The issuance of Interpol red notices against two Salvadoran human rights defenders currently in exile in Spain constitutes a grave misuse of the law enforcement mechanism, UN experts warned on 19 November 2025
“This move amounts to an act of transnational repression, as it extends the harassment of human rights defenders beyond borders, targeting them in a country where they are seeking safety,” the experts said.
Ivania Cruz and Rudy Joya have applied for asylum in Spain, fleeing legal harassment in El Salvador stemming from their legitimate human rights work. Both human rights defenders work for the non-governmental organisation UNIDEHC, which has been targeted by the Salvadoran authorities since February 2025 for its support to the La Floresta community, who have been facing attempts of forced eviction since 2024.
“The charges brought against Ivania Cruz and Rudy Joya in El Salvador and related arrest warrants issued by the authorities appear to be without basis and in direct connection with their legitimate human rights work for UNIDEHC to support communities under threat and denounce the actions of the Government under the state of emergency declared in 2022,” the experts said.
In May 2025, the court presiding over their case in El Salvador ordered the Interpol National Central Bureau to submit a request for the issuance of a red notice to the Interpol General Secretariat. Interpol confirmed the issuance in July 2025.
The experts pointed to Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Interpol, which state that the organisation is “strictly forbidden” from undertaking “any intervention or activities of a political nature”, and that the organisation’s activities will be conducted “in the spirit of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.”
In September 2025, Rudy Joya was summoned by police under the pretext of his asylum application in Spain. Upon presenting himself to the authorities, he was detained and presented before a Spanish specialised court. Ivania Cruz was also summoned and appeared before the same court, which ordered that both defenders sign-in at a local court every 15 days, not leave the country, surrender their passports and report any change of address.
“We call on Interpol to immediately revoke the red notices and judicial sanctions against Ivania Cruz and Rudy Joya, and on Spain to refuse to accede to the red notice and to ensure their safety by rejecting their forcible return to El Salvador,” the experts said.
The experts are in contact with Interpol and the governments of Spain and El Salvador on these concerns.
Ganna Yudkivska (Chair-Rapporteur), Matthew Gillett (Vice-Chair on Communications), Miriam Estrada Castillo (Vice-Chair on Follow-Up), Mumba Malila, and Ethan Hee-Seok Shin,Working Group on Arbitrary Detent
On 14 November 2025, ARTICLE 19 and the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) expressed alarm about the arrests of and use of force against human rights defenders and residents who attempted to prevent the demolition of houses in Kampung Jalan Papan, which began on 11 November in the Malaysian state of Selangor. We call on the authorities to immediately release human rights defenders and end investigations into their activities.
On 14 November, two human rights defenders and seven local residents were arrested under Section 186 of Malaysia’s Penal Code for allegedly obstructing public servants from discharging their duties – a clause that carries a penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment and/or a maximum fine of RM10,000 (approximately USD 2,410). The two activists are Yee Shan from Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) and Jernell Tan from the human rights organisation SUARAM. The seven local residents are Than Bee Hooi, Than Kim Kim, Lim Wee Chun, Ser Li Fang, Lim Eng Hui, Teoh Ah Guat, and Ng Ban Ping.
This follows previous arrests earlier in the week. On 13 November, 10 people were arrested, also under Section 186 of the Penal Code: PSM Secretary-General Sivaranjani Manickam, PSM National Treasurer Soh Sook Hwa, PSM activist Aein Aneera Anuar, PSM activist Ramasamy Karupan, PSM activist Tan Ka Wei, PSM activist Hridhay Praveen, activist Wong Kueng Hui from the non-governmental organisation Mandiri, local resident Tang Bing Ai, and activist Fakrurrazzi Khairur Rijal from the advocacy group Himpunan Advokasi Rakyat Malaysia. They were detained at the Pandamaran and Pelabuhan Klang police stations and later released on 14 November .
On 12 November, Deputy Chairperson of PSM Arutchelvan Subramaniam, also known as Arul, activist M. Mythreyar, and M. Logesvaran, a representative for the residents affected by the demolition, were arrested under Section 186 of the Penal Code. They were remanded one day before release on 13 November under police bail.
