A human rights defender or human rights activist is a person who, individually or with others, acts to promote or protect human rights. They can be journalists, environmentalists, whistleblowers, trade unionists, lawyers, teachers, housing campaigners, participants in direct action, or just individuals acting alone. They can defend rights as part of their jobs or in a voluntary capacity. As a result of their activities, human rights defenders (HRDs) are often subjected to reprisals including smears, surveillance, harassment, false charges, arbitrary detention, restrictions on the right to freedom of association, physical attack, and even murder.[1] In 2020, at least 331 HRDs were murdered in 25 countries. The international community and some national governments have attempted to respond to this violence through various protections, but violence against HRDs continues to rise. Women human rights defenders and environmental human rights defenders (who are very often indigenous) face greater repression and risks than human rights defenders working on other issues.
In 1998, the United Nations issued their Declaration on Human Rights Defenders to legitimise the work of human rights defenders and extend protection for human rights activity. Following this Declaration, increasing numbers of activists have adopted the HRD label; this is especially true for professional human rights workers.
Definition
The term human rights defender (HRD) became commonly used within the international human rights community after the UN General Assembly issued the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognised Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (A/RES/53/144, 1998), commonly known as the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. Prior to this Declaration, activist, worker, or monitor were more common terms for people working to defend human rights.[2] The Declaration on Human Rights Defenders created a very broad definition of human rights defenders to include anyone who promotes or defends human rights.[3][4] This broad definition presents both challenges and benefits to stakeholders and donors seeking to support HRD protection programs, as more precise definitions exclude some categories of HRDs, but such broad definition also leaves much room for interpretation and can make it difficult to establish HRD status for some at-risk individuals.[3]
In 2004, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued Fact Sheet 29 to further define and support human rights defenders. This document states that, "no 'qualification' is required to be a human rights defender," but that the minimum standards for HRDs are acceptance of the universality of human rights and non-violent action.[5]
Some researchers have attempted to demarcate categories of human rights defenders for the purpose of better understanding patterns of HRD risks. Such categorisation may discern professional vs. non-professional activity,[3] or differentiate based on the specific rights that are being defended such as the rights of women,[6] or indigenous land rights.[7]
Self identification
Self-identification as a human rights defender is more common among professional human rights advocates who work within established institutions, governments, or NGOs. Individuals who work outside of these systems commonly self-identify as 'activists', 'leaders', or by a broad range of other terms instead of human rights defenders, even when their activity falls clearly within the scope outlined by the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. Use of the HRD identity could benefit human rights activists by legitimising their work and facilitating access to protective measures.[3] Use of the HRD identity can also be counterproductive by directing attention to particular individuals rather than focusing on the collective nature of their work, which may also have the effect of further endangering these individuals.[8]
Threats to human rights defenders
Human rights defenders (HRDs) face severe repression and retaliation from government and private actors including the police, military, local elites, private security forces, right-wing groups, and multi-national corporations. Abuses include threats, arbitrary arrest and detainment, harassment, defamation, dismissal from jobs, eviction, disappearance, and murder.[9] HRDs who work on women's rights (WHRDs) or who challenge cultural gender norms run increased risks compared to other HRDs, as do less prominent workers in remote areas.[9]Environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs) who work on environmental rights, land rights, and indigenous rights issues also face greater threats than other HRDs;[7] in 2020 69% of the HRDs killed globally were working on these issues.[10]
A report published by Front Line Defenders in 2020 found that at least 331 HRDs were murdered that year in 25 countries. Although indigenous people only account for about 6% of the global population, approximately 1/3 of these murdered HRDs were indigenous. In 2019, 304 HRDs were murdered in 31 countries.[10]Global Witness reported that 1,922 EHRDs were killed in 52 countries between 2002 and 2019. 80% of these deaths were in Latin America. Approximately 1/3 of the EHRDs reported killed between 2015 and 2019 were indigenous. Documentation of this violence is incomplete, and for every death there may be as many as a hundred cases of severe repression such as detainment, eviction, defamation, etc.[7]
Research conducted by the Business and Human Rights Resource Center[11] documented a 34 percent increase worldwide in attacks against human rights activists in 2017. The figures included 120 suspected murders and hundreds of incidents that involved assault, bullying, and threats. There were 388 attacks in 2017 compared to only 290 in 2016. The same study identified human rights defenders connected to agribusiness, mining, and renewable energy sectors (EHRDs) as those in greatest danger. Lawyers and members of environmental groups were also at risk.[12]
UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders
The United Nations Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (A/RES/53/144) on December 9, 1998, commonly known as the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders,[13] is the first UN instrument to legitimise and define human rights defenders, as well as the right and responsibility for everyone to protect human rights.
