Online International Conference: Sixty Years of the International Covenants on Human Rights

IPSA RESEARCH COMMITTEE 26 ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Interim Conference 2026 · Online

Sixty Years of the International Covenants on Human Rights

Civil and Political Rights · Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966–2026)

Online International Conference

Human Rights Day

16 December 2026

CALL FOR PAPERS

On 16 December 1966 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) by resolution 2200 A (XXI). Together with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they form the International Bill of Human Rights. Their 60th anniversary is a good reason to reflect on what the Covenants have achieved, what remains unfulfilled, and how they should respond to the challenges of our time.

The decision to adopt two separate treaties reflected deep disagreements about the nature of rights. Civil and political rights were seen as immediately enforceable; economic, social and cultural rights, as goals to be realised progressively. United Nations bodies have long defended the universality, indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights, yet these characteristics are still contested in theory and unevenly honoured in practice.

Regarding civil rights, technology raises new problems for freedom of expression, privacy and equality. Some argue that old concepts must be partly redefined, while others call for entirely new approaches. Concerning political rights, citizens’ disaffection with politics is growing, democratic institutions are under strain, and there is a demand for more deliberation, participation and accountability. Political rights must be understood within the framework of a democracy of quality.

With regard to economic and social rights, their entitlement and full enforcement remain controversial: should they be universal or targeted at those in need, how far are they justiciable, and what is the relationship between liberal rights and social rights? In relation to cultural rights, the position of minorities differs across societies but is often framed as a struggle against assimilation, while the recognition of differentiated identities may face criticism from the standpoint of autonomy or gender equality.

The Interim Conference of the IPSA Research Committee 26 on Human Rights invites scholars from political science, law, philosophy, sociology, international relations and related disciplines, as well as practitioners, to discuss these questions. Theoretical, doctrinal, empirical and comparative contributions are equally welcome, as are proposals from early-career researchers and doctoral students.

PANELS

The conference will be organised in six panels. Each panel will have a Chair and a Discussant.

Panel 1	Sixty years of the Covenants: history, legacy and indivisibilityThe drafting history and the decision to split the Universal Declaration into two treaties; the Cold War divide between “liberty” and “equality” rights; the doctrine of universality, indivisibility and interdependence from Tehran (1968) and Vienna (1993) to today; and whether the Covenants still provide a shared normative language in a fragmented international order.
Panel 2	Civil rights in the digital ageFreedom of expression, hate speech and disinformation; privacy, data protection and surveillance; artificial intelligence and algorithmic decision-making; freedom of thought, conscience and religion; equality and non-discrimination under the ICCPR and the case law of the Human Rights Committee.
Panel 3	Political rights and the quality of democracyArticle 25 ICCPR and the right to take part in public affairs; democratic backsliding and emergency powers; deliberation, participation and the accountability of political leaders; elections and the digital public sphere; the political rights of migrants and other non-citizens.
Panel 4	Economic and social rights: from aspiration to enforcementProgressive realisation, minimum core obligations and maximum available resources; justiciability and the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR; health, housing, education, work and social security; austerity, poverty and inequality; universal entitlement versus targeting those in need; the costs of rights.
Panel 5	Cultural rights, minorities and identityArticle 27 ICCPR and Article 15 ICESCR; minorities, Indigenous peoples and the right to take part in cultural life; recognition, assimilation and the limits of accommodation; tensions between group rights, individual autonomy and gender equality; language, religion and cultural heritage.
Panel 6	Monitoring, compliance and the future of the human rights treaty systemThe Human Rights Committee and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; individual communications, state reporting and treaty body reform; regional systems and domestic courts as enforcers of Covenant rights; the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals; climate change, migration and new challenges for the next sixty years.

SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS

Abstracts of up to 400 words in English, indicating the preferred panel, together with the author’s name, affiliation, e-mail address and a short biographical note (up to 100 words).
Abstracts and any queries should be sent to humanrights@webphilosophia.com with the subject line “RC26 Interim Conference 2026”.
Each participant may present one paper as first author. Co-authored papers are welcome.

IMPORTANT DATES

Deadline for abstracts	22 November 2026
Notification of acceptance	29 November 2026
Publication of the programme	1 December 2026
Online conference	16 December 2026
Deadline for full papers (special issue)	30 March 2027

FORMAT AND PARTICIPATION

The conference will be held entirely online. Each presentation will last about 15 minutes, followed by the Discussant’s comments and an open debate. Sessions will be scheduled in Central European Time (CET, UTC+1), taking into account the time zones of the participants. Connection details will be sent to the speakers and to registered attendees before the conference. Participation is free of charge.

