2024 Annual Conference of the Geneva Human Rights Platform

GHRP Annual Conference

Geneva Academy

Human Rights System under pressure: a reason to expand connectivity

This public event, aimed at the international community both within and beyond Geneva—including diplomats, experts, NGOs, UN agency staff, international organizations, National Human Rights Institutions, and academics—will focus on the pressing issues and challenges confronting Geneva-based actors in the field of human rights.

The human rights system is currently facing unprecedented pressure. A financial crisis threatens the functionality of UN human rights bodies, with significant implications for the work carried out by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Additionally, the deteriorating global situation is creating or intensifying human rights crises, while political support for human rights continues to wane, leading to a growing perception that the UN Human Rights System is failing to deliver on its promises in specific country contexts.

This perceived failure is particularly stark as the world recently commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights described the UDHR as a map containing “the steps that would build societies that would be more fair, more equal and therefore more resilient.” Yet, at this critical juncture, calls to 'rescue' human rights by refocusing on 'core human rights' have emerged, drawing parallels to the concept of a 'human rights réduit'—a notion wisely abandoned by Switzerland's security policy over a decade ago.

Despite the challenges, human rights remain the guiding principles that unite humanity and offer a path through the current crises, as recently emphasized by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In these turbulent times, the interconnections between human rights and various policy areas are becoming increasingly evident, including global health, internet governance and new technologies, environmental issues, and climate change.

As human rights intersect with a wide range of policy domains, the Sixth Annual Conference of the Geneva Human Rights Platform will delve into these connections. The conference aims to explore how the strength and potential of human rights can be harnessed to benefit the work of other actors, even those who may not traditionally view human rights protection as their primary mission.

The ‘Annual Conference of the Geneva Human Rights Platform’, was established in 2019 and is dedicated to the concept of connectivity in the field of human rights. Earlier conferences discussed the connectivity among UN human rights mechanisms,connectivity between regional and UN human rights mechanisms (2020) and connectivity between national human rights actors and UN human rights mechanisms (2021), the 2022 Annual Conference addressed the theme of digital connectivity while the 2023 Annual Conference addressed the connectivity between the UN policy hubs of Geneva and New York, in terms of human rights policy, and was therefore organized exceptionally in New York.

The 2024 edition will focus on the connectivity between the manifold policy areas addressed in Geneva, in their human rights dimensions. To this end, panels are co-organized with specific organizations on the human rights aspects in various policy areas.

Please register for the event with this form.

Draft Programme

Tuesday 5th November

9.15 - 9:30 Opening

• Prof. Marie-Laure Salles, Director, Geneva Graduate Institute
• H.E. Jürg Lauber, Swiss Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva
• Felix Kirchmeier, Executive Director of the GHRP

9:30 - 10:00 Keynote

• Prof. Philip Alston, John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law, NYU Law

10:00 - 11:00 Academic plenary panel - The deadlock of multilateralism – how can human rights advance different policy fields?

Moderation:

• Janet Anderson, Founder + Co-host of Asymmetrical Haircuts
• Felix Kirchmeier, Executive Director of the GHRP

Panel:

• Prof. Philip Alston, John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law, NYU Law
• Prof. Suerie Moon, Professor of Practice, Interdisciplinary Programmes and International Relations/Political Science, Geneva Graduate Institute, and Co-Director, Global Health Centre
• Prof. Jorge E. Viñuales, Harold Samuel Chair of Law and Environmental Policy at the University of Cambridge and founding Director of the Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (C-EENRG)

11:00 - 12.30 Workshops (incl. coffee break) co-organized with other ‘Geneva Platforms’

1. Human Rights in the Age of Digital Innovation: Regulating AI and technology in Smart Cities
2. Human Rights in Global Health policies
3. Human Rights in Preventing Environmental Triggers to Conflict
4. Human Rights and Sustainable Development: Advancing Monitoring and Collaboration Through Digital Tools

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch

13:30 - 15:00 High-level inter-agency panel on human rights

In this panel discussion, which closes the 2024 Annual Conference of the Geneva Human Rights Platform, high-level representatives of various UN agencies are invited to reflect upon where human rights are present in their mandates, policies and programs, and what further input and guidance they would welcome from the human rights system.

Introduction:

• Nada Al-Nashif, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, OHCHR

Panel:

• Nada Al-Nashif, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, OHCHR
• Tomas Lamanauskas, Deputy Secretary-General, ITU
• Catharina Boehme, Assistant Director-General, WHO
• Agi Veres, Director, UNDP Geneva Representation office
• Arnold Kreilhuber, Regional Director, Europe Office, UNEP

Moderation:

• Prof. Paola Gaeta, Professor of International Law at the Geneva Graduate Institute and Director of the Geneva Academy and Felix Kirchmeier, Executive Director, GHRP, Geneva Academy