HRC@20 - Roundtable Expanding Participation and Strengthening Implementation

The 20th anniversary of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) offers an opportunity to reflect on its achievements and examine how its institutional practice has evolved. A key feature of the first two decades of the Council has been the gradual widening of space for meaningful engagement by stakeholders beyond national governments.

This roundtable will approach National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), Indigenous Peoples and local and regional governments not as separate categories of stakeholders, but as entry points into a broader institutional question: how has the HRC widened participation over its first 20 years, and how can this evolution strengthen its impact in the future?.

Objectives

This event aims to:

• Reflect on the evolution of stakeholder engagement at the Human Rights Council over its first two decades.
• Examine how different actors beyond states have found pathways into the proceedings of the Council, including through formal recognition and thematic engagement.
• Explore the potential role of local and regional governments in strengthening implementation, follow-up and prevention within the ecosystem of the Council.
• Consider the principles that should guide further widening of participation, including independence, representativeness and proximity to rights-holders.

Programme

The three-hour roundtable will combine short framing interventions with a moderated discussion, divided into two substantive segments:

• Segment 1: Pathways into the Council: access, recognition and voice (09:15 – 10:30) This segment will examine how pathways for actors beyond states emerge, how they become recognised and the principles that should guide the participation of actors whose legitimacy derives from independence, representation or proximity to implementation.
• Segment 2: From participation to impact: implementation, follow-up and prevention (10:45 – 12:00) Moving from the question of access to impact, the second segment will ask how broader stakeholder engagement contributes to the effectiveness of the Council. Discussions will focus on building stronger connections between Geneva-based deliberation and implementation on the ground.

Participants and speakers

The roundtable will bring together representatives of states, National Human Rights Institutions, Indigenous Peoples’ institutions and representatives, local and regional governments, civil society, academia and practitioners working on participation, implementation and follow-up. Speaking organizations and institutions include the Global Cities Hub, the Geneva Human Rights Hub, GANHRI, the Swiss Human Rights Institution, the Delegation of the Government of Catalonia to Switzerland, Cardiff City Council, the City of Tirana, University College London’s Global Governance Institute, UPR Info and the Indigenous Peoples’ Centre for Documentation, Research and Information. The discussion will be moderated by Virginia Bras Gomes, Board Member of the Geneva Human Rights Hub, and Anh-Thu Duong, Co-Director of the Global Cities Hub.

Organisers

Geneva Human Rights Hub (GHRH) in collaboration with Global Cities Hub, GANHRI, ISHR, Geneva for Human Rights and the Swiss Human Rights Institution.