In partnership with the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
Executive summary
Human rights defenders (HRDs) play a crucial role in securing human rights progress. However, they face escalating risks amid an increasingly hostile political climate, widening conflict, and the spread of transnational repression.
Addressing this calls for a broad, multistakeholder approach, involving governments, international organisations, donors, businesses, international civil society, and HRDs themselves.
The purpose of this meeting was to hold just such a multistakeholder discussion about the challenges and how to respond. This report sets out eight key themes with proposals for action that arose from the discussion: legitimacy and universalism; solidarity; accountability; protection and resilience; travel and relocation; access; coordination; and resourcing.
Introduction
Human rights defenders (HRDs) play a frontier role in advancing human rights, across a range of sectors and issues1, from community workers to journalists and from activists to lawyers. What they share is that their work is a driving force for human rights – and often also for progress in intersecting areas such as climate, democracy, humanitarian assistance, peacebuilding, and tackling inequalities. To protect and create an enabling environment for HRDs is to invest in the possibility of progress in these areas.
However, the risks that many HRDs face today are escalating. This is evident in several important trends. The first trend is that the global political context is becoming more hostile towards human rights. The global shift towards autocratic politics, often based on broad public support, means that HRDs are becoming more isolated and more vulnerable.
The second trend is the growth in the number of conflicts, which is now higher than at any point since World War Two. Conflict has become increasingly normalised. As ongoing conflicts remain unresolved and major military powers continue to prepare for the possibility of a wider war, there is simultaneously more at stake for human rights and an increasingly difficult environment in which to defend them. Women HRDs face particularly severe risks in this context.
The third trend is that threats to HRDs are no longer confined by national boundaries. The spread of transnational repression means that HRDs remain at risk when they travel or are forced into exile. Such repression is facilitated by technology – including spyware and other surveillance tools – but it has many offline manifestations, including threats to families, the confiscation of travel documents, and direct reprisals in destination countries. This trend poses a growing challenge to the rule of law in countries which host HRDs.
Repression of HRDs is proving to be an effective strategy in suppressing human rights. Its impact is that the cost of defending human rights becomes unsustainably high, and many HRDs (and the social movements or civil society organisations to which they belong) are necessarily preoccupied with survival and safety. This saps their energy and capacity to make an impact. In situations where there have been regressions on human rights, such as on LGBTQ+ rights, HRDs who had previously built a public profile on these issues are left dangerously exposed.
Confronting these threats is an urgent imperative2. The challenge they pose for the possibility of human rights progress should not be understated. As one participant commented starkly, the “the centre seems not to be holding”.
This calls for a broad and multistakeholder response – including from governments, international organisations, donors, businesses, international civil society, and HRDs themselves. The challenge they face is twofold. How can these actors work together to ensure that HRDs do not have to shoulder the risks alone? And how can they raise the political cost of repression?
Key points and recommendations
The threats to HRDs and civic space are complex, and they call for responses on multiple levels. There are macro and micro dimensions, including the overall operating environment and the specific needs of individuals. There is a need to think about the long-term direction as well as urgent short-term interventions. There are local and international aspects, particularly in the context of transnational repression which engages both origin and destination countries. And there is a need for a more coordinated approach across the online and offline realms.
The following themes and recommendations reflect this complexity.
- There is no single definition of an HRD, and people who are given this label do not necessarily self-identify as such. According to the UN Human Rights Office, it is through their actions and the contexts in which they work that they can be identified. https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-human-rights-defenders/about-human-rights-defenders. ↩︎
- This is set out in further detail in the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders +25, an initiative of civil society organisations in 2024 to mark 25 since the original Declaration. https://ishr.ch/defenders-toolbox/resources/declaration-25/. ↩︎