5 December 2018, 09:30-19:45
Event
UN Photo
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
The 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) comes at a time of great turbulence for international human rights law.
The universality of human rights has traditionally been contested as a product of the West, unable to take into account cultural and religious diversity. More recently, the relevance of certain rights previously considered as essential and inalienable in vast areas of the world has become an issue. These older and more recent challenges grow alongside visions of a world order based upon the law of force rather than the force of the law. Historian Eric Weitz, referring to the work of Samuel Moyn, qualified human rights as ‘the last ideology left standing’. This last ideology is now wavering. For this reason, it is timely and appropriate to look carefully at the origins, context, debates, and personalities that, in 1947 and 1948, shaped and eventually endorsed the UDHR.
This symposium, co-organized with the Department of International History of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Republic and State of Geneva, brings together jurists and historians to discuss these issues and topics.
Presentations will provide insights based on recent and ongoing research, with historians and jurists debating and confronting their critical approaches and views.
The conference is open to anyone wishing to know more about the state of knowledge on the UDHR.
It will be followed, in the evening, by a public lecture by Philippe Sands.
You need to register to attend this event by filling the form on the website of the Graduate Institute.
ECHR
Via its DHRTTDs Directory, the Geneva Human Rights Platform provides a comprehensive list and description of such key tools and databases. But how to navigate them? Which tool should be used for what, and by whom? This interview helps us understand better the specificities of the current highlight of the directory: ECHR Knowledge Sharing Platform
Adobe
Our recent research brief series explores how the United Nations' human rights system can enhance its role in early warning and conflict prevention.
LATSIS Symposium
This Human Rights Conversation will explore how AI is being used by human rights institutions to enhance the efficiency, scope, and impact of monitoring and implementation frameworks.
Wikimedia
This evening dialogue will present the publication: International Human Rights Law: A Treatise, Cambridge University Press (2025).
Participants in this training course will be introduced to the major international and regional instruments for the promotion of human rights, as well as international environmental law and its implementation and enforcement mechanisms.
Adobe
This training course, specifically designed for staff of city and regional governments, will explore the means and mechanisms through which local and regional governments can interact with and integrate the recommendations of international human rights bodies in their concrete work at the local level.
Olivier Chamard/Geneva Academy
The Geneva Human Rights Platform contributes to this review process by providing expert input via different avenues, by facilitating dialogue on the review among various stakeholders, as well as by accompanying the development of a follow-up resolution to 68/268 in New York and in Geneva.