Annual Human Rights Lecture: Awakening the Human Rights Movement from its Torpor

We are honoured to welcome Professor Philip Alston as our distinguished guest speaker for this year’s Annual Human Rights Lecture, organised for our students. This in-person event at the Geneva Graduate Institute is also open to external participants, who are welcome to register and attend the event.

This year lecture is entitled “Awakening the Human Rights Movement from its Torpor” and is premised on the idea that human rights are under siege. While many in the movement have called for attention to be paid to the existential crises posed by climate change, unchecked AI, rampant inequality, and the embrace of authoritarian solutions, many leaders seem to be at a loss to know what could be done differently. As a result, they have opted to double down on what they consider to be tried and true approaches. As a result, the movement risks being held hostage to a disappointing and problematic past, and unable to innovate. This lecture will identify a number of bold breaks from the past that are needed if the movement is to awaken from its torpor.

Lecturer

Philip Alston teaches at New York University. He was previously UN Special Rapporteur on both extreme poverty and human rights and on extrajudicial executions. He chaired the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for eight years, and has been a member of several international commissions of inquiry