share information on human rights defenders, with special focus on human rights awards and laureates
Since 2003, The Carter Center has hosted the Human Rights Defenders Forum, bringing together activists from around the world. In 2026, for the first time, participants gathered outside the United States to learn from each other and find inspiration.
https://www.cartercenter.org/stories/amid-growing-challenges-human-rights-defenders-find-solidarity/
The first World Congress on Enforced Disappearances will convene from 15 – 16 January in Geneva, marking a pivotal step in the global fight to prevent and eradicate this egregious human rights violation.
This event will bring together governments, victims, civil society organisations, and international bodies to foster dialogue and chart a collective path forward to end enforced disappearances worldwide. Over the course of the two-day event, panel discussions will be held on topics such as international responsibility for the forcibly disappeared, strengthening search procedures, and protecting victims, rights defenders, lawyers and journalists.
See also https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/5E526725-F43B-83FB-3B7E-2B3C56D01F60
and https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/81468931-79AA-24FF-58F7-10351638AFE3
The Congress, open to the press and the public, is co-organised by the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED), the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), the UN Human Rights Office, and the Convention Against Enforced Disappearances Initiative (CEDI).
Details of the programme are available online. The event will take place at the Geneva International Conference Centre (CICG). Onsite registration is open at the venue.
The Committee on Enforced Disappearances monitors States parties’ adherence to the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which as of to date, has been ratified by 77 States parties. The Committee is made up of 10 members who are independent human rights experts drawn from around the world, who serve in their personal capacity and not as representatives of States parties.
The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances comprises five independent experts from all regions of the world. The Chair-Rapporteur is Ms. Gabriella Citroni (Italy); and the Vice-Chair is Ms. Grażyna Baranowska (Poland); other members are Aua Balde (Guinea-Bissau); Ms. Ana Lorena Delgadillo Perez (Mexico); and Mr. Mohammed Al-Obaidi (Iraq).
https://www.icj.org/wced-1st-world-congress-on-enforced-disappearances/
Experts and representatives of civil society shared their assessments of the needs of human rights defenders in exile at an ODIHR event that took place in the margins of the 2023 Warsaw Human Dimension Conference. 6 October 2023. (OSCE/Piotr Dziubak) Photo details
The situation of human rights defenders forced to work outside their countries to avoid danger or persecution at home was the topic of an event organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human rights (ODIHR) on 5 October 2023 in the margins of the Warsaw Human Dimension Conference.[see:https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2023/10/03/osce-leaders-speak-the-right-language-about-hrds/ ]
“Human rights defenders play a legitimate and important role in our societies,” said Andrew Gardner, ODIHR’s Deputy Head of the Human Rights Department. “It is essential that they can operate in a free and safe environment when this does not exist in their own countries.”
Experts and representatives of civil society, some who had themselves relocated to safer countries, shared their assessments of the needs of human rights defenders in exile, including rapid access to safe third countries, overall safety and a secure legal status, and their ability to continue their human rights work.
Participants stressed the importance of being able to form associations, seek and receive funding and travel as part of their human rights work. They also discussed the impact of being uprooted on human rights defenders’ well-being.
“Defenders are determined to continue their human rights work,” said Tamar Beria of the International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR). “But states and donor organizations must do more to make this work viable in the long term by tackling pervasive issues such as visa access, inflexible funding and a lack of institutional support.”
Participants stressed that decision-makers must address protection gaps which exist for exiled human rights defenders and ensure the fulfilment of their fundamental rights and freedoms.
Every year, human rights defenders bring their stories to the Oslo Freedom Forum stage to shed light on the struggle for freedom around the world.
The 2022 theme, CHAMPION OF CHANGE, captures the idea that celebrates both activists – who are themselves champions – and their causes, to promote positive change.
