This month, we discuss a way forward for the UN funding crisis, stressing that efficiency must not mean doing less. We congratulate the laureate of this year's Martin Ennals Award, and look back at the Human Rights Council's special session on the situation in El Fasher, and at news of a surge in cases in transnational repression in Southeast Asia. We look ahead to our work at the Business and Human Rights Forum and we call on your generous support to help us fight back with human rights defenders!

Addressing a meeting convened by the UN Human Rights Council President and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the UN funding crisis, ISHR Director Phil Lynch outlined a plan of action for States to save the UN human rights system and protect the communities it serves.

During the 38th Human Rights Council special session on the human rights situation in and around El Fasher, in the context of the ongoing conflict in Sudan, ISHR delivered a joint statement with Sudanese Women’s Rights Action and the Regional Coalition for Women Human Rights Defenders in South West Asia and North Africa.

The 2025 Laureate is Ana Paula Gomes de Oliveira, from Brazil. She co-founded the collective ‘Mothers of Manguinhos’ to fight for justice after the killing of her son, a 19-year-old Black man, who was shot in the back by a military police officer in the favelas of Rio on his way back from his girlfriend’s house in May 2014.

For over four decades, ISHR has stood with those who champion justice and equality. Their work and the international system that safeguards it have never been more important nor more imperilled than today. Join us to fight back with human rights defenders. Contribute to protecting the international system that protects us all.

ISHR will be working at the 13th UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, co-organising an event to highlight the role defenders must be allowed to play in addressing harmful business practices, and presenting a report on the progress and challenges met by business-related initiatives aimed at protecting human rights defenders, which was published earlier this year.

In an interview with ISHR, Bennett Freeman, coauthor of the report ‘Business Frameworks and Actions to Support Human Rights Defenders: a Retrospective and Recommendations’, walked us through the contents of this retrospective and its recommendations for companies and governments to ensure businesses can do their fair share for the protection of human rights and defenders.

Drawing on the experiences of civil society actors, human rights defenders and other rights holders, and business actors, this event will explore practices of safe and meaningful engagement while also identifying the challenges faced in different contexts.

Date: 26 November 2025. Time: 11:40AM - 1:00PM CET. Location: Assembly Hall, Palais des Nations, Geneva

'I would like to see mining projects, small scale mining for example and hydro power projects or water works that are led by the community and are not proposed by big companies and foreign entities that enter our ancestral lands,' Casselle Ton told ISHR in an interview.

There has never been a more urgent need for need for a robust international human rights system. But the UN system is in crisis and must be reformed. Let's work together for principled, consistent and accountable multilateral institutions.

Here is some of our latest coverage:

The invisible victims of floods
Tribune Magazine, 16 November 2025

Investigação da International Service for Human Rights detalha como um grupo de países liderados por Pequim e Moscou atuam para pressionar outros países
Estadão, 10 November 2025 ($)

Droits humains : les négociations budgétaires des Nations Unies
France 24, 9 November 2025

US officials, NGOs cry foul as Washington snubs UN rights review
Radio France International / Agence France Presse, 7 November 2025

UK seeks urgent UN rights meeting on carnage in Sudan’s El Fasher
Geneva Solutions, 5 November 2025

Read our full coverage here.

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