The Declaration is not legally binding, but it articulates rights established by existing human rights treaties and applies them to human rights defenders in order to legitimise their work and extend protection of HRDs. Under the Declaration, a human rights defender is anyone who works to promote or protect human rights: whether professionally or non-professionally; alone or as part of group or institution.
The Declaration articulates existing rights in a way that makes it easier to apply them to human rights defenders. The rights protected under the Declaration include, among others, the right to develop and discuss new human rights ideas and to advocate their acceptance; the right to criticise government bodies and agencies and to make proposals to improve their functioning; the right to provide legal assistance or other advice and assistance in defence of human rights; the right to observe fair trials; the right to unhindered access to and communication with non-governmental and intergovernmental organisations; the right to access resources for the purpose of protecting human rights, including the receipt of funds from abroad; and the rights of free expression, association and assembly.
The Declaration indicates that states have a responsibility to implement and respect the provisions of the Declaration and emphasises the duty of the state to protect HRDs from violence, retaliation and intimidation as a consequence of their human rights work. The Declaration also places responsibility to protect human rights at the individual level and especially upon individuals in professions that may affect human rights such as law enforcement, judges, etc.[4]
Women human rights defenders (WHRDs) are women who defend human rights, and defenders of all genders who defend the rights of women and rights related to gender and sexuality.[14][15][16] Their work and the challenges they face have been recognized by a United Nations (UN) resolution in 2013, which calls for specific protection for women human rights defenders.[17]
This is the logo for the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition that represents the coming together and discussing problematic issues dealing with human rights for all.
A woman human rights defender can be an Indigenous woman fighting for the rights of her community, a woman advocating against torture, an LGBTQI rights campaigner, a sex workers' rights collective, or a man fighting for sexual and reproductive rights.[14]
Like other human rights defenders, women human rights defenders can be the target of attacks as they demand the realization of human rights. They face attacks such as discrimination, assault, threats, and violence within their communities. Women human rights defenders face additional obstacles based on who they are and the specific rights they defend. This means they are targeted just because they are women, LGBTI people or for identifying with their struggles. They also face additional obstacles connected with Institutional discrimination and inequality and because they challenge, or are seen to be challenging, patriarchal power and social norms. They are more at risk of facing gender based violence in the home and the community, and sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, trans-phobic threats, smears and stigmatization, as well as exclusion from resources and power.[18][19][20]
International Women Human Rights Defenders Day has been celebrated each 29 November since 2006.[19]
In 2017, female activists who were killed because of their advocacies and activities in defending human rights were honored during the International Women Human Rights Defenders' Day. Those murdered criticized corruption and other forms of injustice, protect their lands from governments and multinational corporations, and upheld the rights of lesbians, gays and transgender individuals.[21]
Environmental human rights defenders or simply environmental defenders, have been defined by the UN Environment Programme as, "defenders carrying out a vast range of activities related to land and environmental rights, including those working on issues related to extractive industries, and construction and development projects."[22] They also state that environmental defenders are, "defending environmental rights, including constitutional rights to a clean and healthy environment, when the exercise of those rights is being threatened whether or not they self-identify as human rights defenders. Many environmental defenders engage in their activities through sheer necessity."
The use of the term Environmental defender (or Environmental human rights defender) by human rights organizations, the media, and academia is recent and associated with the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.[23] However, the approach and role of environmental defenders is closely related to earlier concepts developed as early as the 1980s such as environmental justice and environmentalism of the poor.[23] Although these different terms have different origins, they converge around the re-establishment of land-based cultures, re-making of place for marginalized people, and protection of land and livelihood from activities such as resource extraction, dumping of toxic waste, and land appropriation.[24][23] Since the 1998 UN Declaration, the term environmental defenders is increasingly used by global organizations and media to refer to this convergence of goals and analysis.
Protection instruments
Following the adoption of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders in 1998, a number of initiatives were taken, both at the international and regional level, to increase the protection of defenders and contribute to the implementation of the Declaration. In this context, the following mechanisms and guidelines were established:
The European Union Guidelines on human rights defenders (2004)
The Declaration of the Committee of Ministers on Council of Europe action to improve the protection of human rights defenders and promote their activities (2008)
The European Union Human Rights Defenders mechanism, which is implemented by civil society organizations, ProtectDefenders.eu (2015)
In 2008, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), took the initiative to gather all the human rights defenders' institutional mandate-holders (created within the United Nations, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Council of Europe, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Union) to find ways to enhance coordination and complementarities among themselves and with NGOs. In 2010, a single inter-mechanisms website[25] was created, gathering all relevant public information on the activities of the different human rights defenders' protection mandate-holders. It aims to increase the visibility of the documentation produced by the mechanisms (press releases, studies, reports, statements), as well as of their actions (country visits, institutional events, trials observed).
