© UN Photo / Jean Marc Ferré
At the 58th Human Rights Council session, civil society organisations share reflections on key outcomes and highlight gaps in addressing crucial issues and situations. Full written version below.
We welcome the substantive resolution on human rights defenders and new and emerging technologies. The resolution considers the needs expressed by human rights defenders during the consultative process leading to its negotiation and approval. It crucially covers new grounds and further develops States’ obligations to protect human rights defenders in the digital age. We especially welcome the reference to the Declaration +25. We regret that the reference to transnational repression was removed in the Rev1. While we welcome the reference to types of transnational repression referred to in the resolution, we stress that transnational repression is not only actions taken by a State but also its proxies, to deter, silence or punish those engaged in dissent, critique or human rights advocacy from abroad in relation to that State. Transnational repression includes acts targeted directly against human rights defenders, journalists or activists, as well as acts targeting them indirectly by threatening their families, representatives or associates. Particularly vulnerable are nationals or former nationals, members of diaspora communities and those living in exile. We further welcome the resolution’s calls on States to refrain from biometric mass surveillance and to refrain from or cease the use or transfer of new and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence applications and spyware, where they are impossible to operate in compliance with international human rights law. We are pleased that OHCHR is mandated to convene three regional workshops and a report to assess risks created by digital technologies to human rights defenders and best practices to respond to these concerns. We deeply regret the lack of explicit recognition of the positive role of child human rights defenders (CHRDs) in promoting human rights and fostering change in societies, including their active role in the digital space, and of the specific challenges and risks they face because of their age and their civic engagement, as highlighted by the Special Rapporteur in her 2024 report. The resolution fell short of reaffirming States commitments from UNGA A/RES/78/216, to enhance protection measures for CHRDs and to provide a safe, enabling and empowering environment for children and young people online and offline. We regret efforts by some States to undermine and weaken the resolution through the amendments presented.
We remain concerned about the increased obstacles to meaningful civil society access and participation in Human Rights Council sessions. Unprecedented funding restrictions have severely compromised the work of human rights defenders and organisations around the globe [who couldn’t attend this session due to the funding freeze]. Increased visa denials, including on grounds of gender and economic status, are discriminatory and should be urgently reviewed by all European members and associated States, in line with the recent updates of the EU Visa Code and the guidelines on the provision of visas for human rights defenders. Side events are an essential part of Council sessions. UNOG’s decision to charge for access to interpretation booths – on top of increasing the costs for remote participation in side events and informals compromises meaningful civil society engagement and limits their reach and their relevance to rights holders. Exactly one year ago, this Council recognised the clear benefits of remote participation and its value to all stakeholders through decision 55/116. However, discussions in the General Assembly have lost momentum due to politicisation. We urge all States to follow up with their counterparts in New York and to ensure that negotiations progress, adopting a much-needed decision that secures remote participation in the Human Rights Council for all.
We welcome the adoption by consensus of the resolution establishing an intergovernmental working group to elaborate a legally binding instrument on the promotion and protection of the human rights of older persons. This step advances development and adoption of a coherent, comprehensive and integrated framework for the human rights of older persons, and includes the important call for the meaningful participation and engagement of older persons and their representative organisations to express their views on the topic and substance of the proposed international legally binding instrument.
We welcome the adoption by consensus of the resolution on the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. This resolution reaffirms that the protection and preservation of the ocean are crucial for the full enjoyment of human rights for all. We also welcome the reference to the recent ITLOS advisory opinion and the strong call to all the States to use the precautionary principle for the effective protection of marine and coastal ecosystems. Importantly, the resolution encourages States to consider the right to a healthy environment in the upcoming UN Ocean Conference. This resolution also expressly recognises the positive, important and legitimate work of environmental human rights defenders, including the responsibility of businesses to respect the rights of defenders in accordance with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We regret, however, that this resolution missed an opportunity to include language on the need to phase out fossil fuels and the prohibition of deep sea mining in the Ocean.
We also welcome the statement made by a cross regional group of States who reiterated the need to step up the Council’s efforts to better protect and empower environmental human rights defenders as well as ensuring their safe and meaningful participation in international environmental fora.
