Escalating our support to the work of human rights defenders
Shrinking civic spaces, growing populism, anti-rights narratives, and increasingly frequent attacks on human rights defenders and those who protect them. When national human rights institutions (NHRIs) gathered in Marrakech in 2018 to discuss their role in protecting human rights defenders, these were among the key challenges highlighted during the meeting, which finally led to the formulation and adoption of the Marrakech Declaration.
Implementing the Declaration, which identifies commitments to promote, protect and work with human rights defenders, is one of three primary objectives for the second phase of the global capacity development programme of national human rights institutions, that the Danish Institute for Human Rights has led with the support from EU since 2016. The other objectives are strengthening the effectiveness of the national human rights institutions and supporting NHRIs in working with the SDGs.
Developing new learning products
The declaration makes specific calls to:
- ‘Ensure that NHRIs can rely on effective protection measures when the institution, its members or staff are at risk or under threat.’
- ‘Promote gender equality and develop strategies to combat all forms of discrimination against women human rights defenders.’
To fulfil the objectives, the Institute will develop new learning products for national human rights institutions and support the establishment of crises mechanisms, where NHRIs can support human rights defenders at risk, as well as other types of support for the work of NHRIs with human rights defenders.
The NHRIs’ network in the Americas has just established its secretariat in Panama and it will be supported by the project, so that regional human rights initiatives can be strengthened. The project will also work to increase the strategic efficiency of GANHRI, the global alliance of NHRIs.