2024 Annual Report

We are delighted to launch our 2024 Annual Report!

A year of changes, some uphill battles, but always forward moving. In 2024, we remained steadfast in our commitment to a world free of violations, where HRDs can defend their collective rights and the right to defend human rights is upheld.   

In 2024 we worked with 4,552 HRDs across 30 countries, of whom 58% were women HRDs.

We also launched our new Strategic Plan for 2024–2028, with three strategic objectives that shaped our actions in 2024:

1. HRDs and their collectives have the agency to defend rights safely
2. Power holders uphold enabling environments
3. Protection International is a resilient, sustainable, and responsive organisation

Across Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia and the Caucasus we have compiled stories and testimonies from HRDs on collective protection, speaking truth to power, cross-regional learning, and the power of narratives for an enabling environment to defend human rights.

More and more we are responding to the needs of environmental and land defenders as they organise against large-scale extractivism. Read about our accompaniment with rural Thai defenders to quash SLAPP charges, and our risk and security training for Congolese environment and indigenous defenders.

Framing our community-driven work with women and indigenous defenders in Colombia and Brazil through an intersectional approach.

We made our work alongside defenders with disabilities count, publishing a long-awaited guide on ‘Strengthening the Inclusion, Protection and Wellbeing of Human Rights Defenders with Disabilities’ in numerous languages, and brought the findings to international spaces.

Carrying out impactful advocacy actions across the European Union, the United Nations, New York Climate Week, and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights.

We delivered expert training on digital, physical and psychosocial protection to numerous HRDs and organisations through services, including in countries where we do not have a permanent presence, such as Georgia, Zambia and Nepal.

7 new research publications, in English, Spanish, French, Russian and Swahili.

Our 2024 Annual Report is dedicated to our colleague Mel De Vera, who sadly passed away in 2024. Rest in power, Mel!

Download our 2024 annual report below