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Campaigns

The Campaigns programme at Front Line Defenders was created in direct response to requests from human rights defenders to help increase their visibility, respect  and legitimacy aimed at raising awareness of and support for both the role of human rights defender and the individual HRDs at risk around the world.

Since 2011, Front Line Defenders has conducted a number of campaigns in support of human rights defenders, launching new and innovative initaitves aimed at generating new narratives both internationally and locally to boost the respect for HRDs and ultimately to improve their security.  While all the campaigns run by Front Line Defenders have an international component and are complementary to advocacy efforts by the organisation, HRDs and allies, the real aim of the campaigns work is to create tools and resources for HRDs to boost their support in their own societies.

Publication
7 Août 2017

María Magdalena Tun didn’t choose to become a human rights defender. But when private companies started evicting local communities in her region, polluting the rivers and destroying the forests, she realised she could not sit idly by: she had to defend the rights of her people.

Lieu 
Publication
5 Juillet 2017

On World Environment Day, we honour the struggle of Guatemalan HRDs who are risking their life to defend environmental rights

Two weeks ago, indigenous and land rights defender Carlos Maaz Coc attended a peaceful demonstration in El Estor, Guatemala. Together with other fishermen and farmers, he was protesting against the contamination caused by nickel mining projects in his region.

Lieu 
Publication
2 Mai 2017

On 17 April, Kazim Kizil went to film a protest in Izmir, Turkey. People were demonstrating against irregularities in the voting process for the constitutional referendum, which granted president Recep Tayyip Erdogan new sweeping powers.

The rally didn’t last long. Police intervened and detained around 20 people. Kazim was one of them. His camera was seen as a threat: the Turkish authorities did not want anyone documenting the crackdown.

Lieu 
Publication
6 Mars 2017

Ana Maria has helped hundreds of Dominicans of Haitian descent reclaim their rights, and resist racism and discrimination. Lorraine leads innovative education initiatives, to raise awareness about environmental rights in communities affected by coal mining in South Africa. Nisha successfully challenged a law discriminating against transgender people in Malaysia, and set up the first organisation providing support to the trans community in her country.

Lieu 
Publication
9 Août 2016

Here are the activists at risk for defending them.

When members of Juan Francisco Martínez’s community found his body in January 2015, his body bore marks of torture. One of his hands was still tied with what appeared to be laces from military boots.

Juan, a human rights defender and indigenous Lenca man from Honduras, was found on 5 January 2015 in the village of Tapuyman in the Santa Elena Municipality of La Paz, Honduras. He had been killed the day before.

Lieu