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Steadfast in protest: Annual Report 2007
Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
June 25, 2008

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Over the past 60 years, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been promoted every day by women and men who bear witness on behalf of victims and demand justice for the weakest. From Andrei Sakharov to Digna Ochoa, from Shirin Ebadi to Hu Jia or Nelson Mandela, these human rights defenders contributed and still contribute to ensuring that the Declaration is a reality in the daily life of all. The most important aspect of the Annual Report, which we have now published for nine years, is probably to provide an understanding of current events in relation to the situations that are experienced by human rights defenders. It is precisely because this correlation between the situation of human rights defenders and that of the societies in which they live is obvious, because a worsening of the conditions in which they act or live prefigures a de facto general deterioration in freedoms in their countries, that this year we have decided to change the format of the publication and to place the analysis of the forms of repression to which defenders are subjected in their political context, which is indissociable from the combats they lead for human rights and fundamental freedoms. A new Annual Report, then, but one that basically, sadly, confirms the tendency observed in recent years, i.e. the continuing repression of defenders ever more harshly. Once again this year, the little and partial progress that has been noted has again been counterbalanced at best by a stagnation, and at worst by a deterioration in the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Without being pessimistic, the situation of these rights and freedoms as well as of their defenders described in this Annual Report for 2007 is scarcely or not at all satisfactory.

In a majority of the countries covered in this Report, the defence of human rights and fundamental freedoms is as complex and full of risk as ever. Although it is difficult to obtain precise statistical data for each country, many defenders still currently lose their lives because of their commitment. And although the international and regional intergovernmental mechanisms for the protection of human rights and the increasing media coverage of cases of human rights defenders who are in danger henceforth permit improved protection for many of them, they are nonetheless subjected to constant harassment and laws that are destructive of freedoms, which prevents them from carrying out How can psychological support be provided to the victims of international crimes and other serious human rights violations when it is impossible to travel within a country that is prey to war? Can one develop an effective programme of prevention against sexual crimes when threatened with death for being a member of an association? Who today can afford to make a regime to face up to its responsibilities, without being subjected in one way or another to violence by groups that are totally dedicated to the regime, or even by an extremely scrupulous State body that is likely to find all kinds of reasons for refusing to "register" your organisation? What reserves of artfulness must internauts draw on to escape the ever-present "Big Fire Wall", which has probably become the most effective anti-democracy virus nowadays, potentially benefiting from the de facto support of the sector's huge Arbitrary arrests, sentences handed out following unfair trials, or placements under house arrest continued this year, all constraints on the activities of hundreds of human rights defenders throughout the world. Subjected to verbal and physical violence by the authorities, private armed groups or the henchmen of such-and-such a regime, defenders have to cope with all kinds of accusations, each more extravagant and unfounded than the others. In addition, the obsession with "security" henceforth takes precedence over the requirement for citizens' liberty, including within the most democratic States, and those who refuse to accept this have to face appalling criticism. The year 2007 also confirmed the tendency to criminalise social protest in many of the world's countries.

Local or regional conflicts, the fight against terrorism, cultural relativism or, more simply, an election period that is uncertain for the Government in office: there are many factors - and just as many pretexts - to explain these securitarian tactics of retreat. There is no point in going over them all here, but we may nevertheless take note that these developments have considerable repercussions on the international system of human rights protection, which is prey to attempts to weaken it. We should stand back and realise how far we have come and the progress that has been made in recognising defenders and protecting them at regional and international level, progress that is due to all these defenders, to the mobilisation of civil society throughout the world, and also to Ms. Hina Jilani, to whom it is our duty to pay deserved tribute here. In December 1998, following years of negotiation, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a Declaration on Human Rights Defenders as part of the festivities to mark the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The mandate of Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations on Human Rights Defenders was subsequently created. Ms. Hina Jilani held this position for nearly eight years and contributed to a clear definition of the status of "human rights defender". Ms. Hina Jilani firstly contributed to promoting the idea that human rights defenders cannot merely be reduced to lists of organisations, however respectable they might be, but that the quality of defender is acquired through activities carried out on behalf of the rights of others. During her mandate Ms. Jilani also often stressed the fact that defenders do not need to have specific rights. The category of defender should not be defined in terms of legal identity but on the basis of the types of violations committed against them. By repressing defenders, the authorities of the countries concerned seek not only to prevent or restrict the exercise of rights recognised in international law, but also try to prevent the victims on behalf of whom defenders intervene from benefiting from the national and international solidarity that they deserve. The defence of defenders aims to maintain the indispensable link between victims who attempt to make their voice heard and the bodies that are charged with protecting their rights.

Finally, conscious that the most effective action is carried out as close to the victim as possible, Ms. Hina Jilani worked alongside the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders to reinforce or to create the regional mechanisms intended for the protection of defenders.

Indeed, the last ten years have been ten years of drawing up mechanisms for the protection of human rights defenders, and today, in Africa, the Americas and Europe, these undeniably work. The Observatory, which contributed to their establishment, welcomes them and notes that this international and regional protection today permits improved knowledge of situations that were previously concealed. But in recent years the international context that has contributed to releasing States from their obligation to condemn - even formally - unacceptable practices (torture, arbitrary arrests, etc.), has also permitted the same States to circumvent their obligations with regard to the protection of defenders. The latter are therefore now increasingly subject to legislative abuses at local level, and to friendly understandings at international level that aim to damage their capacity to act.

Human rights defenders are often victims of their own success in the field and are consequently subject to a backlash on the part of the most repressive States, against which we must react immediately if we want to avoid a risk of regression.

This year, the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the tenth anniversary of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders should therefore be, for us and for all those who take risks in the field to defend the rights and freedoms promoted in these Declarations a year in which to rejoice and to wish long life to these texts that are the core of the human rights protection system established since the Second World War. Yet, current events worldwide are there to remind us how often the needle veers to red with regard to access to fundamental rights and freedoms. And the main indicator is certainly that of how human rights defenders are able to act in the field.

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