In 2016, the International Service for Human Rights published the 'Model National Law on the Recognition and Protection of Human Rights Defenders'. This document provides authoritative guidance to states on how to implement the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders at the national level. It was developed in collaboration with hundreds of defenders and endorsed by leading human rights experts and jurists.
Several countries have introduced national legislation or policies to protect human rights defenders including Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, and Guatemala; however, key challenges in implementation remain.[26]
The Martin Ennals Award, a collaboration of several human rights NGOs. Martin Ennals was a renowned human rights defender and secretary general of Amnesty International. Its secretariat is located at the OMCT office in Geneva.[27] The award carries a grant of at least 20,000 Swiss Francs (about 20,000 US dollars) to be used for further work in the field of human rights.
The Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk, established in 2005 to 'honour the work of a human rights defender who, through non-violent work, is courageously making an outstanding contribution to the promotion and protection of the human rights of others.'[28]
The Ginetta Sagan award for Women Human Rights Defenders, established in 1997 "to help women throughout the world in their struggle to overcome oppression, to let them know that they are not alone".[29] Awardees include Hina Jilani, Sonia Pierre, Lydia Cacho, Julienne Lusenge.
Electronic mapping is a newly developed tool using electronic networks and satellite imagery and tracking. Examples include tactical mapping, crisis mapping and geo-mapping. Tactical mapping has been primarily used in tracking human rights abuses by providing visualization of the tracking and implementation monitoring.[30]
Examples of HRDs
In 2017, Human rights lawyer Emil Kurbedinov,[31] a Crimean Tatar, won the 2017 Award for Frontline Human Rights Defenders at Risk. Kurbedinov has been an avid defender of civil society militants, mistreated Crimean Tatars, and members of the media. He documents violations of human rights during searches of activists' residences as well as emergency responses. In January 2017, the Crimean Center for Counteracting Extremism[32] arrested and detained the lawyer. He was taken to a local facility of the Russian Federal Security Service[33] for questioning. A district tribunal ruled that Kurbedinov was guilty of doing propaganda work for terrorist groups and organizations. He was sentenced to 10 days of imprisonment.[34][undue weight?–discuss]
International human rights instruments are the treaties and other international texts that serve as legal sources for international human rights law and the protection of human rights in general. There are many varying types, but most can be classified into two broad categories: declarations, adopted by bodies such as the United Nations General Assembly, which are by nature declaratory, so not legally-binding although they may be politically authoritative and very well-respected soft law;, and often express guiding principles; and conventions that are multi-party treaties that are designed to become legally binding, usually include prescriptive and very specific language, and usually are concluded by a long procedure that frequently requires ratification by each states' legislature. Lesser known are some "recommendations" which are similar to conventions in being multilaterally agreed, yet cannot be ratified, and serve to set common standards. There may also be administrative guidelines that are agreed multilaterally by states, as well as the statutes of tribunals or other institutions. A specific prescription or principle from any of these various international instruments can, over time, attain the status of customary international law whether it is specifically accepted by a state or not, just because it is well-recognized and followed over a sufficiently long time.
The United Nations Prizes in the Field of Human Rights were instituted by United Nations General Assembly in 1966. They are intended to "honour and commend people and organizations which have made an outstanding contribution to the promotion and protection of the human rights embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in other United Nations human rights instruments".
Martin Ennals was a British human rights activist. Ennals served as the secretary-general of Amnesty International from 1968 to 1980. He went on to help found the British human rights organisation ARTICLE 19 in 1987 and International Alert in 1985.
The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (VDPA) is a human rights declaration adopted by consensus at the World Conference on Human Rights on 25 June 1993 in Vienna, Austria. The position of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights was recommended by this Declaration and subsequently created by General Assembly Resolution 48/141.
Human rights education (HRE) is the learning process that seeks to build up knowledge, values, and proficiency in the rights that each person is entitled to. This education teaches students to examine their own experiences from a point of view that enables them to integrate these concepts into their values, decision-making, and daily situations. According to Amnesty International, HRE is a way to empower people, training them so their skills and behaviors will promote dignity and equality within their communities, societies, and throughout the world.
