September 2015: The UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) have established an online platform on social protection and human rights. Other partners in the platform include UN Women, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), and the UN regional commissions for Asia-Pacific (ESCAP), Western Asia (ESCWA) and Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

The platform provides information on the obligations created by existing human rights laws and standards, and their relevance to the design, implementation and evaluation of social protection programmes. The website also includes commentary on concerns such as transparency, inclusion of vulnerable groups, and matters of transparency and access to information, by people known for their work in those fields, in order to lay the groundwork for discussion of implementation issues.

In publicity material for the platform, UNRISD said the fields of social protection and human rights are moving closer together due to increasing awareness of issues relating to inequality and vulnerability, but implementing a rights-based approach to social protection will involve challenging existing assumptions.

The website began as a collaboration between UNRISD and the former UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Magdalena Sepulveda.

The partners will officially launch the platform at events during the 30th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 14 September-2 October 2015, including a side event on ‘Overcoming Exclusion and Promoting Rights: Challenges and Opportunities in Social Protection’ on 16 September, and a workshop on 17 September on ‘Finding Ways Forward: Challenges and Opportunities in Creating Rights-Based Social Protection Systems.’ [Social Protection-Human Rights Platform] [Launch Event Webpage] [Workshop Webpage] [HRC 30]