On 5 December 2008, with the support of Austria and Norway, Switzerland launched an "Agenda for Human Rights". The initiative emerged in connection with the celebrations marking the 60-year jubilee of the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” (10 December 1948). The underlying objective of the Agenda is to take stock of the developments pertaining to human rights over the last 60 years and to point out possible ways on how to enhance the protection of human rights in the 21st century. 

An independent “Panel of eminent persons” hailing from different countries – in the meantime renamed as the “Panel on Human Dignity” – has fleshed out the Agenda with support provided by the Geneva Academy for International Humanitarian Law and Human rights. The panel is co-chaired by the Pakistani Hina Jilani, lawyer for human rights and co-founder of the Human Rights Commission Pakistan, and the Brazilian human rights expert, Professor Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro. Ms. Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, serves as honorary chairperson. 

Along with Switzerland, the initiative has to date received support from the so-called “core group” comprised of Austria, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Brazil, and Qatar. Until now, the work undertaken has centred on the following nine thematic domains, which also form the object of a series of publications (cf. www.udhr60.ch): human dignity, prevention, the situation of prisoners and of detention conditions in general, migration, statelessness, the right to health, climate change, and a world court of human rights. 

In the future, the Panel intends to delve more deeply into the following thematic areas: an international court of human rights, general prison conditions (with a special accent on juvenile prisons), access to justice (in particular for poor segments of the population), education on human rights, and the impact of climate change on human rights. 

An additional goal being targeted is to make the “Agenda for Human Rights” known in more and more parts of the world and to heighten its profile in international fora, while motivating as many states as possible to support the initiative and thereby improve the human rights situation worldwide.