Human rights leadership
The University of York’s UNESCO HRD Hub is developing research and training to build leadership capacities and support for human rights defenders, activists and academics.
The UNESCO Chair has adopted leadership development as a core priority area in its training and capacity building. Our focus reflects a growing awarness that systems and tools to support leadership practice and development in human rights are limited. Yet these remain more urgent than ever amidst the myriad of human rights crises we face today. At the UNESCO HRD Hub, we focus on leadership in terms of a number of themes in human rights practice, including:
The charactaristics, qualities, and styles of leadership
Values and ethics in human rights leadership
Leadership and its relationship to practices of wellbeing and resilience
Leadership, risk, crises and emergencies
Culture and leadership
Identity, power, intersectionality and leadership
What makes a good human rights leader? We asked Chris Opio at the Oil Refinery Residents Association in Uganda
What is leadership in human rights and what are its challenges? We asked Laura Miti (Alliance for Community Action, Zambia) and Subhash Chandra (War Resisters’ International)
“Human rights organisations and networks, large or small, all rely on some form of leadership (whether formal or informal, hierarchical or more collaborative). But just as there is a lack of information about what leadership means for defending, human rights organisations usually have very little resources available to nurture those who have or who could have leadership responsibilities.”
This action research project worked with 20 human rights defenders to explore questions of leadership in a human rights setting and to apply emerging insights and lessons in their leadership practice. The study took place between January 2023-December 2023. The study group was made up of defenders from different geographic regions, organisational settings and working on a range of human rights issues, from civil and political rights to land and environmental rights.
Applied Research
Podcast Series
In the Human Rights Leadership podcast series we meet with human rights defenders and activists to learn about their work and practice. We don’t just dwell on problems; we are concerned to understand how leadership can help human rights organisations, and the movement more broadly, emerge positively from the myriad of crises in human rights today.
Listen now or follow on Apple Podcasts
Publications
Human Rights Leadership: An Action Research Project
Human Rights Leadership: Policy Brief
Human Rights Leadership in Challenging Times: An Agenda for Research and Practice
Human Rights Leadership:
Towards a Research and Practice Agenda for Challenging Times