At the Oslo Konserthus, you’ll listen to talks that will expose you to a breadth of human rights issues, pro-democracy causes, and inspiring stories of nobility and triumph against monumental odds.
see https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/840cf16d-c095-4033-b931-c1533f87e665
see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2021/03/30/new-sg-for-amnesty-international-agnes-callamard/
More details about the speakers on https://oslofreedomforum.com/oslo-freedom-forum-2022/?mc_cid=a33c5d0c01&mc_eid=f80cec329e#2022speakers
International Human Rights Day 2020 is coming up and here is an early save the date for the Humanists International.
Since 2012 Humanists International has published the Freedom of Thought Report to monitor the rights and treatment of humanists, atheists and non-religious people in every country in the world. This year, the thematic focus of the Report is COVID-19, and its impact on the non-religious people globally. In particular we have seen the establishment of restrictions on:
– Women’s rights
– Media freedom, protest and access to information
– Individuals at risk
Here is the list of the event speakers:- Andrew Copson
President of Humanists International
– Dr Ahmed Shaheed
UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief
– Emma Wadsworth-Jones
Humanists International’s Casework & Campaigns Manager
– Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mkhaitir
Mauritanian blogger and anti-slavery activist
– Debbie Goddard,
Vice-President of American Atheists
– Rev. Fred Davie,
Commissioner of The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
The event will be live-streamed on Facebook on 10 December at 15.00 UTC.No registration is needed. Access is free. We are going to share the link of the live streaming with you in due time.Confirm your participation
to the event on Facebook now!
Having just posted a report on the prolifiration of intergovernmental responses to the Corona virus pandemic [https://wp.me/pQKto-4ob], it perhaps good to point to the webinar that Business & human rights is organising on 4 June 2020 on Risks and Protection of Human Rights Defenders.
This webinar will have a focus on the risks and protection of HRDs, particularly labour rights and land/environmental defenders and ensuring their participation in the post-pandemic recovery.
Date & Time: 4 June, 4.15 – 5.15 (ICT) / 10.15 – 11.15 (BST)
It will have two parts: a closed and an open session. The closed session – happening on Jitsi – will be a safe space for civil society organisations, human rights defenders, including labour rights and land and environmental defenders, labour unions, and journalists to jointly define practical recommendations on what governments and companies can do to address human rights situation, particularly of labour, land, environmental defenders and civic freedoms, in the context of COVID-19. This part of the webinar is invite-only.
The second part – happening on Zoom – will be an open session, will be an opportunity for civil society, defenders, and journalists to interact with government and business representatives and discuss how companies, governments and civil society can work together to ensure all stakeholders are able to shape recovery efforts, and make sure they are human rights compliant. Anyone is free to join us in the public session by RSVP-ing below.
On 30 April 2020 the UN Human Rights Council held a virtual informal conversation on the human rights implications of the COVID-19 crisis with representatives of the Coordination Committee of Special Procedures mandate holders.
The special procedures of the Human Rights Council are independent human rights experts with the mandates to report and advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective. The Coordination Committee, composed of six Special Procedures mandate holders, aims to enhance coordination among mandate holders and to act as a bridge between them, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the broader United Nations human rights framework and civil society.
….Anita Ramasastry, Chairperson of the Coordination Committee of Special Procedures, noted that the Coordination Committee had helped create a dedicated COVID-19 web page, which it hoped would become over time a living repository of guidance and advice to States on good practice. The Special Procedures mandate holders had risen to the challenge and through their powerful statements, actions and innovations promoted a human rights-based approach to addressing this crisis, said Ms. Ramasastry. They attempted to help States to ensure that policies and decisions taken during the crisis were consistent with human rights.
Dainius Pûras, Special Rapporteur on the right to health said advances in biomedical sciences were very important to realize the right to health during this pandemic, but equally important were human rights. The way to the effective management of the pandemic was the application of the principles of non-discrimination, participation, empowerment and accountability to all policies. He also stressed the importance of access to reliable and accurate information and the protection of the right to privacy, including in the use of technologies to track the spread of the virus.
