Tactics and tools for the protection
of Human Rights Defenders

• As we know, a great number of human rights defenders work in hostile environments. While HRDs have developed their own ways of coping with risks, there is a lot of work to do in terms of lessons learnt, best practice and covering practice gaps in security. Also defenders often tend to protect others at the risk of their own security. Both the above manual and the related training deal also with this.

The development of training sessions and exchanges of experiences in protection and security for defenders is part of a more extensive project of the European Office of PBI which is called: “Mainstreaming Protection Project. MPP” (Project to promote the protection of human rights defenders, internally displaced people, and refugees). The general aim of the MPP is that defenders mainstream security and protection in their work plans.

There is no one “fit all organisations” security plan. There are, however, common parts which are useful when developing inter-organizational security/protection. PBI-BEO makes a distinction between security and protection: security of the organization and the protection that that same organization can provide to others (victims, witnesses, etc). The more their own security is developed the better the protection to others is improved. Also, the MPP aims at ownership of the security plan by the HRD’s organisations themselves in order to avoid dependence. Ownership of the whole process allows that independence. Moreover, when talking about protection, MPP points at involving the rights holders in choosing the solutions. Both HRD organizations and rights holders are coping with risks every day and they have developed mechanisms of security/protection. They know the context and the MPP offers tools to systematise and capitalize all that.
Security/protection unfolds at individual, organizational and inter-organizational levels. Furthermore, the project aims to develop a more focused collaboration together with other institutions working in this field.