Tactics and tools for the protection
of Human Rights Defenders

The Handbook aims to provide NGOs with a comprehensive and user-friendly guide to the work of OHCHR, including key information on human rights mechanisms, entry points for NGOs and contact details with a view to assisting NGOs in identifying areas of possible cooperation and partnership with OHCHR; it also anticipates the changes of the current United Nations reform process. The Handbook is up to date as of June 2006, and is currently available in electronic format and in the English language only. Efforts are underway to secure its translation in other UN languages in the next few months.

The Handbook should not be seen as a static guide: whenever possible, links to the OHCHR website are provided for further information, allowing for regular electronic updates to accompany this framework text.

The Handbook presents information in a consistent format. Each chapter, discussing relevant mechanisms, tools or programmes which NGOs may want to access or utilize, is arranged around 4 core questions:

• What is it?
• How does it work?
• Which NGOs can access it?
• How can NGOs work with it?

While the Handbook provides a broad overview of OHCHR’s work and its collaboration with civil society, each chapter is also conceived as a stand-alone guide to the specific mechanism or programme it addresses, and can be downloaded individually in Word format.