- The 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council took place from 8 September to 8 October 2025. The ongoing liquidity crisis affecting the United Nations, which significantly impacts the Council’s functioning, has once again put civil society organisations under an additional and significant burden.
¿Se lo perdieron? ¡Esto es lo que ocurrió en CDH 60!
La 60° sesión del Consejo de Derechos Humanos de la ONU se desarrolló del 8 de septiembre al 8 de octubre de 2025. La crisis de liquidez que afecta a las Naciones Unidas, y que tiene un impacto decisivo sobre el funcionamiento del Consejo, nuevamente constituyó una carga adicional y significativa para las organizaciones de sociedad civil.Vous l'avez manqué ? Les temps forts du CDH 60
La 60e session du Conseil des droits de l'homme des Nations Unies s’est tenue du 8 septembre au 8 octobre 2025. La crise de liquidité prolongée qui frappe les Nations Unies, et qui freine gravement le fonctionnement du Conseil, fait une fois encore peser un poids démesuré sur les organisations de la société civile.HRC 60: Joint Civil Society Statement on Abortion (item 8)
Find the full statement and list of signatories here: https://www.abortionstatement.org/PRESS RELEASE: SRI Demands An End To The Genocide In Gaza And The Immediate Release Of All Global Sumud Flotilla Abductees
On 2 October 2025, several members of the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) were kidnapped by Israel following an illegal interception of the flotilla boats in international waters. The Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI) joins the calls from activists around the world to demand an end to the genocide in Gaza and the immediate release of all Global Sumud Flotilla abducteesHRC 60: Joint Statement to item 9 on the Global Sumud Flotilla
Today, a few hundred ordinary people from 44 countries are sailing toward Gaza to break the siege and open a humanitarian corridor. Our action is rooted in the failure of states to stop the humanitarian catastrophe created by Israel and to end the genocide. Under international humanitarian law, our governments must protect us from any attack on the flotilla. The Human Rights Council must act with clarity and urgency and condemn Israel’s genocide, and call on all states to fulfil their legal obligations. This requires a full arms, trade, and cultural embargo on Israel, and concrete steps to end impunity for these crimes.HRC 60: SRI Statement to the General Debate on item 6 (UPR)
The UPR is a useful check point for states to reflect on their human rights programming - their best practices, gaps and challenges. It is a continuous reminder that the realisation of human rights should be a regular facet of states’ work, and that we shouldn’t have to wait for crises, emergencies, and conflicts to centre human rights, or to make a voluntary commitment to do better.HRC 60: SRI Statement to the Annual discussion on the integration of a gender perspective throughout the work of the HRC
If the Council is truly serious in its objectives to meaningfully integrate a gender perspective into transitional justice processes, States must start their processes with gendered analyses at the centre, not as an add-in later. As 47 Independent UN Experts recently stated, gendered analyses are “essential for exposing power disparities, structural inequalities and discriminatory practices embedded in laws, institutions and social norms. ”HRC 60: Joint Statement to Sweden's UPR Adoption
We are deeply concerned by the Sweden’s approach to sex work, which indirectly criminalizes the bodies of sex workers, conflates sex work with trafficking, and exposes sex workers to violence, stigma, and exclusion from democratic participation. The criminalization of sex work forces sex workers to the margins of society. Red Umbrella Sweden members often live in precarious conditions, at constant risk of eviction, homelessness, and social isolation, and often face barriers to accessing health care.HRC 60: Joint Statement to Armenia's UPR Adoption
Armenia must address uneven access to reproductive services, including abortion, which is legally permitted in the country. Rural women, women with disabilities, LBT women and women living with HIV face systemic barriers due to stigma, lack of trained providers, and gaps in service delivery. The government must take proactive steps to ensure abortion is accessible, affordable, and safe for all women, regardless of their social status, genetic or personal characteristics, or geographic location.HRC 60: Joint Statement to Kenya's UPR Adoption
We are concerned by Kenya’s decision to note the recommendation to amend the Penal Code to decriminalise and legalise abortion. Despite the provisions of Article 26(4) of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, which permits abortion under certain grounds, women are still denied access to abortion in Kenya due to a lack of a clear legal and policy framework.UPR Submissions 51rst session
The 50th session of the Universal Periodic Review will take place from 19 January to the 30 January 2026. 13 Countries are under review during the session: Micronesia, Lebanon, Mauritania, Nauru, Rwanda, Nepal, Saint Lucia, Oman, Austria, Australia, Georgia, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Sao Tome and Principe.HRC 60: Joint Statement to Item 3
We welcome and deeply appreciate in this regard the recent statement by 47 UN Special Procedures mandate holders which highlighted that legal and policy frameworks that fail to incorporate a gender perspective risk reinforcing, rather than dismantling, structural inequality, and that regressive approaches ignore the lived realities of women and girls, as well as gender-diverse persons, and obscure the root causes of discrimination and violence.HRC 60: SRI Statement to the Interactive Dialogue with the Independent Expert on older persons
