Human rights beyond borders: The Maastricht Principles turn five
Blog / 8th October 2016Five years ago, the Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States was adopted in the area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and these Principles are increasingly being used by civil society organisations to hold States accountable for their extraterritorial conduct. Human rights obligations are now well recognized to extend beyond borders, as explained in the following news update published by the ETO Consortium.
‘Good news’ claiming ‘falling global poverty’ isn’t news at all
Blog / 7th October 2016Is poverty really on the decline across the world, as widely reported by the World Bank and United Nations? This ‘good news’ narrative is far from the whole truth, explains The Rules team.
A new deal for refugees and migrants?
Blog / 13th September 2016As world leaders gear up for the first ever UN Summit on refugees and migrants, civil society organisations already expect the summit to fail to agree any concrete steps for governments to share the responsibility for dealing with the escalating crisis. That is why calls for putting the equitable sharing of responsibility into practice will continue well after the Summits, reports Josephine Liebl of Oxfam International.
Corporations running the world used to be science fiction – Now it’s a reality
Blog / 13th September 2016The power of corporations has reached a level never before seen in human history, often dwarfing the power of states. That is why civil society organisations are backing the new UN initiative for a legally binding global treaty on transnational corporations and human rights, as explained by Aisha Dodwell of Global Justice Now.
The call for sharing as #OneHumanity
Blog / 23rd August 2016Only when public conscience is sufficiently awakened to the critical needs of others, only when a huge swathe of the populace is standing up for the basic rights of the poorest among us – only then can we talk of a humanity that shares in any meaningful sense of the word.




