Organised by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Universal Rights Group (URG), and with support from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF), the Impact Exchange is new platform on human rights (intended to be annual), aiming to provide a ‘safe space’ and constructive forum wherein:
States can report on progress with implementation of the UN human rights mechanisms‘ recommendations and impact in pre-selected thematic areas (e.g., women’s and girls’ rights, freedom from torture, the right to clean and safe drinking water and sanitation), share experiences and achievements with implementation, recall challenges and how they were overcome, present data (e.g., from national statistics agencies) showing the impact on the level of enjoyment of human rights and sustainable development, and describe future plans and policies.
Other States can recognise or acknowledge success, and in turn also share experiences and good practices of their own on how challenges and obstacles in their countries were overcome, and where progress has been achieved (and lessons learnt).
UN agencies and programmes (as well as bilateral development partners, the World Bank, and other development institutions) can share information and good practices on how they have supported human rights recommendations’ implementation, helped measure impact, and leveraged State engagement with the UN human rights mechanisms to promote a ‘human rights powered approach to sustainable development.’
Bilateral development partners (from the global North and South) can share information on South-South, North-South, South-North, and triangular cooperation to support human rights progress and sustainable development.
National human rights institutions (NHRIs) can present good practices regarding how they have supported State implementation measures and promoted further progress by gathering data on impact and compliance.
Civil society organisations and academia can present studies on human rights implementation and impact, and its effects on sustainable development.
The Impact Exchange is an annual half-day meeting (with a reception afterwards), open to all Permanent Missions in Geneva (as well as, in future years, officials from relevant line ministries and state agencies, as well as selected parliamentarians), representatives of UN agencies and programmes / UN Country Teams (e.g., Resident Coordinators), NHRIs, and selected civil society organisations. Each Impact Exchange will be organised around the time of Human Rights Day.
The Impact Exchange is an annual half-day meeting (with a reception afterwards), open to all Permanent Missions in Geneva (as well as, in future years, officials from relevant line ministries and state agencies, as well as selected parliamentarians), representatives of UN agencies and programmes / UN Country Teams (e.g., Resident Coordinators), NHRIs, and selected civil society organisations. Each Impact Exchange will be organised around the time of Human Rights Day.
The Impact Exchange will consist of an interactive panel discussion (Davos style) during which:
1. Five States (from each UN region) will present national case studies, explaining achievements, shortfalls, challenges and how they were overcome, lessons learnt, how they were assisted by OHCHR and other UN agencies and programmes, how the implementation of UN human rights recommendations was taken forward through new or amended laws, policies, and practices, how impact was measured through statistical indicators, and how information on progress, as well as new policy ideas to further strengthen the enjoyment of human rights, were fed back into the UN human rights mechanisms through periodic reporting.
2. UN entities, NGOs, and NHRIs would present information on how they have successfully leveraged States’ engagement with the UN human rights mechanisms to secure positive human rights change, including by supporting the implementation of recommendations: how they have fed information into UN periodic reports to secure change, and then pressed and worked with the concerned government to implement resulting recommendations.
3. All participants will have the opportunity to engage in an interactive dialogue with the speakers and briefly share their own national stories relevant to the chosen theme.
Impact Exchange 2025
The first Impact Exchange event will reflect on national stories of implementation and impact in reducing inequality through the progressive realisation of economic, social, and cultural rights ‘leaving no one behind,’ and the human rights economy.
Many of the barriers people face in accessing services, resources, and opportunities, and thus in fully enjoying their economic and social rights, are not simply accidents of fate or a result of insufficient resources, but are rather the result of deliberate government choices, policies, and law-making that create or perpetuate inequalities, or of social practices and norms (that governments either fail to confront or actively encourage) that leave particular groups of people further and further behind.
One approach to addresses such inequalities is to build a human rights economy focused on securing more equitable, just, and sustainable development. The principal goal of a human rights economy is protecting human rights and the health of the planet. It centres people and the environment in economic, social, and environmental decision-making ensuring that development, macroeconomic, industrial and trade laws, policies, programs and plans as well as investment decisions, consumer choices, business models and business operations are firmly guided by human rights.
In practice the human rights economy means using States’ human rights obligations to navigate trade-offs in economic policies – whether on budgets, revenue generation, trade and industrial polices, private sector engagement, and other aspects of economic policy making.
By aligning fiscal and economic policy with their human rights obligations, States can expand fiscal space, strengthen social protection systems, and direct public investment toward the progressive realization of rights. Measures such as progressive taxation, combating illicit financial flows, and ensuring participatory, transparent budget processes are central to building economies that reduce inequalities and deliver tangible outcomes for people and the planet.
