Advocacy and policy
PBI UK provides protection through our advocacy work.
Our activities help create the right security, policy and political environments in which defenders can carry out their work. In the UK we build political, legal and diplomatic networks that can be mobilised at short notice to provide much needed support and provide defenders with a platform they otherwise would not have, to amplify their voices, ensuring that their calls for rights and freedoms are heard by those who can make a difference.
Our political networks provide an emergency support system for threatened defenders, opportunities for direct dialogue between human rights defenders and key decision makers, and channels through which PBI contributes to international debate on human rights issues. The advocacy of PBI country groups is crucial in raising the profile of PBI’s work and extending our support networks.
Responding to emergency situations
Providing ongoing protection
Contributing to international debate
Bringing together defenders and decison-makers
Responding to emergency situations
In times of emergency or imminent threat to the people we protect, PBI can call on the influential individuals and groups that make up our support network.
In the UK, this network consists of more than 50 MPs, ministers and peers of the realm, as well as members of the legal community. PBI's international support network also includes diplomats and decision makers at EU and UN level.
Support network members can use their influence to protect threatened defenders in various ways, including through diplomatic channels or raising issues in Parliament.
Sir Henry Brooke Award winner Donald Hernandez with the Coordinator of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Human Rights Nicole Piche.
Providing ongoing protection
It is not only in moments of high alert that PBI engages with the members of our support network.
All of the defenders we accompany are living with constant threat to their security. PBI’s advocacy is an ongoing prevention activity, as we keep the members of our network informed of the situation faced by human rights defenders in particular regions or thematic areas, and share our expertise on the ways in which the international community can help protect them.
Obtilia Manuel (right) with PBI volunteer (left).
We regularly mobilise our extensive, high-profile political support network to announce calls to action at times of imminent risks for individual human rights defenders.
This network helps to protect the lives of defenders like Obtilia Eugenio Manuel when they are most threatened. Obtilia is a land and environmental rights defender and member of the Organisation of Me’Phaa Indigenous Peoples in the municipality of Ayutla de los Libres, Mexico. Obtilia works to improve transparency in the construction of public works in the area, and to require construction companies to respect the rights of communities in the use of resources and allocation of works.
Following serious threats, on February 12th 2019, Obtilia and her companion were disappeared. PBI issued an urgent alert, calling on the Mexican authorities to find them, guarantee the safety of Organisation members, and investigate the disappearance. Following our request, the Alliance for Lawyers at Risk sent a letter of concern to minister Sir Alan Duncan noting their concerns surrounding the disappearance. Letters were sent to the Mexican Embassy, high profile NGOs and legal groups. Due to pressure from the international community, on February 16th Obtilia and Hilario were released alive. This is the first time on record that a disappeared defender has been returned alive in the state of Guerrero.
Bringing together defenders and decision-makers
PBI UK invites accompanied human rights defenders to the UK, facilitating meetings with politicians, diplomats, academics, lawyers and activists. This amplifies their voices internationally, both contributing to their protection and providing wider platforms for them to discuss in their own words their vital struggles in support of justice and human rights.
PBI UK amplified the voices of five defenders in 2020 through speaking tours. They provided opportunities for defenders to raise concerns directly with policy-makers in the UK, expand their networks and identify funding possibilities. The tours also provided an incredibly valuable opportunity for respite, and time to build resilience.
One was the Colombian human rights defender Danilo Rueda, National Coordinator of the Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz – CIJP (Inter-Church Commission of Justice and Peace), who works with Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities on the Colombian Pacific Coast.
Contributing to international debate
PBI UK meets regularly with officials of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and members of the Human Rights and Democracy Group. Through sharing our recommendations and insights from the field with these high-level decision makers, we pressure the UK government to ensure its own accountability and act as a champion for the protection of human rights defenders internationally.
Among other of our achievements, the FCO has included the recommendations from PBI’s Conference on Security and Protection for Human Rights Defenders in its action plan for embassy staff around the world.
PBI UK also shares its knowledge and expertise through participation in coalitions such as ABColombia and the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition.
UK Support for Human Rights Defenders
In July 2019, the UK Government released a policy paper on ‘UK Support for Human Rights Defenders’. This document outlines the importance of human rights defenders, and how the UK government can best support their work. The policy was developed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development in close consultation with a number of non-governmental organisations (including PBI UK) and human rights defenders.
The guidelines outlined UK policy on supporting human rights defenders and included PBI’s recommendations for strengthening protections for rural LERDs in the context of business-led human rights violations.
In 2020, we contributed to the IDC report on the impact of COVID in developing countries. You can read the extract with our contribution here.
Human rights on the frontline
PBI UK are proud to work in partnership with leading human rights organisations to collectively push for change. On 10 February 2021, jointly with Amnesty International, the Law Society and other peers, we launched a new report on the situation of at-risk human rights defenders around the world, and how the UK government can help.
We call for the UK government to develop a new cross-departmental, gender-responsive human rights defenders strategy that prioritises support and protection for defenders