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.
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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.
Download the English version here
Télécharger la version française ici
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.
Watch our new video on reprisals:
Photo: ISHR
Local authorities in Geneva have announced their intention to place a permanent public monument paying tribute to persecuted human rights defenders, including the late Chinese human rights defender Cao Shunli. The move follows a civil society petition to have a bust made in honour of Cao placed in a prominent location in the city.
A newly-released confidential letter by a UN Special Rapporteur documents the disbarment of human rights lawyers in China and the tightening ideological control over lawyers and law firms. The UN expert denounces disappearances, closed-door trials, harassment of relatives, travel bans, and other abuses targeting human rights lawyers.
On Tuesday 16 April 2024, ISHR delivered to both Geneva’s Administrative Council and its legislative counterpart, the Municipal Council, physical copies of the more than 1000 signatures collected in support of a memorial honouring Chinese human rights defender Cao Shunli.
