Posts Tagged ‘25th anniversary UN declaration HRDs’

Human Rights Defenders crucial in conflicts and crises

March 16, 2024

“Effectively realising human rights for everyone, everywhere is the pathway to free, fair and just communities and a more peaceful and sustainable world“, write ISHR Director Phil Lynch and Board Chair Vrinda Grover on 8 March 2024. Here some excerpts from a piece worth reading:

We face a global climate emergency. We witness atrocity crimes being perpetrated with apparent impunity, from Afghanistan to Sudan, Palestine to Ukraine, and Nicaragua to Xinjiang. We confront rising populism and propaganda, with artificial intelligence misused to fuel disinformation and discrimination, and democracy facing a ‘make-or-break year’ in 2024, with over 70 national elections.  Each of these crises and conflicts are complex, yet they are also interconnected in four fundamental ways.

First, repression and rights violations are among the root causes of all these crises and conflicts…

Second, respect for human rights, and accountability for violations, is essential to address and resolve these crises and conflicts. ..

Third, very few States, if any, have been prepared to treat human rights as paramount and apply human rights standards in a principled, consistent way to each crisis and conflict. ..The selective and inconsistent application of international human rights law undermines the integrity of the framework, as well as the credibility, legitimacy and influence of States and other actors who engage in such double standards. 

Fourth and finally, the work of human rights defenders at the national level, as well as their engagement and advocacy at the international level, is essential to address and resolve each of these conflicts and crises. Defenders prevent rights violations, document abuses, promote accountability, and propose solutions that are grounded in community priorities and needs. Indigenous rights defenders carry the knowledge that is necessary to live sustainably and to respect and protect the environment. Digital rights activists are pushing for rights-based regulation of artificial intelligence to ensure that humanity benefits from its innovations and efficiencies. Whistleblowers are exposing government wrongdoing and corporate misfeasance, working to safeguard democracy, while corporate accountability activists are campaigning for an international treaty on business and human rights. Women human rights defenders from Afghanistan are leading the campaign to hold the Taliban accountable for the crime of gender apartheid, while also ensuring that humanitarian aid reaches the most vulnerable populations. In Sudan, women defenders are leading peace movements and protests at the local level, as well as international advocacy, which was instrumental in the establishment of a UN investigative mechanism, further adding to the pressure on the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to end the war. Despite the challenges, complexities and uncertainties we collectively face, we remain convinced that, with international human rights laws and standards providing a compass, human rights defenders can chart a course to a more peaceful, just and inclusive world…. 

Despite the challenging times, exacerbated by declining funding for international human rights advocacy and organisations by some States and foundations, ISHR continues to pursue a positive and forward-looking agenda.

We’re pleased that in 2023 the Democratic Republic of Congo enacted a specific national law on the protection of defenders, the culmination of years of work by ISHR and national partners. With this development, the DRC joins the ranks of countries like Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Mongolia amongst the countries where we have worked alongside national partners to strengthen legal frameworks for defenders and establish specific defender protection laws and will continue to work to ensure effective implementation.

In the area of women’s rights, we are working with defenders from Afghanistan and Iran, together with international legal experts, to push for the explicit recognition and codification of the atrocity crime of gender apartheid. This would fill an international protection gap for women and girls, as well as impose responsibilities on third States and non-State actors to take concrete steps to prevent and end gender apartheid. 

With 2023 marking the 25th anniversary of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, we are coordinating a broad coalition to develop an authoritative baseline document of international and regional jurisprudence in relation to the protection of defenders, which will be launched in 2024.  

And throughout 2024 we’ll continue allying with Black-led organisations to promote racial justice, with feminist and LGBTIQ+ organisations to resist anti-rights narratives and movements, with corporate accountability activists to strengthen laws on business and human rights, and with Global South defenders to ensure that key multilateral fora are relevant, accessible and responsive to them.

Reflecting on our collective wins over 2023, we identified one golden thread: human rights defenders working in dynamic coalitions, movements and networks to strategically leverage international law and mechanisms to contribute to positive change. With 2023 marking both the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 25th anniversary of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, and 2024 marking ISHR’s own 40th anniversary, it is apt to recall that the work of defenders and the integrity of the international framework are essential to the realisation of human rights on the ground. 

