© ISHR
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.
In the face of the triple planetary environmental crisis, of conflict, genocide and apartheid, of the consolidation of authoritarian ideologies and narratives around the globe, and the erosion of the rule of law and the closing of civic space, the challenges we all have to confront in the years ahead are overwhelming.
Human rights defenders work on all these issues, fighting for dignity and justice in these increasingly restrictive and violent contexts. Never have we had such a need for a robust, effective and responsive multilateral system. One that is grounded in universal human rights law and values, centre rights holders, and respond to situations based on their merits.
Yet, the integrity and credibility of the UN’s human rights system is at risk. The selectivity and double political standards that dictate action, especially on accountability for atrocity crimes, and the prevalence of some States’ own political gains over human rights standards undermine the effectiveness of the human rights mechanisms that are supposed to deliver justice. It also threatens the confidence of human rights defenders and victims in their engagement with this system.
For this to work, ISHR calls on States to:
ISHR urges all regional groups to present competitive slates for Council elections. States should ensure the practice of announcing their candidacies before or during the High-Level Segment at each March session of the Council. On a closed slate, the lack of competition all but guarantees election for all candidates, irrespective of their human rights record.
This turns the election into an appointment process that violates the spirit of the Council’s membership rules, undermining its effectiveness. Candidate States should announce and publish their voluntary pledges in a timely manner. This encourages engagement and ownership by other actors to follow up and contribute to their implementation, with the ultimate goal of improving the human rights situation on the ground.
In casting their votes, electing States should treat human rights considerations as paramount, having regard to ISHR’s scorecards. States should refuse to cast a vote in favour of any candidate responsible for grave and systematic human rights violations.
Inclusive, diverse and meaningful civil society participation is a cornerstone of the Human Rights Council, enabling voices of defenders to shape human rights practices and priorities according to needs at the national level. Yet, for the past years, a series of measures have been put in place by States which have negatively impacted opportunities for civil society to contribute to Council discussions. Such measures include reduced speaking times during interactive dialogues, the elimination of general debates from June sessions, capped NGO lists of speakers where there was previously no limitation, constraints in the organisation of side events, and reduced access to informal negotiations on resolutions.
Nevertheless, the Council and other mechanisms in Geneva have adapted and innovated in their practices, resulting in the strengthening of their work through live online interventions and pre-recorded videos, coupled with in-person interventions. These interventions are a stop-gap measure to improve diversity and accessibility by bringing defenders and victims of violations closer to the UN human rights system, in turn making the UN more relevant to rights holders. According to the Secretary General’s Guidance Note on the protection and promotion of civic space, ‘fair and transparent rules, channels and processes for participation and access to information allow civil society actors to contribute meaningfully and effectively to the work of the United Nations across its three pillars’.
Remote modalities of participation also play an important role in alleviating the heavy workloads, by allowing multiple stakeholders to engage in discussions and negotiation processes from a distance. This helps reduce disparities between delegations with different levels of resources and allows a broader diversity of actors to engage with the Council meaningfully.
We deeply regret that a number of these practices have been discontinued. In 2024, the 5th Committee of the General Assembly and its relevant subsidiary bodies in New York failed to provide the required mandate and legislative framework upon which such modalities could have been permanently adopted for the UN system, following up on the Council’s decision A/HRC/DEC/55/116. We have continuously raised concerns about the significant negative impact of the lack of provision for live online participation tools on the inclusivity and universality of all UN human rights bodies and mechanisms, including the Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review (UPR), and Treaty Bodies.
We urge States and the UN system to ensure that the necessary arrangements are put in place to allow the UN human rights bodies and mechanisms, including the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms as well as the Treaty Bodies and other mechanisms, to resume allowing for live online participation available through relevant channels in all in-person meetings, both formal and informal throughout 2025.
We also emphasise the critical need to address the removal of obstacles to in-person participation, such as addressing and reverting the practice of visa denials, particularly to HRDs from the Global South.
We urge the Council to reinstate General Debates at its June sessions, to maintain unrestricted General Debate, and to ensure that efficiency is not prioritised over effectiveness, expertise and inclusiveness, including by addressing the chronic underfunding of the UN’s human rights pillar.
