Tools for
New on this site
- “Promoting EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders” Case studies: DRC and India - Congo, Democratic Republic of, India
1 October | Front Line Defenders - Nepal : 258 dark days - Nepal
1 October | Protection International (former PBI BEO) - Human Rights Defenders in the State of Guerrero - Mexico
1 July | PBI Mexico Project - Front Line Handbook for Human Rights Defenders: What protection can EU and Norwegian Diplomatic Missions offer?*
27 June | Front Line Defenders - The manual
28 May |
Intergovernmental and International Organisations
The International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) has emerged as a strong and growing force of opposition against violations of the right to free expression.
At its core, IFEX is made up of organisations whose members refuse to turn away when those who have the courage to insist upon their fundamental human right to free expression are censored, brutalized or killed. Comprised of 72 organisations - located everywhere from the Pacific Islands to Europe to West Africa - IFEX draws together a tremendously diverse and dedicated global community.
Established by the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights which came into force on 21 October 1986 after its adoption in NAIROBI (KENYA) in 1981 by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity (OAU.), the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights is charged with ensuring the promotion and protection of Human and Peoples’ Rights throughout the African Continent. The Commission has its headquarters in Banjul, the Gambia.
Amnesty International (AI) is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights.
Section dedicated to the defenders programm of Amnesty International
Organisation of professionels of the public health sector
ARTICLE 19 is a human rights organisation with a specific mandate and focus on the defence and promotion of freedom of expression and freedom of information worldwide.
Asian Human Rights Comission
Over the past decade, tens of millions of people have been forced from their homes by armed conflict, internal strife, and systematic violations of human rights but remain within the borders of their own countries. The Project on Internal Displacement was created to promote a more effective national, regional and international response to this global problem and to support the work of the Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons in carrying out the responsibilities of his mandate. The Project is co-directed by Walter Kälin, the Representative of the Secretary-General, and Elizabeth Ferris, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
CEJIL is a non-governmental, non-profit organization with consultative status before the Organization of American States (OAS), the United Nations (UN) and observer status before the African Commission of Human Rights.
The Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) is a non-governmental organization (NGO), founded in 1991 by a group of prominent human rights defenders in Latin America and the Caribbean. CEJIL’s principle objective is to achieve the full implementation of international human rights norms in the member States of the Organization of American States (OAS) through the use of the Inter-American System for the Protection of Human Rights and other international protection mechanisms. CEJIL’s mandate is fulfilled through work in three program areas: the Legal Defense Program, the Training and Dissemination Program, and the Campaign to Strengthen the Inter-American System.
Homepage of Chris Collier, an independent consultant based in The Hague, The Netherlands. He works with international and national non-governmental organizations and with governments to design, implement and evaluate strategies to promote and protect human rights. In particular, he aims to promote the rights of human rights defenders.
Independent non-governmental organisations are a vital component of European society, guaranteeing freedom of expression and association both of which are fundamental to democracy. Recognising their influence, the Council of Europe provides international NGOs with the opportunity to acquire particpatory status.Independent non-governmental organisations are a vital component of European society, guaranteeing freedom of expression and association both of which are fundamental to democracy.On this site, you will find information about this status, what it represents, how to make an application, as well as the structures for co-operation between these NGOs and the Council of Europe, the activities of the 395 or so INGOs which currently enjoy this status.
The International Campaign on Women Human Rights Defenders is an international initiative for the recognition and protection of women who are activists advocating for the realization of all human rights for all. The campaign asserts that women fighting for human rights and particularly focusing on women’s human rights face specific violations in the course of their work because of their sex and gender. In addition, the Campaign focuses on the situation of human rights activists defending women’s rights and in particular calls attention to the violations experienced by lesbian, gay, bisxeual, transgender and other rights activists on grounds of their sex and gender identities. The identities of these actors as well as the nature of the rights they strive to uphold are both factors that make them the focus of the Campaign
Derechos Human Rights, together with our sister organization Equipo Nizkor, work for the respect and promotion of human rights throughout the world. Our work includes the socialization of human rights related information and analysis through the internet and other media, the promotion of prosecutions of human rights violators and the support of local human rights NGOs and activists.
EPIC is a public interest research center in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values.
