 to help inform voting States’ decisions in the upcoming election.
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’.
On 17 April 2023, ISHR submitted its annual submission to the report to the UN Secretary General on reprisals and intimidation against defenders engaging or seeking to engage with the UN and its human rights mechanisms.
'Colectivo 46/2' has published an Evaluation Benchmark on the implementation by the Nicaraguan government of Human Rights Council resolution 49/3 on the human rights situation in the country.
ISHR has published ‘scorecards’ for States seeking election to the UN Human Rights Council for 2023-2025 to help inform voting States’ decisions in the upcoming election.
This new ISHR report presents the evolution of China’s public stance on reprisals in dialogues at the UN, and summarises the way in which it has portrayed civil society’s cooperation with the UN as a ‘criminal act’.
