The “Life is hanging on by a thread” campaign will shine a light on the countless stories of human rights defenders and environmentalists who risk their lives for their causes.
On September 14, Juan Antonio López, a city council member and environmental activist was murdered in Honduras. He was a member of the Mesoamerican Ecclesial Network and international organizations recognized his work. His assassination underscored the vulnerable situation of human rights defenders and leaders throughout Latin America.
In response, the Latin American Bishops’ Conference, together with the Platform for Peace, Democracy, and Human Rights and the Latin American Protection Community, is launching the campaign “Life is hanging on by a thread.”
The official launch of the campaign is scheduled for December 10, which will be held virtually to bring representatives from all over Latin America. It will coincide with events being held in Honduras to honour López.
The goal of the “Life is hanging on by a thread” campaign is to shine a light on symbolic cases of human rights and environmental defenders in Latin America and the Caribbean. Various testimonies of people defending human rights and indigenous peoples will come to light.
Promoters of the campaign stress its importance because “situations like the murder of Juan Antonio López are not isolated events, but part of a systematic pattern in Latin America, one of the deadliest regions for environmental and human rights defenders.” Global Witness, an international NGO, reports that 85% of environmental defenders who were killed in 2023 took place in Latin America. Specifically, in Honduras, 18 environmentalists were murdered last year. [see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2024/09/18/global-witness-2023-2024-annual-report-violent-erasure-of-land-and-environmental-defenders/]
Juan Antonio López was an environmentalist killed on September 14, 2024
The campaign will end on December 10, 2025, coinciding with the Jubilee of Hope.
Every year, people from around the world take part in Amnesty International’s Write for Rights campaign. It’s a really easy way to make a big difference by doing something “little”. It doesn’t take much time – all you need to do is write a letter, send a post or sign a petition.
Since Write for Rights started in 2001, millions of people have changed the lives of those whose human rights have been taken away. In fact, over the past 20 years more than 56 million actions have been taken, while over 100 people featured in our campaign have seen a positive outcome in their case. For this years toolkit see:
This year’s campaign will feature nine individuals and groups from all around the world. From a TikToker in Angola to a women’s rights defender in Saudi Arabia, these inspiring people are connected because their human rights have been violated.
For results from the recent past: Meet three incredible people whose lives have been changed for the better and find out what people power means to them.
After huge public campaigning, artist and anti-war activist Aleksandra (Sasha) Skochilenko was freed in a historic prisoner swap in August 2024. The deal was brokered between Russia and Belarus on the one hand and Germany, Norway, Poland, Slovenia and the USA on the other.
Aleksandra Skochilenko on the day of sentencing, November 16, 2023.
Rita Karasartova is a human rights defender and expert in civic governance from Kyrgyzstan. For over a decade she dedicated her life to providing independent legal advice, helping people whose rights had been violated. Charged with attempting to “violently overthrow the government”, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment, Rita and 21 other defendants were acquitted on 14 June 2024.
In August 2017, Myanmar’s military unleashed a deadly crackdown on Rohingya Muslims – an ethnic minority who have faced decades of severe state-sponsored discrimination in Myanmar. Over 620,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after security forces unleashed a campaign of violence, killing an unknown number of Rohingya; raping Rohingya women and girls; laying landmines; and burning entire Rohingya villages.
Fearing for their lives, then 17-year-old Maung Sawyeddollah and his family walked 15 days to Bangladesh, where they reached Cox’s Bazar refugee camps. Fuelled by his desire to become a lawyer, Sawyeddollah wanted to seek justice for the suffering around him.
Alongside his studies, he started a campaign calling for Facebook’s owner, Meta, to take responsibility for the way its algorithms amplified anti-Rohingya incitement on the Facebook platform, fuelling the Myanmar military’s violence.
In 2023 Sawyeddollah was facing serious security risks in the refugee camps. Together with partners Victim Advocates International and Dev.tv, Amnesty International put together resources to help ensure Sawyeddollah’s safety. Through Amnesty’s Global Relief Team he was provided with urgent financial assistance to support his security needs throughout the year. In August 2024, Sawyeddollah was granted a student visa and moved to the USA to study. He landed in New York City on 19 August 2024, and he is now an international student at New York University.
