There is some disagreement among member state representatives what constitutes the "crown jewel" of the Human Rights Council. Some say it's the Universal Periodic Review. In fact it's the Special Procedures.

Gina Romero / Special Rapporteur FoAA@unsrapporteurfoaa.bsky.social · 5d ago

Attacks on us Special Rapporteurs are not merely directed at individual experts; they constitute an assault on the international human rights system itself and on the victims and communities it exists to protect 👇🏽 www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

Coming up tomorrow: #HRC63 side event on #Sudan co-sponsored by ISHR: 'The UN’s next steps to advance atrocity prevention and accountability' 📅 Tuesday 8 September 2026 ⏰ 13:00-14:00 CEST 🏛️Room XI, Palais des Nations, Geneva

In this report, @unep.org warns that the “1.5 to stay alive” target is no longer achievable and I can think of nothing else right now. www.unep.org/news-and-sto...

Overshoot explained: 5 things to understand about a world beyond 1.5°C

Exceeding 1.5°C must not mean abandoning the goal. UNEP explains five things to know about climate overshoot and the choices that will shape what happens next.

unep.org

📢 OUT NOW (EN/ES): The Right Tool for the Moment: Venezuela, Political Transition and the Case for Renewing the FFM 🇻🇪 at #HRC63 @uninvhrc.bsky.social

Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect@globalr2p.org · 3w ago

Why is the HRC’s decision on whether to renew the FFM on #Venezuela so consequential? As @elisabethgcr2p.bsky.social argues, investigative mechanisms are vital during crises & political transitions - to assess change, preserve evidence & safeguard institutional memory. Read more: bit.ly/4iBAArl

South Africa has named the Taliban’s systematic oppression of women and girls for what Afghan women have long called it: gender apartheid. Now it should act, by supporting its inclusion as a crime against humanity in the new treaty. www.hrw.org/news/2026/08...

South Africa Names Gender Apartheid. Now It Should Act.

At South Africa’s National Women’s Day commemoration on August 9, President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke, among other things, about the Taliban’s systematic oppression of women and girls in Afghanistan. Stan...

hrw.org

This rocks. Solidarity!

Human Rights Watch@hrw.org · last mo.

BREAKING: HRW, together with @afsc-org.bsky.social, @ccrjustice.org, and Open Society Institute (part of @open-society.bsky.social) filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump admin’s sanctions against #ICC prosecutors and judges, a UN human rights expert, and three Palestinian human rights groups.

‼️LAST CHANCE‼️ Join our webinar with Andrea Bolaños Vargas, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders today at 3pm CEST! SUBMISSIONS TO THE UN SPECIAL PROCEDURES More information: https://ow.ly/8fBW50Zq5m4 Register here: https://ow.ly/qvFC50Zq5m1

Join our webinar with Andrea Bolaños Vargas, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders on 30 July! SUBMISSIONS TO THE UN SPECIAL PROCEDURES More information: https://ow.ly/8fBW50Zq5m4 Register here: https://ow.ly/qvFC50Zq5m1

It’s insane to me that there’s always money for war (or, more recently, AI) but the world’s governments can’t get their act together to fund the one global organisation we have to solve all of our problems.

Lou Charbonneau@loucharb.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🚨 New from @hrw.org: The US is withholding most of its UN dues & China is paying late. Other states are doing the same. This has forced UN to trim critical human rights & humanitarian work. UN member states took steps to ease funding crisis but only paying in full & on time will end it. More here 👇

Repost if you believe that every war criminal or perpetrator of atrocity crimes should have their day in court www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/pre...

International Criminal Justice Day: Statement by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union

The High Representative issued a statement on behalf of the EU on International Criminal Justice Day.

consilium.europa.eu

Happy to report from #AIforGood that the cybertruck is no longer here. This @wfp.org monster thing here ate it.

There’s a UN publication for everything. TIL there’s a UNESCO booklet called “Growing up in a Connected World: A Family Guide for the Digital Age”: unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/p... Let’s see if that solves the discussions with the teens about screen time

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk at the Global Dialogue on AI Governance: Taking Back Our Agency in the Age of AI www.ohchr.org/en/statement...

High Commissioner Türk at the Global Dialogue on AI Governance: Taking Back Our Agency in the Age of AI

Ministers,Excellencies,Distinguished participants,Before a new drug reaches the market, it undergoes years of clinical trials, regulatory review, and market authorisation.This process can last between...

ohchr.org

It’s been a long first day at the first Global Dialogue on AI at the UN in Geneva and the automated subtitles are one of its unsung heroes

“What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?” Tony Benn’s five questions to the powerful. Think of these often.

