@ UN Photo / Manuel Elías - Ilze Brands Kehris, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Earlier this month, Belgium, on behalf of the BENELUX States, raised a number of cases of reprisals during an interactive dialogue at the Third Committee before the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights and head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ilze Brands Kehris.
On 16 October 2025, Assistant Secretary-General Ilze Brands Kehris introduced twenty reports under the agenda for the promotion and protection of human rights, including the Secretary-General’s annual report on reprisals.
An interactive dialogue followed the her brief overview of the reports, wherein member States had an opportunity to address the expert.
In a joint statement with Luxembourg and the Netherlands, Belgium highlighted a number of cases of reprisals, including those of Chow Hang-Tung from Hong Kong, Pham Doan Trang from Vietnam, and members of the Human Rights Center Viasna from Belarus.
In our annual campaign to #EndReprisals, ISHR featured the case of Viasna in 2022, victims of the National Security Law in Hong Kong in 2023, and of Pham Doan Trang in 2024.
ISHR has also called States to raise cases at the General Assembly, and we welcome this good practice, as publicly raising cases of reprisals contributes to defenders’ protection, shows solidarity with them and contributes to accountability for perpetrators.
Belgium concluded its statement by asking the Assistant Secretary-General if she could expand on the methodology behind the selection of cases that make it into the report and the decision to exclude certain cases from the report.
In response, the Ilze Brands Kehris briefly detailed the process by which Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) gathers cases in the spring from across the UN system and other sources with information on allegations. Following collection, she said, the Office begins a process of verification with field colleagues and their reprisals team.
Some cases, Kehris added, do not meet the threshold of what constitutes a reprisal and others are excluded for reasons of confidentiality and fear of further reprisals.
However, the Assistant Secretary-General did not address the lack of follow-up on ongoing cases of reprisals, which ISHR has identified as a methodological flaw.
Additionally, Kehris, the European Union, and Ireland all noted the recent increase in transnational repression, a trend that ‘need(s) to be addressed immediately’.
The Assistant Secretary-General’s report documented 11 cases of intimidation and reprisals across borders, involving six Member States.
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Insecurity and violent extremism, particularly in Africa's Sahel region, are prompting States to adopt counter-terrorism measures. However, in many cases, these measures are also used to restrict rights and criminalise the the work of defenders.
Concerned about the increasing numbers of unresolved cases, the NGO Forum held ahead of the 85th session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights looked at ways to address impunity for human rights violations in Africa.
Sharing the documentation of the situation of human rights on the continent, the NGO Forum of the African Commission gave the opportunity to sub-regional focal points to provide a brief description of the situation of human rights defenders in Africa.