ISHR are celebrating longstanding and collective efforts in supporting human rights defenders. Join and find out more! ISHR’s journey began in 1984, inspired by the courageous actions of human rights defenders who dared to challenge injustices and advocate for a fairer world.
We’ve created a list of 40 things you can do to shed light on our mission and the vital work of human rights defenders and advocates who tirelessly strive to make our world a better and more equal place for all.
Twice a week, we will suggest an action that you can do to support ISHR’s work until we reach 40 actions, representing our 40 years of engagement. These actions are designed to be simple yet impactful, allowing everyone to actively participate in the celebration and contribute to the advancement of human rights. Whether you are a long-time supporter or new to our mission, each action will provide a tangible way to support and promote human rights defenders and advocates around the world.
The actions will be published on this page as well as on our social media feeds. From sharing a resource that inspires you, to watching a defender story and sharing what you love about ISHR, every action counts and helps amplify the voices of those who are fighting for justice, equality and freedom.
Please share these links with your network. The success of our mobilisation relies on the collective effort of our community, so we encourage you to spread the word and invite others to join us. By participating, you are not only celebrating our anniversary but also reinforcing the importance of human rights and the tireless work of those who defend them. We are looking forward to your participation and can’t wait to see the creative ways in which you will engage!
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?
Help us raise awareness about the UN Declaration on human rights defenders. Join the #Right2DefendRights 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
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
On 4 August 2023, Jaxx Artz in Global Citizen explains the Stand As My Witness’ campaign:
Stand As My Witness was created in response to a growing trend in which civil society actors were arrested for their human rights work. Formerly known as Civil Society Behind Bars, the initiative is one of CIVICUS’ most effective strategies when it comes to sounding the alarm about the plights faced by HRDs around the world. According to the global alliance, hostile government actors and authoritarian regimes often use flawed legal processes with little oversight in order to prosecute activists. “[There are targeted attacks] against people uncovering high-level corruption, exposing very serious human rights violations, calling for accountability, and seeking to drive change in their societies,” Mandeep Tiwana, chief programs officer at CIVICUS, told Global Citizen.
As part of the campaign’s goal to spread awareness about some of the world’s imprisoned activists, CIVICUS profiles a handful of detained HRDs on their website. In actuality, these names and cases represent just a small percentage of people who are currently in prison because of their activism, and whom CIVICUS is trying to get released.
As the global conditions for civic society worsen — with only 3.2% of the world’s population living in countries where civic space is considered open, according to the international global alliance CIVICUS — human rights defenders (HRDs) like al-Khawaja increasingly face the risk of government retaliation.
“The detention of HRDs is often arbitrary and a form of reprisal for the work [they] do,” David Kode, advocacy and campaigns lead at CIVICUS, told Global Citizen. “Take al-Khawaja, for example, who has been in prison since 2011 and is serving a life sentence. Despite many advocacy efforts, the Bahraini authorities seem to be bent on ‘punishing’ him and his family for calling for democratic reforms more than a decade ago.”
Made up of civil society organizations and activists across more than 175 countries, CIVICUS has been campaigning on behalf of HRDs since its founding in 1993. As part of their work, the Stand As My Witness campaign — launched over 10 years ago — has sought to encourage investigations into unlawful imprisonments and bring global attention to cases like al-Khawaja’s.
CIVICUS has found that the tactics used to target HRDs are eerily similar across national borders and, over the years, the trends have only become more apparent and concerning.
“[The imprisonment of HRDS] is often preceded by stigmatization about their work, which includes branding activists as security risks. We saw this happen a lot after the [Arab Spring] in the Middle East and North Africa in 2011,” Tiwana said. “A lot of authoritarian regimes became fearful of people organizing and coming out into the streets to engage in civil society.”
To limit public support of pro-democracy movements and ostracize activists from society, government officials may twist the narrative surrounding an HRD’s arrest and accuse them of being spies for other nations. They may also invoke counter-terrorism or security legislation to pressure judges and quickly detain organizers or protestors without arrest warrants.
