Security for human rights defenders

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With this letter, addressed to the President of Guatemala and the presidents of the Constitutional Court and the Congress of the Republic, we demand to guarantee the transition of power in the country and to end the instrumentalization of the judicial power to undermine democracy. ...

The Constitutional Court of Colombia (“the Court”) used its judicial review powers to assess the situation of displaced persons in Colombia. Around 1,150 family groups filed tutela or protection claims with their respective municipalities regarding the state’s duty to protect them due to their status as displaced persons. They requested aid, but the state denied aid or gave it for an incomplete amount of time, citing budgetary constraints. 

The Court surveyed the constitutional and international legal frameworks that protect women HRDs as subjects of special protection derived from the vulnerability linked to their situation of displacement. Among other international and regional instruments protecting the rights to defend human rights, the Court discussed the Declaration of the Rights of Human Rights Defenders (1999) and Organization of American States (OAS) Resolution 1671 (1999).

The Court begins with an analysis of why human rights defenders are targeted during armed conflict and displacement, highlighting the following main factors: (a) identified as "informers" or "informants" by the armed factions; (b) the type of information they handle by virtue of their organizational positions; (c) they are seen as obstacles to the aspirations of social and territorial penetration of the armed groups; and (d) their social visibility, which armed actors use to make their victimization an instrument for intimidation.

ESCR-Net - International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights celebrates the acquittal of members of Karapatan, - the Alliance for the Advancement of...

We, the undersigned organisations, express our utmost concern over the ongoing criminalization of ten human rights defenders and members of Karapatan, GABRIELA and the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) in retaliation for their legitimate human rights work.

Elisa Tita...

ESCR-Net - International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights stands in solidarity with Karapatan, - the Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights - and their allies GABRIELA - National Alliance of Women - and the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) in the face of the retaliatory perjury charges brought by the Philippine government against them.

In a little more than a year, ESCR-Net has sent a second collective letter to the President of Colombia, Iván Duque Márquez, regarding new threats allegedly from the...

Statement: "As content moderators go home, content could go down"

19 March 2020

>> https://blog.witness.org/2020/03/as-content-moderators-go-home-content-could-go...

Developed by an ESCR-Net Member

Statement: "Digital surveillance to fight COVID-19 can only be justified if it respects human rights"

2 April 2020

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Developed by an ESCR-Net Member