‘This is a blatant attack against human rights defenders who dare speak out on behalf of local communities living in a climate where forced evictions and development pressures are being used to displace long-time residents. The arbitrary arrests of the activists highlight the risks faced by human rights defenders advocating housing rights. These actions seem intended to intimidate others and discourage efforts to stop forced evictions,’ said Nalini Elumalai, Senior Malaysia Programme Officer at ARTICLE 19. ‘Using such forms of intimidation to silence human rights defenders and the residents not only threatens their safety but also undermines the ability of communities to assert their right to adequate housing and partake in meaningful decisions that affect their lives.’
This case stems from a 1995 agreement between the Selangor government and private limited company TPPT, under which affected families were to be given homes after the state government transferred 95 acres of land to the company. More than 30 years on, the residents have yet to receive their promised homes. Residents, known as Kampung Papan settlers, have lived in the area for decades, since 1939 – before Malaysia’s independence from the British in 1957. Despite a court ruling allowing the eviction, the Selangor government has said that demolition work should only be limited to vacant houses and business premises. Despite this promise, demolition work began on 10 November and as of 13 November, at least 15 occupied houses had been demolished. Residents of 44 out of 83 homes have obtained an interim injunction against the demolition.
The authorities’ actions violate the United Nation’s Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and other related resolutions, including General Assembly resolution 70/161 on human rights defenders in the context of the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Among other things, the resolution urged States to ensure the rights and safety of human rights defenders in exercising their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association.
On 14 November 2025, Scilla Alecci of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Inc. (ICIJ) wrote about a parliamentary report which identified China and other authoritarian regimes as harassing and attacking dissidents abroad, echoing findings from ICIJ’s China Targets.
European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium.
The European Parliament has adopted a resolution urging member states to confront efforts by authoritarian regimes to coerce, control or silence political opponents and dissidents living in Europe. “Human rights defenders are a key pillar of democracy and the rule of law, and they are insufficiently protected,” a statement from the parliament said.
The resolution, adopted with a majority of 512 votes (to 76 against and 52 abstentions), called for targeted sanctions against perpetrators, market surveillance of spyware and better coordination among European authorities to counter what lawmakers labeled “transnational repression.”
The resolution is not legally binding but signals that European lawmakers want to take a clear position on the issue and draw attention to it, Elodie Laborie, a spokesperson for the Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights, told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in an email.
It confirms findings by ICIJ’s China Targets investigation, which revealed how Beijing continues to use surveillance, hacking and threats against Chinese and Hong Kong dissidents, Uyghur and Tibetan advocates and their families to quash any criticism of the regime abroad.
On 14 November 2025, Al Jazeera (Mariamne Everett) and other media reported that international NGOs, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have decried a sharp decline in civil liberties and a pervading “injustice” in Tunisia since President Kais Saied came to power in 2019, as authorities escalate their crackdown on the opposition, activists and foreign nongovernmental organisations.
“Tunisian authorities have increasingly escalated their crackdown on human rights defenders and independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs) through arbitrary arrests, detention, asset freezes, bank restrictions and court-ordered suspensions, all under the pretext of fighting ‘suspicious’ foreign funding and shielding ‘national interests’,” Amnesty International said in a statement on Friday.
Tunisia’s crackdown on civil society has reached an unprecedented level, according to Amnesty, as six NGO workers and human rights defenders from the Tunisian Council for Refugees are “being criminally prosecuted on charges solely related to their legitimate work supporting refugees and asylum seekers”. The trial’s opening session, initially scheduled for October 16, has been adjourned to November 24.
Within the past four months, Tunisia has temporarily suspended the activities of at least 14 Tunisian and international NGOs, said Amnesty, including the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women and the World Organisation against Torture.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Friday that Tunis’s Court of Appeal will hear on November 17 the appeal of more than 30 people “unjustly sentenced to heavy prison terms in a politically motivated ‘Conspiracy Case’” mass trial in April.
