gva4HumanRights (Geneva for Human Rights – Global Training & Policy Studies – gva4HR) is an international training and policy studies organisation dedicated to contributing to the protection, promotion and implementation of human rights, particularly where gaps persist between international standards and realities on the ground.
For more than twenty years, gva4HR has supported and trained human rights NGOs, defenders, practitioners, young academics and other actors engaged in human-rights work, at both national and international levels. Its activities aim to strengthen agency, competence and strategic capacity in the use of domestic, regional and international human-rights mechanisms and to support the development of context-sensitive implementation strategies at national and local levels.
gva4HR’s work is guided by a set of foundational values and principles, including:
- Leaving no one behind and all rights for all;
- inclusivity and respect for diversity;
- self-expression and self-identification;
- individual and collective sovereignty and self-determination;
- Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), in its evolving and extended understandings.
These principles do not function as abstract commitments, but as operational drivers shaping gva4HR’s methodologies, partnerships and strategic choices.
Historical Anchoring and Institutional Memory
Already during the era of the UN Commission on Human Rights (1946–2006) and its Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (1947–2006), individuals who are today members, founders or close associates of gva4HR were actively involved – since the 1980s – in the inception, shaping and consolidation of international human-rights mechanisms, decisions, initiatives and normative standards.
They contributed to the elaboration of universal and internationally recognised human-rights norms, while simultaneously recognising that human rights are structurally vulnerable to capture, instrumentalisation and distortion. In response, they acted not only as contributors to norm-creation, but as guardians of integrity, standing up to protect human rights as living, people-centred frameworks rather than technocratic or political instruments.
Since then, this accumulated knowledge, expertise and ethical commitment has been continuously shared through training, accompaniment, advocacy and policy work, in support of victims, defenders, institutions and communities engaged in human-rights protection and implementation.
Training, Courses and Global Reach
Following the creation of the UN Human Rights Council in 2006, gva4HR conducted its Geneva Course during most ordinary sessions of the Council, enabling participants to understand, access and engage with UN mechanisms in a strategic, responsible and protection-aware manner.
In parallel and increasingly over the past decade, gva4HR has developed and delivered in-country and regional training programmes (typically 3–4 days), in close cooperation with local partners. These courses have been organised in, among others:
Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Botswana, Kenya, Bangladesh, Indonesia (Papua), Pakistan, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka and the Russian Federation, adapting content to political, cultural and risk contexts.
gva4HR also provides:
- Geneva briefings, particularly for national NGO coalitions engaging with treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review (UPR);
- expert seminars on key thematic and institutional issues on the agenda of the Human Rights Council;
- tailored support for strategic engagement, monitoring and follow-up.
In 2023, on the occasion of its 20 years of service and support, gva4HR formally consolidated its Circle of Trainers and of Friends, bringing together experienced practitioners and experts to ensure the transmission of context-relevant, practice-oriented and ethically grounded knowledge to trainees and partners.
gva4HR’s Pillars – Overview
gva4HR’s work is structured around three interlinked categories of pillars, each serving a distinct but complementary function.
1. Ethical Pillars – Why and from where we act
These pillars define gva4HR’s normative compass and posture. They ground all activities in:
- care and non-harm;
- dignity, agency and participation;
- self-determination and co-determination;
- accountability, integrity and responsibility.
They ensure that power, knowledge and action are exercised ethically and reflexively.
2. Strategic Pillars – How we act
These pillars structure gva4HR’s modes of engagement and core functions, including:
- Training and capacity-building;
- Advocacy and strategy;
- Implementation support and follow-up;
- Human-rights policy studies and UN monitoring.
They translate values into operational strategies across contexts and levels.
3. Transversal Pillars – How coherence is ensured across all work
These pillars cut across all activities, ensuring:
- inclusivity and intersectionality;
- protection awareness and risk sensitivity;
- knowledge pluralism and ethical research;
- linkage between global norms and local realities.
Together, these three categories of pillars enable gva4HR to function as a coherent, care-centred and purpose-driven vehicle for advancing human rights in practice, while remaining attentive to complexity, power dynamics and lived experience.