On Friday 6 June 2025, Regent’s Principal Professor Sir Malcolm Evans took part in a human rights conference at the University of Innsbruck in Austria – ‘Present Human Rights Challenges – in Europe and Beyond’ – where renowned international experts addressed key challenges facing contemporary human rights protection.

Sir Malcolm discussed the enormous difficulties currently confronting the UN Human Rights Treaty System. Under-resourced and overburdened by a monitoring system that has steadily expanded over the past decades, Malcolm argued that the entire mechanism risks collapse – and yet UN Member States largely remain passive. Although reform proposals aimed at streamlining the monitoring system have been presented, it is highly unlikely they will be implemented in the near future.

Malcolm spoke alongside other eminent human rights specialists, such as Gudmundur Alfredsson (Stefansson Arctic Institute in Iceland), Giuseppe Cataldi (University of Napoli Orientale), Athanasia Spiliopoulou Åkermark (Åbo Akademi University), and Romedi Arquint (representative of Convivenza, Switzerland) among others.

The recurring theme throughout the conference was: Monitoring in the field of human rights is often ineffective. States are increasingly disillusioned with the process, and the general public is largely disengaged from the issue. As a result, serious implementation gaps persist.

After a series of presentations and a final discussion, the general consensus of the gathered participants was that human rights experts must take on the challenge of defending the system, while also recognising the need to adapt and improve relevant international legal frameworks. Human rights may be the ‘last Utopia’ – but one worth fighting for, even if the system will always remain imperfect and incomplete.

The proceedings of the conference will be published in the journal Europa Ethnica.