Read on to remain up to date with the latest international human rights news, views and developments!
In recent years, ‘Foreign agent’ laws have been introduced in various countries, violating international human rights law and threatening to silence human rights defenders. This pattern is particularly evident in Eastern Europe, where NGOs courageously resist and need the support of the international community.
A coalition of 25 UK, Egyptian and international organisations have called on British Foreign Secretary David Lammy to use the UN Human Rights Council to draw attention to the pronounced human rights crisis in Egypt. Doing so would support arbitrarily imprisoned British-Egyptian national Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the groups said.
The beginning of a new year coincides with the appointment of a new President for the Human Rights Council. On 11 February, ISHR hosted a civil society reception to welcome the 2025 President, Swiss ambassador Jürg Lauber, providing an opportunity for civil society, human rights experts, supporters and diplomats to meet and discuss challenges and opportunities in the year ahead.
The 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council (24 February to 4 April 2025) will discuss the protection of human rights defenders, freedom of religion, human rights while countering terrorism, and rights to food and housing. It will also address grave human rights issues in countries like Nicaragua, Venezuela, China, Syria, South Sudan, Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, Eritrea, and the occupied Palestinian territory/Israel, amongst others. Here’s an overview of some of the key issues on the agenda.
The UN Human Rights Council is crucial for rights holders, victims, and human rights defenders, offering a platform to pressure for national change, expose violations, seek accountability, and gain support for their work towards a fair, equal, and sustainable world.
The ECOSOC Committee on NGOs concluded its 2025 regular session today reiterating the need for reform to improve its working methods to enable effective civil society engagement at the UN.
On the fifth anniversary of the 'Xiamen Gathering' crackdown, 38 civil society organisations and activists across the world reaffirm their solidarity with Chinese human rights defenders and lawyers persecuted for advocating for human rights.
Civil society urges States to ensure a resolution at the upcoming 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council addresses the protection of human rights defenders from emerging risks resulting from technological trends and shifting online spaces.
The suspension and, in some cases the termination, of US foreign aid is having profound and adverse human rights impacts, threatening the very existence of many human rights defenders, organisations and institutions.
Rising authoritarianism. An accelerating climate crisis. Continuing conflicts characterised by war crimes and crimes against humanity. It’s difficult to face 2025 with anything other than a sense of fear, inevitability and despair. Yet these are precisely the understandable impulses we must resist!
The UN has reviewed El Salvador's human rights record, with civil society, UN bodies and many States calling for the lifting of the state of emergency which, according to civil society groups, has led to the arbitrary detention of thousands of people.
NGOs call for an end to all forms of ethnicity-based attacks on civilians in Aljazeera, Darfur, Khartoum and other conflict areas in Sudan.
