Criminalisation of human rights defenders: Categorisation of the problem and measures in response

Criminalisation of Human Rights Defenders – Categorisation of the problem and measures in response aims to provide responses to protection challenges for criminalised HRDs, civil society organisations and rural communities. To this end, the report illustrates the interplay among legal instruments, socio-political contexts, practices by state authorities and non-state actors, which altogether ultimately contribute to stigmatise, delegitimise and criminalise HRDs. Counter-measures that may be adopted to combat criminalisation are also discussed in the report together with a number of concrete recommendations to HRDs, State authorities and justice institutions, as well as foreign governments, multilateral agencies, donors and civil society organisations.

This general study is the first in a series of subsequent editions that examine the criminalisation processes of human rights defenders (HRDs) in different countries and contexts, based on specific cases.

The publication about criminalisation cases studies in different countries and regions were published by Protection International regarding Kenya, DRC and Guatemala.