The promise of the Universal Declaration will only be fulfilled when we work in coalition to ensure that defenders are protected and that standards are consistently respected and applied. 

https://ishr.ch/latest-updates/human-rights-for-everyone-everywhere-without-double-standards-or-discrimination

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5 Podcasts by Human Rights Defenders

January 16, 2024

On 15 January 2024, Amnesty International announced that five courageous human rights defenders from around the world have shared their hard-hitting stories on its new podcast: ‘On the Side of Humanity. How human rights defenders fight for our present and future’.

The three-part series was released to mark the 25th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. The documentary explores how the human rights movement has evolved since the adoption of the watershed declaration.

In the podcast, Amnesty International’s Tatyana Movshevich discovers the story behind the declaration and meets brave activists from Chile, the USA, Nepal, Ireland and Ghana, all of whom have been fighting for the rights of marginalized people — and risking their lives in the process.

“Every day, human rights defenders are risking their lives, sometimes at a significant personal cost. They experience violence and discrimination simply for defending the rights of others,” said Tatyana Movshevich, Amnesty International’s Campaigner.

“For this podcast I have interviewed five incredible human rights defenders and it was inspiring to hear about their work, but also distressing to realise the enormous dangers they are facing. During our interview, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, a journalist from Ghana, told me a chilling story of how his investigation into killings linked to ritual magic in Malawi had gone terribly wrong. And it was not the only time when Anas found himself in mortal danger because of his human rights work. Far from it.”

Every day, human rights defenders are risking their lives, sometimes at a significant personal cost.Tatyana Movshevich, Amnesty International’s Campaigner

Others featured in the podcast include Lorena Donaire, a water defender from Chile whose life was turned upside down as she was tackling the catastrophic results of a mega-drought; Monica Simpson, a queer activist and artist from the USA and Durga Sob, a Dalit woman and Nepalese feminist activist, who have both been confronting long-ignored issues of racism and caste-based discrimination; and Sean Binder, a migrant rights defender from Ireland whose freedom was compromised while he was volunteering on an idyllic Greek island. [see lso: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2021/11/17/greeces-mistaken-deterrence-migrants-and-aid-workers-facing-heavy-prison-sentences/]

International experts that took part in the series include Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders, and Hina Jilani, women rights activist and co-founder of Pakistan’s first all-women law firm.

The podcast is out now and available to stream on Spotify, Apple, Google and Deezer.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/

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Phil Lynch talks about Human rights defenders as the lifeblood of the UDHR

December 22, 2023

On 21 November, ISHR celebrated the vital work of human rights defenders at a conference on ‘The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Seventy-Five Years On: Achievements and Current Challenges.’ A slightly shortened version of Phil Lynch’s (Executive Director of the International Service for Human Rights) speech is reproduced below.

Former High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, once called defenders the lifeblood of human rights. ‘They are the promoters of change,’ she said. ‘The people who ring the alarm bell about abuse’. She is right in at least two ways.

Firstly, because, even as most States take a selective and inconsistent approach to human rights principles and situations, defenders reaffirm that all human rights are universal and inalienable; that they are indivisible, interdependent and interrelated.

Defenders are also the lifeblood of human rights because defending and advocating for human rights is integral to realising them, particularly the rights of individuals and groups who have been subject to various and intersecting forms of discrimination and oppression.

The right to defend rights

We all have the right – and the responsibility – to defend human rights. This was the revolutionary idea behind the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the General Assembly exactly 50 years after that same body adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2023/12/14/some-thoughts-on-the-25th-anniversary-of-the-un-declaration-on-human-rights-defenders/ and https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2023/12/14/universal-declaration-of-human-rights-at-75-still-relevant/]

This right is now firmly established in jurisprudence. UN Treaty Bodies and Special Procedures recognise that the work of defenders is so integral to the realisation of all human rights, that threats or attacks against them may amount to violations of the very rights for which they advocate…

 The Declaration also went further than enshrining the fundamental right to defend rights. It elaborated existing binding international human rights law as it applies to defenders. This includes the right of defenders and their organisations to access resources, including from so-called ‘foreign sources’, as well as the right to communicate and cooperate with international bodies, free from any form of intimidation or reprisal.

Government action to implement the Declaration

 25 years after its adoption, a number of States have enacted the Declaration at the domestic level with specific national law and mechanisms for the protection of defenders. Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, the DRC, Mongolia and Mexico are among the States that have taken this positive step.

