2023 Human Rights Defender Advocacy Programme participants and ISHR staff in front of the UN building in Geneva ©Ben Buckland
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.
Kadar Abdi Ibrahim is a human rights defender and journalist from Djibouti. He has drawn inspiration from historic figures in the human rights movement in the hopes of building a a solid and lasting democracy in his country.
Cynthia Palacios Reckziegel works in international advocacy for the Center of Legal and Social Studies (CELS) in Buenos Aires. She shared her hopes for a future in which women in Argentina can access reproductive health services without being discriminated.
Andreza Jorge is a human rights defender and activist working to empower communities in favelas in Brazil. She was also a participant to the 2023 edition of ISHR’s flagship training course, the Human Rights Defender Advocacy Programme (HRDAP).
David Yambio is a community advocate and spokesperson at the NGO Refugees in Libya. His own experiences of forced exile inspired him to fight for the human rights and well-being of migrants and refugees on both sides of the Mediterranean.
Camila Zuluaga is an international advocacy lawyer at the Colombian Commission of Jurists (CCJ). She spoke to ISHR about her history of activism and hope for Colombia, which is about working to make a safer country for human rights defenders.
Days before facing trial on baseless charges, activist and trade union leader Kaddour Chouicha renewed his call for democracy and the independence of the judiciary in Algeria.
Anexa Alfred Cunningham is a human rights defender and an advocate for the rights of Indigenous and Afro-descendent communities in Nicaragua. In response to her engagement with UN bodies, the government of Nicaragua has sent her into forced exile.
Olga Valle is a human rights defender and activist from Nicaragua who works for the citizens’ electoral watchdog Urnas Abiertas.
Alexandra Lezama is a human rights defender from Venezuela who came to Geneva to expose the facts and consequences of illegal mining and the contamination of the environment in the State of Bolívar.
Olnar is an indigenous human rights defender from Venezuela coming to Geneva to deliver important messages to the international community for the preservation of the Amazon and ancestral lands.
Alexandra Salazar is a human rights defender from Nicaragua, working for the organisation Unidad de Defensa Jurídica (UDJ), which has been supporting political prisoners in the country since 2018.
'A leader needs to have a goal. My target is the grassroots community, mostly the Indigenous persons, because I feel they are mostly left out when it comes to human rights issues and that they are the ones that also suffer a lot when there are violations.'
