gva4HR is an international training and policy studies organization aiming at contributing to the implementation and protection of human rights in the countries.
Since more than 20 years gva4HR supports and trains human rights NGOs, defenders, practitioners, young academics and all those involved in human rights, at national and global level, to empower them in the use of domestic, regional and international procedures, and to realize implementation strategies at national level.
Leaving no one left behind and ‘all the 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: these are core values and driving forces leading our strategies and actions.
Already at the time of the Commission of Human Rights (1946-2006) and its Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (1947-2006), gva4HR’s actual members and friends, since the 80’s, have been key if not crucial in contributing to the inception and creation of human rights mechanisms, bodies, decisions and initiatives as well as to the elaboration of universal standards and internationally recognised fundamental rights. As human rights are structurally prone to capture, instrumentalisation and distortion, they stood up to protect and serve them.
Since then, they have shared their knowledge, expertise and commitment in supporting victims, defenders and all those involved in the protection, promotion and implementation of human rights. gva4HR’s Circle of Trainers, created at the occasion of our 20 years of service and support, in 2023, contributes to bring specific and pertinent knowledge and expertise to our trainees and partners.
Since the creation of the UN Human Rights Council (‘HR-Council’) in 2006, gva4HR conducted its Geneva Course during most of the ordinary sessions of the HR-Council. In recent years, gva4HR also organized with its partners in the field and in the Regions, dozens of (3-4 days) in-Country Courses for defenders in Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Russia, Botswana, Kenya, Bangladesh, Indonesia (Papua), Pakistan, Nepal, India, and Sri-Lanka.
gva4HR gives also Geneva briefings (especially for national NGOs coalitions) during sessions of the treaty bodies and of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). It also convenes Experts Seminars on the main issues on the agenda of the HR-Council.
Our organisation’s pillars are training and research, advocacy and strategy, implementation and follow-up as well as HR policy studies and UN monitoring.