Other States, including Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Ireland and Canada, among others, have adopted human rights defender guidelines heavily inspired by the Declaration, providing guidance to their embassies and diplomats about the protection of at-risk human rights defenders abroad.

Threats facing defenders

But much remains to be done.

Despite their vital work for gender justice and equality, women human rights defenders like Neda Parwan and Zholia Parsi in Afghanistan and Narges Mohammadi in Iran face systemic discrimination and arbitrary detention.

Despite their vital work for racial justice and non-discrimination, anti-racism activists like Assa Traoré in France or Marielle Franco in Brazil face judicial harassment and even death in the case of Marielle.

Despite their vital work for political justice and freedom of expression, pro-democracy activists like Abdulhadi Al Khawaja in Bahrain and Ahmed Mansoor, Maryam al-Balushi and Amina al-Abduli in the UAE all face unfair detention, torture and ill-treatment.

Despite their vital work for reproductive justice and women’s rights, defenders like Vanessa Mendoza in Andorra and Justyna Wydrzyńska in Poland face spurious legal charges and criminalisation.

And despite their vital work for environmental justice, environmental and land rights defenders like Sukhgerel Dugersuren in Mongolia and Trinh Ba Phuong in Vietnam face persecution and worse.

State pledges to recognise and protect defenders

Together with a coalition of 16 NGOs, ISHR is calling on States to make 5 key pledges on the recognition and protection of defenders.

First, States should publicly recognise the vital role of human rights defenders. Authorities should actively promote the work and achievements of defenders, so that we know them not just for the threats they face but also and foremost for their invaluable contributions to freedom, justice, equality and accountability.

Second, States should recognise and address the intersecting forms of discrimination and oppression that many defenders face. They should ensure defenders are protected and able to meaningfully participate in all relevant policy and decision-making processes.

Third, in genuine partnership with independent civil society actors, States should develop and implement specific national laws, policies and mechanisms for the protection of human rights defenders. They should also repeal or amend laws and policies which restrict and even criminalise defenders.

Fourth, States should refrain from any form of intimidation or reprisals against defenders who engage with the UN and other regional mechanisms. They should take a clear and public position against intimidation and reprisals, including by calling out and holding other States which commit such acts to account.

Fifth and finally, States should ensure that all threats and attacks against human rights defenders are the subject of prompt, impartial and independent investigations. Perpetrators must be held accountable, and effective remedies provided both to address the harms to the individual and to address any systemic or structural factors contributing to such threats or attacks.

 Conclusion

Human rights defenders are essential agents of progress and positive change. Their work is vital for gender justice, racial justice, environmental justice, political justice and economic justice. Their work confronts and challenges power, privilege and prejudice. For this, they are frequently exposed to threats and attacks from governments, corporations and other unscrupulous actors. Their work contributes to good governance and accountability at the local, national and international levels.

To defend human rights is an act of bravery and solidarity and, above all, an act of hope and resolve. Hope for a future in which all peoples and communities enjoy freedom, dignity, justice and peace on a healthy planet, in line with the Universal Declaration. And resolve to work, individually and collectively, to realise that still magnificent vision.

https://ishr.ch/latest-updates/human-rights-defenders-are-the-lifeblood-of-the-universal-declaration-of-human-rights/

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Some thoughts on the 25th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders

December 14, 2023

Since its adoption, the U.N. established in 2000 a Special Rapporteur to report on the situation of HRDs, and more than 60 countries now have laws, policies, or protection mechanisms to protect HRDs.

Some countries, including the United States, sometimes sanction those who target HRDs with financial penalties and visa bans. Mechanisms like these are important, but they can be slow and used selectively, says Michael Breen of Human Rights First in Just Security of 9 December 2023.

Perpetrators often feel so protected from legal accountability that they openly threaten and attack HRDs. In 2022, more than 400 defenders were killed for their human rights work. This year the number killed is likely to be higher…In our work with HRDs, they often recommend public exposure of those who target them as one step that can be taken for their protection.

Breen states that It is on a reputational level that perpetrators can be most vulnerable and provides several examples.

