Report 2015 of UN Special Rapporteur on Human Right Defenders

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Website of the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/SRHRDefenders/Pages/SRHRDefendersIndex.aspx

SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS REPORT TO THE UN 2015 - FULL 20-PAGE REPORT IS ATTACHED.

Multiple components related to WOMEN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS.

B. Identification of the threats to which human rights defenders are most exposed, with a view to providing for more effective protection

54. During his first consultations in Geneva and Brussels and the bilateral discussions that he held with representatives of regional networks of human rights defenders, the Special Rapporteur was struck by the repeated statements drawing his attention to the groups that were most exposed: those working on economic, social and cultural rights and minority rights; environmental defenders; defenders of LGBTI rights; women defenders and those who work for women’s rights; defenders who work in the area of business and human rights; those who work in an area exposed to internal conflict or a national disaster; defenders living in isolated regions; and those working on past abuses, such as the families of victims of enforced disappearance.

55. This is a central feature of the kind of communications received by the mandate holders on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association and on the situation of human rights defenders and also by other mandate holders, such as the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances or the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

56. The Special Rapporteur has noted with great interest that, over the past few years, human rights defenders have been active in ensuring that the protection promised by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is extended to new threats to human dignity. As a result of their work to combat gender-related violence against women, they argue that rights should be protected also within the household and the community. They contend that multinational corporations should be held morally and legally liable for their actions and omissions that deprive men and women of their fundamental rights. They are working to ensure that universal access to primary education and antiretroviral treatment becomes a fundamental right and is not treated as a service that is dependent on charitable action or an aspect of economic development.