ISHR's interactive map for national protection instruments for human right defenders
Check out our updated world map on legislative protection, which collates developments in national legal instruments related to defenders and compares existing and draft instruments with the standards set by the Model Law.
Human rights defenders do vital work in advancing the enjoyment of all human rights by their communities. The right to defend human rights needs to be protected, which is why ISHR advocates for the strengthening of legal frameworks at the national level, including through the implementation of laws that recognise the rights of defenders and establish strong and concrete protections for them and their work.
As part of this mission, we developed an interactive map that collates national efforts around the world to protect human rights defenders. This includes laws, policies, protection mechanisms and guidelines for the protection of defenders, among others.
The map is intended to complement existing resources on human rights defenders’ protection, while also providing an analysis on how protective and respectful of the rights of defenders these instruments are. For each instrument, we have prepared a short summary of its legal status, a general summary of the key elements as well as a more detailed comparison table vs our Model Law for the recognition and protection of Human Rights Defenders, which provides authoritative guidance to States on how to implement the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders at the national level.
We hope that activists, policymakers and other stakeholders find our interactive map a useful tool in their efforts to foster progress in legal protections for human rights defenders.
On 19 September the Secretary-General’s report on reprisals was made public, including three of five cases ISHR has been actively campaigning for, namely the cases of Vanessa Mendoza (Andorra), Kadar Abdi Ibrahim (Djibouti) and the situation of civil society in Hong Kong.
The policy to silence and quash opposition to the Venezuelan government continues, says the UN’s body of experts on Venezuela in its report to the Human Rights Council.
Activists from all regions of the world joined ISHR and a coalition of 17 civil society organisations to mark the 25th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and to call for an update of this landmark document.