We welcome the joint statement on the importance of multilateral human rights cooperation. As international human rights law and institutions face unprecedented erosion, we welcome the initiative of the Netherlands, Albania, Chile and Kyrgyzstan to bring together over 70 States from across all world regions to recommit to human rights, the international rule of law, and multilateral cooperation. A renewed commitment and increased financial and political investment in human rights and multilateralism is essential to peace, justice, and sustainable and inclusive development at the national and global levels.
We welcome the adoption by consensus of the resolution on economic, social and cultural rights which this year focuses on the importance of development financing in fulfilling these rights. The resolution addresses for the first time key issues in global economic debates, such as international tax cooperation, debt, public services, and climate finance. It identifies how human rights should underpin the reform of the international financial architecture and recognises the importance of ensuring that “public and foreign debt do not impede States’ abilities to meet their obligations to respect, protect and fulfil human rights”. The broad engagement by States during the negotiation and its adoption by consensus show the topic’s importance and the capacity of States to come together to build common language on human rights and economic justice amidst global geopolitical tensions.
We welcome the renewal of the resolution on the right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), led by the EU, and the much-anticipated return of Resolution 16/18 on Countering Religious Hatred led by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. We hope these dual Resolutions continue to provide the basis for promoting an inclusive understanding of the Right to FoRB – which resists instrumentalisation – and encourage States to continue developing these thematic agendas, including with the reinvigoration of the Istanbul Process.
We welcome the adoption of the resolution extending the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism for a period of three years. However we regret that the Council failed to enhance his/her engagement in relevant intergovernmental processes on counter-terrorism and human rights, particularly as a member entity of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact and to provide technical advice to the periodic review of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, in conformity with the mandate, particularly subparagraphs 2(e) and 2(f) of Human Rights Council resolution 15/15.
We welcome the adoption of a new resolution on the human rights situation in Belarus, ensuring a new mandate for both the Special Rapporteur, and the Group of Independent Experts. The resolution rightly highlights the continued deterioration in the human rights situation in Belarus, as well as the increasing acts of transnational repression carried out by the authorities against Belarusians forced into exile. It also draws welcome attention to the complementary process happening at the ILO under Article 33 of the ILO Convention.
We welcome the adoption by consensus of the resolution on the human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) which renews the mandates of the Special Rapporteur and the OHCHR. It condemns the long-standing and ongoing systematic,widespread and gross human rights violations and other human rights abuses committed in the DPRK and calls on the government to institute comprehensive reforms, end all abuses and ensure accountability.
We welcome the adoption of a resolution broadening the mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission on Iran to allow it to investigate any recent or ongoing violations and crimes against humanity, beyond the repression of the Women, Life, Freedom movement. The expanded mandate is a glimmer of hope for victims, survivors and families seeking truth and justice for their loved ones, that their testimonies can be heard, that perpetrators are under watch and that these investigations might lead to judicial proceedings and an end to systemic impunity for gross violations of human rights in Iran. The resolution also renewed the mandate of the Special Rapporteur for another year, emphasising the need for a holistic approach, including reporting, intervening urgently, investigating, carrying out legal analysis and identifying those responsible to ensure real prospects for human rights, justice, truth and reparation in Iran.
We welcome the resolution on the human rights situation in Myanmar. Its consensus adoption signals global condemnation of the Myanmar military and an unequivocal demand to end its escalating violence against those resisting its attempts to take power in the country. However, the rising civilian death toll, mass displacement, and destruction of vital infrastructure—worsened by the 28 March earthquake—underscore the urgent need for action. The international community must turn its consensus into concrete measures: scaling up humanitarian aid, cutting the military’s access to weapons, jet fuel, and resources, and ensuring accountability for all perpetrators to end the ongoing conflict and impunity.
We welcome the two-year renewal of the mandates of the OHCHR and the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (GHREN). Condemning Nicaragua’s withdrawal from the Human Rights Council, the ILO, the FAO and IOM, the resolution mandates the GHREN to present its findings annually to the UN General Assembly in New York. We also welcome the resolution’s urgent calls on Nicaragua to address deportation and other ongoing crimes against humanity, transnational repression, deprivation of nationality and statelessness, and human rights violations targeting political prisoners, human rights defenders, and Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendants.
