Together with DIGNITY and IRCT, Global Focus will organise a training on advocacy through the Universal Periodic Review - the UN mechanism under the auspices of the Human Rights Council where the human rights situation of UN member states is reviewed. Although the reviews take place as a State-to-State interactive discussion, civil society can influence the recommendations that are made to the state under review. These recommendations can be important tools for civil society organisations to pressure their states to implement human rights obligations. Civil society organisations can take their issues forward by participating in national consultations, advocating with embassies of other countries to raise their specific recommendations during the UPR as well as monitoring state’s implementation and impact.

With the purpose of strengthening civil society capacity to use the UPR to promote national change, the training will focus on civil society’s role and resources related to the UPR and provide participants with knowledge and concrete advocacy tools to impact the UPR process. Furthermore, the training will bring together different civil society actors across regions and fields of expertise to exchange experience and thus strengthen civil society’s joint opportunity to raise awareness on human rights issues.

The training will be open to all members of Global Focus, DIGNITY and IRCT as well as their partners. It is primarily targeted at the members of the Working Group for advocacy in the Human Rights Council and their partners. Organisations and partners who are expecting or might consider advocating for specific recommendations on countries under review in the upcoming UPR sessions are highly encouraged to participate. See the calendar for the countries under review in the upcoming UPR sessions here.

This training is part of a series of trainings focused on strengthening capacity in influencing policy in the Human Rights Council. In 2020, three workshops were carried out by Global Focus in collaboration with DIGNITY, IWGIA and Danish Institute for Human Rights respectively and with inclusion of external speakers, including the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. The trainings in 2022 will be directed at both member organisations and their partners across the world, and the specific focus areas of the coming trainings will be decided by the Working Group on Advocacy in the Human Rights Council. 

The training will be online - a link will be shared with participants prior to the training.

Please register for the training below before 24 January.

We ask you to fill in the country in which you are operating in order for us to get an overview of which time zones we will cover. If you are interested in the training but are not able to participate due to the scheduled time, kindly send an e-mail to Julie Arrildt on Denne e-mail adresse bliver beskyttet mod spambots. Du skal have JavaScript aktiveret for at vise den.. We will then consider to provide an additional training at another time. Please also send an e-mail to Julie Arrildt on Denne e-mail adresse bliver beskyttet mod spambots. Du skal have JavaScript aktiveret for at vise den. if you would prefer the training to be in another language than English, so we know if translation is needed.

If you have any questions to the training, please contact Julie Arrildt, Policy Advisor on Civic Space and Human Rights at Global Focus, on Denne e-mail adresse bliver beskyttet mod spambots. Du skal have JavaScript aktiveret for at vise den.