COMMUNITIES ARE HRDs! PI’s Global Campaign | 20th Anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders
28 May 2018
We are celebrating this year 2018 the 20th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, a fundamental tool for the protection and recognition of human rights defenders. For Protection International, this is the occasion to make a step forward in the protection of human rights defenders and call for the long-needed recognition of the collective dimension of human rights work.
Together for a different narrative on human rights defenders!
In the year that marks the 20th Anniversary of the UN Declaration on HRDs we are experiencing an unprecedented backlash against human rights, which makes the environment surrounding defenders increasingly hostile.
In a context of smear campaigns against HRDs that legitimize attacks against them and foster impunity, Protection International wishes to contribute to a changed narrative on human rights defenders, towards a greater recognition of the collective aspect of their work and achievements.
Under the slogan and hastag #CommunitiesareHRDs, we can build together a new narrative on HRDs where everybody can protect human rights and support human rights work. Human rights work is not done by ‘heroes’ but by ordinary people gathering together around a human rights cause.
What we mean by “communities”
Our campaign’s slogan “Communities are HRDs!” refers to communities as collective groups in a broad sense, i.e. groups fighting together for and defending the respect of human rights:
social groups living together
spontaneous and structured coalitions gathering around specific issues of concern
groups of people who share common identities, such as indigenous or LGBTIQ communities
professional categories (such as lawyers or journalists)
civil society organisations and movements
What we aim at
More specifically, Protection International aims to
mobilise all actors and notably decision makers to understand better and support a collective approach to human rights work
advocate for collective protection in public policies
highlight the importance of women HRDs and their key role in communities
strengthen the human rights movement as a whole and empower collective groups to change the narrative on HRDs
promote an understanding on the UN Declaration on HRD and its link with other international human rights instruments
Actions!
See below the list of activities around Protection International’s global campaign on the 20th Anniversary of the UN Declaration on HRDs
Last December 2017, ahead of the 20th anniversary of the UN Declaration on HRDs, Protection International and the Centre for Applied Human Rights (CAHR) of the University of York organised an international roundtable tto reflect collectively on the way security and protection of human rights defenders (HRDs) can be further strengthened. The event gathered HRDs, practitioners, academics and policy makers from all continents, allowing them to challenge established protection approaches, tools and practices.
Awards given to human rights defenders represent a fantastic acknowledgement of their work and an incomparable way to raise awareness on outstanding achievements. For their immense value, Protection International calls onprotection actors and award-giving entities to go beyond the recognition of individual heroic figures of individual HRDs and promote collective human rights awards that strengthen communities, organisations and movements.
Protection International participates in the HRDs World Summit 2018, an event that will brings together a group of 150 HRDs from around the world. This international summit, that takes place on 29, 30 and 31 October in Paris, aims to celebrate HRDs’ work and the progress made in the last 2 decades, raise awareness about the threats HRDs are facing and create a platform to build the strategies for an effective protection and a more enabling environment for human rights around the world in the next decades. #HRDWorldSummit#WeAreAllDefenders#CommunitiesareHRDs
PI presents its report The Criminalization of Social Movements: The case of La Lucha in DRC at the European Parliament, in a public conference organised also by the European Network for Central Africaand MEP Marie Arena. It addresses two issues: the increasing criminalisation of citizens’ movements and what role should the EU play in ensuring the protection of Congolese civil society actors.
Pl is organising a discussion on UN complaint procedures for HRDs, aiming to offer a space for exchange for all interested actors and to contribute to improve HRD-related protection mechanisms. On this occasion, Janika Spannagel, associate researcher at the Global Public Policy Institute, will present her key research findings on the functioning and impact of the complaint procedures before the UN Special Rapporteur on HRDs.
Award-winning British freelance photographer Luke Duggleby tells the stories of people in Thailand who sacrificed their lives for their causes, who died trying to defend human rights, as part of a TEDxTalks in Khon Kaen. For Those Who Died Trying is a photo exhibition by Luke Duggleby and co-organised by Protection International and the Canadian embassy of Thailand, which presents photographs of 37 murdered or abducted human rights defenders in Thailand by placing a portrait of the victim, when possible at the exact placewhere they were murdered or went missing.
Protection International supports #IDefendRights, a new project launched by the Norwegian Human Rights Fund that aims to shift the narrative about Human Rights Defenders, by collecting their audio testimonies on their experiences on the front line to defend the human rights.
PI participates in the panel Women on the Frontlines, in the framework of the EDD. Organised also by Just Associates, the Fund for Global Human Rights, Mama Cash and Urgent Action Fund, it aims to generate dialogue on how the human rights and development communities can collectively respond to the global crackdown on civil society, and pushback on the restrictions women activists face that are hampering women’s equality and inclusion in sustainable development.
Key publications
During this very special year, Protection International releases key publications contributing to raising awareness on “collective protection”, on how to make progress for better public policies to protect human rights and for advancing the right to defend human rights.
Protection International acknowledges the great value of all awards given to HRDs. For that very reason, we wish to continue supporting them as much as we can. We also wish to contribute to their development by encouraging the nomination of more and more collective movements. 20 years after the adoption of the Declaration on HRDs, this would undoubtedly mark a new step forward.
Protection International (PI) launches its report on the criminalisation of la Lucha, a citizen movement for the defence of human rights, exposing the characteristics and impacts of this criminalisation on the members of the movement and on their communities and social networks, in the particular context of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In view of the high number of attacks against human rights defenders in the Americas (and the rest of the world), ES TIEMPO YA – THE TIME IS NOW tries to find out what is going wrong with the national mechanisms and programs that several governments in the region have put in place to protect them. Protection International and CEJIL bring together their experience in the region and contribute with a novel approach, offering new possibilities to improve protection policies.
The high level of risk faced by HRDs, CSOs and communities, particularly those living and operating in remote rural areas, the growing attention given to the issue of collective protection by Colombian jurisprudence; and the need to expand the focus of HRD protection beyond government programmes, have motivated Protección International and Pensamiento y Acción Social (PAS) to undertake this research.
With the recent 20th anniversary of the UN declaration on Human Rights Defenders, much attention is currently focused on the indispensable work carried out by communities of human rights defenders across the globe. In this context, it is important to consider that human rights defenders do not usually work alone, but in groups, in association with others, in social movements, building collective networks and supporting each other. Nevertheless, the tendency of protection mechanisms is to choose an individual HRD, a practice which can limit the impact of measures to a very narrow number of defenders and also undermine the collective dimension of human rights defence work.
