By Brendan Sweeney
The “Agenda for Human Rights” is a Swiss initiative that was launched on 5th December 2008 and aims to explore new ways of giving human rights the weight and place they deserve in the 21st century.
Designed as an evolving and dynamic process, intellectually and politically independent, the Agenda is currently being promoted worldwide by the Swiss government with the help of organisations such as the Danish Institute for Human Rights.
“The Agenda sets ambitious objectives and given Switzerland’s previous accomplishments in the field of human rights, I am sure that the objectives will be met in the best possible way. Switzerland plays a key role in facilitating and supporting intellectually and politically independent human rights work and the Danish Institute for Human Rights is happy to contribute to the further advance of the Agenda,” said Mads Holst Jensen PhD, an adviser in the Human Rights and Business Department at DIHR.
The initiative started as an academic process, intellectually independent, and without any political strings attached to it. Switzerland – and to a lesser extent - Norway and Austria financed the establishment of the initiative, but none of these governments sought to influence the content of the Agenda as it was developed in the lead up to December 2008.
It is now intended to widen the scope of the initiative and to rally a dozen or more like-minded states, from all continents. Some countries have already shown interest in participating in the follow-up of the initiative, and it is expected that others will follow suit.
The gradual involvement of the international community, and, in particular the UN family and other international organisations dealing with human rights, will further advance the Agenda and enhance the visibility and role of the participating states.
It is planned to promote the Agenda on every continent. Presented at the Organisation of American States (OAS) in Washington D. C. in March, the launch was followed by another and bigger event in the same organisation in April.
The organisers think that countries such as Brazil, Uruguay and Costa Rica could serve as a platform to promote the agenda in Latin America. With regard to Asia, the Swiss officials responsible for the project travelled to Thailand in March and this country is currently considering participation in the process.
Promotional activities are planned for the Arab world as well, and these will take place in Abu Dhabi and Doha towards the end of 2009. As for Africa, there will be a Pan-African event on 2 October in Cape Town. In Europe, meanwhile, the organisers plan to use the Council of Europe as a portal to bring the agenda to this continent.
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