Annual Report 2020

We are pleased to share with you Protection International‘s 2020 Annual Report, which brings together stories and highlights from this past year concerning our work with human rights defenders (HRDs) who fortify the Right to Defend Human Rights (RDHR) across the globe.

2020 has been an unprecedented time for Protection International (PI) – as it has been for the world. The challenges that we and the human rights defenders (HRDs) we accompany have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic have tested our resilience and adaptability. We have had to change our practices rapidly, cope with unexpected developments, and respond quickly to crises.

As you read this report, you will learn about PI’s responses during the pandemic, which include:

• Activating networks and serving as a liaison between defenders and emergency response organisations in order to ensure that urgent health and safety needs are met;
• Vamping up advocacy and communications with key stakeholders in order to bring visibility to the current threats facing defenders;
• Re-working the means and methods of PI’s capacity building activities in order to adapt to the current context and ensure the security of defenders and partners;
• Investing in new tools, human resources, and psychosocial support services in order to overcome additional barriers that coincide with the implementation of confinement measures; and
• Building solidarity by focusing on responses that are gender- and diversity-inclusive and guaranteeing that all actions are carried out with psychosocial support as a priority.

In 2020, we also seized the 15-year anniversary of the first protection manual as an opportunity to reflect critically on how the risk approach is being applied in practice by organising a consultation to work on new protection standards.