End of Year Update
PBI UK’s activities and impact
As 2024 comes to a close, we have an opportunity to look back at a big final few months of the year. Through our events, advocacy, publications and campaigns, PBI’s UK team ensured that human rights defenders are not only protected, but that their ability to drive meaningful change continues to grow.
Read more below to learn how we have taken advantage of every opportunity to stand with defenders. Your support has been crucial in sustaining our impact!
Supporting Indigenous and environmental defenders in calling on the UK to protect their rights against corporate abuse
In November, PBI UK joined with Forest Peoples Programme to welcome a cross-regional group of Indigenous and Afro-descendent leaders and other community representatives to the UK to build support for their campaigns to defend their land, environment and livelihoods.
We consulted the defenders on what changes they would want to see to UK legislation on corporate accountability, and had a chance to advocate directly with the Government, parliamentarians and civil society through a series of events in which PBI UK also published a groundbreaking new report demonstrating the links between UK businesses and attacks on defenders. The group was made up of twelve representatives from Indonesia, Colombia, Kenya, Liberia, Mexico and the Wampís Nation (in Peru), many of whom are working to hold UK corporations to account for abuses in their communities.
Our new report, ‘The Case for Change: Why human rights defenders need a UK law on mandatory due diligence’ received widespread media coverage, both in the UK (including the Guardian) and in countries covered in the publication. It also featured in a Monocle Radio interview with PBI’s UK Director, Ben Leather. One of the report’s most emblematic cases is that of the El Bajío community in Mexico, where land rights defenders were murdered after successfully campaigning for the closure of a destructive open-pit gold mine operated illegally by a subsidiary of Fresnillo PLC, a UK-incorporated company. Community representative Jesús Javier Thomas carried out extensive advocacy and media work whilst in London. PBI UK is part of the Corporate Justice Coalition, campaigning for a UK Business, Human Rights and Environment Act.
Legal delegation contributes to breakthrough in long campaign by defenders for truth and justice in Nepal
Eighteen years on from the end of Nepal’s bloody civil war, the country’s legislature finally passed a Transitional Justice Law this summer - the result of decades of tireless campaigning by local human rights defenders. PBI has provided support to many of these groups and, this year, organised a high-level legal delegation to analyse this issue at a critical time when the Bill was being discussed.In October, women human rights defenders Mandira Sharma and Gita Rasaili came to London for an event to launch the delegation’s report and to advocate for the international community to help ensure that the gaps in the law are filled through effective implementation that focuses on the needs of victims.
This month, we published an analysis of the impact of international legal delegations, explaining why this is a core pillar of PBI UK’s work.
You can read the full report ‘Peace without Justice and Accountability? A caution against impunity in post-conflict Nepal’ here.
Defenders visit London to push for change
In December, we conducted UK advocacy training with two Kenyan human rights defenders who are taking part in the Scottish Human Rights Defenders Fellowship Programme, of which PBI UK is an Advisory Board member. We also worked with them to produce communications outputs to uplift their voices on International Human Rights Defenders Day, and joined them for a high-level event in the FCDO, where one of them - Becky - spoke on the panel about their context and the international support that is required to help keep human rights defenders safe.
Sebastián Escobar Uribe is one of several lawyers at the Colombian organisation, José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective (CAJAR), who have received protection from PBI since 1995, to ensure they can carry out their work safely due to the threats and intimidation they face. Sebastián came to London to build support for a Universal Jurisdiction complaint against former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, that was filed through Argentinian courts to seek justice in Colombia for the harrowing human rights violations committed during the armed conflict.
PBI celebrates its Global General Assembly and defines new strategy for the coming years
In November, PBI staff and volunteers from around the world gathered in Lisbon to define the organisation's new Global Strategic Plan for the next five years, as well as agreeing upon other ways in which to strengthen PBI’s international operations and governance. The strategy - which will be published in full in 2025 - will build upon PBI’s existing strengths of providing holistic protection by bridging the global with the local, while ensuring that we continue to develop new ways to influence the evolving range of actors seeking to silence human rights defenders, and developing the means through which our methodologies and tools can reach as many communities and movements as possible.
PBI’s UK team implements the Global Strategic Plan through a UK Strategy which is summarised here.
PBI calls on the new UK government must step up in the fight to protect front line defenders
Following the launch of a new Global Witness report evidencing widespread murders and criminalisation of land and environmental defenders, PBI UK Director Ben Leather was invited by Bond to write a short op-ed explaining why it’s in the UK Government’s interests to engage, support and protect civil society, and how they should do this.
You can read the article here.
Celebrating International Women Human Rights Defender Day!
On 29 November we celebrated Women Human Rights Defenders Day, spotlighting women defenders who work tirelessly around the world as key agents of positive change, often facing grave risks, including sexual harassment and gender-based violence while standing up for their rights and communities. We also remembered women defenders who have been unjustly killed as an attempt to silence their powerful voices for justice.
Take a look at the stories of some women defenders:
Stephen Cragg KC joins PBI UK to coordinate new Ambassadors Network
PBI UK is delighted to announce that Stephen Cragg KC has joined us to coordinate PBI UK’s Ambassadors Network, which will replace what was previously known as our Patrons. The network is made up of individuals who combine long-standing specialist expertise with a passion for empowering human rights defenders in order to support PBI UK’s work. As Coordinating Ambassador, Stephen will take on responsibilities to refresh and expand the network, ensuring its effectiveness. Stephen’s fellow Ambassadors include Sir Nicolas Bratza, Lord Carnwath, John Dew, Julie Christie, Professor Jeffrey Jowell KC, Helena Kennedy KC (Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws), Sir Peter Roth and Lord Scott of Foscote.
Thank you for supporting defenders through your Big Give!
As we reflect on the highlights of these past few months, we must recognise the outpouring of support and passion for our work that we have seen. In particularly, we want to recognise the solidarity which each and every donor showed in giving through our Big Give campaign to bolster the causes of defenders on the frontline. Your generosity will enable us to continue to grow our support for defenders in 2025. This festive season, we want to say a huge thank you. We surpassed our ambitious target to raise a grand total of £20,200! If you didn’t manage to give to the campaign, don’t worry! You can make a donation to PBI’s work here.
PBI is recruiting field volunteers for its Guatemala team!The window to apply is open until the 15th of December. Find out more here.
