Executive Director Andrew Anderson's letter to the Sunday Mail Zimbabwe on inaccuracies in publication

6th December 2019

Dear Sir,

On 27 November 2019 The Sunday Mail Zimbabwe published a story titled “US plot to fund subversive NGOs exposed” which stated that “The Sunday Mail has gathered that the US Embassy in Harare has slated a workshop in the capital between December 2 and 10 to train subversive civil society organisations on strategies of sustaining demonstrations. An organisation dubbed Frontline Defenders is facilitating the workshop in conjunction with the US Embassy.”

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Front Line Defenders (Ireland) would like to make clear that the content of The Sunday Mail article is false, that we are organizing no workshop in Harare and have no contact with the US Embassy in Zimbabwe. We are writing to you asking you to print a correction.

The International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (Front Line Defenders) is an international organization based in Ireland that works for the protection of human rights defenders at risk – people who put themselves in harm’s way to defend the rights of others. Front Line Defenders provides practical support through safety grants, physical and digital protection training, advocacy and campaigning.

Human rights defenders can be community leaders, lawyers, journalists, trade unionists, anybody who works peacefully to promote or protect the human rights of others, working for all or any of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights including women's rights, the rights of Indigenous Peoples, and economic, social and cultural rights.

Front Line Defenders responds to the needs identified by human rights defenders themselves and works on cases of human rights defenders at risk in countries in all parts of the world. All of our work is based on the needs expressed by human rights defenders themselves. We also liaise with the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders and other national and international organizations. Front Line Defenders was the winner of the United Nations Prize for Human Rights in 2018.

We hope this matter receives your urgent attention.