While the report addresses intersectionality, we regret the lack of mention of sex workers, who are systematically excluded from the social protection system due criminalization, stigma and lack of legal recognition of their work. This exclusion results in a complete lack of access to pensions, health insurance, or income support—harshly felt in older age.CDH 60: Declaración de SRI en el diálogo interactivo con el Experto Independiente sobre las personas de edad
Aunque el informe aborda la interseccionalidad, lamentamos que omite mencionar a las trabajadoras sexuales, quienes son sistemáticamente excluidas del sistema de protección social debido a la criminalización, el estigma y la falta de reconocimiento legal de su trabajo. Esta exclusión resulta en una falta total de acceso a pensiones, seguro médico o apoyo económico, una situación que se siente con mayor intensidad en la vejez.Resources
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HRC 60: Joint Statement to the Interactive Dialogue with the Working Group on arbitrary detention
We remain deeply concerned about the mass incarceration of Indigenous peoples, particularly Indigenous women and gender-diverse individuals. While Indigenous people make up only 5 percent of the Canadian population, they represent 32 percent of those in federal custody and half of all federally incarcerated women. This reflects the ongoing impacts of colonialism, systemic discrimination, and trauma.HRC 60: SRI Statement to the Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights
We particularly appreciate the reference to the impact of toxic substances on the health of women, adolescents, and girls. Exposure to toxic substances is not limited to working conditions but also includes components of food and plastics, environmental degradation, and fumigation with agrochemicals. The impact of toxic substances on women's reproductive health is a matter of reproductive justice and includes an increase in caregiving tasks, which already fall disproportionately on women.CDH 60: Declaración de SRI en el diálogo interactivo con el Relator Especial sobre sustancias tóxicas y derechos humanos
Valoramos especialmente la referencia al impacto de los tóxicos sobre la salud de las mujeres, las adolescentes y las niñas. La exposición a tóxicos no se limita a las condiciones laborales sino también a componentes de los alimentos y los plásticos, a la degradación ambiental y a la fumigación con agrotóxicos. El impacto de los tóxicos sobre la salud reproductiva de las mujeres es una cuestión de justicia reproductiva, e incluyen el aumento de las tareas de cuidado, que ya recaen desproporcionadamente sobre las mujeres.HRC 60: Joint Statement to the Panel discussion on combating discrimination, violence and harmful practices against intersex persons
Member States must enact laws to prevent harmful practices in medical settings, and to ensure their victims have access to support, truth and reparations. Member States must support intersex-led organizations to provide psychosocial and healthcare services to their communities, and to keep engaging with human rights work.HRC 60: Joint Statement to Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Right to Development (2)
The false divide between development and gender equality has been weaponized to undermine hard-won progress in gender equality and human rights, threatening the foundations of inclusive, rights-based development, with disproportionate impact on women, girls, and persons with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC).
HRC 60: Joint Statement to Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Right to Development
The report falls short in recognizing that sex workers are disproportionately affected by discrimination. Although the report points out discrimination based on socioeconomic status, it is necessary to directly address the discrimination against people engaged in sex work to help increase its visibility and acceptance of the existence of the problem. We stress that consensual adult sex work is work. To realise the right to development, States should fully decriminalise sex work, recognise labour rights and ensure active, free and meaningful participation in decision making as a key element to the right to development and to achieving the SDG 5.
HRC 60: Joint Statement to the Interactive dialogue with the Expert Mechanism on the right to development
A solid people-centered approach to the right to development must challenge the dominant global economic paradigm and definition of economic growth, prioritise resource distribution within and between states. The Expert Mechanisms’ recognition of collective rights and responsibilities and systemic violations of human rights of people subjected to colonialism, as well as insistence upon accountability for international development policies, places them in a unique position to do so.HRC 60: Akãhatã's Statement to the Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Developement
We regret that the report omits key issues such as the lack of legal recognition of LGBTIQ+ families and the resulting violation of their right to care, recently recognized as an autonomous right by the Inter-American Court, affecting both adults and their children.HRC 60: Declaración de Akãhatã: Diálogo interactivo con el relator especial sobre el derecho al desarrollo
Sin embargo, lamentamos que el informe omita temas clave como la falta de reconocimiento legal de las familias LGBTIQ+ y la consecuente vulneración de su derecho al cuidado, recientemente reconocido como derecho autónomo por la Corte Interamericana, afectando tanto a personas adultas como a sus hijes.