FAQs

The next event will take place from 8 to 11 February 2027. It will be held exclusively online, providing an accessible platform for international exchange and participation.

The Academy will be held using the open-source conferencing platform BigBlueButton. The International Centre for the Promotion of Human Rights at the Local and Regional Levels hosts the platform on its own secure and encrypted server. Participants do not need to download any software and can join securely via their browsers. The Academy will be held in English, without interpretation.

The Conference will be streamed via Zoom. Live interpretation will be provided in German, English, French and Spanish.

Please find further information in the section Participation and Access.

In general, we recommend the following for participation in our online events:

A good and stable internet connection; mobile networks are not recommended.

Google Chrome (recommended), Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Edge. Opera is not supported by BigBlueButton.

Headphones and a microphone.
A quiet location from which you can participate.

Please avoid using institutional networks where possible, as firewalls may cause connection issues.

No visa or travel arrangements are required, as the event will be held exclusively online.

Participation in the Academy and Conference is free of charge upon registration.

The Academy aims to facilitate exchange on eye-level between different actors, regions and governance levels. No lectures or traditional teaching methods are used; instead, participatory and inclusive methods will be applied in the workshops in order to match and synthesize experiences and approaches relevant to our topic.

The Academy convenes daily from 11:30 to 16:00 (GMT+1). Each day is structured around a plenary session, interactive workshop sessions, and a closing session, complemented by dedicated networking opportunities. This design ensures a balance of knowledge exchange, practical dialogue, and relationship-building.

The Conference is a high-level closing event of the Academy. It brings together high-level representatives from international organizations and local governments and presents the main outcome of the Academy: the Outcome Document. The Outcome Document contains encouragements for local governments, drawing on the discussions and contributions gathered throughout the Academy.

The event focuses on engagement and interaction – think of the Academy as a giant round table discussion in which each participant speaks about their experiences in terms of „what works“ in the realisation of human rights.
There are no formal presentations, only discussions and exchanges at eye level. Regardless of formal position, every participant is an expert in their own right.
The Academy is informal in nature, which means that we do not work with presentations or formal lectures. The main goal of the event is to bring practitioners together at the same table and produce feasible and useful outputs for local governments. We would like to hear about your day-to-day work experiences and exchange ideas about “what works”, so that we can co-create a tangible output in the form of the Outcome Document.
Your active participation on all days is crucial. The Academy is envisioned as a single overall workshop that brings together various perspectives on the topics and produces meaningful results. As a result, active participation in all strands, formats and events is strongly encouraged.

By “next-generation human rights experts”, we mean young professionals and emerging practitioners, including students, trainees in public administration, those at an early stage of their careers, and professionals seeking to transition into a new field or role related to human rights and local governance.

We are organising a special networking event for members of the next generation. The online networking event seeks to establish a link between today’s stakeholders and tomorrow’s actors: exchange practical knowledge about working in the broad field of human rights, discuss future perspectives and aspirations, and gain insights into professional opportunities at the local level – a sphere of ever-increasing importance for the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the international human rights agenda.

A dedicated networking space connects emerging human rights professionals with established experts. This event:

Helps early-career practitioners of all ages discover potential career opportunities and role models in the field of local human rights governance.

Provides an interactive forum to explore the linkages between climate protection, green budgeting and human rights at the local level, focusing on “localising the Green Deal”.

Presents next-generation human rights experts with potential job opportunities in the field of human rights and good governance.

Fosters mentorship and the development of sustainable professional relationships between generations.