This December, ISHR will raise money to provide invaluable skills and resources to courageous activists from around the globe and make real their hopes and agenda for a better world.
“Human rights defenders are ordinary people doing extraordinary things to make all of our lives better,” said Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Defenders, sharing her hope that we all work together to find ways to recognise and protect them.
2020 has taught us a lot, in particular how vital the work of human rights defenders is to the health and wellbeing of us all. Protecting the environment and maintaining biodiversity. Promoting transparency and ensuring access to information. Advocating for universal access to high quality and affordable healthcare. Protecting the vulnerable and those most at risk. Holding governments to account and preventing abuses of power. This is the core work of human rights defenders and what is essential if we are to get through this pandemic. Building back better starts with respecting and protecting human rights defenders.
Give back to humanity
At ISHR, we are committed to a movement that sees human rights defenders in all their roles – lawyers, journalists, trade unionists, feminists and community organisers, but also daughters, wives, parents and loved ones. That’s why we fight fiercely for activists to live in a safe, enabling environment where they don’t have to fear for their families. All this work servicing defenders worldwide is only possible with the support of people like you, who are passionate about human rights.
Help us make sure that the voices of defenders are heard internationally and that they and their loved ones can have the future they hope for all of us! It’s time to #GiveBack to humanity.
Why give to ISHR?
Because through our services, we strengthen and amplify the work of the courageous activists who are shaping a future where everyone can enjoy their human rights. Here are just three recent examples of how we achieve this:
☑️We collect and share the expectations of activists who fight racism and police violence and bring them to UN so that they are heard and acted upon: learn more by watching the video of our online event here.
☑️We mobilise progressive companies to respect and support human rights defenders and civic freedoms
☑️We train and mentor defenders, building their capacity, providing them with direct access to influential networks and decision-makers, and supporting them to undertake strategic international advocacy that has significant impact on the ground: read about our alumni’s achievements here and learn more about the 2021 edition of our Human Rights Defender Advocacy Programme here!
With your donation to ISHR we will train human rights defenders from around the world so they can strategically use international law and the UN to denounce abuses happening on the ground and bring justice, equality and peace to their communities. Your contribution will also allow us to campaign so the world’s leaders listen, hear and heed the activists and organisations who defend human rights.
Big or small, your contribution will help fund our 2021 human rights defender support and protection programme. Please make a donation, spread the word, and help deliver real change! Thank you!
About Giving Tuesday
GivingTuesday was launched in 2012 as a simple idea: to create a day that encourages people to do good. Over the past seven years, this idea has grown into a global movement that inspires hundreds of millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity.
“GivingTuesday inspires people all around the world to embrace their power to drive progress around the causes they care about, not just on one day but throughout the year,” said Asha Curran, GivingTuesday’s CEO, and co-founder. “With country and community leaders, millions of organisations, and countless givers of all kinds, GivingTuesday is creating a shared space where we can see the radical implications of a more generous world.”
GivingTuesday is an opportunity for you to stand up for the causes that matter most to you and participate in the change you want to see in the world. Join us.
Photos, videos, illustrations: ISHR, except Giving Tuesday visual: givingtuesday.org
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.
The 79th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights will be held in Banjul, The Gambia, from 14 May to 3 June 2024. The session will be preceded by the NGO Forum, which will be held in hybrid format from the 11-13 May 2024.