EPIC publishes an e-mail and online newsletter on civil liberties in the information age – the EPIC Alert. Tjey also publish reports and even books about privacy, open government, free speech, and other important topics related to civil liberties.
Page containing various EU Guidelines on Human Rights
Created in 2001, in Luxembourg, the European Bar Human Rights Institute (IDHAE) has as its objective:
- the monitoring of human rights protection particularly under the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of November 4th, 1950 and its Protocols as well as the Charter of Fundamental rights of the European union.
- the training of lawyers in international human rights law particularly relating to the rights of the defence before the international jurisdiction and criminal courts. .
- interventions, regardless of the limitations of borders, in favour of freedom and the fundamental rights of lawyers.
- the organisation of workshops, symposia and seminars related to publications on international human rights law.
- the presentation of a European Human Rights Prize to a lawyer.
Forced Migration Online (FMO) provides instant access to a wide variety of online resources dealing with the situation of forced migrants worldwide. Designed for use by practitioners, policy makers, researchers, students or anyone interested in the field, FMO aims to give comprehensive information in an impartial environment and to promote increased awareness of human displacement issues to an international community of users.
Front Line was founded in Dublin in 2001 with the specific aim of protecting Human Rights Defenders, people who work, non-violently, for any or all of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Front Line aims to address some of the needs identified by defenders themselves, including protection, networking, training and access to the thematic and country mechanisms of the UN and other regional bodies.
Watch and comment on human rights video from around the world curated by WITNESS. This pilot project contains only a subset of the functionality of the forthcoming Human Rights Video Hub.
HRI is dedicated to the empowerment of human rights activists and organizations, and to the education of governmental and intergovernmental agencies and officials and other actors in the public and private sphere, on human rights issues and the role of civil society.
The bloggers listed on this page have one thing in common: they write about human rights, providing information and commentary you will not find elsewhere in mainstream media, sometimes putting themselves in personal danger by doing so.
Created on march 15, 2006 through the resolution 60/251 of the United Nations General Assembly as a substitution of the former Human Rights Commission.
Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) is an international non-governmental organisation that supports human rights learning; the training of activists and professionals; the development of educational materials and programming; and community-building through on-line technologies. HREA is dedicated to quality education and training to promote understanding, attitudes and actions to protect human rights, and to foster the development of peaceable, free and just communities.
HREA works with individuals, non-governmental organisations, inter-governmental organisations and governments interested in implementing human rights education programmes.
Human Rights First is a leading human rights advocacy organization based in New York City and Washington, DC. Since 1978, we have worked in the United States and abroad to create a secure and humane world – advancing justice, human dignity, and respect for the rule of law. All of our activities are supported by private contributions. We accept no government funds.
Special page on Human Rights Defenders
A Human Rights House is a working community of human rights organisations. The purpose is to:
Enhance co-operation and joint activities by bringing human rights groups together in one location. Such activities include the provision of free legal aid to victims of human rights abuses, human rights schools and training.
Save costs by sharing facilities such as conference rooms and human rights documentation centre.
Make the member organizations more visible and accessible both at national and international level.
Improve security of human rights defenders.
Host meeetings, seminars and other events.
The Human Rights Impact Resource Centre (HRIRC) is an online database which brings together a wide range of information and documentation on the subject Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA). Measuring human rights has become an issue of growing interest to policy makers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and academics. There is a growing amount of information and documentation available on the subject, which is often dispersed and difficult to find. The HRIRC aims to fill this gap by providing a platform to bring together, share and disseminate all sorts of information on HRIA
www.hrni.org is a collection of the most important international documents related to human rights: instruments, case law, articles, bibliographic references, Internet sites, reports and human rights actors.
On the website you will find, classified by theme, full texts of judgments and decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and of the UN Human Rights Committee, as well as international and regional conventions on human rights, reports of the United Nations or non-governmental organizations, scholarly articles, bibliographic references, and a portal of Internet sites on human rights and a list of actors (NGOs, universities, international organizations) playing a role in this field.
Consolidating the Profession: The Human Rights Field Officer
is a research, training and capacity-building project in support of enhanced delivery of services by human rights field operations. The project is informed by an overarching consideration that the Human Rights Field Officer (HRFO) is deployed to develop and enhance local human rights capacities and protection. It is convened and facilitated from within the University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC).
On this website (formerly hosted on Prot.info) you will find several tools on protection for people affected by violations of human rights law, international humanitarian law, refugee law.
We stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice.
We investigate and expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable.
We challenge governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law.
Section dedicated especially to the defenders programm of Human Rights Watch
Provides comprehensive listings of training opportunities for the human rights professionals
The idea of HURIDOCS was developed as from 1979 during informal consultations among persons working within international human rights organisations. They realised that information and communication technologies are being used by commercial companies and government agencies, sometimes in aid of committing human rights violations. They saw that the community of non-governmental human rights organisations needed to familiarise themselves with these tools and would most benefit from using them in an appropriate and compatible way.
This site lets internally displaced people tell their life stories – in their own words. The narratives in these pages are valuable complements to the official information on conflicts which governments and international organisations offer.
These stories deal with the real lives of real people. The narrators share their personal experiences, their sensations, hopes and dreams, and the impact for them of being forced from their homes.
The IPU is the international organization of Parliaments of sovereign States (Article 1 of the Statutes of the Inter-Parliamenary Union). It was established in 1889.
The Union is the focal point for world-wide parliamentary dialogue and works for peace and co-operation among peoples and for the firm establishment of representative democracy.
Page with different handbooks on issues like human rights, refugees and child protection.
In November 1969 the Inter-American Specialized Conference on Human was held in San José, Costa Rica in which the delegates of the member States of the Organization of the American States adopted the American Convention on Human Rights, which entered into force on July 18 ,1978.
In order to safeguard the essentials rights of man in the American continent, the Convention created two organs to promote the observance and protection of human rights: the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The first one was created in 1959 and entered into force in 1960 when the Council of the OAS approved its Statute and elected its first members.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is one of two bodies in the inter-American system for the promotion and protection of human rights. The Commission has its headquarters in Washington, D.C. The other human rights body is the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which is located in San José, Costa Rica.
The main task is to receive information on the situation of human rights defenders in the Americas, to maintain contacts with nongovernmental and governmental organizations and to coordinate the work of the Executive Secretariat related to the defenders of human rights in the Americas.
Site only in spanish
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), established in 1998 by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), is the leading international body monitoring conflict-induced internal displacement worldwide.
Through its work, the Centre contributes to improving national and international capacities to protect and assist the millions of people around the globe who have been displaced within their own country as a result of conflicts or human rights violations.
The IBAHRI works to promote, protect and enforce human rights under a just rule of law in a variety of ways. These include: training lawyers, judges and prosecutors in human rights law and international humanitarian law; pioneering training programmes to strengthen the judiciary in post-conflict countries or countries where basic state infrastructure may have been eroded; undertaking fact-finding missions and sending trial observers to countries where the rule of law has deteriorated; making representations to authorities worldwide where individuals or the independence of the judiciary has been threatened; galvanising international support to lobby for change through media and advocacy campaigns; and providing long-term technical assistance to under-resourced Bar Associations and Law Societies.
The International Coalition against Enforced Disappearances gathers organizations of families of disappeared and human rights organizations working together in the struggle against enforced disappearances. The principal aim is the promotion of the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearances.
The International Commission of Jurists is dedicated to the primacy, coherence and implementation of international law and principles that advance human rights.
The ICRC is an independent, neutral organization ensuring humanitarian protection and assistance for victims of war and armed violence. The ICRC has a permanent mandate under international law to take impartial action for prisoners, the wounded and sick, and civilians affected by conflict.
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), was set up in 1949 and has 236 affiliated organisations in 154 countries and territories on all five continents, with a membership of 155 million, 40% of who are women.
The International Council on Human Rights Policy conducts applied policy research on issues that face organisations working in the field of human rights.
FIDH’ s mandate is to contribute to the respect of all the rights defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. FIDH aims at obtaining effective improvements in the protection of victims, the prevention of Human Rights violations and the sanction of their perpetrators. Its priorities are set by the triennial World Congress and the International Board (22 members), with the support of the International Secretariat (30 staff members).
The International Federation of Journalists is the world’s largest organisation of journalists. First established in 1926, it was relaunched in 1946 and again, in its present form, in 1952. Today the Federation represents around 500.000 members in more than 100 countries.
The IFJ promotes international action to defend press freedom and social justice through strong, free and independent trade unions of journalists.
