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.
The UN human rights pillar faces a critical funding crisis, with chronic underfunding and delayed contributions from major member states severely undermining its ability to fulfill its mandates; this page offers essential insights into UN budget mechanics, details on human rights funding challenges, and a collection of ISHR's reports, submissions, and articles advocating for sustainable financial support.
The UN human rights system has long protected us all. But now, to respond to the crises of our times, States must defend, strengthen and scale it up. Follow our campaign to find out how! #ScaleUpHumanRights
ISHR has followed the UN80 Initiative and has advocated for this reform process to align with human rights defenders' needs. This page compiles a series of documents to understand what the UN80 Initiative is and what it means for the UN human rights mechanisms, and to help human rights defenders working at national and regional levels to engage with it.
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.
Decriminalisation is a human rights imperative. But what happens when a new international initiative is pursued without the communities most affected helping to shape the strategy?
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.
‘It’s important that those who work on [human rights] are able to not become frustrated when things don’t go our way. That we have the energy to carry on, to understand that we are a part of something bigger.’
