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A new policy brief written by the RLS Geneva Programme Director, Eva Wuchold

Eva Wuchold’s policy brief is a call to action to re-politicize and revitalize the international human rights system amid growing threats from authoritarianism, economic exploitation, religious fundamentalism, and far-right movements. Far from being symbolic, current attacks on human rights represent structural crises and deliberate power plays, eroding the universality and enforceability of human rights norms.

The policy brief outlines how international mechanisms—from the UN to regional courts—are underfunded, politically paralyzed, and applied selectively, often failing the very populations they are meant to protect. Case studies from Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and Myanmar illustrate the dangerous normalization of rights violations and the geopolitical double standards that underpin international responses.

Wuchold emphasizes that human rights must be reclaimed as a political strategy, not just a legal framework. They should be leveraged to challenge systemic inequality, confront climate injustice, and democratize global governance. She argues for a shift from technocratic approaches to one grounded in global justice and collective mobilization.

A central theme is the absence of a unified, transnational human rights movement. While many grassroots and thematic struggles exist—particularly in the Global South—they often operate in silos, fragmented by unequal resources, geopolitical hierarchies, and conceptual divides. The brief calls for a “movement of movements” that links feminist, ecological, anti-racist, and decolonial struggles under a shared political vision.

Gender justice is highlighted as a key indicator of human rights commitment, under attack globally but also offering a foundation for rethinking peace and security policies through feminist lenses. The paper champions feminist movements for pioneering a holistic human rights agenda that centers care, reproductive rights, and collective security.

Wuchold concludes that while the international human rights system is flawed and fragile, abandoning it would be worse. Instead, it must be defended critically and reimagined as a dynamic, participatory, and justice-driven project. Real progress depends not on top-down reform, but on bottom-up mobilization—a global alliance that treats rights not as granted, but as claimed through struggle.