Our Partners
Among so many others, the following organisations provide support to human rights defenders and are supporting the #TogetherWeDefend campaign.
Amnesty International
We live in a time where governments and corporations are attacking, jailing and even killing people - simply for standing up for what they believe in. But brave people everywhere are refusing to give up, coming together to fight for a fairer world for all. Everyone can be brave, including you. Add your voice here today and help fight back against hate. Whether it’s by speaking out for those who risk their lives to defend women’s or LGBTI rights, supporting young people courageously taking action to change the world, or standing with others that need us: we’d love to stay in touch about what we can do together. Anyone can be a Human Rights Defender - join the brave now. Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 7 million people in over 150 countries and territories who campaign to end abuses of human rights.
Civicus
CIVICUS is a global alliance of civil society organisations and activists dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society throughout the world. Add your voice to the campaign calling for the protection of human rights defenders here. Together, we hope to exert pressure on governments, business and multilateral institutions to recognise the work of human rights defenders and create an enabling environment for them to carry out their activities without fear or intimidation.
Civil Rights Defenders
The mission of Civil Rights Defenders is to defend civil and political rights together with local human rights defenders to increase their security, capacity, and access to justice. Through legal means and public advocacy, we hold states, individuals and non-state actors accountable for human rights violations, while also encouraging people to use their rights to promote democratic societies.
DefendDefenders
DefendDefenders is the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project. We seek to strengthen the work of human rights defenders throughout the region by reducing their vulnerability to the risk of persecution and by enhancing their capacity to effectively defend human rights. DefendDefenders works in Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia (together with Somaliland), South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.
FORUM-ASIA
We are a network of 67 members in 21 countries, as of September 2018, across Asia. We work to promote and protect human rights, including the right to development, through collaboration and cooperation among human rights organisations and defenders in Asia and beyond. We bring together activists and stakeholders to tackle human rights issues; protect human rights defenders in Asia that find themselves in emergency situations; advocate for human rights at the national, regional and international level; and build the capacity of our members and partners.
Front Line Defenders
Front Line Defenders was founded in Dublin in 2001 with the specific aim of protecting human rights defenders at risk. We provide them rapid and practical support through advocacy, grants, trainings, opportunities for networking among others. In emergency situations Front Line Defenders can facilitate temporary relocation of human rights defenders. We also promote strengthened international and regional measures to protect human rights defenders through support for the work of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders.
Global Witness
Global Witness is campaigning to stop the killings of land and environmental defenders and to ensure they are able to live and work without fear or intimidation. We monitor killings and advocate for reforms aimed at stopping competition for resources from stoking conflict. We also investigate the root causes of violence in priority countries, pushing governments to monitor abuses and bring perpetrators to justice.
Human Rights House Foundation
The Rights of Defenders resources – developed by Human Rights Houses and HRHF – promote and build an understanding of international standards and provide clear, accessible, and targeted insight into the standards and the context that surrounds them.
I Defend Rights
We are collecting audio accounts from human rights defenders to create a global archive of recordings of their experiences. We then develop multiple ways to share these audio recordings with much broader audiences. Our aim is to portray rights defenders as the essential agents of change they are. I Defend Rights is the result of a partnership between the Norwegian Human Rights Fund and Memria, a social enterprise that provides digital tools to capture and share audio accounts at a scale otherwise impossible to manage manually.
International Service for Human Rights
The International Service for Human Rights is an independent, non-governmental organisation dedicated to promoting and protecting human rights. We achieve this by supporting human rights defenders, strengthening human rights systems, and leading and participating in coalitions for human rights change.
JASS – Just Associates
As a global women-led human rights network of activists, popular educators and scholars in 31 countries, we work to ensure women leaders are more confident, better organized, louder and safer as they take on some of the most critical human rights issues of our time. In recent years, repression and violence against human rights defenders have escalated and space for civil society has ‘closed.’ Activists and organizations around the world have worked hard to respond. But faced with worsening conditions, many of us are questioning assumptions and rethinking the adequacy of our approaches.Together with the Fund for Global Human Rights we have recently launched a knowledge page in order to contribute to continued discussion and invite shared learning on these critical questions.
Justice and Peace Netherlands
At Justice and Peace, we believe that local change makers are the key to progress for human rights and social justice for all. Our action focuses on empowering these peaceful individuals who promote equality, freedom of thought and expression, the rights of refugees or a healthy environment. We provide them with shelter, training, network opportunities and capacity building. Through the Shelter City initiative, and together with 14 Dutch and international cities, we offer human rights defenders at risk a three-month temporary stay in one of the Shelter Cities, so that they can continue their work safely and effectively in the long term.
OMCT
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) is today the main coalition of international non-governmental organisations (NGO) fighting against torture, summary executions, enforced disappearances and all other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.In 1997, OMCT established the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in partnership with the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). Since October 2015, OMCT is a member of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented by international civil society.
Peace Brigades International
For 35 years, we have worked at local, regional and international levels to protect human rights defenders and communities whose lives and work are threatened by violence. Currently, our trained field volunteers provide protection to brave Human Rights defenders who are risking their lives in Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya and Mexico. Help us protect human rights defenders. Join in! Follow us, undraise for us, volunteer in your country or in the field!
Protection International
We are an international non-profit organization that supports human rights defenders in developing their security and protection management strategies. Protection International has been working since 2004 with local partners in over thirty countries across the globe. We launched the campaign #CommunitiesareHRDs, which aims at raising awareness about the collective dimension of the work of defenders.
