Working Paper No. 11
Protection International, May 2021
The Human Rights Defender Hub Working Papers Series
December 2018 marked a milestone for Protection International, with our first ever regional community exchange. Over 4 days in Southern Thailand, defenders of the Southern Peasants Federation of Thailand (SPFT) met with Indonesian defenders from six organisations of buruh tani (farm workers). The objective was to
foster a South-to-South learning exchange, bringing together stories of hope and sharing knowledge on the defense of rights in their respective communities.
Ahead of the 20th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, Protection International and the Centre for Applied Human Rights (CAHR) of the University of York hosted an international roundtable in Brussels on 12 and 13 December 2017, entitled “Rethinking the protection of Human Rights Defenders”.
#rethinkingprotection #CommunitiesareHRDs
This is about vigilance and “countervigilance”. This is a useful tool to help what we call “to be vigilant”.Available in English and Spanish.
Human rights defenders in Indonesia face criminalisation and struggle to assert their rights especially on environmental issues. This video illustrates the lack of action from the government who not only does not protect human rights defenders but leave them at the mercy of criminalisation acts. In the regions of Pati and Rembang, farmers who maintain the sustainability of Mount Kendeng, have been facing injustice since 2006, as the company PT semen Gresik and its subsidiaries had been planing on building factories threatening the livelihood of the local communities.
In December 2011, Protection International conducted within the federal Parliament, in collaboration with the MP Juliette Boulet, a roundtable on national legislations and mechanisms for the protection of human rights defenders. Defenders from Latin America, Asia and Africa and members of the Protection Desks (field protection programs of PI, in collaboration with local partners) presented their assessment of the key existing national mechanisms and projects to create new mechanisms.
Despite repeated calls by the international community, including the United
Nations, the EU, ASEAN and the Burmese democracy movement, the “new
government” established after the recent flawed electoral process continues to
refuse to release almost 2,000 political prisoners held in Burmese prisons. Their
immediate and unconditional release is one of the key benchmarks necessary for
genuine national reconciliation to take place.
