About us – Who – Focus: The Observatory On Public Policies For Defenders

Who Is protection International?

Protection International is an international non-profit organisation that advocates for, and contributes to, the free exercise of the right to defend human rights. We promote a comprehensive approach to the protection of human rights defenders (HRDs), focusing on collective and long-term accompaniment with the aim to foster an enabling environment for HRDs to operate safely, thus reducing the need for emergency interventions over time. We have been working since 2004 with local partners in over thirty countries across the globe.

Our programmes focus on three pillars:

1) enabling defenders to build their capacities in order to manage their protection effectively;

2) advocating for duty-bearers to fulfil their obligations regarding the protection of the right to defend human rights; and

3) convincing other individuals and institutions with a stake in the protection of human rights defenders to maximise their positive contribution.

Our work on public policies for the protection of HRDs

One of PI’s key areas of expertise has been the monitoring of and contribution to public policy initiatives for the protection of HRDs worldwide. This strand of work is core to PI’s mission, as it runs through the 3 pillars of our strategy:

We support HRDs initiatives to advocate for national public policies that ensure a safer environment for their work;
We advocate for State authorities to adopt public policies based on international standards on the protection of HRDs;
We persuade other relevant stakeholders to also advocate and contribute to the adoption of public policies for the protection of HRDs at national level.

We monitor from a critical perspective the development, implementation and impact of public policies for the protection of the right to defend human rights. We have also undertaken research and systematisation of good practices and lessons learned, from which we have drawn different publications.

We firmly believe that the protection of HRDs should be rooted in a public policy approach, which provides the framework for the actions to be taken by the authorities to effectively protect the right of every person to defend human rights.