OHCHR Fact Sheet on human rights defenders

Fact Sheet no. 29 in OHCHR’s series of Fact sheet publications describes who is a human rights defender, what defenders do and the difficulties and violations they encounter as a result of their work. The Fact Sheet provides a brief analysis of the Declaration on human rights defenders and explains the mandate, methods of work and main activities of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on human rights defenders. It concludes with a series of practical suggestions on how the Declaration on human rights defenders can be implemented by States, with support from defenders, the United Nations and the public.

Ongoing human rights education for defenders

OHCHR has been responsible for the International Decade on Human Rights Education and has, in this context, been involved in the development in many tools for human rights education. On OHCHR’s main web site you will find links with OHCHR’s human rights education programme where there are publications, guidelines and other support tools on human rights training for the police, for judges and lawyers, for teachers, for children, and many others.

Presentations about the work of the United Nations and human rights defenders

Human rights publications

• “Compilation of International and Regional Instruments for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders - a 2002 publication by the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), a non-governmental organization. Through this publication, readers can identify multiple sources of international human rights law that provide essential support to human rights defenders and a good basis for action by States, the United Nations, civil society and defenders themselves.