Read on to remain up to date with the latest international human rights news, views and developments!
Last month, human rights defenders from around the world excelled during ISHR’s flagship training– the Human Rights Defender Advocacy Programme (HRDAP24). For a week and a half, participants engaged with Special Procedures,diplomats and other stakeholders, read statements to the Human Rights Council, met with the OHCHR High Commissioner, Volker Turk, and more!
Between 9 and 11 July 2024, ISHR together with Colombian partners Asosciaciación Minga, the Colombian Commission of Jurists and the Somos Defensores Program organised a cross regional discussion on protection mechanisms for human rights defenders.
At the adoption of the report of its fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR), China ignored calls to implement UN findings and dismissed all serious criticism of its human rights record, refusing to budge on the documented plight of Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers, human rights activists, lawyers, and more. We urged China to genuinely engage with the UN to enact meaningful reforms.
Over the past months, the UN human rights chief has stepped up his condemnation of abuses in Hong Kong and mainland China. Rights groups and activists remain concerned at decreasing UN attention to Tibet and to the UN’s Xinjiang report.
Nearly two years after its publication, rights groups urged the UN Rights chief to follow up on his office's Xinjiang Report.
The UN Human Rights Council will hold its 56th regular session at Palais des Nations in Geneva from 18 June and 12 July 2024. Check out the key issues on the agenda.
Local authorities in Geneva have announced their intention to place a permanent public monument paying tribute to persecuted human rights defenders, including the late Chinese human rights defender Cao Shunli. The move follows a civil society petition to have a bust made in honour of Cao placed in a prominent location in the city.
A newly-released confidential letter by a UN Special Rapporteur documents the disbarment of human rights lawyers in China and the tightening ideological control over lawyers and law firms. The UN expert denounces disappearances, closed-door trials, harassment of relatives, travel bans, and other abuses targeting human rights lawyers.
On Tuesday 16 April 2024, ISHR delivered to both Geneva’s Administrative Council and its legislative counterpart, the Municipal Council, physical copies of the more than 1000 signatures collected in support of a memorial honouring Chinese human rights defender Cao Shunli.
13 April 2024 marked one year since the Chinese authorities arbitrarily detained prominent human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife, woman defender Xu Yan. As their health steadily deteriorates, 30 rights groups and the European Union have renewed their call for their prompt release.
Hong Kong's new national security legislation has sparked international concerns over its potential to further erode civil liberties and fundamental freedoms, and civil society engagement with the UN. ISHR calls for the repeal of this law and cease to interpret cooperation with UN bodies as a national security threat.
Despite protests from China and its allies, human rights organisations paid a public tribute to the late activist Cao Shunli during a debate at the UN Human Rights Council, ten years after her death. A victim of ‘deadly reprisals’ against her activism, Cao died in March 2014 after months of arbitrary detention in China.
