All over the world criminal laws and other legal provisions are used to attack human rights defenders (HRDs) to hamper their work in the defence and promotion of human rights. Protection International’s first global report on criminalisation of HRDs: Criminalisation of Human Rights Defenders – Categorisation of the problem and measures in response (available in also in French and Spanish) aims to provide responses to protection challenges for criminalised HRDs, civil society organisations and rural communities.

To this end, the report illustrates the interplay among legal instruments, socio-political contexts, practices by state authorities and non-state actors, which altogether ultimately contribute to stigmatise, delegitimise and criminalise HRDs. Counter-measures that may be adopted to combat criminalisation are also discussed in the report together with a number of concrete recommendations to HRDs, State authorities and justice institutions, as well as foreign governments, multilateral agencies, donors and civil society organisations.

Available in French and Spanish.