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In a joint statement published today, 21 civil society organisations - including ISHR - called for the renewal of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela.

Current efforts to achieve ‘efficiency’ across the UN in the wake of the organisation’s financial crisis have resulted in a reduction in both reporting expectations and available resources for Special Procedures mandates.

Ahead of the expected release of feminist journalist and prominent #MeToo activist Sophia Huang Xueqin on 18 September, ISHR and 59 other civil society organisations urge Chinese authorities to ensure her release and guarantee that she can exercise her human rights without surveillance, harassment, retaliation or other arbitrary restrictions.

State candidates to the Human Rights Council presented their pledges and responded to questions by civil society and other stakeholders on their human rights records, while elaborating on their vision to improve the work of the Council at ISHR’s and Amnesty International’s 16th annual event.

This briefing highlights ISHR’s key priorities at HRC63, including safeguarding Special Procedures reporting, addressing reprisals and transnational repression, upholding the universality of the Universal Periodic Review, and advancing environmental and racial justice. It also identifies country situations requiring principled scrutiny and action, including Afghanistan, China, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Sudan, Venezuela, Western Sahara and the United States. Particular attention is needed to renew key investigative and monitoring mandates on Sudan and Venezuela and to ensure meaningful civil society participation throughout the session.

The UN Committee against Torture has found that Morocco violated the Convention Against Torture in the case of Abdelmoula El Hafidi, a Sahrawi human rights defender who was subjected to degrading detention conditions.

ISHR has urged UN human rights experts on freedom of assembly and torture to publicly address the unlawful use of metallic pellet guns by India’s law enforcement against protestors taking part in the peaceful ‘Sansad Chalo’ protest organised by the Cockroach Janta Party on 20 July 2026.

The granting of bail to Kashmiri human rights defenders Khurram Parvez and Irfan Mehraj marks an important step after years of arbitrary and unlawful detention, but it does not end the serious concerns surrounding their cases.

On 22 June 2026, India’s Ministry of Home Affairs adopted the 'Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Rules', granting the Indian government sweeping new powers to police the activities, operation, management and leadership of non-governmental organisations receiving foreign funding.

ISHR is deeply concerned by the deteriorating health of Sahrawi human rights defender Naâma Asfari, who has been on an indefinite hunger strike since 8 June while detained in Kénitra prison, in Morocco.

While they acknowledged the interlinkages between human rights, peace and security, and the importance of adequate and sustainable financing of the Human Rights Council, UN Member States decided to maintain the Council’s position as a subsidiary body of the General Assembly.

DefendDefenders, Front Line Defenders and ISHR are organising an in-person training to equip African defenders with the knowledge and skills to integrate the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights into their existing work at the national level in a strategic manner.