Last week the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association presented his report to the Third Committee of the General Assembly urging states and private sector to respect the exercise of human rights of those mobilising peacefully to address the climate crisis.
Yesterday, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders presented her report at the General Assembly's Third Committee on the long-term detention of human rights defenders.
Today, UN member States elected members to the UN's top human rights body, the Human Rights Council, for the 2022-2024 term. 18 candidates ran for 18 seats, and all were elected, leaving civil society disappointed in a process that can hardly be called an election.
On 14 October 2021, the UK delivered a cross-regional statement on behalf of 80 countries, condemning intimidation and reprisals, and calling on States to prioritise and support the meaningful participation of civil society at the UN.
Futures thinking encourages us to identify small ‘signals of change’ which might help to identify and influence the futures that come to pass. At ISHR we’ve identified and, together with advocates and activists from around the world, helped contribute to a number of small but significant signals of positive human rights change in recent weeks.
ISHR together with 36 NGOs from around the world have called on member States of the UN General Assembly to sign on to a cross-regional joint statement on reprisals at the 76th session of the UNGA Third Committee.
At the Third Committee of the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly, 61 States condemned the exclusion of civil society and suggested concrete measures to address the situation in a welcome joint statement led by Costa Rica and Denmark.
Today, the UN General Assembly’s principal human rights committee — the Third Committee — kicked off its deliberations. This year’s session will run for seven weeks from 30 September to 19 November 2021. The Committee will be chaired by Ambassador Mohamed Siad Doualeh (Djibouti).
This week in an online event, 10 candidate States publicly spoke to an audience of around 200 people on their pledges as incoming Human Rights Council members for 2022 – 2024. They also faced questions on pressing human rights issues from both States and civil society organisations.
In the face of inaction by the Security Council in response to mass atrocities in Syria, Myanmar and China, it is incumbent on States to explore and take action at the General Assembly, write Rebecca Barber and Alex Bellamy.