The International Federation of Journalists Safety Fund was established in January 1992 and has become internationally recognised as an important and crucial source of support for journalists under threat. It is the only international assistance fund for journalists established by journalists.
The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) is an international, nongovernmental organization constituted by national Helsinki Committees and Cooperating Organizations in the participating States of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The IHF seeks to promote compliance with the human rights provisions of the Helsinki Final Act and its follow-up documents, with international legal obligations undertaken in the Council of Europe (CoE) and the United Nations (UN), and with human rights norms promoted by the European Union (EU). The IHF mandate is to protect and strengthen civil society groups that monitor and report on human rights issues from a non-partisan perspective, and to bring them together on a common international platform. The IHF represents its affiliates on the international political level and in the media, supports and assists their human rights monitoring and advocacy activities, and disseminates documentation based on their research.
The International Labour Organization is the UN specialized agency which seeks the promotion of social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights
The International News Safety Institute is a non-governmental organisation dedicated to the safety of journalists and media staff and committed to fighting the persecution of journalists everywhere. The Institute is a coalition of media organisations, press freedom groups, unions and humanitarian campaigners working to create a culture of safety in media in all corners of the world.
The International Rescue Committee – a critical global network of first responders, humanitarian relief workers, healthcare providers, educators, community leaders, activists, and volunteers. Working together, we provide access to safety, sanctuary, and sustainable change for millions of people whose lives have been shattered by violence and oppression.
The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) promotes the development, strengthening, effective use and implementation of international and regional law and mechanisms for the protection and promotion of human rights.
Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) is a growing charitable organization that harnesses the power of the media to combat human rights abuses. By building the capacity of the media to report effectively on human rights issues, JHR’s work pressures abusers to stop and empowers victims to fight back.
The Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, created in 1993, is granted annually to someone who has demonstrated an exceptional record of combating human rights violations by courageous and innovative means. The prize aims to encourage human rights defenders who are in need of protection. The value of the award is 20,000 Swiss Francs, to be used for further work in the field of human rights.
Founded in 1993 by the gynaecologist Dr. Monika Hauser at a time when rape was taking place on a massive scale in Bosnia Herzegowina, medica mondiale today sees itself as an international advocate for the rights and interests of women who have survived sexual violence in war situations.
Following an initiative of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for the Refugees - ACNUR -, “Derecho y Desplazamiento”a network of programs of Legal Consultants from different Law Departments of Colombian Universities, gives legal advices and attention to victims of forced displacement.
The New Tactics in Human Rights Project, led by a diverse group of international organizations and practitioners, promotes tactical innovation and strategic thinking within the international human rights community. Strategic and tactical thinking, long used by business and military strategists, is an effective means for the human rights movement to expand options and possibilities of what can be done. Innovative tactics are emerging that may more effectively advance human rights and end persistent human rights problems. Many innovations have been valuable, yet are not well known outside their regions.
Internet censorship and surveillance are growing global
phenomena. ONI’s mission is to identify and document
Internet filtering and surveillance, and to promote and
inform wider public dialogue about such practices.
Pax Christ International’s work is based in spirituality. It is a Catholic organisation but welcomes all religious groups and strives for dialogue and co-operation with non-governmental organisations and movements working in the same field – Christian, Jewish, Muslim and non-religious.
Peace Brigades International (PBI) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) which protects human rights and promotes nonviolent transformation of conflicts.
When invited, we send teams of volunteers into areas of repression and conflict. The volunteers accompany human rights defenders, their organizations and others threatened by political violence.
The Press Emblem Campaign, founded in June 2004 by a group of journalists from several countries based in Geneva, is an independant humanitarian association. It seeks to strengthen the legal protection and safety of journalists around the world.
In 1990, in response to a growing number of privacy threats, more than a hundred leading privacy experts and Human Rights organizations from forty countries linked arms to form a world organization for the protection of privacy. Members of the new body, including computer professionals, academics, lawyers, journalists, jurists and human rights activists, had a common interest in promoting an international understanding of the importance of privacy and data protection. Meetings of the group, which took the name Privacy International, were held throughout that year in North America, Europe, Asia and the South Pacific, and members agreed to work toward the establishment of effective privacy protection throughout the world. The formation of Privacy International is the first successful attempt to establish a structured world focus on this crucial area of human rights.
