New research on human rights defenders protection has just been published in a Special Issue of the International Journal of Human Rights. This special issue features papers from PI’s Board members Alice Nah, Luis Enrique Eguren Fernandez, and Champa Patel. This is the second collection of papers to come from the research initiative between Amnesty International, the Centre for Applied Human Rights (University of York), and the Human Rights and Social Justice Research Institute (London Metropolitan University).

In his endorsement of this special issue the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, Michel Forst, stated:  ” As we mark the 17th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders we should ask ourselves what more must be done to better protect defenders and promote their work. I welcome this Special Issue of the International Journal of Human Rights. It compels us to confront these challenges and to discuss critical questions, both among scholars and practitioners“.

In a co-authored paper Luis Enrique Eguren Fernandez and Champa Patel discuss limitations around the concept of and term ‘human rights defenders’ and elaborate criteria for better understanding and defining human rights defenders through their practice.

Another article – Critical perspectives on the security and protection of human rights defenders (co-authored by Karen Bennett, Danna Ingleton, Alice M. Nah & James Savage) – focuses on the development of the international human rights defender protection regime and calls for deeper analysis of how it is constructed and how it functions.

Also in this issue a paper analyses policy and practice towards effective implementation of the European Union Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders (authored by Karen Bennet).

You can access the Special Issue of the International Journal of Human Rights here.

Later this month an online community conversation hosted by New Tactics will take place from 16 – 20 November 2015. The conversation is open to anyone and we particularly encourage defenders, practitioners, and scholars to participate.  For further details, please look here.