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

US Foreign Relations Committee
2024
January 31, 2024 WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and author of...
Colectivo de abogados José Alvear Restrepo (Cajar)
2024
Bogotá-Washington DC., March 18, 2024. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has issued a historic ruling in which it recognizes...
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
The defence of human rights in Guatemala is currently going through one of its worst crises since the processes of...
ESPACIO_OSC
2023
This document is the result of a series of meetings convened by the Espacio de Organizaciones de la Sociedad Civil...
Nkafu Policy Institute
2023
This publication was published by the Nkafu Policy Institute in January 2023. It includes an analysis of legal protection measures...
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
2023
This publication studies the impact of public policies on the work and agency of human rights defenders (HRDs), starting from...