I do not intend to duplicate the excellent work being done by a variety of organisations for the benefit of individual human rights defenders such as, just to mention a few: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Observatory for Human Rights Defenders (run by FIDH and OMCT), Human Rights First or Frontline). If there is something urgent in an individual case of a Human Rights Defender (HRD) in distress, I would obviously pass it on. I will also not hesitate to refer to a particularly significant initiative or action by any NGO or IGO. But the main purpose of the blog is to reflect on the problems of human rights defenders in general and the response by the international community to their needs. Questions such as:
– is there a proper and operational definition of who is a HRD?
– does publicity (e.g. from awards) help or hinder HRDs?;
– does the totality of support efforts cover adequately the rea needs of HRDs?;
– to what extent is the ‘competition’ between NGOs with mandates for the protection of HRDs more harmful than helpful?;
– are the new information technologies and media sufficiently used by HRDs (and if not why and how could it be changed)?
– and of course any other such issues that come my way thanks to the responses to this post,
a bit clearer now why I started this blog effort? best regards
Hans Thoolen
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 