Privaterra’s mission is to provide technological education and support for civil society organizations (Human Rights NGOs) in the area of data privacy, secure communications and information security
In order to respond to the marginalisation suffered by many of the country’s Human Rights Defenders, Protection Desk Nepal is developing thematic areas of work giving specific trainings to victims, women human rights defenders, young human rights defenders, defenders working on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) rights and the Bhutanese refugees. PD-N has plans to develop specific trainings for associations of the internally displaced and defenders working on illegal trafficking of human beings.
Its aim is to become a virtual community of people brought together around ideas. Essentially (but not exclusively) made up of persons connected with the field of psychosocial and community work, this group understands the concept of human rights at its widest perspective, placing special emphasis on the social, economic, cultural and political rights of peoples.
Refugees International generates lifesaving humanitarian assistance and protection for displaced people around the world and works to end the conditions that create displacement.
Section linking to the essential legal texts covering the protection of refugees as such and of displaced civilians who remain in their own country; the ICRC’s role; documents and official statements.
More than a third of the world’s people live in countries where there is no press freedom. Reporters Without Borders works constantly to restore their right to be informed. Fourty-two media professionals lost their lives in 2003 for doing what they were paid to do — keeping us informed.
Country analysis is an important part of protection work, and the starting point for building an effective protection strategy.
Gathering already existing information on violations, identifying which law applies, and analysing the political stakeholders are perhaps the most important parts of a country analysis. However this is not enough: it is
also important to examine the economics and geography, social and development indicators, history and culture, to understand possible sources of risk and vulnerability which may directly or indirectly affect your beneficiary populations.
But where can we get the reliable information we need, quickly and easily,without spending days surfing the web? Especially when our internet connections are maddeningly slow...
This site contains some key resources on a special web page to help you build a comprehensive and multi-dimensional country analysis. They should help you to quickly gather the facts and figures you need. You will even find some fantastic places to get your maps! Each link on this page will allow you to access country-specific pages
Protection tools from Reporters without borders
The Scholars at Risk program connects Harvard to an international network of universities and colleges—the Scholars at Risk network—that defends the human rights of persecuted scholars worldwide by arranging temporary positions for them in universities around the world. Since we launched the program in 2001, the Scholars at Risk Committee, with the support of the President, has provided a fellowship for at least one scholar per year to come to Harvard. The scholar is selected by an interdisciplinary faculty committee that reviews nominations solicited from throughout the university community. Each scholar is hosted as a visiting fellow in the appropriate academic department.
The Carter Center, in partnership with Emory University, is committed to advancing human rights and alleviating unnecessary human suffering. Founded in 1982 by former U.S.
The East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project is designed to strengthen the work of human rights defenders in the sub-region by reducing their vulnerability to the risk of persecution and by enhancing their capacity for effectiveness in defending human rights. It focuses on Somalia (together with Somaliland), Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Much of this region has experienced massive human rights abuses going back many years, in the context of single-party and military dictatorships, struggles for democracy, civil wars, and in the extreme case of Somalia, the collapse of the state.
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights is based in Warsaw, Poland. It is active throughout the OSCE area in the fields of election observation, democratic development, human rights, tolerance and non-discrimination, and rule of law.
The Special Representative was mandated to report on the situation of human rights defenders in all parts of the world and on possible means to enhance their protection in full compliance with the Declaration. The main activities o the special representative shall be:
(a) To seek, receive, examine and respond to information on the situation and the rights of anyone, acting individually or in association with others, to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms;
(b) To establish cooperation and conduct dialogue with Governments and other interested actors on the promotion and effective implementation of the Declaration;
(c) To recommend effective strategies better to protect human rights defenders and follow up on these recommendations.
The Universal Human Rights Index provides instant access for all countries to human rights information from the United Nations system. The index is based on the observations and recommendations of the following international expert bodies:
WITNESS is an international human rights organization that provides training and support to local groups to use video in their human rights advocacy campaigns. Beyond providing video cameras and editing equipment, WITNESS is committed to facilitating exposure for our partners’ issues on a global scale.
Page dedicated to the defence of lawyers
The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) is the world’s largest coalition of non-governmental organisations fighting against arbitrary detention, torture, summary and extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances and other forms of violence
Design by Laurent Boucher | Concept SPIP by Rainer Müller
Copyleft 2006 PBI BEO | With the support of
