FIDH Centenary Agenda

International Conference ‘Is the Future of International Criminal Law Domestic?’

The International Nuremberg Principles Academy, jointly with the Genocide Network Secretariat hosted by Eurojust is organising an international conference entitled ‘Is the Future of International Criminal Law Domestic?’ from 12 to 14 May 2022. The conference is currently planned as an in-person conference held in the historic East Wing of the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg with hybrid elements for those speakers who are unable to attend in person due to the pandemic situation.

The objective of the conference is to reflect on a postulation of the first Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno Ocampo, raised already in 2003, stating that the ICC will be at its most successful when it has no cases because national authorities are handling them. What does this mean, twenty years after the ICC’s establishment? Have domestic prosecutions proven to be a viable alternative?

More information about the conference

Climate: what “right to the future” for displaced people?

Online university conference

Floods, rising waters, desertification, large-scale pollution, nuclear accidents… there are many reasons why people may be forced to move.

However, international law does not grant refugee status to people affected by these phenomena. Indeed, the current legal instruments and regimes do not – or do not sufficiently – meet the protection needs of “climate or environmental refugees”.
This is because current legal instruments and regimes do not – or do not sufficiently – address the protection needs of so-called “climate or environmental refugees”.

How can this shortcoming be addressed? What right to the future could we recognise for these populations, who are deprived of their territory and “everything attached to it” (access to resources, cultural identity…)?

The conference proposes to clarify the obstacles imposed by the current regime and to draw up perspectives and proposals for a necessary evolution of the legal framework of asylum, a major challenge for the protection of human rights in the light, in particular, of the climate emergency.

Click here to access the LinkedIn event

Sawasiya Regional Seminar

Economic and Social Inequalities in the Region

This seminar is organised in the framework of the project “Economic and Social Rights, Levers of Equality and Social Justice in North Africa and the Middle East – Sawasiya” implemented by FIDH and its five leagues: Al-Haq Foundation (Palestine), the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (Egypt), the Democratic Association of Moroccan Women (Morocco), the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (Tunisia) and the Lebanese Centre for Human Rights (Lebanon). FIDH aims to contribute to the coordinated mobilisation of several groups of actors of change: civil society organisations, leaders and activists of social movements, academics, research centres and intellectuals against inequalities, on the basis of economic, social and cultural rights, in particular the right to health and social security as defined in international human rights law.

It is designed to provide a space for discussion and exchange of experiences between activists, social movements, human rights groups and experts interested in the issue of economic and social rights to assess the reality in the countries of the region, to examine the dynamics and approaches of the struggle and to develop strategies to build power for change and a common space for solidarity and networking in order to push for greater economic and social equality in the region.

Seminar taking place from 13 to 14 May.

The future of human rights universality and the “cultural argument”

Online university conference

Is the future of the universality of human rights and the “cultural argument” in danger?

Belonging to a culture, an ethnic group or a community is often invoked as a criticism of the recognition of the universality of human rights. Far from confining themselves to the argument that cultural identity is a limit to universality, our speakers, both academics and human rights defenders, think of the “cultural argument” as a method and a condition for the recognition and guarantee of the universality of human rights.

Click here to access the LinkedIn event

Palestine and the ICC Paralysis: Is Justice still Possible for Palestinians?

After many years of endeavours to get access to justice, Palestinian civil society and victims welcomed the Prosecutor’s announcement that there was sufficient evidence proving the commission of war crimes in the territory of Palestine. However, seven years since the beginning of the preliminary investigation and more than a year after the opening of a full-fledged investigation, no concrete steps have been taken by the Court to put an end to the ‘impunity crisis’ in the Israeli-Palestinian setting. While the ICC has recently proved that it is capable of a prompt reaction over serious and urgent situations, the OTP’s seeming reluctance to select cases in the Palestine situation gives rise to a serious concern about a practice of double standards.