In the ensuing discussion, speakers welcomed the guidance provided by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to ensure that States’ responses complied with human rights obligations. They asked what steps had been taken to ensure the lifting of unilateral and illegal coercive measures, which violated human rights. Any measures to counter the pandemic should be necessary and proportionate, pursue legitimate purposes, and comply with international norms. Respect for human rights was vital, not only for the emergency response phase, but also during the post-crisis recovery. Speakers noted that emergency powers had been used to enact repressive measures that may have the effect of silencing dissent. They stressed the importance of upholding economic, social and cultural rights, including issues related to access to housing and food. It was hard to find a more striking example of the interconnectedness of rights than this crisis.
In conclusion, Mr. Pûras said lessons still had to be drawn from this pandemic. However, lots of lessons learned from previous public health crises could be applied today to address the current crisis. The AIDS epidemic, for instance, had shown that a human rights-based approach was most effective. It should also be noted that the current crisis had revealed the weakness of healthcare systems, including in some developed countries, which would have to be addressed.
The webcast of this informal virtual conversation is available on demand on UN Web TV, while summaries of the discussion in English and French can be found on the United Nations Office at Geneva News and Media page.
A “digital meeting” was organised by the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss the fight against COVID-19 and its impact on democracy and human rights.
“The major social, political and legal challenge is our democracies’ ability to respond to the COVID-19 sanitary crisis effectively, without undermining Europe’s founding values of Democracy, Human Rights and Rule of Law. The Council of Europe, through its statutory organs and all its competent bodies and mechanisms will ensure that measures taken have a legal basis and remain proportional to the threat posed by the spread of the virus and limited in time“, said Christos Giakoumopoulos, Council of Europe Director General of Human Rights and Rule of Law, at a digital meeting organised by the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
The topic of the meeting was the fight against COVID-19 and its impact on democracy: the participants aimed at contributing to the global conversation about the risk of the COVID-19 response leading to, or being used as a pretext for, undue restrictions on human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
Christos Giakoumopoulos took part in the meeting with the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde and Minister for International Development Cooperation Peter Eriksson, as well as with other three representatives of key intergovernmental organisations: Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Eamon Gilmore, EU Special Representative for Human Rights and Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
Lawyer Wang Yu is taken to a studio for TV denunciation of the ABA award. Pictorial rendition is based on Wang Yu’s account. Source: Safeguard Defenders.The government has invited, according to its official website, “more than 600 important international guests from governments, judicial departments, financial circles, international lawyers’ associations, other bar associations and well-known law firms, etc.”………to uphold the rule of law spirit of building a community of shared future for humanity, create an international platform for lawyers from all countries for exchange and cooperation, further consolidate the consensus of the international legal profession, etc…
We know that since July 2015, Chinese human rights lawyers have been suppressed on a large scale [ see https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2015/07/29/the-remarkable-crackdown-on-lawyers-in-china-in-july-2015/ and https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2019/06/26/lawyers-key-to-the-rule-of-law-even-china-agrees-but-only-lip-service/]. To this day, many lawyers, including Wang Quanzhang [see https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2018/12/05/li-wenzu-wife-of-wang-quanzhang-wins-2018-edelstam-award/], Zhou Shifeng, Yu Wensheng, Chen Wuquan, Chen Jiahong, Qin Yongpei, and others are in prison. Lawyer Gao Zhisheng disappeared on August 13, 2017, and his whereabouts still are unknown. Lawyer Jiang Tianyong, who was released from prison earlier this year, has since been under illegal house arrest [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2017/11/21/jiang-tianyong-chinese-defender-of-defenders-sentenced-to-2-years-jail/].
China Change asked a number of Chinese human rights lawyers to express their views on this “Global Lawyers Forum”. Here a selection:
“…..If the purpose of the conference, as the government claims, is to “consolidate the international consensus of the lawyers’ profession,” what then is the consensus of the legal profession? It is the UN’s “Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers.” Domestic law should be amended on the basis of these principles. (Liu Shuqing, Jinan, deprived of his lawyer’s license in 2016)
“This rhetoric can be deceptive domestically and internationally, giving those who don’t know the true nature of the CCP and the reality on the ground the wrong impression that China has rule of law, so much so that it is a world leader in the area.” (Jiang Tianyong, Beijing, 709 detainee, and still under house arrest since his release at the end of February 2019.)