Human rights in Vietnam are among the poorest in the world, as considered by various domestic and international academics, dissidents and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Watch (HRW), and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
Human rights in the Philippines are protected by the Constitution of the Philippines, to make sure that people in the Philippines are able to live peacefully and with dignity, safe from the abuse of any individuals or institutions, including the state.
The Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, sometimes called "the Nobel Prize for human rights", is an annual prize for human rights defenders. It was created in 1993 to honour and protect individuals around the world who demonstrate exceptional courage in defending and promoting human rights. Its principal aim is to provide protection to human rights defenders who are at risk by focusing international media attention on their plight, mainly through online means and advocacy work. The Award is named after British human rights activist Martin Ennals, former secretary general of Amnesty International and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Widad Akreyi is a Kurdish health expert and human rights activist. She has co-founded the human rights organization Defend International and is the author of several books about both health issues and human rights.
The Cambodian Center for Human Rights is a non-partisan, independent, non-governmental organization that works to promote and protect democracy and respect for human rights throughout Cambodia. It focuses primarily on civil and political rights and on a variety of interlinked human rights issues. The white bird flying out of a circle of sky blue on the logo of the organization symbolizes Cambodia’s quest for freedom.
The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women was adopted without a vote by the United Nations General Assembly in the 48/104 resolution of 20 December 1993. Contained within it is the recognition of "the urgent need for the universal application to women of the rights and principles with regard to equality, security, liberty, integrity and dignity of all human beings". It recalls and embodies the same rights and principles as those enshrined in such instruments as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Articles 1 and 2 provide the most widely used definition of violence against women.
Protection International (PI) is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to the protection of human rights defenders (HRDs). Its stated mission is to offer long-term accompaniment and support human rights defenders at risk by building capacities for managing their protection and security effectively. Protection International takes a preventive and collective perspective of protection instead of the most often reactive perspectives.
Human rights and climate change is a conceptual and legal framework under which international human rights and their relationship to global warming are studied, analyzed, and addressed. The framework has been employed by governments, United Nations organizations, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, human rights and environmental advocates, and academics to guide national and international policy on climate change under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the core international human rights instruments. In 2022 Working Group II of the IPCC suggested that "climate justice comprises justice that links development and human rights to achieve a rights-based approach to addressing climate change".
Development is a human right that belongs to everyone, individually and collectively. Everyone is “entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized,” states the groundbreaking UN Declaration on the Right to Development, proclaimed in 1986.
Michel Forst is a French national actively involved in the defence of human rights. Former Secretary General of the French national human rights institution, he was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders from June 2014 to March 2020.
Women human rights defenders (WHRDs) are women who defend human rights, and defenders of all genders who defend the rights of women and rights related to gender and sexuality. Their work and the challenges they face have been recognized by a United Nations (UN) resolution in 2013, which calls for specific protection for women human rights defenders.
A land defender, land protector, or environmental defender is an activist who works to protect ecosystems and the human right to a safe, healthy environment. Often, defenders are members of Indigenous communities who are protecting property rights of ancestral lands in the face of expropriation, pollution, depletion, or destruction.
Mary Lawlor is Adjunct Professor of Business and Human Rights in the School of Business of Trinity College Dublin. An Irish national, she is currently the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, appointed for a three-year term from May 2020. She is the founder and former Executive Director of Front Line Defenders and former director of the Irish branch of Amnesty International.
The right to a healthy environment or the right to a sustainable and healthy environment is a human right advocated by human rights organizations and environmental organizations to protect the ecological systems that provide human health. The right was acknowledged by the United Nations Human Rights Council during its 48th session in October 2021 in HRC/RES/48/13 and subsequently by the United Nations General Assembly on July 28, 2022 in A/RES/76/300. The right is often the basis for human rights defense by environmental defenders, such as land defenders, water protectors and indigenous rights activists.
Environmental defenders or environmental human rights defenders are individuals or collectives who protect the environment from harms resulting from resource extraction, hazardous waste disposal, infrastructure projects, land appropriation, or other dangers. In 2019, the UN Human Rights Council unanimously recognised their importance to environmental protection. The term environmental defender is broadly applied to a diverse range of environmental groups and leaders from different cultures that all employ different tactics and hold different agendas. Use of the term is contested, as it homogenizes such a wide range of groups and campaigns, many of whom do not self-identify with the term and may not have explicit aims to protect the environment.
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