The theme of this year’s session was “Strengthening democracies to build back better: challenges and opportunities”, in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 46/4, adopted on 23 March 2021. The event was organised by the UN Human Rights Council and held in the Palais des Nations. OIDEL took part in two panel discussions.

Arja Krauchenberg participated, on behalf of OIDEL, in the first panel discussion titled “Learning through adversity: mapping pandemic-related democratic erosion”. The Session was opened by the president of the HRC, Mr. Federico Villegas and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Volker Türk. Ms. Krauchenberg took the floor to highlight Covid-19’s impact on the right to education, specifically on the children’s right to quality education.

The second panel discussion was centered around “Building blocks of building back: developing stronger institutions and fostering trust in government” to explore specific ways to increase public trust. Josyane Zingg (OIDEL) took the floor and suggested that re-establishing trust in regard to education starts by guaranteeing parents the freedom to choose the education for their children and continues by building frameworks for parents to participate in decision-making processes.