Take Khurram Parvez, an HRD from Northern India who was arrested in 2021 on charges of conspiracy and terrorism, for example. Parvez’s work documenting human rights violations — which include instances of disappearance, torture, and unlawful killing — in the Jammu and Kashmir region of India caught the attention of Indian authorities who wanted to silence his advocacy work.
CIVICUS currently advocates on behalf of Parvez through various strategies, such as raising concerns about his detention with the UN, holding meetings with diplomats in India, and encouraging the Human Rights Council in Geneva to put pressure on Indian officials to release him.
“We continue to raise concerns about his detention on social media, telling his story as a human rights defender and highlighting the gaps left by his detention in relation to the amazing work he does promoting human rights in Kashmir and supporting those who are forcibly disappeared in Asia,” Kode told Global Citizen.
In recent years, environmental activists and Indigenous land defenders have faced the brunt of the attacks as corporations file lawsuit after lawsuit restricting the right to protest, leading many activists to face house arrest, financial ruin, or imprisonment.
How Does Stand As My Witness Help Imprisoned HRDs?
Despite the myriad challenges that HRDs and civil society organizations face in their day-to-day work, CIVICUS’ Stand As My Witness campaign has been able to raise the profile of many activists who have been unjustly imprisoned.
CIVICUS and other human rights organizations were able to mount an international campaign to bring attention to the years-long persecution faced by al-Hathloul and other women activists. The hashtag #FreeLoujain popped up across social media platforms, with global citizens around the world speaking up to urge Saudi Arabian authorities to release al-Hathloul.
The Stand As My Witness campaign relies on advocacy efforts from every part of civil society — when Global Citizens take action, for example, their voices can put an immense amount of pressure on world leaders.
“Hostile governments may have [HRDs] locked up for years, and it takes a concerted effort from relevant agencies, state actors, non-state actors, organizations, civil society, the media, and others to put enough pressure that leads to their release,” Tiwana said. “But justice often moves very slowly.”
One of the biggest challenges CIVICUS experiences with the Stand As My Witness campaign is engaging people during the life cycle of a case, which can often last several years. To fight against indifference, CIVICUS encourages Global Citizens everywhere to pay attention to the humanity of each activist who has dedicated their lives to the realization and protection of human rights.
You can get involved with the Stand As My Witness campaign by engaging with CIVICUS on social media, writing letters to government officials, and sharing information about HRDs who are not currently represented on CIVICUS’ interactive map.
You can also demand that governments release HRDs from unjust imprisonment by taking action with Global Citizen on civic space issues.
Disappeared Chinese human rights defender must be allowed to reunite with his family in Canada
After 31 months in hiding in Vietnam, on August 24, 2022 Chinese human rights defender Dong Guangping was arrested by Vietnamese police. There has been no news of his fate since then. His wife and daughter, who live in Toronto, are fearful that he has been handed over to Chinese authorities. In China he would face a grave risk of once again being jailed for his human rights activism. He has previously served three prison terms there, simply because he believes in human rights and refuses to remain silent in the face of grave violations in the country.
He was sentenced to 3 ½ years in prison in China. After he was released in 2019, Dong Guangping wanted to reunite with his wife and daughter in Canada. However, as China refused to issue him a passport, he was not allowed to leave the country through official channels. He first tried unsuccessfully to reach safety by swimming to a nearby Taiwanese island. In January 2020, he clandestinely crossed the border into Vietnam.
With backing from the Canadian government, Dong Guangping and his family had been hopeful that he would soon be allowed by Vietnamese officials to leave the country and travel to Canada. His arrest was unexpected and his subsequent disappearance has come as a crushing blow.
You can express Your Concern to the Embassies Please write, phone or send an email to Vietnam’s and China’s Ambassadors to Canada:
expressing your concern about Dong Guangping’s arrest in Vietnam on August 24, 2022 and the fact that there has been no news of his whereabouts or wellbeing since then;
asking them to immediately disclose where Dong Guangping is at this time and that Canadian officials be granted access to him; and
requesting that Dong Guangping be allowed to travel to Canada without any further delay, to join his wife and daughter.
