ProtectDefenders.eu

The EU Human Rights Defenders mechanism, protecting defenders at high risk worldwide.

[ProtectDefenders.eu @ProtectHRD_EU]

10 years. Thousands of defenders. One commitment: no one stands alone.

Our 2024/25 Annual Report is out now. 📖

98% of defenders reported a positive impact this year, read the full story: https://t.co/rqhlChDs3O

#HumanRights #ProtectDefenders

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Everyone has the right to adequate food and to be free from hunger (Article 11, ICESCR).

Defenders working on land, water and food rights make this real, often at great personal risk.

#WorldFoodDay #HumanRightsDefenders

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Mental health is part of protection. We asked our colleagues what supporting HRDs’ mental health means to them. Their answers 👉 https://t.co/MkFDPQD4V6

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Teachers can be human rights defenders too, and too often pay for it: dismissals, smear campaigns, bans from teaching. On #WorldTeachersDay, let's remember education is a pillar of democracy, and so are the people who defend it from the classroom. #HumanRightsDefenders

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Attacks on civil society in Turkey have been a great shock this month but we also focus on alerts from Bangladesh & Mali, and Ogiek defenders in Kenya and a special article with Thai Lawyers for Human Rights. Read here: https://t.co/RNnhyUiGCE

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Access to information isn't enough. People need information they can trust. In many countries, that burden falls on journalists and defenders, often at real personal risk. Protect them, protect the truth.

#AccessToInformation

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Arnon Nampa: 1,000+ days detained, 31 years in cumulative sentences, for peaceful pro-democracy speeches. Thailand's new amnesty law excludes cases like his entirely. #Democracy needs the people who defend it protected, not silenced.
🔗https://t.co/XXxYAzgssH

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Peace isn't just the absence of conflict. In active war zones, HRDs are documenting violations, protecting communities, and holding the line for accountability. That work is peacebuilding too. #InternationalDayOfPeace
🔗https://t.co/EEItJ3DsgP

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Tomorrow's State of the Union will talk defence, tech, energy, foreign affairs. Our ask: don't let democracy be the side note.

HRDs are holding civic space together, that deserves real commitment, not a mention.

#SOTEU2026

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A school is more than four walls.
It is a place to learn, to build community and to exercise rights.

When education is attacked, it is not only classrooms that are destroyed. It is opportunities, hopes and the futures of entire communities.

🔗https://t.co/zTtIYXNkrs

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August Bulletin is here 📩
Inside: the psychosocial support gap for defenders, country updates from Honduras 🇭🇳, Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 & Tunisia 🇹🇳, stories for Youth Day & Indigenous Peoples Day, and our mention in the EEAS Annual Report.
🔗 https://t.co/MxT3vUlpwD

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https://t.co/oI4jGwraVL supported a psychosocial first aid programme rooted in Ogiek culture storytelling, nature-based reflection, clan support now a peer network defenders built themselves. 🧵 https://t.co/4rbMgbFwbx

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Psychosocial support for HRDs is still too often built org by org, in a bubble.
What defenders need: targeted, specialised support that doesn't disappear right before and after relocation, exactly when stress peaks.
A reminder that it is core protection.
https://t.co/6GjlM58SWs🔗

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She was already defending women's rights before the world called her a #HRD.
This #InternationalYouthDay, we're celebrating young defenders whose stories aren't about rescue, they're about resilience, leadership and the chance to keep defending.
🔗https://t.co/ISFFimvZkQ

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In Colombia, years of sustained accompaniment helped defenders strengthen community protection, but recent threats in Mexico remind us that protection cannot be temporary.

Today, we celebrate those defending their lands, waters and communities.

🔗https://t.co/oomIRV2YFy

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This month's newsletter: Sahrawi defenders under siege in Western Sahara 🔴 a Gaza doctor's arbitrary detention 🔴 life sentences for Baloch HRDs in Pakistan 🔴 plus our full interview with Iraqi journalist Azhar Al-Rubaie + summer reads.

📩 https://t.co/bLeupro77W

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"Home is not where you sleep, is where you belong."
Azhar Al-Rubaie taught himself journalism watching TV as a kid in Basra. Today he reports from one of the world's most dangerous regions for press freedom, and refuses to let Iraq be only one story.

🧵https://t.co/ih97lNSKJo

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On 27 June, Uganda's army chief ordered the shutdown of the country's main independent media group, TV, radio, newspapers, all silenced overnight.
"I do not believe in press freedom."
Press freedom and information are human rights. This cannot stand.
🔗 https://t.co/0AK6YUH0SK

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Our June bulletin is out.
This month we focus on India where environmental HRDs are targeted, Nicaragua and the death of Brooklyn Rivera Bryan and Tunisia where the civic space is disappearing.
And yet defenders keep going.
Read more 🔗 https://t.co/By8NTn6pP5

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Torture is a crime. It is absolutely prohibited under international law, no exceptions, no excuses.
And yet its use is growing.
For human rights defenders, it is often a tool of silencing. We won't stop calling it out.
🔗 https://t.co/wrHeRa7bk7

[ProtectDefenders.eu @ProtectHRD_EU]

Today is #WorldRefugeeDay. 🌍
For many human rights defenders, exile is not a choice. It is the price of speaking out.
We stand with every defender forced to flee, and we remain committed to ensuring they never face that journey alone.