News release details
One of Canada's foremost human rights voices, Alex Neve, will deliver a powerful free public lecture at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) on November 4, 2025. The former secretary general of Amnesty International Canada and this year’s Massey Lecturer will explore the promise and failures of universal human rights in today’s divided world.
"As I have been delivering the 2025 Massey Lectures across the country – in large cities and small towns – from BC to Labrador, it is clear that people are troubled about the fractured state of our world,” said Neve. “This includes the implications of the advancing climate crisis, genocide and mass atrocities across the globe, and the rise of hate and polarization.”
Neve will bring decades of experience championing human rights worldwide and discuss current challenges in the global human rights landscape, the importance of advocacy and international co‐operation, and what individuals can do to promote justice and equality.
“More significantly, I've been lifted up by the sense of concern, solidarity and commitment that has been so strongly expressed everywhere,” said Neve. “People are determined to do everything they can to forge a better world, grounded in full embrace of the universal promise of human rights.”
The evening will include a Q&A and book signing of Neve’s new release, Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World, which will be available for purchase that evening and at the CMHR’s Boutique.
Media interviews can be arranged via media contact below.
Event Details:
What:
Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World
When:
Tuesday, November 4, 2025, 6:30 p.m.– 9 p.m.
Where:
Canadian Museum for Human Rights
Cost:
Free with registration
About the book
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In Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World, human rights activist and former secretary general of Amnesty International Canada Alex Neve examines the core promise of the human rights order born out of the devastation of World War II and the Holocaust: these rights extend to everyone, everywhere, at all times, without exception. But the cruel reality is that the word universal also speaks to our profound failure to keep the promise.
Too often, human rights are applied selectively, withdrawn on the whims of political leaders, or ignored altogether, and the broken promise is palpable in humanity’s darkest moments, not only in violent conflict, but also in the economic, political and social structures of our fractured world.
This is not universality’s finest hour. At a time of immense global challenges, including the climate crisis, mass atrocities and the rise of hate, the promise of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is deeply contested and frayed, even as people demand and embrace their rights as never before.
Weaving together law, history and stories from decades on the front lines of the struggle for human rights, Alex Neve investigates where we went wrong, how we have progressed and what we can do to fulfill the promise that human rights are inherent, inalienable and applicable to all people.