@ Frontline Defenders
The Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council are independent human rights experts, appointed to monitor and report on human rights violations and to advise and assist in promoting and protecting rights.
ISHR works closely with a wide range of Special Procedures experts whose mandates are directly related to the creation of an enabling environment for the defence of rights – such as those focused on human rights defenders, freedom of opinion and expression and freedom of assembly and association – as well as with mandate holders whose work is seen by our human rights defender partners as critical at key moments in their own context.
ISHR also works to safeguard the independent and effective functioning of the Special Procedures mechanism as a whole, including by advocating for the appointment of highly qualified, independent experts; closely monitoring efforts to hamper these experts’ independence or limit their methods of work; and by working with human rights defenders and civil society groups to encourage States to implement the recommendations of Special Procedures.
To end impunity and ensure accountability for acts of harassment, reprisals, and intimidation against defenders who engage with UN mechanisms, ISHR has continued to call for States to raise specific cases when given the opportunity. During HRC52, BENELUX answered ISHR’s call, raising 6 specific cases of reprisals against defenders from Belarus, Burundi, Cameroon, China, Egypt, and Venezuela.
Following the High Commissioner's reports on Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras, the new Colombian Ambassador urged other countries to embrace the international human rights mechanisms as part of a 'therapeutic treatment' designed to heal a country and not to sanction it.
Civil society spoke of the ongoing human rights crisis in Venezuela this week at the Council making evident that, despite Venezuela’s best efforts to denounce the Fact-Finding Mission, the Mission’s work and that of OHCHR are absolutely essential to victims of violations.
During the General Debate Item 5, ISHR and Association Stop Violences delivered a joint statement highlighting the case of reprisals against woman human rights defender Vanessa Mendoza Cortes in Andorra, following her participation in CEDAW in 2019.
Olnar Ortiz Bolívar and Alexandra Lezama, human rights defenders from Venezuela, are attending the Human Rights Council 52nd session, where the Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela will present an oral update on the human rights situation in the country.
Human rights violations amounting to crimes against humanity have been carried out in Nicaragua, a group of UN independent experts have told the Human Rights Council. To investigate these crimes fully, the Colectivo 46/2 coalition calls for the two-years renewal of UN Human Rights Council resolution on Nicaragua.
Explore the purpose and mandates of the Special Procedures and how you can work with them to strengthen your advocacy
Visit the ISHR Academy to find out more!
In this briefing paper, ISHR looks at the powerful role of China over the UN human rights treaty bodies (UNTBs), identifying the ways in which China deploys influence, from an official discourse that consistently focuses on restricting their scope of work to direct threats to independent NGOs who wish to engage with the UN experts.
This explainer presents action taken by UN experts on the case of detained Chinese anti-discrimination activists Cheng Yuan, Wu Gejianxiong, and Liu Dazhi.
This new ISHR report presents the evolution of China’s public stance on reprisals in dialogues at the UN, and summarises the way in which it has portrayed civil society’s cooperation with the UN as a ‘criminal act’.
ISHR and ILGA World have updated their factsheets on different UN experts – check out the references to LGBTI persons and recommendations that these Special Procedures have made.
Over the past four years, United Nations human rights experts have raised serious concerns about the Chinese government’s routine misuse of its national security legislation to jail human rights defenders, lawyers, and journalists. In a new bilingual infographic released today, ISHR documents the UN experts’ legal analysis in 23 letters to Beijing authorities.
In August 2018, a group of 10 UN human rights experts wrote a long letter to the Chinese government inquiring about the legal provisions allowing RSDL. This infographics explains and summarises the findings of the UN experts.
