Protection Journal #4: Protecting your life, my life, our lives

This manual focuses on the work and the protection of women human rights defenders and is the fruit of reflexion and testimonies that they have shared with us over years of experience. Available in English and Spanish.

The Protection Manual number 4, from the series published by UDEFEGUA and PI, is dedicated to the defenders. It focuses on the work and the protection of women human rights defenders and is the fruit of reflexions and testimonies that they have shared with us over years of experience.

Women who defend human rights face much greater burdens in comparison to their male colleagues. In addition to dealing with the multiple human rights abuses that are the motivation for their work, women defenders have to also confront the abuses and pressures that our profoundly sexist and patriarchal societies impose against women who raise their voices. What’s worse is that in many cases this discrimination and these abuses, directly and indirectly, come from male human rights defenders themselves.

For all these reasons, the clear and critical content of this Manual is even more necessary. We have an enormous challenge: to develop a critical and reflexive gaze towards ourselves, a gaze which must drive us towards clear and decisive action to both recognise and overcome this challenge. We hope that this new Manual will be at least a small step on this long road that we all have to travel.

Read our next manual: Protection Journal number 5: Stigmatization and criminalization of human rights defenders.

Or read our previous manual: Protection Journal number 3: Human Rights Defenders at high risk, Security considerations for their families and personal lives.