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.
Farukhleqa is a woman human rights defender from Afghanistan. She has been working for the promotion and protection of women's right for almost 20 years and is currently actively opposing gender apartheid in Afghanistan.
Tamana is a human rights and women’s rights activist who leads in Germany the campaign to 'End Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan. In an interview with ISHR, she tells us a little more about her work and vision for Afghan women.
Elham Kohistani is a human rights defender from Afghanistan. Having witnessed successive governments trample human rights in her country since her childhood, she has dedicated her life to fighting for the basic rights of women and girls.
'Since the Taliban came to power, Afghanistan [has become] the only country where we see that women don’t have any kind of rights.'
'They can take our homes, our titles or our surnames, but the hope and joy that sustain us, and with which we continue to work, still remain.'
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).
'Daily challenges are quite difficult sometimes. But I am convinced that, when we do good, when we commit to human rights, whatever the difficulties that come before us, we will always be able to overcome them in full solidarity.'
'If we work together to make sure that issues are more visible, that happen in Africa, civil society organisations, I think, will be achieving more.'
'International advocacy is a tool to advance our human rights work, but it is also a tool that will support us in consolidating our protection as women human rights defenders.'
Bonnie Florencia Shariff, woman human rights defender from Madagascar, speaks about the importance of inclusive societies in a world that is becoming increasingly globalised.
'What is needed from the international community in general, and from within the UN, is a concrete, coherent and unified voice in favour of the protection of human rights defenders, the safeguard of the fundamental liberties, the civic space and human dignity,' said Rosana Lezama Sanchez, a law student in Venezuela working with three national human rights organisations.
