Side Event at the 62nd Session of the Human Rights Council
DRTD@40 and Sustainable Development Agenda: Youth Perspectives on the Right to Development in the Global South
Co-organized by South Centre, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the University for Peace
3 July 2026, 12h-13h, Room XVI, Palais des Nations, Geneva
As we mark 40 years since the adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development (DRTD), it is crucial to ensure that youth perspectives are represented in the post-2030 agenda. Youth in the Global South—the largest generation in history—face unique structural challenges, including digital divides, systemic debt distress, and limited policy space for industrialisation.
This event provides a platform to amplify youth voices on structural economic reform, digital sovereignty, and intergenerational justice.
Let’s bridge normative Right to Development frameworks with lived experiences. Join us in shaping the future of the Right to Development!
TOOLKIT: Leveraging the Universal Periodic Review to Advance the Rights of Women and Girls to the Highest Attainable Standards of Health
By Daniel Uribe Terán
This Toolkit serves as an operational guide for State officials, policymakers, civil society organisations (CSOs), national human rights institutions (NHRIs), and healthcare professionals on how to leverage the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism. The primary focus is advancing the rights of women and girls to the highest attainable standards of physical and mental health, with a specific focus on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR).
The toolkit outlines the international normative frameworks, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), that establish state obligations to respect, protect, and fulfil these rights, as set out in the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality (AAAQ) framework. It details evidence-gathering strategies using a Human Rights-Based Approach to Data (HRBAD), guidelines for drafting impactful stakeholder or “shadow” reports, and the integration of specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) recommendations. Furthermore, it emphasises national implementation mechanisms, showcasing digital tracking innovations like Paraguay’s System for Monitoring Recommendations (SIMORE) and the Pacific region’s Integrated Management and Planning of Actions Open Source Software (IMPACT OSS). Real-world state reporting dynamics are illustrated through 4th-cycle UPR report excerpts from Mexico, South Africa, and Costa Rica.
Annual panel discussion on the adverse impacts of climate change on human rights
62nd Session of the Human Rights Council
Geneva, 19 June 2026
During the Annual panel discussion on the adverse impacts of climate change on human rights at the 62nd session of the Human Rights Council, the South Centre delivered a statement.
Climate action must be anchored in the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC) and supported by adequate, predictable, and accessible finance. The statement outlines four actionable pathways:
Grant-Based Public Finance: Advanced economies must provide new grant-based public finance rather than relying on profit-driven private-sector solutions.
Binding Climate Reparations: Following the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion, providing climate reparations is a binding legal obligation. The Loss and Damage Fund must recognise historical emissions and be funded.
Dismantling Barriers: We must address intellectual property monopolies blocking technology transfer, Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanisms penalising climate regulations, and Unilateral Coercive Measures crippling domestic resilience.
Right to Development: Climate finance must facilitate the Right to Development. It must not be weaponised by restrictive conditionalities that block vulnerable communities from accessing funds.
Realising human rights demands climate justice, requiring equitable, accessible, and rights-based finance to repair historical harms.
27 TH SESSION OF THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL WORKING GROUP ON THE RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT (21 MAY 2026, PDN-TEMPUS)
Panel: Tax-related illicit financial flows and the right to development
South Centre Intervention
The South Centre’s spoke at the United Nations’ 27th Session of the Intergovernmental Working Group on the Right to Development on a panel discussion on tax-related illicit financial flows and the right to development.
Key points:
– The UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation (UNFCITC) must include tax avoidance in the definition of tax-related illicit financial flows (TIFFs)
– UNFCITC must also include an effective monitoring mechanism so progress on reducing TIFFs can be measured
– Public Country by Country Reporting (pCBCR) of tax paid is a key component of the fight against TIFFs and the South Centre is taking various actions to promote pCBCR
– UNFCITC’s second protocol’s tools on dispute prevention like joint audits have huge potential to reduce TIFFs
– UNFCITC’s Conference of Parties will play a central role in ensuring effectiveness and must be well designed.
Input for the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee
Study on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence Systems on Good Governance
South Centre
May 2026
The South Centre has submitted technical input to the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee regarding AI systems and governance. The submission analyses the integration of AI through the framework of Rule of Law principles: effectiveness, accountability, and inclusiveness.
Input for the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development
For the 2026 thematic reports to the Human Rights Council on “Participation in development” and to the United Nations General Assembly on “Peace for development”
South Centre
April 2026
The South Centre has submitted its latest input to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development for the 2026 thematic reports on “Participation in Development” and “Peace for Development”.
Our report underscores that development is not a charitable concession but an inalienable human right. To overcome the structural violence of the current international order, we advocate for:
Reforming the Global Architecture: Democratising the Bretton Woods institutions and the UN Security Council to rectify the historical underrepresentation of Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
A “Human Rights Economy”: Transitioning from voluntary corporate “tick-box” exercises to a Legally Binding Instrument (LBI) that ensures extraterritorial accountability for transnational corporations.