Lawyer Jiang Tianyong“I think it is a ridiculous thing for China to host such an event. As everyone knows, the Chinese government has always opposed constitutional democracy and the rule of law. It disregards human rights and blatantly infringes upon every right of the people. Such a conference is only a cover-up for the CCP.” (A lawyer who wishes to remain anonymous)
“The All China Lawyers’ Association (ACLA) is the same as the Chinese government; it is a part of the government. ACLA contributes little to defending human rights in China, and more often than not it is an accomplice in suppressing human rights. Such a country holding such a conference and urging lawyers from all over the world ‘to jointly promote the rule of law around the world’ –– how could anyone believe this? How could anyone attend and support such a meeting? Are the participants burying their heads in the sand or just being ignorant?” (Liang Xiaojun, Beijing)
“Nearly without exception, any Chinese lawyer who has participated in any international exchange meeting, including meetings with Hong Kong and Taiwanese lawyers, has been interrogated and threatened by China’s national security agents or domestic security police after they returned home to the mainland. In such a ‘police state,’ how can there be normal international exchanges?” (Chen Jiangang, Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow 2019, who fled China in the summer after being threatened with “disappearance” by a director of Beijing’s Judicial Bureau)
“The choice to hold the ‘Global Lawyers Forum’ in Guangzhou is ironic in light of the purpose of the gathering. The retrogression of the legal system in China over the past decade, and the persecution of lawyers who dare to speak out, has reached a shocking point. And the crackdown and persecution of lawyers in Guangzhou is the most severe in the country. Therefore, the selection of Guangzhou for the ‘Global Lawyers Forum’ is an affront to the spirit of rule of law.” (Liu Zhengqing, Guangzhou, license revoked in 2019)
“I really am not inclined to criticize any lawyers or officials who will attend the conference. I just want them to be clear-headed when they are in China. What they will see is definitely not all of China, or even the most important part. If they aren’t hoodwinked and if they observe the Chinese legal profession with clear eyes, a greater number of ordinary Chinese lawyers may have heartfelt admiration for them.” (Wen Donghai, Changsha)
“I hope attendees from foreign bar associations won’t just listen to the officials’ big empty words and propaganda but pay more attention to the actual human rights situation in China. I hope they learn more about religious groups, ethnic minorities, dissidents and human rights activists. These groups have suffered cruel persecution in China; I hope the foreign attendees will speak on their behalf at the conference and raise questions.” (An anonymous Beijing lawyer)
“I hope the participants can hear the voices of lawyers not sanctioned by the CCP government, and especially look into the real reasons for the revocation of so many lawyers’ licenses.” (Liu Zhengqing, Guangzhou)
…….
Botswana human rights defender Alice Mogwe, newly elected president of the FIDH, says: “The universality of human rights is under attack – we must fight back!”
Composition of the new FIDH International Board:
President
Alice MOGWE
Treasurer
Dominique LEDOUBLE
Secretaries General:
Kaari MATTILA
Gloria CANO
Shawan JABARIN
Adilur RAHMAN KHAN
Drissa TRAORE
Vice Presidents
Sheila MUWANGA
Sandra CARVALHO
Alexis DESWAEF
Reinaldo VILLALBA VARGAS
E-Ling CHIU
Juan Francisco SOTO
Tola Thompson ADEBAYOR
Paul NSAPU MUKULU
Guissou JAHANGIRI
Reyhan YALCINDAG BAYDEMIR
Nedal AL SALMAN
Tolekan ISMAILOVA
Maryse ARTIGUELONG
Artak KIRAKOSYAN
Valiantsin STEFANOVIC
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 