The Project

The Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs) aims to monitor, analyze, and share information on initiatives that misuse religion, culture, and tradition to undermine the universality of human rights.

Human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent, and inalienable to every person in the world.

Yet, today conservative actors are targeting the systems established to protect our human rights. These actors use arguments based on extreme interpretations of religion, culture, and tradition, along with rhetoric linked to state sovereignty to roll back fundamental rights — particularly women’s rights and gender justice— and to justify state impunity.

Our Goal

The Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs) is a collaborative project that aims to monitor, analyze, share information and do collaborative advocacy on these anti-rights initiatives threatening international and regional human rights systems. Grounded in a feminist framework, the OURs initiative works across regions, issues, and human rights spaces towards the advancement of social justice.

I Am Free - International Women's Day 2015, New York  UN Women/Ryan Brown (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)