Two Weeks of International Advocacy at the United Nations
Every session of the UN Human Rights Council offers a critical opportunity to bring urgent human rights concerns directly to the world's most powerful diplomatic forums-and recently, our delegation of expert staff, global partners, and energetic volunteers traveled to Geneva to take part. Across two weeks of meetings, events, and panels, we advocated for LGBTQ+ rights, global abolition of the death penalty, and an end to gender-based violence against women. In addition, our delegation brought invaluable testimony to the UN about the Trump administration's immigration enforcement actions here in Minnesota and throughout the United States.
We lobbied Human Rights Council delegates from around the world as we helped countries prepare for the 52nd Session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in May, providing them key information from our stakeholder reports on Estonia, Latvia, Niger, Palau, Sierra Leone, Singapore, the Solomon Islands, and Somalia. These reports are an essential part of the UPR process, providing an accurate portrayal of the human rights situation on the ground in the countries under review. UN member countries can then incorporate our priority recommendations from these reports into the recommendations they make through the global peer-review process of the UPR.
Alongside our global partners, we called on governments to abolish the death penalty, ensure fair trial rights, improve detention conditions, and align national laws and practices with international human rights standards. During our side event "Gender and the Death Penalty in UPR 52", we highlighted the unique harms experienced by women and LGBTIQ+ persons in the administration of the death penalty in Niger, Singapore and Somalia. With the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, we also launched the new "Champions of Death Penalty Abolition 2025" resource to recognize the countries that took the lead worldwide and in their regions in making UPR recommendations related to death penalty abolition.
We also advocated on the issue of gender-based violence in Estonia, Latvia and Moldova. We called for stronger legal protections and effective enforcement of laws addressing violence against women, for stronger protections for women with disabilities and marginalized identities who experience gender-based violence, and for improved access to women’s healthcare in Latvia. To learn more about our work advocating for women’s rights domestically and internationally, check out our dedicated website at stopvaw.org
The Universal Periodic Review also provides a platform for raising concerns about discrimination, violence, and legal barriers affecting LGBTIQ+ communities around the globe. We focused on LGBTQ+ rights in Somalia, calling on its government to repeal Penal Code Articles 409 and 410, which criminalize consensual same-sex sexual activity between adults and puts sexual and gender minorities at serious risk of harm.We also recommended the government adopt legislation banning the use of so-called "conversion therapy" or similar practices and enact comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation explicitly prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.
As a human rights advocacy organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, we were also able to present firsthand information in numerous meetings with UN experts about the human rights impacts of federal immigration enforcement actions like Operation Metro Surge and Operation PARRIS. Board Member Dan Supalla delivered a powerful oral statement at the Human Rights Council during an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Torture, exposing abuses in immigration detention and calling on the U.S. to meet international standards for the treatment of detainees. Volunteer Ellen Archibald delivered a second oral statement at the Human Rights Council highlighting the US government's current practice of deporting migrants-including refugees and people with active asylum claims and protections under the Torture Convention-to third countries. Meanwhile, our Executive Director, Michele Garnett McKenzie, and volunteer Jan Conlin, of Ciresi Conlin LLP, took part in a panel discussion to share on-the-ground impacts of ICE and CBP action in Minnesota.
Collaborative advocacy is essential to advancing sustainable human rights reforms. We're proud of the work we've done alongside our global partners, and we remain committed to playing our part as members of the global human rights community.
