Tactics and tools for the protection
of Human Rights Defenders

The Commonwealth holds within it some of the most vibrant civil society organisations and human rights defenders and some of the most at risk. First to speak out against the abuse of power and breaches of the rule of law, human rights defenders are a bulwark against the erosion of civil liberties and are advocates of the oppressed and marginalised. By the very nature of their work they further the core principles that the Commonwealth is pledged to uphold.

Governments and human rights defenders are therefore natural allies. Yet across the Commonwealth human rights defenders are deliberately suppressed, work under the daily risk of abuse and are the target of both state and non-state actors for nothing more than going about their lawful activities. Many governments continue to see human rights as a brake on their power and the activities of defenders as a defiance of authority. Many would like to silence human rights defenders and many do.

The police, taking their cue from signals of the powerful, are often overzealous in the oppression of human rights defenders, and it is their actions that are the most visible. CHRI has repeatedly pointed out that in many jurisidictions obstacles to bringing illegal and abusive policing to book are prohibitive and allow impunity to flourish. At the same time there is much good policing practice in the Commonwealth. Heads of State would do a great service to their people if they mandated an examination of what common principles go into creating democratic policing. These could guide their operationalisation within Member States. Resistance to more accountable and overall better policing which upholds the law rather than merely enforces it holds back democracy and development.

Those who would suppress dissent and peaceful challenges to authority little realise the vast ramifications of their actions. Attacks on human rights defenders severely undermine democracy and hugely increase the risk to national security. Violating their rights may silence the immediate targets but those violations also intimidate others into not speaking out and render voiceless all those on whose behalf human rights defenders dare to advocate. Discrimination is consolidated and the cycle of oppression becomes ever more difficult to break. This process of exclusion can drive people to desperate measures that directly impact security, as CHRI has emphasised in its 2007 report, Stamping Out Rights.

True security comes with assured human rights protection, and human rights protection begins with the protection of human rights defenders. The active engaged human rights defender is the surest ally of the security establishment. The UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders that all Commonwealth Member States have agreed to, recognises the relationship between international peace and security on the one hand and the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on the other. It also recognises the crucial role that human rights defenders have to play in realising those goals. But until human rights defenders have the security that they need to promote and protect human rights without fear of repression, universal respect for human rights, and corresponding security, will continue to be elusive.
The purpose of the present report is to urge the Commonwealth and its Member States to recognise and value the work of human rights defenders, afford them the space and protection needed for them to engage with those who govern, and put in place practical measures that will assure their ability to serve the cause of good governance, development and rights. These measures include eradicating impunity, ensuring zero-tolerance for abuse of power, proactively putting in place actionable, time bound national human rights plans and articulating clear policies that indicate that defenders will be afforded both space and real protection when they engage in peaceful activities to promote human rights.
 

http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/publications/chogm/chogm_2009/silencing_the_defenders_chogm_2009_report.pdf