PUBLICATION: SPECIAL ISSUE OF THE JOURNAL OF GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS

Selected papers presented at the conference will be considered for publication in a special issue of the Journal of Global Human Rights devoted to the 60th anniversary of the Covenants. Full papers must be submitted through the journal’s online system and will undergo the journal’s ordinary peer review. Presentation at the conference does not guarantee publication.

About the journal. The Journal of Global Human Rights is an international, interdisciplinary journal that publishes original research on human rights from philosophy, law, political science, sociology and related fields. This journal is affiliated with IPSA Research Committee 26 (Human Rights). Its main features are:

Scope: normative foundations of human rights; democracy, constitutionalism and the rule of law; equality, minorities and vulnerable groups; freedom of expression and the digital public sphere; international and regional human rights systems; and human rights in times of crisis, conflict and technological change.
Peer review: research articles undergo double-anonymous peer review by at least two independent reviewers.
Open access, no fees: articles are published in immediate open access under a Creative Commons licence. There are no submission fees and no article processing charges, and authors retain copyright.
Persistent identifiers and ethics: every article receives a DOI through Crossref, and the journal follows COPE guidelines on publication ethics, including a policy on the disclosure of generative AI use.
Periodicity and language: biannual, published in English (British or American spelling, used consistently). The first issue (Vol. 1, No. 1) appeared in 2026.
Author guidelines: research articles of 6,000–12,000 words; abstract of up to 250 words and 5–8 keywords; references in APA 7th edition; anonymised manuscript, title page and biographical note submitted as separate files, using the journal’s templates.

Website: journalglobalhumanrights.webphilosophia.com

ORGANISATION

Research Committee 26 on Human Rights, International Political Science Association (IPSA). Website: rc26.ipsa.org

In collaboration with the Journal of Global Human Rights.

Link to connect:

https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/7953ad9a23764c30bafa7044498ce380

III INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON DEMOCRACY AND CONSTITUTIONALISM, 29-30 October 2026

Democracy Beyond Consensus: Constitutionalism, Power and Plural Futures in a Fragmented World

29–30 October 2026
Online International Conference

19:00h–21:00h CET

SESSION II

Democracy after Consensus: Representation, Participation and Constitutional Legitimacy

This session examines transformations in the foundations of democratic legitimacy, focusing on contested constitutional concepts, political participation, electoral representation, accessibility and the relationship between constitutional and international human rights standards.

Moderator: FURQAN AHMED

19:00–19:20

Separation of Powers as an Essentially Contested Concept: Between Constitutionalism and Democracy

Oscar Pérez de la Fuente

Discussion focus: Separation of powers, constitutionalism, democracy, judicial independence and the counter-majoritarian problem.

19:20–19:40

Cyberdemocracy and Accessibility: Equal Political Participation from a Feminist Disability Perspective

Reginaldo de Souza Vieira & Priscylla Alves Piucco

Discussion focus: Cyberdemocracy, equal political participation, accessibility, gender and the political inclusion of women with disabilities.

19:40–20:00

Candidaturas Independientes y Control de Convencionalidad en Brasil: el Tema 974 del STF a la Luz del Artículo 23 de la Convención Americana sobre Derechos Humanos

Luis Filipe Maia

Discussion focus: Independent candidacies, political rights, constitutional adjudication and conventionality control under the American Convention on Human Rights.

20:00–20:40

COLLECTIVE DISCUSSION

Representation Beyond Formality: Participation, Rights and Democratic Legitimacy

Ponencia online «Desinformación y virtudes epistémicas», Corporación Universitaria Autónoma del Cauca, Colombia

I Congreso Internacional de Derecho, Tendencias Globales y Debates Contemporáneos

Programa de Derecho · Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Corporación Universitaria Autónoma del Cauca, Colombia.

17 y 18 de septiembre de 2026, 18:00h – 19:00h CEST

https://www.congresoderechoautonoma.com/ponentes/oscar-perez-de-la-fuente#top

Hybrid National Conference, Kula Women’s College, Nambol, Manipur, India.

