Search and Rescue organisations patrolling the Libyan coasts have saved thousands of lives that European border policies left to perish.
Despite their life-saving work, the employees and volunteers of these NGOs are routinely accused of colluding with traffickers and helping immigrants to illegally enter Europe.
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.
Dispatches 2016 presents the work Front Line Defenders has undertaken around the world for the protection and security of human rights defenders at risk in 2016, including the impact of grants, training, advocacy, visibility, rest & respite and other programs, as well as the launch of the HRD Memorial, honoring HRDs killed since the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders in 1998.
A publication of the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition, this manual is motivated by the courageous activism of people—and in particular, women—around the world who dare to resist, to fight for what we believe is right, and to put our lives on the line for justice, accountability and fairness.
This guide gives an outline of what UN agencies can do locally to provide protection for human rights defenders. It aims to give practical and helpful suggestions on how to engage constructively with the UN.
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.
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.
This guide gives an outline of what UN agencies can do locally to provide protection for human rights defenders. It aims to give practical and helpful suggestions on how to engage constructively with the UN.
此安全手册受益于超过50个国家的数百名参加了前线组织举行的关于安全和防护的研讨会的维权卫士。 这些维权卫士们之所以能够继续他们的工作, 是因为他们都已经采取行动来维护他们的安全。 他们用系统的方法评估其处境, 并采用了最适合其环境特点的战略战术。 这本安全手册的基础是《维权卫士防护手册》, 与安全专家的讨论, 以及研讨会参与者和其他困难环境下的当地维权卫士们的贡献, 他们与我们讨论了风险并分享了他们的生存策略。
