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The 59th session of the UN Human Rights Council (16 June to 9 July 2025) will consider issues including civil society space, climate change, sexual orientation and gender identity, violence and discrimination against women and girls, poverty, peaceful assembly and association, and freedom of expression, among others. It will also present an opportunity to address grave human rights situations including in Afghanistan, Belarus, China, Eritrea, Israel and oPt, Sudan, Syria and Venezuela, among many others. Here’s an overview of some of the key issues on the agenda.

Over 20 NGOs demand the immediate and unconditional release of Ibrahim Metwally, detained solely for peacefully exercising his human rights.

ISHR and ten other civil society organisations denounce the arbitrary arrests of Eduardo Torres and other human rights defenders, as well as the increase in attacks on civic space and Venezuelan NGOs.

'What we need first is peace. (...) The international community, the UN, has the ability to end what's happening in eastern RDC - what is happening today in the East is truly alarming.'

On 22 May, the African Commission concluded its 83rd ordinary session, which saw the State periodic reviews of Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, panels on the repression of human rights defenders, the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and reparations for Africans and people of African descent, as well as the launch of ISHR’s report on the situation of defenders in African island States and a new e-learning module on the Commission.

During the 83rd Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), a high-level panel discussion was held on advancing justice for Africans and people of African descent through reparations.

At the 83rd ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Commission, or ACHPR), the African Commission reviewed Ethiopia under the State reporting procedure, as per article 62 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. We call on Ethiopia to do more to protect human rights defenders in the country.

As part of the 83rd session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Commissioner Salma Sassi presented the African Commission’s papers on the state of cooperation with national human rights institutions and non-governmental organisations.

During the 83rd Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), the Republic of Zimbabwe presented its 16th Periodic Report, covering the period 2019 to 2023, which highlighted several institutional and legislative reforms.