Non-Governmental Organisations working on Human Rights Defenders

Section dedicated to the defenders programm of Amnesty International

The aim of our campaign is to bring sustained and coordinated pressure on the Colombian government to achieve a positive, lasting and significant change for the country’s human rights defenders.

Areas of focus:

* Impunity in cases involving defenders.

* Misuse of state intelligence against defenders.

* Systematic stigmatization of defenders by government officials.

* Unfounded criminal proceedings brought against defenders.

* Problems with the protection program for defenders at risk.

The International Campaign on Women Human Rights Defenders is an international initiative for the recognition and protection of women who are activists advocating for the realization of all human rights for all. The campaign asserts that women fighting for human rights and particularly focusing on women’s human rights face specific violations in the course of their work because of their sex and gender. In addition, the Campaign focuses on the situation of human rights activists defending women’s rights and in particular calls attention to the violations experienced by lesbian, gay, bisxeual, transgender and other rights activists on grounds of their sex and gender identities. The identities of these actors as well as the nature of the rights they strive to uphold are both factors that make them the focus of the Campaign

The East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP) seeks to strengthen the work of human rights defenders (HRDs) throughout the region by reducing their vulnerability to the risk of persecution and by enhancing their capacity to effectively defend human rights.

EHAHRDP focuses its work on Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia (together with Somaliland), Sudan (together with South Sudan), Tanzania and Uganda. As of 2008 it also includes Rwanda and Burundi into its scope given their recent adhesion to the East African Community.

Many countries in this sub-region have experienced massive human rights abuses, long-term and large-scale impunity, single-party and military dictatorships, civil wars, and in the case of Somalia, a collapsed state; such situations and contexts render both the work and lives of human rights defenders particularly challenging.

This project was established following extensive field research in the region, which identified the most pressing and unmet needs of human rights defenders in order to seek to overcome some of the resulting challenges. The key areas identified as needing to be addressed were:

• Insufficient collaboration amongst human-rights organizations, especially among neighboring countries

• Resource constraints (notably material) which greatly undermine the effectiveness of the work carried out by human rights defenders

• Knowledge gaps, in particular regarding international human rights instruments and mechanisms as well as crisis management.

The East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Network was established in 2005 and currently brings together more than 65 non-governmental organizations active in the protection of human rights throughout the region. Its objectives evolve from its vision of a region in which the human rights of every citizen as stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) are respected and upheld, and is further emphasized in its mission to maximize the protection of Human Rights Defenders working in the region and to enhance the awareness of human rights work through linkages with national, regional and international like-minded entities. Its declared objectives are:

• To protect and defend HRDs in the region

• To build the capacity of HRDs in the region, and

• To advocate and raise public awareness and profiles of HRDs in the region

To reach these objectives, the activities of the Network will focus on a threefold strategy along the following lines:

• Protection

• Capacity building

• Advocacy

Created in 2001, in Luxembourg, the European Bar Human Rights Institute (IDHAE) has as its objective:

• the monitoring of human rights protection particularly under the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of November 4th, 1950 and its Protocols as well as the Charter of Fundamental rights of the European union.
• the training of lawyers in international human rights law particularly relating to the rights of the defence before the international jurisdiction and criminal courts. .
• interventions, regardless of the limitations of borders, in favour of freedom and the fundamental rights of lawyers.
• the organisation of workshops, symposia and seminars related to publications on international human rights law.
• the presentation of a European Human Rights Prize to a lawyer.

Front Line was founded in Dublin in 2001 with the specific aim of protecting Human Rights Defenders, people who work, non-violently, for any or all of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Front Line aims to address some of the needs identified by defenders themselves, including protection, networking, training and access to the thematic and country mechanisms of the UN and other regional bodies.

Special page on Human Rights Defenders

Section dedicated especially to the defenders programm of Human Rights Watch

The main task is to receive information on the situation of human rights defenders in the Americas, to maintain contacts with nongovernmental and governmental organizations and to coordinate the work of the Executive Secretariat related to the defenders of human rights in the Americas. Site only in spanish

The IBAHRI works to promote, protect and enforce human rights under a just rule of law in a variety of ways. These include: training lawyers, judges and prosecutors in human rights law and international humanitarian law; pioneering training programmes to strengthen the judiciary in post-conflict countries or countries where basic state infrastructure may have been eroded; undertaking fact-finding missions and sending trial observers to countries where the rule of law has deteriorated; making representations to authorities worldwide where individuals or the independence of the judiciary has been threatened; galvanising international support to lobby for change through media and advocacy campaigns; and providing long-term technical assistance to under-resourced Bar Associations and Law Societies.

The Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, created in 1993, is granted annually to someone who has demonstrated an exceptional record of combating human rights violations by courageous and innovative means. The prize aims to encourage human rights defenders who are in need of protection. The value of the award is 20,000 Swiss Francs, to be used for further work in the field of human rights.

The New Tactics in Human Rights Project, led by a diverse group of international organizations and practitioners, promotes tactical innovation and strategic thinking within the international human rights community. Strategic and tactical thinking, long used by business and military strategists, is an effective means for the human rights movement to expand options and possibilities of what can be done. Innovative tactics are emerging that may more effectively advance human rights and end persistent human rights problems. Many innovations have been valuable, yet are not well known outside their regions.

Peace Brigades International (PBI) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) which protects human rights and promotes nonviolent transformation of conflicts. When invited, we send teams of volunteers into areas of repression and conflict. The volunteers accompany human rights defenders, their organizations and others threatened by political violence.

The East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project is designed to strengthen the work of human rights defenders in the sub-region by reducing their vulnerability to the risk of persecution and by enhancing their capacity for effectiveness in defending human rights. It focuses on Somalia (together with Somaliland), Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Much of this region has experienced massive human rights abuses going back many years, in the context of single-party and military dictatorships, struggles for democracy, civil wars, and in the extreme case of Somalia, the collapse of the state.

Page dedicated to the defence of lawyers