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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.

‘There is currently no law to protect human rights defenders in Madagascar. We need this law to pass. The army and the gendarmes must be trained to understand who we are so they can become our allies.'

On 4 May 2025, on the sidelines of the 83rd Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) in Banjul, ISHR officially launched its new report on the situation of human rights defenders in the African island states: Cape Verde, Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Seychelles.

Our new report sheds light on the lived realities of defenders in six often-overlooked countries: Cape Verde, Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Sao Tome and Principe, and Seychelles. One thing is clear: human rights defenders in these countries are active, courageous, and committed to building more inclusive and just societies.

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.

The UN Human Rights Council has extended the mandate of the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua for two years, doing so with a larger majority compared to the body’s 2023 renewal, and including a reporting mechanism to the UN General Assembly in New York.

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.

In 2024, national, regional, and international courts took action to protect and recognise the rights of human rights defenders. In this article, we explore some of the key cases that have shaped the legal landscape for those advocating for human rights.

At the end of the Forum, there was one clear message: voluntary commitments are not enough to guarantee corporate accountability, States need to regulate business with binding rules to comprehensively address the human rights abuses committed by businesses.