“We are working with HRDs to create a more international approach of social accountability. We will share research on the social circles in which their attackers move, or that they want to join. We will be compiling lists of who has received awards from where, engaging with institutions about publicly rescinding awards, and otherwise publicly causing embarrassment to perpetrators. This is largely new territory for human rights NGOs, and we will work closely with HRDs in assessing any additional risks produced by socially targeting their attackers.“

———–

On 11 December 2023 Global Witness published a blog post: “Land and environmental defenders protect our planet – but they cannot halt climate change without access to justice“

“For more than a decade, we’ve been documenting and celebrating the hard-fought wins of land and environmental defenders worldwide. Together, their efforts not only help to prevent environmental destruction and human rights harms by companies, but also help to protect the environment from the worst effects of climate change.”

“Defenders globally continue to face reprisals after speaking out to protect the environment. At least 1,910 land and environmental defenders around the world have been killed since 2012, with 177 cases in 2022 alone. Of these killings last year, 88% occurred in Latin America – a region consistently found to be the most dangerous place in the world for activists.”

“Impunity is consistently named as a key driver behind attacks on defenders by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, whose office has repeatedly noted how failures to properly prosecute perpetrators have fueled further attacks. This is no coincidence. Every perpetrator who walks free sends a fatal message to defenders and activists worldwide.”

“The future of our planet depends on the continued stewardship of Indigenous people over their ancestral land, with Indigenous practices cited as protecting 80% of the world’s biodiversity. We simply cannot meet the 1.5°C limit and prevent devastating consequences on human life without the efforts of environmental defenders.”

See also: https://ishr.ch/25-years-un-declaration-on-human-rights-defenders/

Social Sanctions Can Protect Human Rights Defenders

https://www.globalwitness.org/en/blog/land-and-environmental-defenders-protect-our-planet-but-they-cannot-halt-climate-change-without-access-to-justice/

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Norwegian Human Rights Fund and Human Rights First mark 25th anniversary of United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders

December 9, 2023

Today, 9 December, marks 25 years of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders (HRDs). It provides for the support and protection of HRDs, and for many HRDs it’s been a useful marking in legitimizing and supporting their work.

The anniversary is a good time to reflect on what’s working and what isn’t for HRDs, and we discussed some of these issues on a Human Rights First webinar a couple of days ago.

In many ways it was a different world in 1998. Celine Dion and the Backstreet Boys were the big rock acts then. The internet, mobile phones, and digital surveillance of HRDs, were all in their infancy.

For HRDs, much has changed, and it’s possible to see 25 years of success as HRDs have achieved some great things. They’ve changed laws, won the release of people from prison, distributed humanitarian aid, exposed corruption, documented and publicized human rights violations.

For some HRDs just keeping going despite pressure and threats is success in itself. Hundreds are killed every year for their peaceful work on behalf of others, for embarrassing corrupt officials, for making good things happen.

But there is now a greater recognition of the value of the work of HRDs than there was in 1998, and a better understanding of who they are. The family of HRDs has expanded in the last 25 years – back then NGOs discussed whether those working on environmental rights, or those documenting corruption, or medics working in war zones, really counted as HRDs.  Now we know they do.

We better understand too the responsibilities of businesses to protect HRDs, and that defenders working on certain issues face specific threats, that those working on land rights, indigenous rights or environmental rights away from big cities are most likely to be murdered. We know too that many defenders are targeted not just for what they do but for who they are.

Women Human Rights Defenders experience added layers of harassment. They’ve always lived with pressure from society in terms of what they should get engaged in and not, pressure from their families on what a woman should do or not, and since 1998 there’s now added pressures in the digital sphere. They are targeted more than other HRDs with digital harassment, which we see very often leads to physical attacks offline.

Our organizations share a similar approach to working with HRDs. The NHRF supports HRDs working for NGOs outside big cities, often formed by people from the community that they work in. It supports organizations where women are in leaderships roles, and provides resources over the long term. For instance, the NHRF works with an NGO in Thailand originally formed by young women to organize their community in the face of a mining company. Most of these women are  now grandmothers, but still keep up their human rights work.

The NHRF also works with organizations of HRDs in Indonesia made up of family members of those killed and tortured in in the 1960s who are now seeking redress and working against impunity.

Human Rights First, meanwhile, continues its decades-long work on Northern Ireland, also working with bereaved families of those killed during the conflict in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s who are also looking for redress and working against impunity.

For many HRDs achieving success is a long road, requiring perseverance and allies. International standards and rules aren’t protecting them enough. Their work needs to be better understood, and better funded.

