How can the Peacebuilding Architecture Review strengthen the role of the human rights ecosystem in prevention and peacebuilding?

As the 2025 Peacebuilding Architecture Review (PBAR) nears completion, the UN system faces increasing pressure to deliver on prevention and peacebuilding with greater coherence, innovation, and efficiency, especially amid resource constraints, global crises, and heightened sensitives around multilateralism, including with respect to human rights. Yet, human rights play a crucial role in early warning, risk analysis, and inclusive dialogue, but Geneva-based human rights mechanisms remain underutilized in peacebuilding frameworks. In today’s context, strengthening the contribution of human rights at both multilateral and field levels is therefore essential.

This discussion, co-organized by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, seeks to highlight the strategic role of Geneva-based institutions in implementing PBAR outcomes and connecting these efforts to the broader UN reform agenda. The event aims to reinforce the interface between human rights and peacebuilding, identify practical entry points for collaboration, and support a more integrated UN approach. Using examples such as Colombia, the discussion will emphasize the value of Geneva’s ecosystem in sustaining peace.

This event, a follow-up to the Geneva Consultations on the PBAR that took place in February 2025, aims to generate actionable proposals to enhance synergies between peacebuilding and human rights, strengthen the Geneva-New York nexus, and promote coherent, rights-based approaches to prevention and peacebuilding