2025 Human Rights Defender Advocacy Programme (HRDAP) participants and ISHR staff in front of the UN building in Geneva ©Ben Buckland for ISHR
Here at ISHR we are constantly being inspired by the brave people taking action to defend human rights and want to share some of their stories with you.
'I would like to see mining projects, small scale mining for example and hydro power projects or water works that are led by the community and are not proposed by big companies and foreign entities that enter our ancestral lands,' says Casselle Ton in an interview with ISHR.
‘Water is to protected. Water is not for sale. Water is to be defended.’
ISHR spoke with Gladys Mbuya, a lawyer by profession, a passionate human rights defender, and a peace crusader. Discover her story below!
'As Syrians, we have an opportunity for a democratic transition.'
'What we need first is peace. (...) The international community, the UN, has the ability to end what's happening in eastern RDC - what is happening today in the East is truly alarming.'
‘There is currently no law to protect human rights defenders in Madagascar. We need this law to pass. The army and the gendarmes must be trained to understand who we are so they can become our allies.'
'The tragic irony here is that it should be very easy for duty bearers to take immediate and urgent action. States need only to abide by their legal obligations'.
Yuteita Hoyos Ramos is an Indigenous woman human rights defender from Mexico. In an interview, she told us how she came to work in defence of the rights of girls, women and Indigenous peoples, and about her aspirations for the future of Mexico.
'There is a responsibility for big tech companies to uphold human rights to make sure that they are not complicit in the violation of human rights, especially in the context of genocide.'
‘The Egyptian authorities must open the civic space for civil society to play its role. They must stop persecuting human rights defenders, political opponents, and journalists simply for doing their jobs. The UN and the international community must maintain pressure on them to comply with human rights standards.’
'Indigenous communities must have better political representations to ensure our rights are protected both constitutionally and in practice.'
‘We try to address issues of climate change and inequality only through answering symptoms of the disease. It's time that we address the root cause which is the global financial architecture.’
