Annual Report | Time for ambition, cause for hope

We’re delighted to present our 2018 Annual Report.

2017 was a challenging year for human rights, but thanks to a fruitful cooperation with partners and to strategic advocacy, we managed to defy the trend and contribute to some significant positive developments.

What did we achieve in 2017?

Here are just a few examples of our major achievements: 

• Through our Human Rights Defender Advocacy Programme, we helped at-risk defenders from across the world develop networks of support and influence, build energy and resilience, and become even more effective advocates for national-level change. 
• In consultation with LGBTI persons and organisations from all regions, and with input from eminent legal experts from across the world, we developed and launched the Yogyakarta Principles Plus 10.
• Following a three year campaign undertaken in partnership with the Burkina Faso Coalition of Human Rights Defenders and the West African Human Rights Defenders Network, in June we secured the adoption of a national law on the protection of defenders in Burkina Faso.
• We provided human rights defenders with powerful international and regional advocacy platforms by supporting them in giving evidence and testimony at the Human Rights Council in Geneva and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Banjul. 
• We provided defenders with comprehensive and practical guidance to leverage the UN, with a new manual on engaging with the Third Committee of the General Assembly in English, Spanish and French, and a fully revised manual on navigating the UN Committee on NGOs in Arabic, Spanish, French and English.
• We also provided defenders with access to the most up-to-date information and advice via social media in Chinese, French, English and Spanish.

Read more about how we achieve impact in our annual report.

What’s next on our agenda?

We’ll leverage the 20th anniversary of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders to strengthen the recognition and protection of human rights defenders under international and regional law, and through the development and effective implementation of corporate policies on defenders. We’ll ensure that national mechanisms for the protection of defenders are adapted and respond to the particular risks faced by women human rights defenders.  Our Human Rights Defender Advocacy Programme will substantially strengthen the skills, networks, resilience and impact of defenders working on women’s rights, LGBTI rights and in restrictive environments.  Additionally we’ll provide human rights defenders from across the world with an innovative online e-learning platform, giving them access to training and tactical support and linking them with a community of practice and solidarity. And through our Human Rights Defender Fellowship Programme, we will provide at least three defenders at risk with up to six months of intensive training and strategic advocacy support.    

Collective success

We would like to thank you for your support for ISHR and the defenders with whom we work. Your contributions are vital to our collective human rights impact and success. 

We look forward to continuing our journey together with you in the coming years. 

Phil Lynch – Executive Director
Lucia Nader – Chair of the ISHR Board

PS. We’d love you to share our annual report with friends and colleagues who share your passion for human rights and who might be interested in supporting ISHR to achieve human rights impact and change!

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