Articles

Women, Land, and the Eradication of Poverty: What African Land Governance Can Teach Us

On the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, this article examines how unequal access to land shapes women’s poverty in Africa. Drawing on Tanzania, Liberia and Rwanda, it argues that poverty eradication cannot be achieved sustainably while women remain excluded from owning, inheriting and governing the land on which their livelihoods depend.

From the Scaffold to the Execution Room: Why the Death Penalty Must End

From the guillotine to the modern execution chamber, the evolution of capital punishment raises fundamental questions about state power, human dignity and the limits of justice. On the European and World Day Against the Death Penalty, the Global Human Rights Defence calls for renewed efforts to abolish capital punishment and uphold human rights everywhere.

Mining Rights and Wrongs in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Cobalt’s necessity for the energy transition does not, by itself, make its extraction just. This article examines hazardous conditions and child labour in artisanal mining and forced evictions linked to industrial mining expansion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where persistent gaps in governance and enforcement leave the human costs of the transition on the workers and communities least able to bear them.

Deported to Gjadër: Inside the EU’s Offshore Detention Prototype

Through the specific case of the Italy-Albania Protocol and the Gjadër centre, this article documents the human rights violations produced on the ground to understand the wider logic of the European Union’s externalisation strategy. The harms documented at Gjadër, that is, arbitrary detention, denial of effective remedies, and what monitoring bodies call “institutionalised dehumanisation” thus preview the human rights cost of exporting migration control across the EU.

GHRD attends Side Event at the second Council of Europe Business and Human Rights Forum: Rethinking Engagement in Our Times: A Paradigm Shift and Practical Guidance for How Businesses Engage with Affected Communities

GHRD attended a side event organised by UN Global Compact France, FIDH and Touton. Drawing on the recently published practical guide written by UN Global Compact France, the panellists explained how companies should approach engagement with communities affected by their work, and how they can avoid the most common pitfalls.

Western Europe Business and Human Rights Forum: Opening Plenary – Navigating the Challenges of Our Times: Driving Action on Business and Human Rights

GHRD attended the Opening Plenary, which examined how business and human rights intersect. Speakers addressed business’s shift from distance to engagement on human rights, corporate due diligence, and how companies are translating these commitments into practice.

Western Europe Business and Human Rights Forum: Simplification or Deregulation of EU Due Diligence Law?

On Friday, 18th of September, GHRD attended the Western Europe Business and Human Rights Forum in Strasbourg, including a side event on the EU Omnibus Agenda. The discussion examined whether the EU’s push to simplify due diligence rules represents genuine simplification or a broader deregulation of corporate accountability.

Western Europe Business and Human Rights Forum: Integrating Climate Action and Human Rights

GHRD attended the Western Europe Business and Human Rights Forum in Strasbourg, highlighting the need to integrate climate action and human rights into business decisions. The discussion stressed prevention, early action, and putting people and communities at the centre of climate strategies.

GHRD Launches HRSAT: A Global Human Rights Platform Where Every Victim Can Be Seen and Heard

Global Human Rights Defence launches HRSAT, the Human Rights Support Application Tool: a global digital platform that makes reporting and documenting human rights violations more accessible, inclusive and international, and lays the foundation for a future Early Warning System.

Perspectives on the EU Anti-Trafficking Framework Across Europe

Frontline organisations in Spain, Austria and Belgium describe a familiar pattern: the EU’s anti-trafficking rules are sound, but the systems meant to carry them out are not keeping pace. This article examines how Directive (EU) 2024/1712 is being implemented in practice.

Global Human Rights Defence gathers experts to address Child and Forced Marriage as Gender-based Violence at 63rd HRC

At the 63rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, GHRD organised a side event bringing together international experts to examine child and forced marriage as a manifestation of gender-based violence, intensified by digital technologies, poverty and legal pluralism.

EUROPEAN UNION: Von der Leyen Outlines Plans to Strengthen Europe’s Economy, Security and Resilience

Ursula von der Leyen’s second State of the Union address set out the EU’s priorities on competitiveness, climate resilience, security, artificial intelligence and child protection. While the address presented a broad agenda for a stronger and more resilient Europe, human rights concerns received limited attention.

Human Rights Council Addresses Urgent Human Rights Situations Under Item 4

At the 63rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, the general debate under Item 4 addressed human rights situations requiring the Council’s attention, from Uyghur refugees and the risk of refoulement to religious minorities in Pakistan and Tibetan communities.

GHRD Calls on the Human Rights Council to Confront Enforced Disappearances in Balochistan

During the Human Rights Council’s dialogue with the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, GHRD drew urgent attention to enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention and collective punishment faced by Baloch human rights defenders and their families.

Global Human Rights Defence attends the 62nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council Focusing on Human Trafficking in the Context of Statelessness

Global Human Rights Defence attended the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, where discussions examined the heightened risk of human trafficking faced by stateless people. The dialogue highlighted how lack of legal documentation, safe migration pathways and humanitarian protection can increase vulnerability to trafficking, particularly among children. GHRD called for stronger international cooperation, improved victim identification and greater protection for vulnerable communities.

GHRD Attends 62nd UN Human Rights Council Side Event: Development of a New UN Tool for Investigating Gender-Related Killings of Women and Girls

Global Human Rights Defence attended a side event during the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council focused on developing new global guidelines for investigating femicide and other gender-related killings of women and girls. The forthcoming tool aims to help police, prosecutors, forensic experts and judges identify, document and investigate gender-related killings through a gender-sensitive approach, addressing gaps in existing international investigative standards.

Side Event at the United Nations: The role of the Refugee Convention in Human Rights Protection

Global Human Rights Defence attended a side event at the Palais des Nations during the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, examining the continuing role of the Refugee Convention in human rights protection. Discussions highlighted the situation of refugees from Afghanistan, Sudan and Myanmar, as well as concerns surrounding forced deportations, transnational repression and the risk of unlawful refoulement faced by Uyghur refugees.

GHRD Raises Concerns Over Accountability For Sri Lanka At The UN Human Rights Council

At the Human Rights Council’s 63rd session, GHRD expressed deep concern that accountability for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Sri Lanka appears to have been deprioritised in the High Commissioner’s latest report.

GHRD Advocates For Child Participation in Pakistan, in Future UN Protocol Under CRC

At the second session of the UN working group exploring an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, GHRD called for every child’s right to be heard to become a concrete obligation for States, pointing to the more than 25 million out-of-school children in Pakistan.

Open Call: 6th GHRD International Human Rights Film Festival

Petition to the Dutch Parliament: Protecting Indigenous Khmer-Krom Communities

On June 16th, 2026, GHRD urged the Dutch Parliament to address climate change’s impact on the Indigenous Khmer-Krom in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta and asked for a human rights-based approach to cooperation with Vietnam. The Khmer-Krom are facing environmental disasters that threaten their livelihoods and cultural survival.