Protection Of Human Rights Defenders Research Articles

The Protection of Human Rights Defenders in the National Policy of Police Reforms in Indonesia

This research is intended to find scientific arguments to ensure that Indonesia’s National Police reform agenda must be carried out with systematic efforts that can promote and protect human rights defenders. This research uses the descriptive qualitative method using conceptual, statutory, and historical approaches. Library sources as the primary data. This research collects data in the field of literature study, such as books, journals, and credible periodical reports. Finally, the problems are analyzed using the qualitative method. Police Bureaucratic Reform is the ideal patron of the National Police, which is carried out gradually and systematically. Through this instrument, human rights policing can provide certainty for promoting and protecting human rights to human rights defenders. The result of this research convinces and invites the government officers, parliament, NHRIs, and civil society, including human rights defenders, to openly and periodically monitor and evaluate the implementation of National Police bureaucratic reform.

Using Journalism for Self-Protection: Profession-Specific and Journalistic Measures and Strategies for Countering Violence and Impunity in Mexico and Honduras

ABSTRACT In Mexico and Honduras, journalists face violence from state and non-state actors and almost complete impunity. Given a lack of effective state protection, some resort to alternative means of (self-)protection and justice-seeking. Via analysis of 67 interviews with journalists and protection actors, this article shows how many reporters use journalistic and profession-specific forms of self-protection and analyses their benefits and challenges. It adopts a novel analytical approach building on insights from diverse areas of research on people’s responses to violence and insecurity. Scholarship on civilian responses to armed conflict offers a relevant framework for understanding self-protection measures. Although measures such as “avoidance” and “accommodation” of violent actors are a means of survival and short-term physical protection, they bring significant new risks. Above all, they can undermine trust from the public and within the profession and the usefulness of journalism for society. Drawing on literature on the protection of human rights defenders, the analytical framework is extended to show how some journalists also engage in broader self-protection strategies around transforming their work. These strategies combine protection and professionalisation and aim to boost journalists’ internal and external support and credibility.

Human rights defenders in Moldova

At the international level, the subject of human rights defenders has grown. The European Union's human rights guidelines provide practical guidance to EU representatives around the world, one of the main being - the protection of human rights defenders. Parliament's resolutions aim to raise public awareness of human rights violations, support human rights defenders and shape EU human rights policy through concrete policy proposals.

Tinjauan Normatif Pembela Hak Asasi Manusia dalam Hukum Internasional dan Hukum Nasional

: Human rights are acknowledgment that every human being has basic freedom and dignity. With this recognition, everyone has the right to defend and fight for their rights for their existence as a human being. Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) are everyone who works to defend and fight for people's human rights. In international law the rights of Human Rights Defenders are specifically manifested in the 1998 UN Declaration of Human Rights Defenders. Human rights and the extent to which Indonesia provides regulations for these human rights defenders. This study aims to analyze the protection of human rights defenders in the perspective of international law and the application of international law in national legal regulations related to the protection of human rights defenders. This research will use a qualitative normative juridical approach, with analytical descriptive research specifications and data collection techniques through literature study.

The judgment of the case Xucuru People v. Brazil: InterAmerican Court of Human Rights between consolidation and setbacks

The present article aims to analyse the recent decision against Brazil issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Xucuru indigenous people and its members v. Brazil, which was decided in February 2018. The decision is the most recent among the consolidated jurisprudence of the Court on indigenous peoples` rights, as well as the first one against Brazil. The case study is based mainly upon a bibliographic review of primary sources related to the case, as well to the Court´s jurisprudence on indigenous rights. To achieve the central objective, the article is composed of three sections: an analysis of the Court´s jurisprudence on indigenous territorial rights, a further analysis of the decision on the Xucuru case and, finally, an analysis of aspects that were absent in the decision. The article concludes that, in most aspects, the judgment consolidates the Court case law on the territorial protection of indigenous lands. However, the decision is considered flawed in regard to four aspects: the protection of human rights defenders, the mentioning of the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, applied remedies and the recognition of the injured party. As the case is very recent, this is the first academic analysis on its content. The Court´s innovative jurisprudence on indigenous rights must be acknowledged, but flaws and limitations in the most recent decision must be pointed out and analysed in order to enable further development and, therefore, provide a most adequate human rights protection.

BUSINESS AND THE POLITICS OF HUMAN RIGHTS: The Protection of Human Rights Defenders by State and Business as an Opportunity to Build Up a Democratic Society in Brazil

Abstract
 This paper considers the interplay of international law, politics and national law in the protection of human rights defenders (HRDs) that are challenging businesses practices in Brazil. It argues that the Brazilian State and transnational and domestic businesses have a responsibility to protect HRDs and should adopt robust means of doing this, embracing their work as opportunity rather than a threat in building up a democratic society. To demonstrate the validity of this claim, this paper highlights the role of HRDs in promoting corporate responsibility and in exposing and remedying the adverse human rights (HR) impacts of business in Brazil. It further explains how HRDs working on issues of corporate responsibility and accountability are under threats and attacks from both state and non-state actors as a result of their work. The paper then analyses some of the responses from the organized civil society, business, and the Brazilian State in order to tackle violence against HRDs. The paper considers that the relationship between business and the Brazilian State is dialectical and complementary and, as such, should be arbitrated by the international HR system. In this process, the paper calls for a binding instrument to regulate the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises to be adopted at the UN level and argues that it could potentially influence the rhetoric and practices in the politics of HR in Brazil. The final section provides an explanation for how the Brazilian State and transnational and national businesses should protect HRDs. 
 
 Keywords: Business. Human Rights. Human Rights Defenders.