The picture for HRDs since 1998 is mixed, and no doubt will be for the next 25 years. HRDs will achieve more successes, but unless governments find the political will to implement the protections of the HRD Declaration, more defenders will be attacked, jailed and murdered.

So, what do the next 25 years hold for HRDs? The future is hard to predict, but one thing we can say for sure is that HRDs will continue to be, as the UN Special Rapporteur for HRDs Mary Lawlor says, ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

In these times, when many people from Gaza to Ukraine question the power of the human rights framework to actually protect people’s rights, everyone with power must ensure that HRDs can be funded, protected and supported. We will all be better off for it.

See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/25th-anniversary-un-declaration-hrds/

25 Years After the UN Declaration To Protect HRDs, Much More Has To Be Done

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Celebrating 25 years of the UN Declaration on human rights defenders: take action

December 5, 2023
Human rights defenders world illustration

25 years ago, the United Nations adopted the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. The declaration has been essential to protect those who defend human rights. It’s time to celebrate the Declaration, human rights defenders and all the contributions they have brought to our societies.

The Declaration is a landmark document that sets out the rights and responsibilities of States, human rights defenders, and all actors in society in ensuring a safe environment where defenders are recognised, valued, and encouraged to work for the promotion and protection of human rights.

As part of this celebration, Amnesty International, CIVICUS, Defend Defenders, FIDH, Forum Asia, Front line Defenders, Gulf Centre for Human Rights, ICNL, ILGA World, IM Defensoras, ISHR, MENA WHRD Coalition, OMCT, Peace Brigades International , Protect Defenders, Protection International and RFK Human Rights launched a collaborative project to analyse the contributions of the Declaration to defenders’ lives and work, as well as progress in international human rights law on the protection of defenders. 

What do we want to achieve? 

This project seeks to enhance the awareness of the Declaration and encourage greater dialogue on the protection needs of defenders

One of the outcomes of the project will be the creation of a supplement to the Declaration that will be a civil society-led document taking into account developments in international and regional jurisprudence relating to defenders over the past 25 years and evolutions of human rights movements, addressing key gaps and limitations in the Declaration, and reflecting defenders’ lived experiences and needs.

This supplement will guide change on the ground in the next 25 years, and beyond!

We need the input and voices from human rights defenders everywhere!

What can you do?

We are consulting online and offline with human rights defenders across the globe on changes in national, regional and global contexts in which they work, evolutions of human rights movements and activism, and defenders’ lived experiences and protection needs. We are also reviewing how international and regional jurisprudence in relation to human rights defenders has developed over the last 25 years. 

1. Add your voice

By sharing your experiences, insights, and recommendations, you can help shape the future of human rights and contribute to the protection and promotion of defenders’ rights.

Are you a human rights defender and want to contribute to the project?

Are you a human rights defender and want to contribute to the project?

Take the survey

2. Spread the word

Help us raise awareness about the UN Declaration on human rights defenders. Join the #Right2DefendRights social media campaign. 

Join the social media campaign!

Join the social media campaign!

Discover our #Right2DefendRights social media kit and post the content on your networks. Download the kit

3. Learn more about the Declaration

Learn more about the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, its importance, content and application. Visit our online e-learning platform and take our 30 minutes course.

Take the e-course

Take the e-course

Visit our online e-learning platform and learn more about the Declaration.Learn more

4. Get in touch!

Let us know if there are convening of HRDs happening anywhere that we could do consultations around. Drop an email to Tess Mcevoy: t.mcevoy@ishr.ch

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And on Monday 11 December (10:00 – 12:00 EST) there will be an event “UDHR75 + HRDS25 = 100% HUMAN RIGHTS” at Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice, New York with HRDs speaking about their lived experiences, with:
Sukhgerel Dugersuren, OT Watch, Mongolia
Karina Sánchez, IM Defensoras, Mesoamerican Intiative of Women Human Rights Defenders, LAC
Sirley Muñoz, Somos Defensores, Colombia
Brenda Kugonza, Women Human Rights Defenders Network Uganda
Edita Burgos, Karapatan, Philippines
Moderation: Tess McEvoy, International Service for Human Rights

See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2023/06/20/side-event-on-the-25th-anniversary-of-the-un-declaration-on-human-rights-defenders/

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfL3XYx_otZ2-iwL7YqGZJj5z5dzlOhNlyiifP5CYzGPtsISA/viewform

https://ishr.ch/25-years-un-declaration-on-human-rights-defenders/

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