The Institute’s area of work includes activities related to socio-political impact or direct intervention to foster human rights and their protection. Some of these actions are its own initiatives although the majority are carried out in collaboration with different public institutions, academic centres, non-governmental and other social organisations.

The main objective is to achieve direct impact on human rights protection, even in personal cases. Different types of activities are held to achieve this: specialist courses, advisory services for different social agents or public institutions, reports or actions to directly impact social or institutional actors.

The following actions are especially noteworthy:

• Technical advisory services for social organisations (Rigoberta Menchú Foundation)
• Reports and assessment for Basque institutions (the legal and social situation of stowaways, the philosophical and operational bases of the Basque Immigration Scheme, legislative proposals)
• Direct political actions (the drive to present appeals on the grounds of unconstitutionality, Biscay Declaration on Human Right to the Environment, Luarca Declaration on the Human Right to Peace).
  • Work focusing on political impact, mainly though the Training Programme for Indigenous Latin American Leaders.
• The Institute has also participated in programmes to host human rights advocates or actions focusing on specific political impact in southern countries, particularly Colombia or the Western Sahara.
• Foster development cooperation projects jointly with other organisations (University of Rafael Landivar in the Verapaz region of Guatemala, cooperating to set up an indigenous university in Ecuador).

The institute belongs to socially relevant bodies or boards of trustees (Alboan, CeiMigra, Gernika Gogoratuz, Council of Europe expert committees, the Observatory of Religious Pluralism in Spain, Association of Human Rights Institutes – AHRI, Monitoring Committee of the National Human Rights Plan, the Basque Expert Panel for the Social Pact on Immigration).

Human Rights culture

The Institute mainly focuses on awareness raising and commitment to promoting a Human Rights culture in our society. Different types of activities are organised to achieve this objective, such as conferences, seminars, congresses and courses.

These activities are organised both in collaboration with other social agents and independently. Some of the latest activities are as follow:


HUMAN RIGHTS MEETINGS-SAN SEBASTIAN

• Truth and memory in reconciliation processes: international experiences and challenges for the Basque case.
• Transitional Justice: proposals for the Basque case.
• Answers to the forced displacement of people in a global world.
• Human Rights, religion and public spaces.
• Human Rights and discrimination.
• Human Rights and diversity

BISCAY HUMAN RIGHTS FORUM
HUMAN RIGHTS COURSES

• Human Rights course –Arkaute.
• 4th Guipuzcoa Human Rights course: Human Rights challenges in the face of international conflicts.
• Human Rights course –Arkaute.

CONFERENCES

• Conference cycle entitled: “Human rights questioned? Challenges in a changing world” on the occasion of the Institute’s 20th anniversary":
  • The time of Ayotzinaga by Carlos Martin Beristain.
  • The rights situation of indigenous peoples by Nina Pacari.
  • African indigenous peoples: trapped between legitimacy and their compliance with Frans Viljoen.
• Fifth Multi-disciplinary meeting on Indigenous people “Indigenous Mobility, Rights and Identities”.
• Eighth Multidisciplinary Meeting on Indigenous Peoples "Dilemmas of legal pluralism"
• Indigenous people’s rights: From Convention 169 to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, by James Anaya.
• Congress “The political embodiment of diversity: Autonomy and political participation of indigenous peoples in Latin America”.
• Asia: the unknown continent, the essential continent: DFG
• Coexisting in diversity: bridging the gap between Islam and Europe - DFG

SEMINARS

• Seminar  "Training for Peace: Training Responses to Challenges in Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding".
• Seminar “Democracy and Diversity“ Research Sociocultural Challenges and Human Rights” led by Gérard Bouchard.
• Seminar “The peace process in Colombia after the elections: challenges and opportunities”.
• INTEGRIM network Scientific Seminar “Integrating Differences: Public Policies for Older and Newer Minority Groups”.
• Seminar “The right to decide in multinational companies: self-determination and referendum in Canada, Spain and the United Kingdom”, led by Alain Gagnon, Robert Dunbar and Javier de Lucas.
• Seminar “Tax Justice and Development”
• International seminar "Migration and associations in times of crisis”.
• Seminar “New populist policies and democracy in Latin America”, led by Flavia Freidenberg.
• Ninth International Seminar Euskal Herria Mugaz Gaindi: “A reflection upon returns migrations and Basque exiles.”
• INTEGRIM network Scientific Seminar “Europe’s Ability to Accommodate Diversity”
• Seminar “City and Diversity” led by Panos Hatziprokopiou.
• Seminar “M15 Movement-related social dynamics"
• Seminar “Of Borders, (Visible and Invisible) Walls, and Human Rights” led by Deniz Sert.
• Seminar "Cultural Diversity and Rights: current issues and debates in plural societies” led by Juan Carlos Velasco and Lourdes Peroni.
• International seminar “Care and International Migrations".
• Seminar “Human Rights Diplomacy” led by Silvia Escobar.
• IMISCOE network international seminar “Social organizations as a context for exploring young migrants social and labour integration”.
• Seminar “Women in armed conflicts and International Criminal Court actions” led by Carmen Quesada and Ruth Abril.
• Seminar “Implications of Religious Diversity for Public Policies from a Human Rights Perspective. Accommodation of rights at the subnational level”.
• Seminar on the Education scheme for Human Rights and peace
• Ford Foundation Seminar on conflicts involving women
• Human Rights and indigenous rights: in pursuit of more humane justice
   

MEETINGS HELD JOINTLY WITH OTHER ORGANISATIONS

• Meeting "Retos y oportunidades de la gestión municipal de la diversidad religiosa", in colaboration with the Vitoria-Gasteiz City Council.
• International Conference “Mujeres en marcha: violencias y desplazamiento en 5 regiones africanas”
• Presentation of the Core Humanitarian Standard, in collaboration with the Institute of Studies on Conflicts and Humanitarian Action (IECAH)
• Photographic exhibition “Carrying our cameras with us, in collaboration with the Ellacuría Foundation and Doctors of the World (Médicos del Mundo)
• Film Forum, in collaboration with Doctors without Borders
• Meeting “Ondare Bizia: Building our Memory”, in collaboration with the Institute of Basque Studies of the University of Deusto
• Presentation of the report “South Sudan lights and shadows after the conflict” in collaboration with Intermón Oxfam.
• Seminar “Humanitarian action in crisis: the role of decentralised cooperation”, in collaboration with ALBOAN
• Seminar “Gender violence and protection of children in a humanitarian action scenario” in collaboration with Save the Children and Tierra de Hombres.
• Specialist workshop on "The gender-based approach in humanitarian action" in collaboration with IECAH and “La Caixa” Foundation”.
• Conference Doctors without Borders: 40 years of Independent Humanitarian Action, in collaboration with Doctors without Borders
• TEDx Deusto Event “Humanising the World”
• Human dignity and justice for all: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 60 years later: challenges
• Essential Africa Meetings