Reprisals | New ISHR handbook on reprisals for human rights defenders
ISHR is pleased to launch its updated Reprisals Handbook in six languages, an essential resource for all stakeholders concerned about intimidation and reprisals against those cooperating with international or regional human rights systems.
Human rights defenders, rights holders, victims and witnesses must be free and safe to cooperate with and give evidence and testimony to human rights bodies. They must be protected against any form of intimidation or reprisal in association with this engagement.
ISHR’s Reprisals Handbook is aimed first and foremost at human rights defenders who engage with regional and international human rights systems. The focus is in particular on the UN human rights system, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the ACHPR), the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR), and the Council of Europe.
The Handbook highlights the risks that defenders can face from interacting with those systems, and suggests ways in which defenders can leverage the weight of the UN and regional human rights mechanisms to provide some degree of protection against those risks and promote accountability for perpetrators.
ISHR seeks to ensure that national, international and regional human rights systems have the mechanisms to prevent reprisals and ensure accountability where they occur. ISHR provides protective publicity to human rights defenders at risk and works to bring cases of alleged intimidation and reprisals to the attention of relevant officials in an effort to press for effective preventative measures and responses.
On 22 May, the African Commission concluded its 83rd ordinary session, which saw the State periodic reviews of Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, panels on the repression of human rights defenders, the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and reparations for Africans and people of African descent, as well as the launch of ISHR’s report on the situation of defenders in African island States and a new e-learning module on the Commission.
During the 83rd Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), a high-level panel discussion was held on advancing justice for Africans and people of African descent through reparations.
At the 83rd ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Commission, or ACHPR), the African Commission reviewed Ethiopia under the State reporting procedure, as per article 62 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. We call on Ethiopia to do more to protect human rights defenders in the country.