The Observatory on Public Policies for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

The FOCUS Observatory on Public Policies for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders is an online platform aimed at monitoring, analysing and promoting good practice in policy developments that governments and other state authorities adopt for protecting human rights defenders and their right to defend human rights on a global level.

Map of public policies

Click on any of the highlighted countries below to browse by location.

Key Elements

Who are human rights defenders? Why is it important to protect them? What is the role of the states in protecting them? In this section, we review all key elements linked to protection policies for human rights defenders.

PI publications

Protection International has been working on public policies since 2007. Over the years, we have gathered our expertise and good practices in research publications, practical tools and reports.

Browse

Browse through the database of document by region, or refine your search by country, type of document and author in the database section.

Latest additions

Protection International
2023
Originally published in the Centro Regional de Servicios (CRES) Luis Enrique Eguren y Alexandra Loaiza 10 August 2023 Introduction Since...
African Defenders
2023
On the 21st of February 2023 the 36th Ordinary session of the African Union took place in Bishoftu, Ethiopia. During...
Protection International
2023
Protection International played an active role in the International Conference 2023 of the Association of Human Rights Institutions (AHRI), hosted...
Philstar
2023
For the third time in nearly two decades, a bill seeking to protect human rights defenders and punish acts of...
Nigerian Tribune
2023
Human Rights Defenders in Nigeria have called on the Executive and Legislatures to work together in order to institute laws...
Protection International
2023
It has been 25 years since the first protection mechanism for people at risk due to armed conflict (December 1997)...
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
2023
This publication studies the impact of public policies on the work and agency of human rights defenders (HRDs), starting from...
Protection International
2023
The defence of human rights in Guatemala is currently going through one of its worst crises since the processes of...