The present event brings together Palestinian NGOs senior officers, scholars, and artists to shed light on the on-going perpetration of serious violations of Palestinians’ fundamental rights and publicly denounce the lack of effective measures taken by the Court in one of the most documented situations for the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The public event aims to call upon all stakeholders to invite the Prosecutor to ensure that accountability in Palestine is pursued without any further delay.

Registration link here

Event co-organised by FIDH

The future of economic and social rights

Online university conference

Would the universality of economic and social rights be promoted by a reinvention of the institutional framework of its protection?

Specialists and experts in the protection of #SocialRights, historian, jurists and FIDH experts discuss the future of social rights and the transformations of national, transnational and international institutions that frame it.

Click here to access the LinkedIn event

28th of May 1922: Official creation of the FIDH

May 28th is an important date for FIDH, and 28 May 2022 even more so!

May 28th is an important date for FIDH, and 28 May 2022 even more so! Today marks 100 years since 15 national organisations defending human rights came together to found the first international human rights organisation.

And with it, the idea that a federative model is the solution we needed to defend and promote human rights worldwide.

100 years later, we are more convinced than ever that the solidarity at the heart of this model is what we need to continue our fight for human rights for the century to come.

Read our article.

Martin Ennals Awards 2022

The Martin Ennals Award is an annual prize for human rights defenders. Finalists and the Laureate are selected by a Jury of ten of the world’s leading human rights NGOs. The Award provides protection and support to human rights defenders who are at risk.

The Martin Ennals Award 2022 edition, celebrating exceptional human rights defenders will be held on June, 2nd. The Martin Ennals Award Laureates 2022 are leading architects of the human rights movement.

More information available here

Consultation workshops: “Thinking about the human rights of the future”

In the framework of its centenary, FIDH will launch in June 2022 a citizen consultation on “the human rights of the future”.

You are cordially invited to participate in one of the workshops on Saturday 18 June at QJ – 4, place du Louvre 75001 – Paris (metro: Louvre-Rivoli), France.

Three topics will be discussed:
– Democratic security – What police for tomorrow?
– Law and the environment – How to ensure that environmental rights are enforced and respected?
– Digital law and the Metaverse – What rights for our future avatars?

Register here.

Youth workshop 16-25 years old: “Thinking about the human rights of the future” – Paris

Workshop organized in partnership with the Quartier Jeunesse -QJ of Paris and the LDH

Climate change, growing inequalities, threats to democracy and to our personal data: the challenges of this new century are already burning. In the framework of its centenary, the FIDH will launch in June 2022 a vast citizen consultation on “the human rights of the future”.

What are the new rights that we will have to invent, adopt and implement tomorrow to meet the challenges of the coming century?

During one workshop scheduled for June 18, 2022, young Parisians and Ile-de-France residents aged 16 to 25 are invited to give their opinions and proposals on this subject at the QJ of Paris. Supervised by mediators from the city of Paris, in the presence of members of the FIDH and the LDH, the young people will reflect on how to complete the 1948 Universal Declaration with new articles.

The result of these workshops will be presented at the Paris City Hall on October 23 during the gala evening of the FIDH centenary.

Side Event in the context of the 50th United Nations Human Rights Council Session

Violence against Women and Femicide in Mexico: Patters of Impunity, risks and alternatives 

Zoom link

Does the right to security have a future?

Online university conference

Would the universality of economic and social rights be promoted by a reinvention of the institutional framework of its protection? Specialists and experts in the protection of social rights, historians, jurists and FIDH experts discuss the future of social rights and the transformations of the national, transnational and international institutions that frame them.

Click here to access the LinkedIn event

Video of the students of the University of Sceaux Paris Saclay

“Multinationals and Human Rights”: In partnership with the Institute for Public Law Studies (IEDP) and FIDH.

(Video – filmed interviews)

The Master 1 International and European Law – General Course at Sceaux focuses on the future of the legal framework of multinationals with regard to the protection of human rights. To grasp the legal and political stakes, they interview academics and experts from the FIDH.