"Look for the helpers." The earthquake is horrible but in its aftermath, you can see the best of humanity; from Venezuela, from elsewhere on the continent, from half a world away, people came to help find survivors. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

‘I can only describe it as a war zone’: the rescuers navigating Venezuela’s post-quake hellscape

Thousands of volunteers are joined by overseas teams in the hope of finding more survivors in the rubble

theguardian.com

The UN's Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence has released its preliminary report and you can (re-)watch @mariaressa.bsky.social and @yoshuabengio.bsky.social present it here: webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1v... (report here: www.un.org/independent-...)

📅 Save the date! #HRC Elections Pledging event We are organising together with Amnesty International our annual online pledging event for candidate States: 🗓️ 3 September 2026 🕰️ 3:00PM - 5:30PM CEST / 9:00AM - 11:30AM EDT 🏡 Online 📝 Register here: https://ow.ly/fN7O50Zigvl

FYI #OpenSource friends: call for papers for Luxembourg's October OS conference. Proposals for 20 min talks are due late August. This makes 2 years I've not been able to go, so, vicariously, please consider it! It's especially strong on OS for sovereignty, gov, AI, and, this year, edtech.

Open Source Conference Luxembourg

Schedule, talks and talk submissions for Open Source Conference Luxembourg

pretalx.com

🚨 AI is rapidly transforming warfare, but life-&-death decisions must never be delegated to algorithms. We've joined Access Now, @amnesty.org & 200+ CSOs calling for meaningful human control over the use of force & stronger civilian protections. More: www.accessnow.org/press-releas...

AI-accelerated warfare must stop - Access Now

As AI-accelerated warfare is rapidly becoming a means of rubber-stamping killing at unprecedented speed and scale, Access Now, Amnesty International, and more than 200 civil society organizations and ...

accessnow.org

On the Occasion of the #G7 Summit An Open Letter to the Leaders of the G7, the G20, BRICS & All Nations On finalizing the Pathogen Access & Benefit-Sharing annex of the WHO Pandemic Agreement ⬇️ @lulaoficialbluesky.bsky.social President of #Brazil Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus DG of @who.int

Amnesty’s Afghanistan researcher @zasultani.bsky.social is in Brussels to meet with Belgian authorities and EU institutions, alongside @hrw.org's @fereshtaabbasi.bsky.social and @theecre.bsky.social, to highlight the grave risks and persecution that people returned to Afghanistan would face 🧵

Are we waiting for this to spread to the rest of Europe before we shut down X?

Adam Serwer@adamserwer.bsky.social · 3mo ago

When these people insist the mere presence of people unlike them is an attack on them, their country, or their rights, this is exactly the outcome they are seeking, and disappointment among far right Trumpists is largely that he failed to produce events like this here. www.yahoo.com/news/us/arti...

AI steals context from everywhere, incl #Indigenous data, such as art & knowledge. Part of the inherently sexist, racist, homophobic (etc) nature of these processes & their companies' cultures- taking from the more vulnerable, excluding their knowledge & views. Great piece @kerrijmalloy.bsky.social

Kerri J. Malloy@kerrijmalloy.bsky.social · 3mo ago

New in Governing: I write about #AI and why #IndigenousDataSovereignty must be central to public-sector technology policy from the start. www.governing.com/management-a... @scholars.org

RIP Jean Ziegler. I suppose someone has to take over and it might as well be me so here we go: F U C K A L L E M P I R E S especially your favourite Empire, but also *all* the others, historic or current; public or private. Nothing good ever comes from them. Fuck 'em all.

This is a very interesting and unfortunately topical conversation between @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social and @mjgault.bsky.social on how belligerents in the US/Israeli war on Iran are using GenAI and other information manipulation to sway public opinion: podcasts.apple.com/lu/podcast/a...

Navigating Reality and War During the Age of AI Propaganda

Podcast Episode · Angry Planet · 5 June · 59min

podcasts.apple.com

Nobody asked for this and the world has certainly suffered enough but I'll still try to start posting more stuff.

Luc Dockendorf@lucdockendorf.eurosky.social · 4mo ago

Some diplomats are world class shitposters but most of us draft twice before posting nothing

Beautiful. The Council of Europe legal instrument on the right to a healthy environment can't come soon enough.

Commissioner for Human Rights@commissionerhr.coe.int · 4mo ago

At the first European Forum on Environmental #HumanRights Defenders, I joined the call for a Council of Europe legally binding instrument on the right to a healthy environment. Nothing less will match the urgency of the moment. Read my speech ⬇️ #WorldEnvironmentDay #NowForClimate #ClimateAction

Some diplomats are world class shitposters but most of us draft twice before posting nothing

Hildur Knútsdóttir@hildur.bsky.social · 4mo ago

IMPORTANT UPDATE: The person who originally saw this broadcast and took the pictures of the TV is currently the Icelandic Ambassador to the US.

Yes - I’m currently engaged in trying to get a lot more attention (and funding) devoted to this rapidly growing problem. All ideas to that end actively solicited.