Introducing the Declaration +25, an authoritative, civil society-led document that supplements the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. Together, these two texts form a comprehensive set of standards that are grounded in international law and are a baseline to protect defenders and the right to defend human rights. This document is the result of more than a year of work, consultations with 700+ defenders, as well as research and input from experts and human rights defenders.

As part of the consortium of 18 organisations [1] that helped facilitate the development of this important document, Protection International conducted two consultation sessions with HRDs, the first in Bilbao in September 2023 and the second in Nairobi in October 2023. The aim of these consultations was to collect information on changes in national, regional and global contexts, and evolutions of human rights movements since the UN Declaration on HRDs was adopted in 1998, but also to capture defenders’ needs. PI was also significantly involved with the actions to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Declaration. We also significantly contributed to the text of the Declaration+25. Our input mostly focused on PI’s key areas of expertise, namely the collective nature of human rights work and the importance of preventive protection of HRDs.

We are proud to have played our part in the creation of this crucial instrument, and we are hopeful that it will help us all – individuals, groups and organs of society – proudly stand for the right to defend human rights.

#Right2DefendRights

[1] The Declaration +25 project was implemented jointly with other organizations, including Amnesty International, CIVICUS, Defend Defenders, Forum Asia, Front Line Defenders, FIDH, Gulf Centre for Human Rights, ICNL, ILGA World, ISHR, IM Defensoras, MENA WHRD Coalition and OMCT.