“Four of those detained are on hunger strike, including one who, according to his lawyers, was subjected to physical violence in prison on November 11.”
The 37 people detained include opponents of Saied, lawyers, activists and researchers. Their prison terms range from four to 66 years for “conspiracy against state security” and terrorism offences. Jawhar Ben Mbarek – cofounder of Tunisia’s main opposition alliance, the National Salvation Front – began a hunger strike on October 29 to protest his arbitrary detention. Ben Mbarek was sentenced to 18 years behind bars on charges of “conspiracy against state security” and “belonging to a terrorist group”.
For this 31st edition, ten of the world’s leading human rights NGOs composing the Jury of the Martin Ennals Award – Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, FIDH, HURIDOCS, Bread for the World, Human Rights First, World Organisation Against Torture, International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), and Front Line Defenders – have selected, after much deliberation, three human rights defenders for their exceptional contribution to the human rights movement. [se also https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/043F9D13-640A-412C-90E8-99952CA56DCE]
The 2025 Laureate is Ana Paula Gomes de Oliveira (Brazil), who co-founded the collective ‘Mothers of Manguinhos’ to fight for justice after the killing of her son, a 19-year-old Black man, who was shot in the back by a military police officer in the favelas of Rio on his way back from his girlfriend’s house in May 2014. The collective serves as a front for resistance and advocacy, but also as a network of emotional support and solidarity between women who share stories of similar loss. These women, in their majority Black, many of whom have lost children and other family members to violent actions by law enforcement officials, came together to denounce violence in the favelas, especially police violence that disproportionately affects poor Black youth. ‘When we are born Black and raised in the favelas, we are targeted by a racist system that is also reinforced by public security policies based on death and imprisonment,’ says Ana Paula. According to the UN, killings by the police have more than doubled in the last ten years in Brazil, with more than 6000 killings every year over the past six years. Black people, overwhelmingly men, represent a shocking rate of 82,7% of the killings by police officers in 2023. ‘The racist violence in Brazilian streets merits the full attention of the federal government and the international community,’ says Hans Thoolen, Chair of the Martin Ennals Award Jury. The collective ‘Mothers of Manguinhos’ fights for truth, memory, justice, freedom and the human rights of Black, poor, and peripheral lives. The collective is a member of the UN Antiracism Coalition (UNARC) and during the 57th session of the Human Rights Council, Ana Paula delivered a powerful message at a side event organised by UNARC on the perspectives of the Afro-Brazilian community directly affected by police violence in Brazil.
The Jury also recognised two finalists: Aloikin Praise Opoloje (Uganda) and Saadia Mosbah (Tunisia).
Aloikin Praise Opoloje is a 26-year-old Ugandan student who has become a leading voice against corruption, social injustice, and human rights abuses in Uganda. Inspired by the dire living and educational conditions in her home district of Palisa, she has mobilised thousands through social media and organised major peaceful protests, including the March to Parliament and the Nude Protest against government mismanagement, which prompted official accountability for the Kiteezi landfill tragedy. Despite repeated arrests in 2024 and ongoing legal charges, Aloikin went on to create the WeThePeople movement, which informs young Ugandans about their civic rights and non-violent resistance.
Saadia Mosbah is a leading Tunisian human rights activist and co-founder of Mnemty (‘My Dream’), the main organisation dedicated to fighting racism and racial discrimination in Tunisia. She has spearheaded initiatives through education, awareness raising and legislative advocacy, which have led to the 2016 national debate on systemic racism, the adoption of the Anti-Racism Law No. 50 (2018), and the declaration of 23 January as the National Day for the Abolition of Slavery for Tunisia (since 2019). Her work has also focused on combatting prejudice against migrant people and promoting migrant and refugee rights. Despite her legitimate activism, Saadia Mosbah and Mnemty have faced intense smear campaigns. She was arrested on 6 May 2024 on false accusations of financial crimes and remains in pre-trial detention without a set trial date. [https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde30/0846/2026/en/]
The UN High Commissioner for human rights will award the selected laureate during the ceremony to take place on 26 November 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland. [https://www.martinennalsaward.org/2025-edition/]
The Tiruchelvam Fellowship will provide opportunities for outstanding legal scholars and practitioners of Sri Lankan background to undertake research, writing, and scholarly engagement on themes related to human rights in Sri Lanka and South Asia for up to one academic semester at Harvard Law School. The Fellowship is named in honor of the late Neelan Tiruchelvam, a Sri Lankan peace and human rights activist, lawyer, scholar, and politician.