Once again, we take this opportunity to call on states to address the liquidity crisis and its dire consequences on the work of the Human Rights Council and related mechanisms and to prevent the instrumentalisation of the cash flow crisis to create further restrictions on civil society participation and engagement.
The suspension of US government funding, together with announced and anticipated reductions in support from some other governments and institutional philanthropy, will greatly reduce the capacity for organisations to support human rights defenders globally, particularly to those working in restrictive environments as well as conflict contexts. The move will also greatly undermine efforts to ensure that multilateral arrangements based on human rights promotion and protection are effective and responsive.
Governments, foundations, corporations and individuals must come together to create the resources needed for the global human rights architecture to be sustainable, innovative and impactful. We particularly need medium and small States to step up investment, not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because their interests are not served where might is right.
This investment needs to be made in civil society at the national, regional and international levels, as well as in the international human rights system to which frontline defenders increasingly turn when justice and accountability are denied at the national level. The realisation of human rights will provide an unmatched return on investment.
At the 58th session of the Human Rights Council, Norway will present a draft resolution on human rights defenders and new and emerging technologies. This provides a useful and timely focus and a means to give effect to a range of obligations, including those contained in the Declaration and Declaration +25.
Together with 195 organisations, ISHR urges States to actively support the adoption of a resolution that recognises updated frameworks to protect human rights defenders in the digital era, addresses the growing risks of cybercrimes, online harassment, surveillance, and the suppression of free expression through censorship and disinformation. We also call on States to resist efforts that undermine and weaken the resolution.
At the 59th session of the Council, the Council will consider the renewal of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. ISHR urges all States to support the mandate renewal. The Council will also discuss at the 59th session the resolution on civil society space. The resolution provides an opportunity to address the limitations to civil society access and participation in decision-making processes, including at the UN. ISHR reiterates its calls on States to enable and institutionalise meaningful online participation in hybrid meetings and to establish a transparent, fair and gender-responsive accreditation process.
ISHR remains deeply concerned about reprisals against civil society actors who engage or seek to engage with UN bodies and mechanisms. We call for all States and the Council to do more to address the situation. Council debates are a key opportunity for States to raise concerns about specific cases of reprisals and demand that governments provide an update on any investigation or action taken toward accountability. An increasing number of States have raised concerns in recent sessions about individual cases of reprisals, including at HRC39, HRC41, HRC42, HRC43, HRC45, HRC51, HRC52, HRC53, HRC54, and HRC57.
States raising cases is an important aspect of ending impunity for acts of reprisal and intimidation against defenders engaging with the UN. It can also send a powerful message of solidarity to defenders, supporting and sustaining their work in repressive environments.
ISHR urges States to continue to raise cases on which ISHR has campaigned in the last three years in their statements. In addition, we urge States to raise and follow up on cases of reprisals in the country specific debates taking place at Council debates.
Systemic racism continues to put Black people all over the world in a collective situation of socio-economic and political disadvantage causing, amongst other things, physical, emotional and psychological harm, and even death at the hands of law enforcement.
As mentioned in the latest thematic report of the UN investigative mechanism on police violence against Africans and Afrodescendants, States need to establish a systemic approach in order to dismantle this systemic problem. To do so, States must examine the root causes of this intersectional violence and the laws, policies, practices and institutional cultures that stem from it.
In the context of the African Union’s year of reparations, as well as the calls for inputs from the Working Group of Experts of People of African Descent and the OHCHR four-point agenda, we call on States to put a special focus on the holistic and community-based meanings of reparations for Africans and Afrodescendants impacted by violence in the context of law enforcement; and to act in a proactive, victim-centred and locally focused manner to ensure accountability and redress.
ISHR remains deeply concerned about migration policies and practices in all regions that continue to lead to deaths, torture and other grave human rights violations at sea and at international borders.