Regarding the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the continued innaction of States in the face of genocide and other grave breaches and violations, including forcible transfer and starvation, is yet another proof of complicity. The ICJ, the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) and experts continue to address crimes committed by Israel in the context of decades of colonial apartheid and the failure of States to comply with their obligations under international law. In line with resolution A/HRC/58/L.30/Rev.1 [A/HRC/RES/58/2], the UNGA should build on the work of the Council and establish a mechanism to support effective accountability and redress, including by assisting “in the investigation and prosecution of persons responsible for the most serious crimes under international law”.
We welcome the adoption of a strong resolution on the human rights situation in South Sudan, which extends the mandate of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan (CHRSS). We regret, however, that the Council chose a one-year, and not a two-year, extension. As the country faces a significant risk of relapse into large-scale civil war, the Council should stand ready to respond to any developments in the country, including through a special session.
We welcome the extension of the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Syria within the current resolution, which was adopted by consensus for the first time and tabled under Item 4 as requested by civil society. However, we regret the misleading characterisation of violations on the Syrian coast as “alleged crimes that appear to have occurred in retaliation.” The term “retaliation” fails to convey the gravity of the crimes committed and risks shifting blame onto the victims. This language also contradicts the OHCHR statement of 11 March 2025, which more accurately described the situation as “allegations of summary executions which appear to have occurred on a sectarian basis.”
We welcome the adoption of a new resolution on Ukraine, re-mandating the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI), even as the COI struggles with resources within the ongoing liquidity crisis, and particularly as the challenge of accountability in Ukraine remains enormous. The new resolution gives additional attention to the huge challenges faced by children in the occupied territories as Russia furthers its child-focused campaign of forced russification, indoctrination and militarisation across all Ukraine’s occupied territories.
We welcome the joint statement on Afghanistan by a cross-regional group of States led by Iceland, with support from Chile and South Africa, urging the Council to take action to advance accountability in Afghanistan. It calls for an independent investigative mechanism with a comprehensive mandate and broad scope to support criminal accountability—echoing four years of unheeded demands from Afghan and international civil society. The Council must act urgently to address the crisis, ensure accountability for all violations, and prevent future abuses.
We regret the Council’s failure to act on the serious and systematic violations reported by the OHCHR fact-finding mission to Bangladesh, some of which may amount to crimes against humanity and implicate top officials of the deposed government. The failure to initiate a Council mandate at this critical juncture—amid political uncertainty—is a missed opportunity to drive genuine and meaningful reforms, and provide much needed stability and international support for reform efforts.
We continue to deplore this Council’s exceptionalism towards serious human rights violations in China committed by the government. We further deplore the complicity of other governments, including Thailand through its deportation of 40 Uyghurs to China in violation of non-refoulement obligations. On 17 August 2024, the OHCHR stressed that ‘many problematic laws and policies’ documented in its Xinjiang report remain in place, that abuses remain to be investigated, and that reprisals and lack of information hinder human rights monitoring. In his global update to this Council session, High Commissioner Türk underscored that the recent report by ILO experts on counterterrorism measures and labour programmes in the Uyghu region (Xinjiang) ‘reinforce our own grave concerns and the urgency of addressing our long standing recommendations.’ It is imperative that the Council take action commensurate with the gravity of UN findings, such as by establishing a monitoring and reporting mechanism on China as repeatedly urged by over 40 UN experts since 2020. We urge China to genuinely engage with the UN human rights system to enact meaningful reform, and ensure all individuals and peoples enjoy their human rights, on the basis of recommendations from the OHCHR Xinjiang report, UN Treaty Bodies, and UN Special Procedures.
The human rights situation in Egypt is worse than at any point in its modern history and continues to deteriorate. Brutal, widespread and systematic violations of fundamental human rights are utilised to silence criticism of a highly corrupt, autocratic government. In this regard, it is critical that UN member States begin to more actively use the Council in the coming period to address the worsening rights crises in Egypt and provide protection for civil society and rights defenders within the country.
Signatories:
ISHR and its partners call for a transparent and merits-based selection of UN independent experts – one that considers diversity, lived experience, independence, and geographic balance.
On 9-10 April, ISHR coorganised a consultation meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, in partnership with the Southern African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD), to revitalise the process towards the adoption of a national law to promote and protect defenders.
The 83rd Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) will be held in Banjul, The Gambia, from 2 to 22 May 2025. The session will be preceded by the NGO Forum, which will be held in hybrid format from 28 to 30 April.