Applications and all supporting materials must be received by March 2, 2026. Please click here for more information and to access the online application.
Chinese authorities harassed several dozen Chinese film directors and producers, as well as their families in China, causing them to pull films from the inaugural IndieChina Film Festival in New York City. On November 6, 2025, the festival’s organizer, Zhu Riku, announced that the film festival, scheduled for November 8-15, had been “suspended.”
“The Chinese government reached around the globe to shut down a film festival in New York City,” said Yalkun Uluyol, China researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This latest act of transnational repression demonstrates the Chinese government’s aim to control what the world sees and learns about China.”
Chiang Seeta, a Chinese artist and activist, reported that nearly all participating directors in China faced intimidation. Even directors abroad, including those who are not Chinese nationals, reported that their relatives and friends in China were receiving threatening calls from police, said Chiang.
On November 1, the organizers issued an announcement on social media saying they had received messages from some film directors and producers and their families about Chinese government harassment: “We are deeply concerned about the situation. … [I]f you are under pressure not to attend the festival … we fully understand and respect it.” By November 4, more than two-thirds of participating films had cancelled their screenings.
After the festival was suspended, Zhu issued a statement that the decision was not out of fear, but rather to “stop harassment of … directors, guests, former staff, and volunteers associated with the festival, including my friends and family.”
Independent film festivals in China have faced intensifying crackdowns over the past decade, Human Rights Watch said. The Chinese authorities have shut down all three major independent film festivals in China: Yunfest, founded in 2003; the China Independent Film Festival, founded in 2003; and Beijing Independent Film Festival, founded in 2006.
When the authorities shut down the last screening of the Beijing Independent Film Festival in 2014, they cut off electricity from the venue, confiscated documents from the organizer’s office, and forced the organizers to sign a paper promising not to hold the festival. Many festival organizers have tried without success to adapt, for instance by changing their format to screenings at multiple venues.
The 14th China Independent Film Festival was shuttered in 2018, the last time such a festival took place in China.
A court in January 2025 sentenced Chen Pinlin, known as Plato, to three-and-a-half years in prison for allegedly “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” after he made a documentary about the “white paper protests” during Covid-19 lockdowns. Transnational repression can be defined as government efforts to silence or deter dissent by committing human rights abuses against their own nationals living abroad, their families at home, or members of the country’s diaspora. [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2025/10/17/un-report-highlights-chinas-targeting-of-human-rights-defenders-abroad/]
The Chinese government’s transnational repression of the arts has not been limited to film. Chinese officials interfered with an exhibition in Bangkok and censored artwork by Uyghur, Tibetan, and Hongkonger artists in August.
Mirbahari, a founding member of the organization, was arrested by security forces at his sister’s home in Tehran on October 15, 2025, and detained without charge. His whereabouts remain unknown, as does the status of his case, and he is being denied access to his family and lawyer. There are serious concerns about his state of health. Security agents also sealed the organization’s office and confiscated equipment and communication devices, effectively halting its operations.
“Mirbahari’s unlawful arrest and the closing of the organization mirror the Islamic Republic’s dismantling of other NGOs, and reflect its intensifying drive to wipe out independent civil society organizations,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).
In a pattern of increasing judicial harassment, Mirbahari was previously arbitrarily arrested on June 20, 2025, and released after 30 days in solitary confinement upon posting bail, again without lawful cause or disclosed charge.
This latest act of repression comes amid an escalating campaign by Iranian authorities to criminalize humanitarian work and silence independent voices advocating for social justice and the rights of children, women, and marginalized groups.
A knowledgeable source told CHRI that Mirbahari’s physical condition is fragile, following chemotherapy, and his whereabouts and charges against him remain unknown. His family and lawyer have had no contact with him since his arrest.
