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ISHR provides solidarity and support to defenders working on issues of equality and non-discrimination.
The right to equality, to be treated fairly, and to be free and protected from discrimination is fundamental to human dignity. It is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all of the core human rights treaties, and in many national laws and constitutions.
Many human rights defenders focus their work on ensuring that people and communities are treated fairly and equally, and to address issues of widespread discrimination, such as systemic racism, sexism or misogyny. Many human rights defenders themselves face discrimination because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, sex characteristics, or other characteristics.
Through this programme, ISHR provides solidarity and support to defenders working on issues of equality and non-discrimination. This includes women HRDs (WHRDs) and defenders working on issues of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or sex characteristics (SOGIESC defenders). It also includes migrant and refugee rights defenders, anti-racism and Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) defenders, as well as other defenders working to dismantle patriarchal, racist, capitalist, colonialist and other oppressive agendas.
Read our latest news on Equality, dignity and non-discrimination.
The public session of the 89th session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) will be held in Dakar, Senegal, from 12 to 21 October. The public session will be preceded by a training session organised jointly by ISHR, Front Line Defenders and Defend Defenders on 6, 7 and 11 October, and the NGO Forum, organised by ACDHRS from 8 to 10 October.
On the sidelines of the 62nd session of the Human Rights Council, defenders and activists examined how systemic discrimination and democratic backsliding are deeply intertwined. Drawing on lived experience, speakers argued that marginalised communities are often the first to detect authoritarian practices, and offered concrete recommendations for building more inclusive, resilient democracies.
Organisations denounce the rise in trafficking along the Dominican-Haitian border, affecting particularly migrant women and children in vulnerable situations.
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has released a draft general recommendation on dismantling gender stereotypes. ISHR's comments call for explicit recognition of the heightened risks facing women human rights defenders.
UN experts officially warned Russian authorities they were looking at allegations of laws placing strict and discriminatory burdens on the work of Indigenous rights groups and activists.
The UN General Assembly adopted a historic resolution acknowledging the scope, gravity and continued impact of the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and the racialised slavery it underpinned.
