The highest human rights court in Latin America delivered its landmark 300-page Advisory Opinion on the Climate Emergency and Human Rights, reaffirming the right to defend the environment and the obligation to protect those who defend it.
At the June 2025 consultations on the Binding Treaty, civil society criticised the lack of hybrid participation, debated due diligence and strong defender protections, and urged inclusion of gender, environmental, and Indigenous rights.
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.
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 intersessional consultations for the legally binding instrument on transnational corporations and human rights, discussions focused on victims’ rights, protection measures, and access to remedy. ISHR called on States to center defender protections in the treaty, urging strong safeguards against reprisals and recognition of the right to defend rights.
From 7-10 April, the Latin American and Caribbean Forum on Environmental Human Rights Defenders brought together environmental defenders, Indigenous Peoples, civil society, and government representatives in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis.
In a joint statement, UJSARIO and ISHR stressed the failure of the international community to uphold its commitments to decolonisation and human rights as the occupation of Western Sahara and systematic oppression of the Saharawi people by Morocco continue. They urged the Council to take action.
In a statement during the Human Rights Council's 58th session, Sri Lankan environmental defender Melani Gunathilaka spoke of the human rights impacts that debt-driven economic policies have had in Sri Lanka.
At an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, Doris Ramírez, a fisherwoman from Guatemala raised concerns about the consequences business activities have had on marine biodiversity in Guatemala.
ISHR co-organised a side event on the protection of human rights defenders against new and emerging forms of technology-facilitated rights violations on the margins of the 58th session of the Human Rights Council.