Two Decades of Children’s Rights Advocacy
Since its founding in 2002, the Society for the Protection of Child Laborers and Street Children has been a lifeline for working and street children across Iran, advocating for the eradication of child labor and all forms of exploitation, and promoting equal rights and humane living conditions for every child, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or religion.
Its activities included providing educational programs, health services, psychological support, and advocacy for social protections such as child and family insurance coverage. The organization also sought to raise public awareness about the plight of working children in Iran and to encourage community participation in child protection.
Operating through eight specialized units —public relations, health, arts, library, education, social work, finance, and research— the society was one of the few NGOs in Iran maintaining a consistent focus on children’s welfare amid tightening restrictions on civil society….
Reza Shafakhah, a prominent human rights lawyer, in an interview with Shargh newspaper on October 13, 2024, said:
“It is not possible for you to open a curtain and look out the window in the farthest reaches of Iran and not see a child going through a trash can. The fact that nearly 120,000 street children are active in Iran is a form of child abuse.”
On 5 November, 2025Camilla Pollera, Human Rights and Climate Change Program Associate at the Center for International Environmental Law published a blog post about the upcoming COP30 and the role of human rights defenders:
There is no climate justice in a climate of fear. As governments prepare to meet in Belém, Brazil for, COP30, attention turns to a country where defending nature still comes at a high cost. Deep-rooted and intertwined impunity and violence against environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs) — including Indigenous defenders, Afro-descendent communities, women, and defenders from LGBTQIA+ —persist in Brazil.
COP30 decisions must recognize the efforts of those protecting the planet, in Brazil and beyond, and ensure that they can do so safely, freely, and without fear.
Around the world, EHRDs are on the frontlines of the climate crisis — protecting land, water, communities, and their rights, often at great personal risk. Faced with an escalating climate crisis and the inaction of governments, a growing number of people are stepping up to defend their rights, the rights of future generations and the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, exercising their fundamental freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, and association, guaranteed under international human rights law.
…The violence and repression faced by defenders are intensified by intersecting forms of marginalization, especially affecting women defending the environment, who often suffer gender-based violence that rarely appears in the data, including sexual violence, harassment, and rejection within their families and communities. They are targeted not only as defenders of rights and natural resources but also as women, in all their diversity, challenging discriminatory societal norms, a combination that makes their work particularly dangerous and invisible. …The persistent violence and lack of effective guarantees for human rights protection are a stark reminder of what is at stake as COP30 comes to Belém.
The Advisory Opinion of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the climate emergency and human rights made it clear: States must take proactive steps to ensure the effective protection of environmental defenders — including for those such as Indigenous and women EHRDs who are most at risk of retaliation. The Court recognized EHRDs are “allies of democracy”, whose work takes on even greater importance amid the urgency and complexity of the climate emergency. It reaffirmed the right to defend human rights as an autonomous right and declared that States have a special duty of protection toward those who exercise it, and recognized the double layer of risk faced by women environmental defenders, requiring an even higher duty of care. The Court also formulated very concrete recommendations on what this means at the national level.
The Escazú Agreement and the Aarhus Convention both enshrine explicit provisions on the protection of EHRDs, setting legal and institutional frameworks to operationalize these duties. Recent work under these instruments has provided concrete guidance for States and businesses to uphold their obligations, safeguard civic space, and ensure defenders are protected and not penalized. The recent Action Plan under Escazú and the ad hoc rapid response mechanism under Aarhus are just a few examples marking concrete advances in protecting those facing threats.
At COP30, Parties can no longer ignore their human rights obligations. They have a duty to ensure that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)—the central forum for global cooperation on climate action—and its outcomes align with legal standards. Rightsholders have been obstructed from participating and silenced the climate talks, a process that is deciding on their future. Restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and assembly, lack of transparency in the host country agreements, persistent visa barriers and financial burdens, continue to limit access. In recent COPs, civic space has continued to shrink, with obstruction often led by the very States hosting the negotiations.
