Human Rights Research League

Human Rights Research League

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Research. Education. Advocacy. Development. (R.E.A.D.)

Mission statement

The Human Rights Research League (HRRL) is a non-governmental organization in consultative status with the United Nations (ECOSOC) aiming at protecting individuals by placing acts contrary to human rights and international humanitarian law, systemic grievances as well as humanitarian emergencies on the agenda. HRRL seeks to contribute to knowledge and research based public discussion and problem analysis without geographical, political, confessional or other limitations or alignments.

As our name suggests, we are an organization primarily focused on research from the basis of a strong academic foundation. However, we recognize that lasting impact and positive change also depend on connecting academics and practitioners, combining research on root causes of human rights challenges with implementation of projects and policies addressing those grievances.

To this end, we are engaged in four focus areas: Research. Education. Advocacy. Development. (R.E.A.D.), all with a view to bridging the gap between academic and practical approaches to human rights, and between problem analysis and implementation of solutions.

News & reports

‹ Back

At the 62nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Human Rights Research League (HRRL) delivered an oral statement during the Enhanced Interactive Dialogue with the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the situation of human rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In his intervention, HRRL Chairman Tom Syring emphasized that the situation in the eastern DRC remained particularly challenging, especially since the occupation of the cities of Bukavu and Goma by the M23, which again led to massive displacements and grave violations of human rights, even further worsened by the latest Ebola epidemic in the region.

HRRL welcomes efforts leading up to a peace agreement between the DRC and Rwanda, but, having the recent intensification of fighting in mind, cautions against premature optimism. HRRL also underlines that the most vulnerable populations even after a peace agreement are the ones who have been forcibly displaced. Among the major challenges of protection are the lack of documents or legal title to land of those displaced, which represent serious obstacles to any return, even after a conflict has ended.

These and other challenges were also the topic of an international conference in Kinshasa on durable solutions to forced displacement, which Human Rights Research League organized along with UNHCR and ICRC several years ago, and HRRL asks the DRC government to implement the recommendations of the conference which the government had accepted at the time, in particular by finally adopting a law on the protection of internally displaced persons.

For the full statement (in French only), pleas see the video of the Oral Statement.

Conferences & calls

Call for Papers: 7th Annual International Refugee Law Student Writing Competition

2021-01-13 00:00 The American Society of International Law's International Refugee Law Interest Group (IRLIG) announces its seventh annual International Refugee Law Student Writing Competition, co-sponsored by the Glo...