His Excellency Cong Peiwu Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in Canada
HUIZHONG WU for Associated Press on 10 May 2022 reports that a Taiwanese human rights activist, who served five years in jail in China, said that international pressure and the tireless advocacy by his wife worked to ensure his safe return to Taiwan. “I know that my life’s safety and security was defended by many people, thanks to everyone, I have never felt abandoned or alone,” Lee Ming-che said at a press conference Tuesday in his first public appearance since being released from prison.Lee Ming-che was arrested by Chinese authorities in 2017 and charged with subversion of state power. His arrest was China’s first criminal prosecution of a non-profit worker since Beijing passed a law tightening controls over foreign non-governmental organizations in 2016.
His arrest marked a turning point as China showed that it would not hesitate to prosecute Taiwanese individuals for political activism, regardless of the harm it would bring to cross-Strait relations.
Lee had given online lectures on Taiwan’s democratization and managed a fund for families of political prisoners in China that some friends had set up.
“I did what I could do, using my credit card to buy some books,” he said, which he would send to friends in China. He would also give donations to the families of political prisoners. “This is not to interfere with the country’s internal affairs. All of this was simply a way of humanitarian caring.”Lee is the son of parents who were both born in China and had come to Taiwan with the ruling Nationalist Party. He had always thought of himself as a Chinese person growing up. That changed in high school with a history teacher who taught the students to learn about local history.
While Lee was able to come home, another prisoner, Lee Meng-chu, remains trapped in China. Lee Meng-chu has been accused of being a spy by Chinese authorities and is now serving the two years as part of his sentence which deprived him of “political rights.” Meng-chu had been in Hong Kong in 2019, during the massive anti-government protests that rocked the city, according to the semi-official Central News Agency. He disappeared after crossing the border into Shenzhen.
It’s uncertain how many Taiwanese are being held in Chinese prisons, as many families have chosen to remain quiet in the hopes of getting their loved ones’ release. This stands in contrast with Lee, the human rights activist’s case. In the last five years, Lee’s wife, Ching-yu worked with local nonprofit organizations to raise awareness about her husband’s case. .. That continued effort, both said, paid off. “International support can truly have a concrete change on the treatment of a political prisoner in China,” said Lee Ching-yu.
On 1 March 2022, EFE reported that Chinese human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, sentenced to 4 years in 2020 for “inciting subversion of state power,” was released Tuesday from prison in the eastern city of Nanjing, according to a Twitter post by his wife Xu Yan. Yu Wensheng was on a train bound for Beijing according to his wife, who awaits him at a hotel in the capital.
During the few meetings with his lawyer, Yu has claimed to have suffered torture and mistreatment during his confinement that may have caused him to lose part of the mobility of his right hand.
ISHR, the Martin Ennals Foundation and eight other major human rights groups urge in a joint statement the Chinese government to ensure lawyer Yu Wensheng is able to leave Nanjing Prison on March 1st, and freely reunite with his family in Beijing.
The signatory organisations also called in the joint statement for sustained attention on the growing risks and threats his wife, Xu Yan, faces for advocating for his rights and release.
For this, the authorities revoked his legal license on 16 January, 2018. Three days later, he was forcibly disappeared, a day after publishing an open letter calling for constitutional reform. He was put on trial in secret on 9 May 2019, but his wife, Xu Yan, was only informed of his four-years jail sentence in June 2020.
The signatories of the joint statement express grave concern that Yu Wensheng may be put under a de facto home arrest, severely restricted in his movements and communication, and unable to reunite with his family in Beijing.
Human rights lawyers have endured such restrictions upon leaving prison on grounds of a supplemental sentence of ‘deprivation of political rights’, in a phenomenon known as ‘non-release release’. In September 2019, UN experts condemned the use of this practice against lawyer Jiang Tianyong as ‘gratuitously punitive and legally unjustified’.
IThe signatory organisations urge the Chinese authorities to:
Ensure that Yu Wensheng is able to reunite with his family in Beijing on 1 March, to exercise his rights to move and communicate freely, and that he is not subjected to surveillance and harassment. He must also be able to resume his legal work without restrictions;
Put an end to the surveillance and harassment of Yu Wensheng’s family;
Guarantee in all circumstances that all lawyers in China, including human rights lawyers, are able to carry out their legitimate professional duties without fear of reprisals and free of restrictions.
