Read on to remain up to date with the latest international human rights news, views and developments!
On 19 October 2023, ISHR in collaboration with Defend Defenders and American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative, launched two reports on the challenges faced by environmental human rights defenders in Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Tanzania as well as the situation of women defenders seeking corporate accountability in Mozambique.
On 1 July 2022, during the 50th session of the Human Rights Council, Uganda presented the outcome of its 3rd Universal Periodic Review. Only 54% of the recommendations given for review were accepted by Uganda and none of them were related to the protection of human rights defenders. Uganda can and should do better!
We look back at all that the 17 inspiring human rights defenders participating in our 2017 Human Rights Defenders Advocacy Programme achieved during their intense time in Geneva.
The third cycle of the Universal Periodic Review should be marked by an increased focus on the participation and protection of human rights defenders and other civil society actors, both in the process itself and through the implementation of recommendations at the national level.
The Ugandan Government must repeal domestic laws that restrict the work of human rights defenders and should refrain from criminalising their legitimate activities, say ISHR and the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum.
The recent strong stand taken by UN agencies for LGBTI people should be matched with renewed efforts by States to tackle the violence they suffer, writes Anna Brown.
The work of human rights defenders, political activists and journalists across many States in Africa is impeded through restrictive laws and frameworks which fail to adequately promote or protect the rights to freedom of expression or access to information, ISHR has told the African Commission.
Worlwide we are simultaneously witnessing a democratic recession on the part of governments and an increasing appetite for democracy on the part of ordinary people. We must respond with an increased commitment to the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, association and expression, writes UN expert Maina Kiai.
Africa's peak human rights body has adopted a landmark resolution condemning violence and discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons.
‘If we do not defend human rights defenders, we do not defend human rights’, Germany pronounced during the high-level segment with which the Human Rights Council’s 25th session opened. The statement set the tone for a session in which the role of human rights defenders, the risks they face and the need to protect them, has been forefront.
Governments, corporations and the United Nations should act to address a disturbing global pattern of attacks against human rights defenders who protest against business operations and major development projects.