Dismantling “Regulatory Chill”: Reforming the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system, which currently prioritizes corporate profits over the policy space needed for development and climate justice.
A Paradigm Shift to “Positive Peace”: Redirecting a portion of the $2.7 trillion global military expenditure toward the SDGs and grant-based climate reparations.
Substantive Justice: Recognising traditional and indigenous knowledge as valid evidence in policy-making and ensuring reparative justice for historical dispossessions.
The UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights: Regulating Corporate Power in the Era of Deregulation
South Centre and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Geneva Office Report, March 2026
By Daniel Fernando Uribe Terán
This study examines how the United Nations Legally Binding Instrument (LBI) serves as a vital tool to preserve state sovereignty and to ensure the primacy of human rights in the era of deregulation.
61st Session of the Human Rights Council Side Event:
Regulating Corporate Power in the Era of Deregulation: Launching the South Centre and FES 2026 Report for the UN Legally Binding Instrument
Co-organized by the South Centre and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Geneva Office
Date: 26 March 2026
Time: 12:00 – 13:00 CET
Venue: Room Concordia 1, Palais des Nations, Geneva
The South Centre, in collaboration with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Geneva, is pleased to invite you to the launch of our new report The UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights: Regulating Corporate Power in the Era of Deregulation.
This study examines how the UN Legally Binding Instrument (LBI) serves as a vital tool to preserve state sovereignty and to ensure the primacy of human rights in the era of deregulation.
Join us in Geneva to discuss concrete solutions to “justice paralysis” and corporate impunity.
Sovereignty and self-determination over natural resources in times of conflicts, climate change and (neo)colonialism
Side-Event to the 61st Session of the Human Rights Council
Co-organized by the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development (Special Procedures, United Nations Human Rights Council) and South Centre
10 March 2026, 12-1pm
Concordia 1, Building A, Palais des Nations, Geneva
As we navigate the 61st session of the Human Rights Council, the South Centre and the Special Rapporteur on the right to development are convening a critical discussion on the intersection of resource sovereignty, conflict, and (neo)colonialism.
In an era defined by climate instability and geopolitical shifts, the right to self-determination over natural resources has never been more relevant. We are honoured to host a distinguished panel of ambassadors and experts to explore these challenges.
Contribution to the Report of the UN Secretary-General on the implementation of General Assembly Resolution on the “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba”
South Centre
13 February 2026
The illegal blockade against Cuba is a continuing violation of the UN Charter & international law and must be lifted to allow full realisation of human rights and SDGs. See the South Centre inputs to the UN Secretary-General’s report, emphasising urgent need to end the blockade.
Input for the Working Group on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas
Report on Peasant Territories on Land and Sea
South Centre
February 2026
The South Centre has officially submitted its inputs to the UN Working Group on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas for their upcoming thematic report on “Peasant Territorialities of Sea and Land.”
Our submission emphasises that realising the rights recognised in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP), particularly Article 17, depends on a fundamental shift in how “territory” is legally understood and economically managed.
The South Centre focuses on:
How territory must be conceptualised as a socio-ecological space where cultural identity and sustainable production intersect, not merely as a financial asset.
The dangers of “Blue Economy” industrialisation and “Green Grabbing,” where conservation mechanisms like carbon offsets displace local communities.
How States should recognise collective tenure rights and protect agrarian reform from Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) challenges.
Climate finance must support peasant agroecology, not displace the very people who steward the land.
UN Human Rights Council Resolutions on Access to Medicines and the Use of TRIPS Flexibilities: A Review
By Nirmalya Syam
This paper reviews almost twenty years of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) work on access to medicines. The UNHRC has repeatedly framed access to medicines as part of the right to health and has urged States to rely on flexibilities in the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to make essential treatments more affordable. Although the UNHRC has strengthened the human rights foundation for using such flexibilities, its resolutions have produced little change on the ground. The commitments embodied in the UNHRC resolutions stay broad and non-binding, leaving the deep structural barriers in place, including restrictive intellectual property (IP) clauses in trade deals, pressure from powerful States, limited technical and manufacturing capacity, and weak policy coordination within governments. Moreover, several recent resolutions reaffirm the value of IP protection, which creates tension that dilutes the Council’s support for the wider use of TRIPS flexibilities. The paper finds that the main gap between global human rights commitments and national action on advancing access to medicines reflects political choices and structural barriers, and concludes by calling for stronger mandates for States to review access barriers during the Universal Periodic Review, increased technical assistance from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, more civil society participation, national right-to-health action plans, and systematic monitoring of TRIPS implementation.
