Illustration: Sakina Saïdi for Fine Acts x OBI
Effectively realising human rights for everyone, everywhere is the pathway to free, fair and just communities and a more peaceful and sustainable world. This must remain our north star as we face the multiple and worsening crises and conflicts around the world, write ISHR Director Phil Lynch and Board Chair Vrinda Grover.
We face a global climate emergency.
We witness atrocity crimes being perpetrated with apparent impunity, from Afghanistan to Sudan, Palestine to Ukraine, and Nicaragua to Xinjiang.
We confront rising populism and propaganda, with artificial intelligence misused to fuel disinformation and discrimination, and democracy facing a ‘make-or-break year’ in 2024, with over 70 national elections.
Each of these crises and conflicts are complex, yet they are also interconnected in four fundamental ways.
First, repression and rights violations are among the root causes of all these crises and conflicts. The failure of governments and unscrupulous corporations to respect the right to a healthy environment is fueling climate change. Institutionalised discrimination, subjugation and persecution of women and girls in Afghanistan is a root cause of the humanitarian emergency in the country. The ongoing conflict in Gaza is fundamentally rooted in the denial of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and return, as well as Israeli policies and practices of occupation and apartheid.
Second, respect for human rights, and accountability for violations, is essential to address and resolve these crises and conflicts. Respect for rights is an indispensable step on the pathway to free, fair and just communities and a more peaceful world. A just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies requires respect for the land and cultural rights of Indigenous peoples, as well as attention to the gendered impacts of the climate crisis. A safe and enabling environment for civil society, including access to foreign funds and resources, is a critical factor contributing to representative and accountable governments. Respect for the rights of Palestinians and Ukrainians to self-determination and territorial integrity, as well as accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by State and non-State actors, are preconditions to peace and justice in all countries involved in those conflicts.
Third, very few States, if any, have been prepared to treat human rights as paramount and apply human rights standards in a principled, consistent way to each crisis and conflict. Many European States opened their doors to refugees from Ukraine while simultaneously militarising their borders against those crossing the Mediterranean fleeing from conflicts in Africa, including in Ethiopia and Sudan. Many African States and countries that are members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation have expressed their solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza while also remaining silent or outright refusing to condemn atrocity crimes faced by Uyghur and Turkic Muslim communities in Xinjiang. For many Western States, Russian attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine amount to war crimes, while in Gaza they have systematically been characterised as Israeli ‘self-defence’. The selective and inconsistent application of international human rights law undermines the integrity of the framework, as well as the credibility, legitimacy and influence of States and other actors who engage in such double standards.
Fourth and finally, the work of human rights defenders at the national level, as well as their engagement and advocacy at the international level, is essential to address and resolve each of these conflicts and crises. Defenders prevent rights violations, document abuses, promote accountability, and propose solutions that are grounded in community priorities and needs. Indigenous rights defenders carry the knowledge that is necessary to live sustainably and to respect and protect the environment. Digital rights activists are pushing for rights-based regulation of artificial intelligence to ensure that humanity benefits from its innovations and efficiencies. Whistleblowers are exposing government wrongdoing and corporate misfeasance, working to safeguard democracy, while corporate accountability activists are campaigning for an international treaty on business and human rights. Women human rights defenders from Afghanistan are leading the campaign to hold the Taliban accountable for the crime of gender apartheid, while also ensuring that humanitarian aid reaches the most vulnerable populations. In Sudan, women defenders are leading peace movements and protests at the local level, as well as international advocacy, which was instrumental in the establishment of a UN investigative mechanism, further adding to the pressure on the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to end the war. Despite the challenges, complexities and uncertainties we collectively face, we remain convinced that, with international human rights laws and standards providing a compass, human rights defenders can chart a course to a more peaceful, just and inclusive world.
We are proud of ISHR’s track record in consistently applying human rights principles in diverse situations. We are indebted to the partners – and particularly the defenders, affected communities, and victims and survivors of violations – who have worked with us to uphold, and held us accountable to, these principles over the last year.
Together with national civil society partners and based on objective criteria, we successfully campaigned to defeat Russia’s bid for election to the Human Rights Council. Burundi and China, against whom we also campaigned based on objective criteria, received the lowest number of votes of any candidates on the African and Asian slates, respectively.
Together with Black-led organisations and the families and representatives of African and Afro-descendant people killed by police, we coordinated civil society and affected community engagement with missions by UN experts on racial justice to the United States and Brazil. With our support, the experts heard testimonies from more than 150 community members in both countries.
Together with civil society partners working on the human rights and humanitarian crisis in the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly the Gaza Strip, we developed eleven key calls to protect civilians and address root causes of violence and conflict. We also coordinated a coalition of over 170 organisations demanding that States providing arms and other forms of military assistance to Israel adhere to their legal obligations and act urgently to prevent atrocity crimes, including genocide.
And together with human rights defenders from Sudan and Nicaragua, we advocated successfully to establish and strengthen international mechanisms to investigate and promote accountability for gross human rights violations in those countries. ‘Hopes in justice are revived today for thousands of Sudanese women and victims of conflict-related sexual violence,’ a Sudanese woman human rights defender, who requested to remain unnamed, told ISHR. ‘Nicaraguan authorities have reached new extremes in their efforts to suppress all dissent, but today, the international community sent a clear message: perpetrators at all levels will eventually be held accountable,’ said Olga Valle from Urnas Abiertas of the Colectivo 46/2, of which ISHR is a founding member.
Despite the challenging times, exacerbated by declining funding for international human rights advocacy and organisations by some States and foundations, ISHR continues to pursue a positive and forward-looking agenda.
We’re pleased that in 2023 the Democratic Republic of Congo enacted a specific national law on the protection of defenders, the culmination of years of work by ISHR and national partners. With this development, the DRC joins the ranks of countries like Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Mongolia amongst the countries where we have worked alongside national partners to strengthen legal frameworks for defenders and establish specific defender protection laws and will continue to work to ensure effective implementation.
In the area of women’s rights, we are working with defenders from Afghanistan and Iran, together with international legal experts, to push for the explicit recognition and codification of the atrocity crime of gender apartheid. This would fill an international protection gap for women and girls, as well as impose responsibilities on third States and non-State actors to take concrete steps to prevent and end gender apartheid.
With 2023 marking the 25th anniversary of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, we are coordinating a broad coalition to develop an authoritative baseline document of international and regional jurisprudence in relation to the protection of defenders, which will be launched in 2024.
And throughout 2024 we’ll continue allying with Black-led organisations to promote racial justice, with feminist and LGBTIQ+ organisations to resist anti-rights narratives and movements, with corporate accountability activists to strengthen laws on business and human rights, and with Global South defenders to ensure that key multilateral fora are relevant, accessible and responsive to them.
Reflecting on our collective wins over 2023, we identified one golden thread: human rights defenders working in dynamic coalitions, movements and networks to strategically leverage international law and mechanisms to contribute to positive change.
With 2023 marking both the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 25th anniversary of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, and 2024 marking ISHR’s own 40th anniversary, it is apt to recall that the work of defenders and the integrity of the international framework are essential to the realisation of human rights on the ground.
The promise of the Universal Declaration will only be fulfilled when we work in coalition to ensure that defenders are protected and that standards are consistently respected and applied.
Phil Lynch is Executive Director of the International Service for Human Rights
Vrinda Grover is Chair of the Board of the International Service for Human Rights
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At the 55th session of the Human Rights Council, the High Commissioner for Human Rights held an interactive dialogue on the situation of Haiti with the participation of the Designated Expert, William O’Neil.
