5 November 2024, 09:15-15:00
GHRP Annual Conference
Geneva Academy
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.
Tuesday 5th November
9.15 - 9:30 Opening
9:30 - 10:00 Keynote
10:00 - 11:00 Academic plenary panel - The deadlock of multilateralism – how can human rights advance different policy fields?
Moderation:
Panel:
11:00 - 12.30 Workshops (incl. coffee break) co-organized with other ‘Geneva Platforms’
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:
Panel:
Moderation:
Geneva Academy
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.
Wikimedia
Our latest research brief, 'Sending Up a Flare: Autonomous Weapons Systems Proliferation Risks to Human Rights and International Security' examines the proliferation of autonomous weapons systems and consequent risks to security and human rights.
UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré
This executive course, tailored for Geneva-based diplomats and co-organized with the support of the Swiss FDFA, addresses the negotiation practices at the multilateral level, by taking the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council as an example of formal and informal negotiation and decision-making processes by an international intergovernmental body.
CCPR Centre
The Geneva Human Rights Platform collaborates with a series of actors to reflect on the implementation of international human rights norms at the local level and propose solutions to improve uptake of recommendations and decisions taken by Geneva-based human rights bodies at the local level.
Adobe
This initiative wishes to contribute to better and more coordinated implementation, reporting and follow-up of international human rights recommendations through a global study on digital human rights tracking tools and databases.
Geneva Academy
Geneva Academy