Keynote speaker on «Disinformation and epsitemic virtues» in the Hybrid National Conference on CONFLICT AND UNREST IN NORTHEAST INDIA: EMERGING CHALLENGES, 26 to 28 February 2026, Kula Women’s College, Nambol, Manipur, India.

Recensión Luis Miguel Jaraba, Bridging the Digital Divide. Perspectives on Inequality and Discrimination in the Digital Age, Derechos y Libertades, núm. 54

Jaraba Andrade, Luis Miguel (2006), Oscar Pérez de la Fuente, Jedrzej Skrzypczak (eds.), Bridging the Digital Divide. Perspectives on Inequality and Discrimination in the Digital Age. DERECHOS Y LIBERTADES: Revista De Filosofía Del Derecho Y Derechos Humanos, 54, 321-333. https://doi.org/10.20318/dyl.2026.9987

Disponible:

https://e-revistas.uc3m.es/index.php/DYL/es/article/view/9987

Review Juan Pablo Carabajal, Bridging the Digital Divide, Przegląd Politologiczny

Carbajal-Camberos, J. P. (2025). Pérez de la Fuente Oscar, and Skrzypczak Jędrzej (eds.), Bridging the Digital Divide: Perspectives on Inequality and Discrimination in the Digital Age. Przegląd Politologiczny, (3), 313–315. https://doi.org/10.14746/pp.2025.30.3.21

Available by clicking this link:

https://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/pp/article/view/51299

IPSA RC26 human rights day 2025

Conference on culture of peace and human rights, Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa, 2 December 2026

II Democracy and Constitutionalism International Conference

Democracies now face interacting crises, climate disruption, energy and food shocks, geopolitical conflict, and cyber risks, that cascade across systems and jurisdictions, eroding institutional capacity and public trust. Traditional single‑hazard approaches prove inadequate; current research emphasizes systemic risk frameworks and polycrisis governance to preserve legitimacy and effectiveness.

At the same time, behavioral public policy is evolving from narrow nudges toward agency‑enhancing, deliberative, and participatory models that better align with constitutional commitments to autonomy, proportionality, and accountability in high‑stakes transitions. Integrating these strands is timely for constitutional design and administrative practice.

Pérez de la Fuente, Oscar, Skrzypczak, Jędrzej (eds.), Bridging the Digital Divide: Perspectives on Inequality and Discrimination in the Digital Age, Palgrave MacMillan, 2025

New publication: Pérez de la Fuente, Oscar, Skrzypczak, Jędrzej (eds.), Bridging the Digital Divide: Perspectives on Inequality and Discrimination in the Digital Age, Palgrave MacMillan, Cham, 2025, 187 pp. ISBN 303183478X

The digital revolution has sparked a new wave of inequality, particularly in access to technology and its benefits. Understanding these disparities is vital for grasping their impact on contemporary society. One manifestation is through artificial intelligence, algorithms, and misinformation. AI-driven systems, used in decision-making like job applications and loan approvals, can exhibit biases due to skewed datasets. Algorithms also spread false information on social media platforms with minimal oversight.

Digital labor and the platform economy exacerbate inequality. While platforms like Uber and Airbnb offer income opportunities, workers lack basic protections like minimum wage laws. Additionally, personal data is often exploited without consent. Cybersafety and cybercrime further highlight digital inequalities. Some have access to robust security measures, while others lack basic knowledge, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation. Economic barriers also hinder participation in gaming and other digital spaces. Big data collection practices can deepen existing disparities, especially regarding socioeconomic status and demographics. Public policies must address these issues to ensure equal access to technology for all.

This book aims to shed light on these disparities and develop solutions for a more equitable technological landscape.

.- Pérez de la Fuente, Oscar, “Bridging the digital divide: an overview” in Pérez de la Fuente, Oscar, Skrzypczak, Jędrzej (eds.), Bridging the Digital Divide: Perspectives on Inequality and Discrimination in the Digital Age, Palgrave MacMillan, Cham, 2025, ISBN 303183478X, pp. 1-22.

– Pérez de la Fuente, Oscar, “Clicks that hurt: persons with disabilities and the challenge of online hate speech” in Pérez de la Fuente, Oscar, Skrzypczak, Jędrzej (eds.), Bridging the Digital Divide: Perspectives on Inequality and Discrimination in the Digital Age, Palgrave MacMillan, Cham, 2025, ISBN 303183478X, pp. 207-234.

More information: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-83479-0