We care about your privacy!

We acknowledge the importance of protecting your privacy and personal information. We are committed to processing data in accordance with our responsibilities, including under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

This policy applies only to this website (https://togetherwedefend.org/). This website is operated and managed by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders and his team. This website is not directly managed by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

On our website we sometimes have links to third party websites or applications. This policy does not apply to such pages or applications hosted or operated by other organizations. These other sites may have their own privacy policies which apply to them.

We will revise this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any amendment will be promptly posted on this website. This policy was last updated on May 2019.

How do we protect personal information?

We believe that storing data in a secure manner is essential. This website is hosted in the United States of America (New York City).  The site is built on Statamic, which is a Laravel based CMS (content management system) and is served over https for security.

We store personal data using reasonable physical, technical and administrative safeguards to secure data against foreseeable risks, such as unauthorised use, access, disclosure, destruction or modification. Access to personal data is limited to the staff of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.

Although we make good faith efforts to store information we collect securely, we cannot guarantee the integrity and security of our network and systems, nor that our security measures will prevent third-party hackers from illegally obtaining this information.

If you are under 18 years of age, please make sure that you have your parent/guardian’s permission before giving us personal information.

What types of information do we collect and how?

The type and amount of information we receive and store depends on how you use the website. You can access most of the pages on our website without telling us who you are and without revealing any personal information.

The elements of your information that we collect may include:

  • first and last name if you provide them through the form on the website;
  • e-mail address if you provide it through the form on the website;
  • website usage data and other related technical and statistical information, indicating, for example, your browser type, operating system, Internet service provider, IP address, or the site you clicked from, for the purposes of measuring the analytic performance of the website;

Our web server uses cookies and collects anonymous logs during your visit to this website. For more information on cookies see the paragraph below.

Your information may be shared with us by third parties, but only where you have specifically consented. For example, if you register your interest in joining the campaign of the UN Special Rapporteur through Facebook, Facebook will share information such as your name and email address with us.

When do we collect information?

We collect data about you when you:

  • participate in an online campaign organized by us;
  • subscribe to our online newsletter;
  • use this website;
  • communicate with us (via e-mail, postal mail, etc.);
  • otherwise provide your details to us either online or offline.


How do we use the information collected? 

We use your personal information collected via our website for the following purposes:

  • To update you on our campaigns and activities
  • To forward messages of solidarity you have signed to defenders
  • To ask you to get involved in our campaigns
  • To improve our website and understand its use for statistical purposes (number of site visits, average time visitors spent on it etc) and security purposes
  • To fulfil any legal obligations

We will never handle your information to third parties. However, our website is hosted by third-party service providers and therefore any personal details you submit through them may be processed by that third-party service provider. We also use other third-parties, such as Google Analytics (for statistical purposes), Facebook Pixel (to share our webpage via social media platforms) and Mailchimp (to manage your personal information and the online newsletter). These third-parties services may have access to your personal details.

What about cookies?

We collect personal data through the use of cookies. A cookie is a text-only piece of information that a website transfers to your computer’s hard disk so that the website can remember who you are. A cookie will normally contain the name of the Internet domain from which the cookie has come, the “lifetime” of the cookie, and a value, usually a randomly generated unique number.

We use cookies to compile statistical data on the use of our website and its functioning, to monitor and improve it and to facilitate users’ ability to navigate through our website. 

An encrypted session cookie is stored in a file on the server when the site loads, with no unique information, only a randomly generated session id. The cookie is limited to the session (browser being open) and does not persist. It is used to provide a consistent experience across requests.

A XSRF-TOKEN cookie stores a CSRF token and is sent in all request headers to protects the user from Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks. This token is used to verify that the authenticated user is the one actually making the requests to the application. The cookie is limited to each request and does not persist.

A cookie-consent cookie is stored for 30 days to remember a user’s choice to allow cookies.

Additional services on the site are Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel. These services store cookies on the user’s browser. These cookies are used to better understand which audience uses the site, how users use the site and to provide them with a better experience. The cookie is only stored after a user has agreed to allow cookies. Google Analytics expires after three years and the Facebook Pixel after 120 days.

You can set up your computer to refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. You do not need to have cookies turned on to use our website. To find out more about cookies or how to delete cookies in your browser, please visit: www.aboutcookies.org.

Access to and your rights over your personal information

The personal data we hold about you is yours. You have the following rights over your information:

  • To be informed how your data is being processed
  • To access your data
  • To rectify any data that is inaccurate
  • To instruct us to delete your data
  • To subscribe or unsubscribe to our newsletter and mailing list. All our email communications to you will contain an unsubscribe link.
  • To object to your data being stored.
  • To move your data

You may also send a request by email to defenders@ohchr.org or by letter to:

Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, 
Mr. Michel Forst 
c/o Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights – Palais Wilson 
United Nations Office at Geneva 
CH 1211 Geneva 10 
Switzerland