Are you a human rights defender working on democratic backsliding and/or racial justice, keen to use the UN to push for change at home? If so, apply for the 2026 edition of ISHR’s flagship training, the Human Rights Defender Advocacy Programme (HRDAP)!
UN experts report at least 150 defenders, dissidents, members of marginalised groups, and family members targeted by violence, refoulement, legal harassment, and intimidation in cases linked to China and several Southeast Asian States.
'I would like to see mining projects, small scale mining for example and hydro power projects or water works that are led by the community and are not proposed by big companies and foreign entities that enter our ancestral lands,' says Casselle Ton in an interview with ISHR.
In a first-of-its-kind investigation into the closed-door negotiations of the UN’s budget in New York, ISHR uncovers how a small group of States - led by China and Russia - have coordinated efforts to block and slash funding for the UN’s human rights work through political manoeuvring and influence. At a moment of sweeping UN reform and financial crisis, these efforts - compounded by the US failure to pay their UN membership fees and outstanding debts - pose an existential threat to the UN’s human rights system.
Three years after the UN Human Rights Office found that human rights violations in the Uyghur region (Xinjiang) may amount to crimes against humanity, the High Commissioner admits little progress while civil society warns the Council’s credibility is at stake.
Sixteen activists completed the Human Rights Defender Advocacy Programme in Geneva to strengthen their advocacy skills. During the programme, they called for reforms to the UN human rights system, and helped secure the renewal of the expert mandate on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Ten years after the infamous ‘709 Crackdown’, Chinese authorities continue to target human rights lawyers and their relatives with detention, disbarment and harassment. Civil society worldwide joins hands to mark the crackdown’s tenth anniversary and renew calls for accountability.
ISHR has published ‘scorecards’ for States seeking election to the UN Human Rights Council for 2026-2028 to help inform voting States’ decisions in the upcoming election.
In a statement at an interactive dialogue on the annual report of the High Commissioner, ISHR Executive Director Phil Lynch called on States to support the work of defenders and to pay their UN dues.
63 press freedom and human rights NGOs strongly condemn the Chinese government's ongoing arbitrary detention of journalist, human rights defender and former lawyer Zhang Zhan, on the 5th anniversary of her arrest.