Procedural Participation, the Role of Expert NGOs and Access to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

This paper presents new empirical research (qualitative/quantitative) on the role of NGO litigation before the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights. It shows that being an expert litigant is correlated significantly to the chances of referral of a case from the Commission to the Court (Kendall tau-b), and more clearly than any other factor on its own. The paper contextualizes the quantitative results within a wider context of the protection of human rights defenders, and concludes that certain NGOs constituted a pre-filter to access to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. This guaranteed, on the one hand, quality of representation, but on the other, left out certain issues, countries and victims whose cases were not taken up by the expert litigants. This research is part of a wider project and was submitted and accepted as part of the author's PhD thesis at the University of Essex.

European Union Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders: a review of policy and practice towards effective implementation

The European Union Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders (the guidelines) are an EU external relations policy tool providing European diplomats with operational recommendations to support and protect human rights defenders (HRDs) in third country missions, recognising the critical need to protect those working on the frontlines to ensure human rights obligations are enforced in their countries. Implementation of the guidelines by the EU and its member states has resulted in many good practice actions towards the support and protection of HRDs. However the guidelines' recommendations are not systematically implemented by all European member states and implementation in EU mission countries around the world is patchy and inconsistent. This article considers EU commitments to effectively implement the guidelines policy tool in practice, including steps taken to integrate the guidelines' operational recommendations within the relatively new process of planning EU Human Rights Country Strategies in mission countries. Drawing from a study for the European Parliament assessing implementation of the guidelines in Kyrgyzstan, Thailand and Tunisia, the author identifies key areas of stakeholders' concerns, and argues for the need to link the EU's efforts towards coherence in human rights policy with on-the-ground approaches towards the protection of HRDs in third countries.

Critical perspectives on the security and protection of human rights defenders

Since the United Nations General Assembly's adoption of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders in 1998, there has been considerable effort to recognise and protect the right of individuals, groups and communities to promote and protect their own rights and the rights of others. Over time, a multi-level, multi-actor international protection regime for the rights of human rights defenders has emerged, derived from the international human rights regime. Actors in this goal-driven regime adopt a human security approach, emphasising the importance of having a holistic, multi-dimensional understanding of ‘security’. In this article, we note positive developments in state commitment to the protection of defenders, as well as the debates, tensions and contestation that continue to exist. We emphasise the need for critical appraisal of the construction, function and evolution of this protection regime as well as its multi-scalar social and political effects, both intended and unintended. We highlight three specific areas where critical scholarship is needed to understand the nature of this protection regime, discussing the contributions of authors in this special issue: the definition and use of the term ‘human rights defender’; the effectiveness of protection mechanisms; and the complex relationship between repression, activism and risk. In conclusion, we identify key areas for further research related to human rights defenders, stressing the need for the development of theory and practice related to their ‘risk’, ‘security’ and ‘protection’.

Networks for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders: Notes from the Field

Founded in 2005, the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP) functions as the Secretariat to the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Network (EHAHRD-Net). Its core mandate is to offer protection to and promoting the rights of human rights defenders (HRDs) throughout the East and Horn of Africa subregions. In this policy and practice note we reflect on strategies, tactics and results in four core areas of interrelated work: protection, security management, advocacy, and capacity and coalition building. We argue that a concerted, holistic approach to the protection of HRDs is necessary to mitigate the worst risks that HRDs face as well as to foster an enabling environment for the effective defence of human rights. This involves complementing urgent responses to HRDs at immediate risk with the provision of prevention-oriented security management training, as well as conducting sustained institutional and public advocacy. We also stress the importance of capacity building as well as coalition building and networking in this work. Supporting the growth of national HRD coalitions helps to bring protection expertise down to the national level, strengthening the regional network model. Finally, we put forward areas of work that need further development in the context of the East and Horn of Africa.

A Research Agenda for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

This Special Issue of the Journal of Human Rights Practice is dedicated to critical reflection on the protection of human rights defenders (HRDs). In this article we consider existing research and knowledge about the protection of HRDs, highlight the contributions of the policy and practice notes in this collection, and put forward current issues and questions on the protection of HRDs for further exploration. Specifically, we highlight eight areas for research: the definition and use of the term ‘human rights defender’; perceptions of risk, security and protection; culture, gender and diversity (with particular emphasis on protecting women human rights defenders); the use of legal and administrative mechanisms for repression; the effectiveness of protection mechanisms; strategies and tactics for protection; fostering enabling environments for the defence of human rights; and the impact of technology and digital security on HRDs. In the last section of this article, we highlight the importance of more collaboration between academics, practitioners and HRDs for the effective evolution of protection mechanisms and practices. We reflect on the merits and challenges of collaborative applied research, suggesting how this can be done effectively.

Defending the defenders: An analysis of violence against human rights defenders in India

Despite global, regional and national initiatives in protection of human rights defenders which have not proved effectively in the ground reality. There are instances of human rights defenders are humiliated, harassed and victimized globally including in India. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India has reported many cases pertaining to violence against human rights defenders in different parts of the country. Over the years, the Commission has been observing an increasing trend and pattern of human rights violations of defenders. Hence, it is pertinent to assess the situation of human rights defenders in the largest democracy of the world. The present study aims to understand the nature and extent of violence against human rights defenders. A total number of twenty five cases were selected from National Human Rights Commissions (NHRC) and analyzed within case and cross through case study method. The study found that the defenders of human rights were victimized by State and Non-State Actors and perceived as a vital challenge for protection of human rights in India. Finally, the paper suggests synergetic strategy of Governant, corporate and civil society organizations to work together in strengthening special protection for human rights defenders in democracy. Key words: Human rights defenders, violence, victimization, human rights, India.