Brazil has a chance to do things differently, by making civic space at COP30 and the protection of environmental defenders a true priority. This includes guaranteeing safe conditions for the meaningful participation before, during, and after COP30 and beyond. And it also means taking steps domestically, starting with the urgent ratification of the Escazú Agreement. Brazil has a key role to play in building upon its legacy of international environmental leadership and steering negotiations at the COP towards rights-based outcomes.
COP30 indeed offers a crucial moment to enhance the protection of defenders through critical decisions expected in Belém: the Just Transition Work Programme (JTWP) and the Gender Action Plan (GAP).
As highlighted by the recent report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor, a just transition should be grounded in the protection of those who defend rights and call out false climate solutions, from Indigenous Peoples and land defenders opposing harmful mining projects to workers’ advocates demanding fair and equitable transitions. All decisions, measures, and mechanisms designed to enable a just transition from the fossil fuel economy must protect a safe and enabling civic space, and ensure the meaningful participation of EHRDs.
..
There is no climate justice without human rights and without protecting those on the frontlines. EHRDs step in to protect what governments have neglected, and their courage exposes States’ failure to meet their climate and human rights obligations. Despite the risk, around the world, defenders continue to organize, resist, and demand climate justice, leading the way forward. In their resistance lies the chance of a just and sustainable future.
Since 1989, CIEL has used the power of law to protect the environment, promote human rights, and ensure a just and sustainable society.
With offices in Washington, DC, and Geneva, Switzerland, CIEL’s team of attorneys, policy experts, and support staff works to provide legal counsel and advocacy, policy research, and capacity building across our four program areas: Climate & Energy, Environmental Health, Fossil Economy, and People, Land & Resources.
On 5 November 2025 Amnesty international endorsed this kind of view under the title “What is COP and why is this year’s meeting in Brazil so important?”
On November 3rd, the Emil Chechko International Charitable Foundation presented the International Human Rights Award — For Peace and Human Rights — for the third time in Minsk. The laureates are people who actively defend human rights and are not afraid to speak the truth about facts hidden behind the facade of ‘European values’.
Who was Emil Czeczko? The foundation granting the award is named after Emil Czeczko, a Polish soldier who deserted the Polish Army in December 2021 while on duty at the Polish-Belarusian border. After crossing into Belarus, he requested political asylum and gave interviews to Belarusian state media, accusing Polish authorities of crimes against illegal migrants—claims dismissed by Warsaw as propaganda. Czeczko was later found dead in his apartment in Minsk in 2022, with the official cause of death reported as hanging. [https://www.rferl.org/a/poland-soldier-belarus-asylum-dead/31758266.html]
Among the 2025 laureates are German journalist and supporter of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Jürgen Elsässer, Polish political scientist Tomasz Jankowski, Russian State Duma deputy Mikhail Delyagin, member of the Human Rights Council under the Russian President Eva Merkacheva, member of the European Parliament Grzegorz Braun and others. The list includes eight laureates in total; however, Dmitry Belyakov, the Chairman of the Board of the Emil Chechko International Charitable Foundation, mentioned that the original plan was to present ten awards. Two recipients were unable to attend the ceremony and accept their deserved honours because of border closures. Notably, the names of the nominees were kept secret, even from the nominees themselves, until the last moment for security purposes.
An award recipient who experienced persecution was Jürgen Elsässer, the Editor-in-Chief of Compact, a German opposition magazine. He pursued legal action against the German government for promoting the importance of maintaining peace and aligning with Eastern countries instead of the aggressive West. Fortunately, common sense prevailed, and Elsässer’s editorial team won the lawsuit.
“I appreciate your President’s policies because Aleksandr Lukashenko consistently defends peace and supports friendly relations with Russia and China. I wish Germany would choose a similar approach as well, instead of aligning with the EU, where, as we can see, everyone seems to be ‘intoxicated’ by war,” Jürgen Elsässer admitted.
Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski has taken a swipe at a controversial far-right MEP after he was granted a “peace award” by a Belarusian foundation linked to the regime of Aleksander Lukashenko, the country’s president.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 