Such policies and practices include pushbacks, excessive use of force, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, discriminatory treatment, unlawful deportation, and the criminalisation of solidarity and support, including rescues at sea, for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
Over the last decade, more than 70,000 migrants have died while in transit across international borders. These violations are rarely investigated and are overwhelmingly perpetrated both by State authorities and criminal networks with impunity. Together with over 220 civil society partners, ISHR continues to call on Council members to adopt a resolution mandating an investigative mechanism on grave violations of human rights of people in transit across international borders.
ISHR continues to see that States are not meaningfully addressing the triple planetary crisis. This has been evidenced with less ambitious targets when it comes to climate change negotiations and lack of concrete measures to transition from fossil fuels. While many States took a consistent position in promoting and advancing the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment during the hearings on the Advisory Opinion on Climate Change at the International Court of Justice hearings, too many others chose to reject and deny the existence of this right.
ISHR is also concerned that environmental human right defenders (EHRDs), indigenous peoples, peasants movements, local communities and civil society continue to be outnumbered and excluded from climate and environmental decision-making processes. This is also in a context in which EHRDs continue to be subject of harassment, intimidation and even murder.
We urge the Human Rights Council to continue addressing climate and environmental justice with a human rights perspective while safeguarding the planet, the environment and biodiversity. We also call on the States to continue advancing the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment (R2HE) while focusing on its implementation at national level and including corporate accountability at the core of the discussions. We also urge the States to continue recognising the positive, important and legitimate role played by EHRDs, including Indigenous Peoples, in the promotion and protection of the R2HE and to make a call to guarantee their meaningful participation in all climate and environment multilateral fora.
Finally, we welcome the Council’s steps to enhance the participation of Indigenous Peoples, and hope that it will further guarantee their participation during different spaces and discussions within the Council.
The objective rights-based criteria, which States from all regions have committed to apply when deciding whether a situation merits the Human Rights Council’s attention, includes several criteria relating to the situation of human rights defenders and cooperation with the Council, its mechanisms, OHCHR and treaty bodies.
Acts of intimidation and reprisals are the most flagrant type of non-cooperation. States should demonstrate leadership, principled action and sustained follow up when the objective criteria are met, paying particular attention to attacks or restrictions against human rights defenders as an early warning sign of more widespread and systematic violations.
ISHR calls on States to adopt a resolution at this 58th session to establish an independent accountability mechanism on Afghanistan. Afghan and international civil society organisations have emphasised the urgent need for a mechanism with the mandate to investigate and collect, preserve and analyse evidence of grave violations and abuses in Afghanistan, with a view to advancing accountability. Such a mechanism could be a key tool in addressing the entrenched impunity at the heart of the current crisis, advancing accountability, and supporting access to justice, truth and reparation for victims. It would be distinct and complementary to the vital mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan, and would also complement and support ongoing or future efforts at the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, and at the national level, including through the use of universal (or other form of extraterritorial) jurisdiction in the courts of third countries.
Algeria continues to restrict and harass human rights defenders for their peaceful activities. At the 58th session, the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders will present her country visit report which took place from 25 November to 5 December 2023.
ISHR urges all States to demand that Algeria, a Council member, end its crackdown on human rights defenders and civil society organisations by implementing the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur. In particular, to release all defenders arbitrarily detained, ‘amend articles in the Penal Code which relate to terrorism and undermining national unity’ and ‘articles in the Penal Code which allow for criminal sanction for “insult or contempt” of individuals, bodies or institutions’, ‘refrain from limiting human rights defenders’ freedom of movement’ and ‘abolish the use of ISTNs to limit the travel of human rights defenders abroad’.
The Council’s ongoing failure to take action on the human rights situation in China in line with the long-standing call by over 40 UN experts for the creation of a monitoring and reporting mechanism remains one of the most flagrant examples of selectivity and double standards by States. States should step up their efforts for the establishment of such a mechanism by the Human Rights Council, including by delivering a widely-endorsed joint statement at the Council and the UN General Assembly Third Committee, drawing from existing UN recommendations to China.
