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HUMAN RIGHTs DEFENDERS Protection and Resilience

Defenders Coalition works to ensure State and corporate accountability, enhance the capacity, safety, and resilience of HRDs, and strengthen the HRD protection ecosystem.

It also prioritises HRDs’ mental health, psycho-social wellbeing, and long-term resilience. Recognising the growing impact of technology-facilitated threats, including digital surveillance, online harassment, data breaches, and coordinated attacks, the Coalition integrates protection from digital risks as a core component of comprehensive protection for HRDs and HRDOs.

The protection programme offers legal assistance to HRDs who are arbitrarily arrested and maliciously prosecuted by providing them with advocates to represent them at places of detention and in court or provides bail. The Coalition also undertakes trial observation of cases that involve HRDs to ensure that the judicial process is free and fair.

Medical support is offered to HRDs/activists who are injured or fall sick due to their work. Medical support either covers the payment for medical services and/or medicine for HRDs and their families.

Psychosocial support caters for the well-being of those HRDs who have been emotionally affected by their work. HRDs who are exposed to incidences of torture, gender-based violence, assault or extra-judicial executions, to name but a few of the most serious human rights violations that HRDs fight against, often find that their work is taking a toll on their emotional well-being. Defenders Coalition engages the services of counsellors offer counselling support in such situations.

Protecting those HRDs whose work has exposed them to threats and high levels of risk, often requires that they be relocated. This is normally a short-term measure put in place while other strategies are pursued. Relocation can be local, regional or international, depending on the gravity of the case. During such periods of absence from routine work, the Coalition often arrange for the affected HRD to be attached to another organization to ensure human rights work is not disrupted or to gain some skills.

The Defenders Coalition builds the capacity of community HRD networks and social movements on safety and resilience.

It advocates for the safe and meaningful engagement of HRDs across business activities, with their perspectives integrated into corporate decision making. It conducts physical and digital security audits of HRDOs, followed by tailored capacity development and enhanced support, and strengthens existing community and county-level protection networks so that they become effective first responders to HRDs at risk. In addition, it supports the development and uptake of holistic protection models and tools that integrate physical, legal, psycho-social, and digital security, and strengthens the inclusiveness of HRD networks to ensure protection and solidarity for all HRDs.

Defenders Coalition develops and implements protocols for supporting HRDs who lose income due to reprisals, as well as veteran HRDs in distress. It establishes a database of HRDs’ skills, professions, and expertise to facilitate referrals, income opportunities, and collaborations, and links HRDs to Business Development Services and private sector actors such as banks and Savings and Credit Cooperative Organizations (SACCOs) that already have infrastructure for incubation and financing. It challenges economic reprisals through policy, litigation, and public campaigns, and participates in co-learning with other human rights organisations piloting economic empowerment initiatives for their constituents. In addition, it partners with the private sector, including banks and insurance companies, to develop tailored products for HRDs, such as loans and insurance packages.

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