Critical Perspectives on the Security and Protection of Human Rights Defenders

Karen Bennett, Danna Ingleton, Alice Nah, James Savage

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781134828753
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Law Theory & Practice
• Index: Law

Human rights defenders – who by peaceful means advocate, mobilise and often put their lives at risk to defend the most fundamental freedoms of their fellow citizens – are key agents of change in their own societies and make a significant contribution to the international community's efforts to support democracy and human rights. Defenders often face serious threats and can experience harm by state and non-state actors.

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, which is based on existing rights derived from the international human rights regime.

The authors in this book reflect on the positive developments that have emerged over time to strengthen the protection of defenders, as well as the debates, tensions and contestations in such practices. This collection provides a critical appraisal of the construction, function, ethical boundaries, and evolution of this protection regime, as well as its multi-scalar social and political effects. In particular, the authors consider the effectiveness of particular international and regional protection mechanisms for the protection of defenders, and examine the relationship between repression, activism, and tactics for managing risks in the face of danger. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Human Rights.

Critical perspectives on the security and protection of human rights defenders

Karen Bennett^a, Danna Ingleton^b, Alice M. Nah^c and James Savage^d

^aHuman Rights and Social Justice Research Institute, London Metropolitan University, UK; ^bAmnesty International Secretariat; ^cCentre for Applied Human Rights, University of York, UK; ^dAmnesty International, UK

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’.

The human rights defender protection regime

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly’s adoption of the 1998 Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (commonly known as the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders)¹ marked a milestone in the development of a multi-level, multi-actor international protection regime for the rights of human rights defenders. This regime has had a long genesis; the declaration itself was a product of a ‘slow and drawn-out drafting process’ lasting over 15 years, marked by tension, disagreement and compromise.² Since its adoption however, 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.

What are the key features of the human rights defender protection regime? First, it derives its ‘principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures around which actor expectations converge’³ from the international human rights regime. The declaration itself did not create new rights, but ‘reaffirms rights that are instrumental to the defence of human rights’.⁴ Over time, a number of key principles have emerged in the operation of this regime. These include: the recognition of local actors as key agents of change; the importance of promoting and protecting ‘civil society space’⁵; the need to tailor protection interventions to meet the unique and specific needs of individuals, groups and communities⁶; and the necessity of complementing reactive measures with efforts to build a ‘safe and enabling environment’ for the defence of human rights.⁷

Second, the regime is goal driven – its aim is to protect and support defenders who operate in their own contexts in the face of threats and risks. Depending on the circumstances and the actors involved, these threats and risks might include surveillance, harassment, verbal and written threats, stigmatisation, criminalisation, restrictions on funding and registration as non-governmental organisations (NGOs), arbitrary arrest and detention, spurious investigations, fabricated charges, unfair trials, kidnapping, torture, ill-treatment and killings.⁸ Perpetrators range from state actors to non-state actors – such as government officials, armed forces, police officers, religious fundamentalists, transnational corporations and criminal gangs. In a significant number of cases, defenders do not know the identity of those who attack them.⁹

Third, the regime adopts a human security paradigm, with individuals, groups and communities as subjects of security rather than states. Its goal-driven, practice-oriented, rights-based nature helps actors in this regime sidestep some of the debates that question the usefulness of the human security paradigm for meaningful action, policy and research.¹⁰ Similar to proponents of a ‘broad’ human security approach (in particular, those who adopt a feminist framework¹¹), defenders and practitioners have emphasised the importance of having a holistic, multi-dimensional understanding of ‘security’. Women human rights defenders, in particular, emphasise the importance of understanding how discrimination, stereotyping and stigmatisation – rooted in social structures in society, such as patriarchy and the militarisation of society – compromise security.¹²

Jane Barry and Vaida Nainar reflect on how women human rights defenders define security as including: freedom from constant threats, economic security, political security, environmental security and health security, which resonate with definitions of human security that encompass the dimensions of ‘freedom from want’ and ‘freedom from fear’. Drawing upon reflections of women human rights defenders around the world, they introduce the term ‘integrated security’:

For us, security has to be integrated, which means employment, social wellbeing, development and national sovereignty in terms of natural resources. Security is not only for the individual, but also for the community.¹³

This concept – especially its emphasis on self-care and personal wellbeing – has resonated deeply with defenders around the world.¹⁴ Organisations that conduct security training (such as Front Line Defenders, Protection International and Tactical Technology Collective) draw attention to the importance of interventions in three interconnected domains – physical security, digital security and self-care. Some defenders and practitioners argue that self-care is both a necessary act of physical and psychological protection as well as a political strategy for sustaining and furthering the work of defenders.¹⁵

Fourth, it is a multi-level regime – formal protection mechanisms for human rights defenders exist at the national, regional and international levels. In Mexico, for example, defenders are able to seek protection measures from the government through the 2012 Law for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists¹⁶; make urgent appeal to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders to request the government to take all appropriate action on behalf of a human rights defender at risk; gain practical support from European Union (EU) embassies on the basis of the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders; and make petitions to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in the hope that it will request Mexico to adopt precautionary measures to prevent ‘irreparable harm’ to the defender. However, there is geographical unevenness in the availability of protection mechanisms. Many countries have neither enacted laws nor created institutions that recognise and protect the rights of human rights defenders.

Fifth, the regime has many stakeholders – civil society groups, donors, national human rights institutions, states, multilateral bodies and individual defenders – who create and use different types of tools, strategies and tactics to identify, support and protect the rights of human rights defenders. These include the provision of emergency grants, temporary relocation initiatives, security training, advocacy, accompaniment, trial monitoring, networking and capacity building.¹⁷

In the next section of this article we show how there has been growing commitment by some governments to protect human rights defenders around the world. We then contrast these developments with examples of how other governments continue to challenge the legitimacy of defenders and restrict their rights. We turn to three specific areas where critical scholarship is needed, highlighting 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. Emphasising 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, intended and unintended, we identify key areas for further research.

Developments in the normative framework

Over the past three years, there have been a number of initiatives that strengthen the normative framework for the protection of human rights defenders. At the national level, Switzerland’s...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• 1. Critical perspectives on the security and protection of human rights defenders
• 2. Towards developing a critical and ethical approach for better recognising and protecting human rights defenders
• 3. European Union Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders: a review of policy and practice towards effective implementation
• 4. Protecting human rights defenders at risk: asylum and temporary international relocation
• 5. Political opportunities in non-democracies: the case of Chinese weiquan lawyers
• 6. Violence and human rights in Russia: how human rights defenders develop their tactics in the face of danger, 2005–2013
• Index