Since 2018, UN bodies have documented widespread and systematic human rights violations committed by the Chinese government, issuing over 100 letters by UN experts, with hundreds of recommendations compiled in an ISHR repository. The OHCHR Xinjiang report and the CERD Urgent Action decision 1(108) document possible crimes against humanity and other serious abuses in the Uyghur region; the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) listed rights abuses against Tibetan children and nomads; while the Human Rights Committee urged the repeal of Hong Kong’s National Security Law. As we mark 30 years of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) documented the harassment of women activists in China, excessive restrictions on NGOs, coercive labour schemes and residential schools for Tibetan women and girls, and forced abortions and sterilisation of Uyghur women.
UN expert recommendations, echoed by Western and Global South governments during China’s 2024 UPR review, constitute a pathway for meaningful human rights reform and an impartial benchmark to assess China’s commitment to be a ‘constructive player’ at the UN.
States should urge the UN High Commissioner to strengthen follow-up action on his Office’s Xinjiang report, including through public calls for implementation by China and an assessment of implementation by the Office. States should further urge the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect to promptly act in line with its mandate on the CERD’s historic referral of the situation in the Uyghur region.
States should ensure sustained attention at the HRC of China’s abuse of national security, widespread use of enforced disappearances, policies of cultural and religious assimilation, and other systemic rights issues affecting Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers and mainland Chinese defenders. Finally, States should ask for the prompt release of human rights defenders, including feminist activist Huang Xueqin and labour rights activist Wang Jianbing, Martin Ennals Award laureate Yu Wensheng, lawyer Ding Jiaxi and legal scholar Xu Zhiyong, citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, Uyghur doctor Gulshan Abbas, Hong Kong lawyer Chow Hang-tung, and Tibetan climate activist A-nya Sengdra.
On 28 January 2025, Egypt’s fourth UPR took place after ‘a week of warnings from Egyptian civil society of a new wave of repression and an intensification of the security campaign against civil society and fundamental rights in the country’.
On 19 January, the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) charged the executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), Hossam Bahgat, with involvement with and financing a terrorist group and publishing false news. The latest retaliation against EIPR comes after Bahgat participated as a panelist in the UPR pre-session in Geneva in November 2024.
During Egypt’s UPR, the Egyptian authorities yet again refused to demonstrate political will to acknowledge and address the mounting human rights crisis. Thousands of individuals remain arbitrarily detained in Egypt solely for exercising their human rights and following proceedings violating fair trial rights or without legal basis. For example, Alaa Abdel Fattah remains in detention despite finishing his sentence. His mother Laila Soueif, has been on hunger strike since 29 September 2024, in protest of her son’s continued imprisonment. Despite her unjust sentence expiring, woman human rights defender Hoda Abdel Moneim remains in detention through the practice of ‘rotation’ and woman human rights defender Aisha al-Shater, who was tried in the same case with Abdel Moneim, remains arbitrarily detained, while HRD Ibrahim Metwally remains arbitrarily detained without trial for over four years.
ISHR reiterates the calls of more than 100 NGOs from around the world in urging the Council to create a monitoring and reporting mechanism on the ever-deteriorating human rights situation in Egypt.
The situation for human rights defenders in Guatemala remains grave. Since 2021, some 80 Guatemalans – defenders, judicial operators and judges – have been forced into exile after judicial processes that amount to criminalisation, according to OMCT-FIDH.
During their visit to Guatemala in July 2024, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) highlighted the effect of ongoing impunity and corruption in the country, and the instrumentalisation of the justice system.
The NGO and watchdog UDEFEGUA has noted a sharp increase in attacks against human rights defenders from 2022 to 2023 (3,574 to 9,496) as well as in killings of defenders. Guatemala has indicated plans to develop and implement a series of human rights policies, plans and guidance over the next couple of years, for example a public policy for the protection of human rights defenders.
States should use all opportunities to encourage Guatemala in these efforts aligned along international standards, while continuing to press Guatemala to prevent attacks against defenders including by addressing underlying causes including impunity and the lack of judicial independence.
ISHR calls on States to ensure adequate attention is given at the international stage to the crisis in Haiti. We demand States to support civil society´s call for reparations from nations complicit in Haiti’s political and economic destabilisation as well as protecting Haiti’s right to govern independently, ensuring constitutional reforms are Haitian-led rather than solely relying on foreign interventions. In addition, we call for an investigation into international missions including clear benchmarks, full transparency and expiration dates if no measurable progress is achieved.