With :

Maddalena Neglia, PhD, head of the globalization and human rights desk (FIDH), FIDH’s action to promote human rights in trade agreements – the UN framework
Jimena Reyes, head of FIDH’s Americas desk
Frédérique Coulée, professor of public law at the University of Paris Saclay, director of the master 2 business and human rights programme
Théo Baron, narrator, student in the M1 International and European Law – General Course (Jean Monnet Faculty)

Online in September 2022

Mock trial by the students of Sceaux Paris-Saclay

“Mock trial: the Amesys Natixis case”: In partnership with the Institute of Public Law Studies (IEDP) and FIDH.

The Master 1 International and European Law – General Course of Sceaux focuses on the “Amesys Natixis” case.

With the collaboration of :

Marie Frapin, documentary director
Clémence Bectarte, coordinator of FIDH’s Litigation Action Group
Stéphane Détraz, lecturer in public law at the Jean Monnet Faculty, Paris Saclay University

The podcasts of the students of Sceaux Paris-Saclay

In partnership with the Institute of Public Law Studies (IEDP) of Sceaux. “The rights of the future” podcast

As part of the centenary of the FIDH, the Master 1 International and European Law – General Course of Sceaux, in particular Alizée, Auregane, Hanna, Lucile, Marine, Marion, Tom, Guilhem, Guillaume, produced a series on the rights of the future.

Interviewing various legal experts, historians, philosophers, and journalists, the students are elaborating a podcast on the future of the “right to the truth,” in particular with regard to the status and protection of whistleblowers, a way of looking differently at the complexity of access to information, and the history and future of human rights defenders.

Online in September 2022.

September 30 to October 15: International Solidarity Fortnight in Brussels

An exceptional partnership for FIDH’s centenary.

Brussels, city of light for human rights, is strongly committed to the centenary of the FIDH. A privileged, rich and committed partnership will be accompanied by various events in the city from September to December.

The highlight will be the participation in the International Solidarity Fortnight, held by the city every year in early October. This is a period of reflection, meetings and entertainment in various places around Brussels to better understand our world and instigate action at the local level.

The programme and the theme of this 2022 edition are particularly rich and FIDH is delighted with this collaboration.

The full programme will be available soon on this website.

23rd of October: Gala FIDH- Paris and Online

FIDH100 evening (by invitation) at the City Hall of Paris

FIDH invites human rights defenders from all of its 192 member organizations, its operational and financial partners, the French and European authorities, as well as representatives of the world’s major human rights institutions to come and celebrate 100 years of struggle. 100 years of determination to fight for the advent of a more just and equitable world.

Between surprises and festive spirit – it is above all an anniversary – FIDH will also propose its manifesto for the next 100 years as well as its political vision of the challenges and issues to come.

This gala evening will also mark the beginning of the 41st FIDH’s International Congress which will be held from October 24 to 27 in Paris

24 October: Forum of FIDH’s 41st International Congress (Paris and online)

A day of debates with experts from around the world

Our forum – open to civil society – proposes to re-articulate rights and our way of living in communion with the planet and to think and re-think interdependencies.

Reshaping the universalist discourse around these issues and reappropriating human rights is not a simple theoretical exercise; it is a necessity to build political alternatives to the current state of powerlessness.

Feminism and gender, new technologies. Common goods, education, democratic mechanisms, economic system and rights: How to ensure rights are legally upheld? Which international community? Which civil society and what is its role? Should nature be represented?

These topics will be addressed during round tables, debates, or testimonies.

Final programme will be available soon on this site.

Late November: Human Rights Week at the University of Geneva

The University of Geneva mobilises for human rights

Every year, the University of Geneva organises a Human Rights Week during the last week of November. Screenings, debates, exhibitions, conferences… for one week the Geneva academic community mobilises for the promotion of human rights.

This new 2022 edition is particularly happy to be associated with the FIDH in this centenary year. Around a Magnum exhibition, we will explore together the “human rights of the future”.

Full programme available soon on this website.

EU-NGO Forum 2022

Stop impunity: the road to accountability and justice

Human Rights in Crisis and Conflict

14 – 15 December 2022