In China, brave activists are trying to improve the daily life of their fellow citizens and defend their rights to speak freely, to be treated on an equal footing with others, to protest peacefully, or to practice a religion. But the Chinese government fears that their actions will challenge its power and that their criticisms will undermine it. Like the Uyghur and Tibetan peoples, many who stand up for human rights are repressed and silenced, and the authorities have found a very effective way to do that: they disappear them.
On 22 October 2020, exactly a year ago, lawyer Chang Weiping was disappeared under ‘Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location’ (or ‘RSDL’) for ‘inciting subversion of State power.’ Lawyer Chang is a human rights lawyer, who has bravely defended sensitive cases of victims of sexual harassment during China’s ‘Me Too’. He has also worked with victims of discriminatory practices due to their sexual orientation or HIV status, or targeted for speaking freely or practicing their religion. Ten days before his disappearance, he had published a video denouncing torture he had endured when he was first held under RSDL in January 2020, after attending a meeting with other activists a month earlier. UN experts have publicly called for his release. No one knows where he is held. [see also: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/2e6ec951-79e7-4a36-b077-76bfe05e3817]
Since 2012, China’s rubber-stamp legislative body passed and amended several articles in its Criminal Procedure Law that give police the power to take people into custody without disclosing where they will be held: this is called ‘Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location’. When this happens, people are denied all contact with the outside world, even with their family or a lawyer, for up to six months. No one knows where they are. They are interrogated and often tortured to extract confessions. Meanwhile, despite the barriers and risks they have to overcome, their families persist in seeking knowledge about their loved one’s fate and justice for what they suffered.
Many human rights activists have stopped promoting dignity, peace and justice in their communities because they fear to be disappeared by the police. This practice – enforced disappearance – is absolutely wrong and prohibited under international law. Everyone should be able to speak their mind and participate in the life of their communities.
ISHR, Safeguard Defenders, The Rights Practice and The 29 Principles are mobilising the international community to put pressure on China to #RepealRSDL and end enforced disappearances against human rights defenders.
They want the Chinese government to repeal RSDL (articles 74 to 79 of China’s Criminal Procedure Law), and to bring truth and justice to victims.
RSDL should be high on the agenda of any human rights exchange with the Chinese government. We want governments worldwide to speak out and use all bilateral and multilateral channels to press the Chinese government to #RepealRSDL. We want the UN to amplify its monitoring of RSDL in China, and to sustain its pressure on the authorities to respect international law and to #RepealRSDL.
Feeling supported is vital for disappeared defenders and their relatives. We want the media, human rights groups and activists across the world to pay closer attention to RSDL, to raise awareness around them, and to stand in solidarity with disappeared Chinese human rights defenders and their relatives.
How do we achieve this?
We are working hard to:
Increase the awareness and legal understanding of government officials and diplomats, UN experts, journalists, and human rights groups, there is a short document that explains clearly what UN experts have said about RSDL, and are spreading the word online and offline.
Mobilise diplomatic missions, through meetings and letters, and encourage them to speak out on RSDL at the UN and in other spaces;
Push UN experts to take up individual cases and pay a closer look at the use and impact of RSDL in light of China’s obligations under international human rights law ;
Encourage governments, activists, and concerned individuals to stand in solidarity with disappeared human rights defenders and their relatives
What can you do?
Stand in solidarity! Feeling supported is vital for disappeared defenders and their relatives. Send a solidarity message with Chen Zijuan, lawyer Chang’s wife: write a postcard, and share it with her on your social media by clicking on the image below. Don’t hesitate to personalise it before tweeting. Alternatively you can copy paste this link in your browser: https://ctt.ac/477cf
You can also raise awareness! Check out the informational and communication material in our ‘Campaign Toolbox’, and share it with your country’s ministry of foreign affairs, a journalist you know, your friends or your social media followers – and remember to tag @ISHRglobal, and #StandWithDefenders #RepealRSDL.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 