In regard to migration, we call on States to uphold the principle of non-refoulement, halt deportations, while protecting and integrating Haitian migrants until stability in Haiti is achieved. In addition, States need to address the externalization of Global North borders and its impact on neighboring States and consequently on all people in transit.
ISHR calls on States to address the root causes as identified by UN experts and the ICJ, including settler-colonialism and apartheid, and to adopt effective measures, including an arms embargo on Israel, economic sanctions and suspension of trade relations, taking measures against businesses contributing to genocide, and implement urgent accountability measures, in addition to supporting the ongoing investigation by the ICC and the proceedings by the ICJ, and to put an end to decades of Israeli impunity for atrocity crimes against the Palestinian people.
The situation in the occupied territory of Western Sahara has significantly deteriorated in 2024. The lack of independent UN monitoring mechanisms has enabled Morocco to intensify its repressive policies while systematically denying access to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN Special Procedures since 2015.
These violations include arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearances, racial and economic discrimination, suppression of fundamental freedoms, and the plundering of natural resources.
The detention of the Gdeim Izik group remains a striking example of systematic persecution, with these individuals facing prolonged imprisonment under inhumane conditions despite the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention classifying their imprisonment as unlawful. Political prisoners such as Mohamed Lamin Haddi and Abdel Jalil Laaroussi continue to face deliberate denial of medical care, placing their lives at risk. In various decisions, the UN Committee against Torture has held Morocco accountable for its widespread use of torture and ill-treatment. Women human rights defenders have been particularly targeted, facing both physical violence and gender-based harassment.
In addition, the large-scale extraction of resources, particularly in the Dakhla region, has further displaced the Sahrawi people while disproportionately benefiting Moroccan settlers and multinational corporations. The depletion of fisheries and over-extraction of groundwater resources have had devastating environmental and economic consequences for the Saharawi people.
We urge States to call on Morocco to put an end to its crackdown on civil society, particularly Sahrawi human rights defenders in the occupied territory, ensure they are able to conduct their human rights work, and provide access to occupied Western Sahara to human rights bodies, including OHCHR, UN Special Procedures, and human rights organisations.
We also call on the Moroccan authorities to unconditionally release of Saharawi political prisoners, including those arbitrarily detained for their activism and put an end to the illegal economic exploitation of Western Sahara’s resources, with penalties for corporations complicit in human rights abuses.
The human rights situation in Nicaragua continues to deteriorate. According to the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights’ latest update in December 2024, ‘a severe, repressive climate reigns’ with new ‘[constitutional] reforms aimed at concentrating more power in the Presidency and criminalizing dissenting voices.’ The constitutional reform ‘strengthens the Government’s powers to strip individuals of citizenship and confiscate assets – already a widely used tool of arbitrary repression against government critics and dissidents.’ According to OHCHR, over 500 Nicaraguans have been stripped of their nationality, many of whom are currently stateless, including 135 individuals expelled to Guatemala in September 2024.
The Government of Nicaragua continues to oppose any form of constructive engagement with the Council-mandated Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (GHREN), the OHCHR or other UN human rights bodies, after it decided to disengage or oppose all treaty body reviews since 2021.
Jointly with members of the Colectivo 46/2 coalition, ISHR calls on the Human Rights Council to adopt a robust resolution on Nicaragua, renewing the mandates of the OHCHR and the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (GHREN) for a period of two years, strengthening their thematic reporting in Geneva and the UN General Assembly Third Committee in New York.
States should echo OHCHR’s calls for the immediate release of all those arbitrarily detained, including human rights defenders, an end to enforced disappearance, torture and ill-treatment, and the prevention and investigation of violence by settlers against Indigenous communities, including sexual violence.
States should further address the economic and financial pillars underpinning the Government’s repression, including the responsibility of International Financial Institutions and multilateral funds (including the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, the Global Environment Facility and the Green Climate Fund) as well as of mining companies in relation to human rights abuses, in particular against Indigenous Peoples.
