Event information

13 May 2020, 15:00-16:30

From Crisis to Opportunity: How to Build Back Better?

Right On

As the international community begins planning for a post-pandemic recovery, more and more emphasis is placed on the urgent need to ‘build back better’ and draw lessons from the Covid-19 crisis to help build a more just, equitable, greener and more peaceful world. This message of hope and opportunity has been echoed by the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who urged the member states to ‘turn the recovery into a real opportunity to do things right for the future.’

But what does this mean in practice? Can we take advantage of this window of opportunity to change the old ways? What is the interplay between social, economic, environmental and other reforms that need to be considered by state recovery strategies from the outset?

To find some of the answers to these questions, join us for the sixth Right On web chat!

Moderator

  • Marc Limon, Executive Director, URG

Panelists

  • David R. Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment and Associate Professor of Law, Policy, and Sustainability, University of British Columbia
  • Elizabeth O’Casey, Director of Advocacy, Humanists International’s Delegation to the UN in Geneva

Registration

To join the discussion, you need to register here.

‘Right On’: The Wednesday Web Chat

‘Right On’ is a new digital initiative – co-organized by the Geneva Academy, the Geneva Human Rights Platform, the Geneva Internet Platform, the DiploFoundation, the Universal Right Group, the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex, as well as the Permanent Missions of Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands to the United Nations in Geneva  –  that will keep the human rights dialogue going during these COVID-19 times.

Every Wednesday at 15:00, experts and practitioners will discuss key human rights issues related to the current health crisis.

Video

Right On: From Crisis to Opportunity: How to Build Back Better?

In this online event of the ‘Right On’ digital initiative, panelists discussed the post-pandemic recovery and how to draw lessons from the Covid-19 crisis to help build a more just, equitable, greener and more peaceful world.

Right On Partners Updated

MORE ON THIS THEMATIC AREA

GHRP in Davos News

AI and Human Rights in the Intelligent Age: GHRP in Davos

3 February 2025

The Geneva Human Rights Platform contributed to key discussions on AI, human rights, and sustainable digital governance at the World Economic Forum 2025.

Read more

GHRP Annual Conference 2024 News

GHRP Annual Conference 2024 Strengthens Connectivity in a Pressured Human Rights System

25 November 2024

The 2024 Annual Conference of the Geneva Human Rights Platform (GHRP), held on 5 November at Maison de la Paix, focused on the theme Human Rights System Under Pressure: A Reason to Expand Connectivity.

Read more

Training

Human Rights and the Environment: Introducing Legal Regimes and Key Issues

1-8 September 2025

Participants in this training course will be introduced to the major international and regional instruments for the promotion of human rights, as well as international environmental law and its implementation and enforcement mechanisms.

Read more

A general view of participants during of the 33nd ordinary session of the Human Rights Council. Training

The Universal Periodic Review and the UN Human Rights System: Raising the Bar on Accountability

10-14 November 2025

This training course will explore the origin and evolution of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and its functioning in Geneva and will focus on the nature of implementation of the UPR recommendations at the national level.

Read more

Plastic pollution on an Italian shore Project

Unpacking the Human Right to a Healthy Environment: Definition, Implementation and Impact

Started in January 2022

This research aims at mainstreaming the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment and the protection it affords in the work of the UN Human Rights Council, its Special Procedures and Universal Periodic Review, as well as in the work of the UN General Assembly and UN treaty bodies.

Read more

Session of a UN Treaty Body Project

Treaty Bodies Individual Communications Procedures

Started in January 2019

Read more

Cover of the publication Publication

Briefing N° 25: Localizing Multilateralism

published on March 2025

Domenico Zipoli, Ludovica Chiussi Curzi, Kamelia Kemileva

Read more