Almost three years on from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces continue to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity. In recent months Russia has intensified attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, including energy plants, health care facilities and schools.
These attacks cause widespread harm and suffering to millions of civilians. In January 2025, the UN Human Rights Office reported on widespread summary executions of Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war, as well as torture, ill-treatment and systematic sexual violence. The Office also documented reports of the torture and ill-treatment of Russian prisoners of war.
Meanwhile, in Russia itself, UN experts have condemned the criminalisation, arbitrary detention and ill-treatment of human rights defenders, peace activists, independent journalists and political dissidents. It is vital that the Council continue to mandate mechanisms to investigate violations, promote accountability, support victims, and address root causes, with clear evidence of an association between repression at home and aggression abroad.
At the March session of the Council, States should renew the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry, the work of which is essential to pursue accountability for atrocity crimes. At the September session of the Council, States should support renewal of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Russia, the work of whom ensures that, despite Russia’s repressive and authoritarian efforts, the international community has access to expert information and analysis regarding the human rights situation on the ground.
Under the increasingly self-confident leadership of its rulers, worrying rights trends persist in Saudi Arabia, including, but not limited to: escalating use of the death penalty, with a record number of at least 345 individuals executed in 2024, many for non-violent drug-related charges; the relentless suppression of free speech, with the courts continuing to hand down decades-long sentences on peaceful activists and others for exercising the right of free speech; and abuses in prison through negligence, enforced disappearance and denial of health care.
Meanwhile, those who have been released often continue to face strict conditions, including court-imposed or unofficial travel bans. In October 2024, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) expressed concern about continued discrimination against women in law and practice. And given the prevalence of labour rights violations, the prospect of the 2034 men’s World Cup raises serious risks of large-scale labour exploitation, as well as other abuses such as forcible evictions.
Amid a lack of transparency in the country, ALQST and ISHR reiterate calls on the Council to adopt a resolution mandating an independent international monitoring and investigative mechanism to address the human rights violations perpetrated in and by Saudi Arabia.
The international community must uphold their commitments towards, and responsibility to protect, civilians by taking urgent measures to ensure access for necessary and life-saving humanitarian aid.
The situation in South Kordofan region is deteriorating further on a daily basis, which will lead to another catastrophic crisis in the Southern parts of Sudan and expand the war to new areas. ISHR calls on States to urge the fighting parties to cease hostilities, protect civilians, end all forms of attacks that target specific ethnic groups in Aljazeera Darfur, Khartoum and other conflict areas, protect humanitarian workers,implement international humanitarian law, ensuring the restoration of telecommunications and open safe channels for humanitarian aid to reach civilians.
ISHR also calls on States to renew the mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan at the 60th session, and to support the implementation of the Mission’s recommendations including expansion of ICC jurisdiction to all conflict regions in Sudan following the war of April 2023, emphasising the need for justice and accountability for the millions of Sudanese awaiting justice.
UN human rights mechanisms have played a key role in bringing to the fore the humanitarian and human rights crises in Venezuela over many years and over the previous five in particular, through the work of the UN’s Fact-Finding Mission.
The Human Rights Council’s monitoring and reporting schedule for the Fact-Finding Mission and for OHCHR, continues under their current mandates until September 2026. With upcoming parliamentary elections, planned for 27 April, as well as elections for some governorships, mayoralties and posts as local councillors, risks are high that the party of President Nicolás Maduro will consolidate its power across the country.
ISHR urges States to continue to call for fair elections and the respect of popular sovereignty. In addition, they should demand an immediate end to repression in the country, including the specific practice of forced disappearances – a call around which all States should rally.
Repression in Venezuela is aimed at terrifying and silencing real and perceived opposition. Those targeted include human rights defenders working to demand accountability and justice, including for those millions of Venezuelans directly affected by the humanitarian crisis in the country.
This crisis, which involves mass violations of economic and social rights, has left millions in poverty and led to mass migration. The crisis is the result of government policy, corruption and repression and exacerbated by sectoral sanctions. It must be addressed urgently. States should urge and encourage the government in this direction during relevant Human Rights Council interactive dialogues this year.
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 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.
