PBI’s new International Annual Report launched!
An overview of our work and impact around the world supporting human rights defenders at risk
DOWNLOAD THE REPORT IN ENGLISH HERE AND IN SPANISH HERE!
Today PBI published its 2021 International Annual Review, looking back on the organisation’s 40th year supporting and protecting at-risk human rights defenders across Latin America, Kenya, Nepal and Indonesia.
Throughout 2021, both PBI’s field projects and its offices around the world adapted their work in protective accompaniment, advocacy and capacity building to a context of ongoing global pandemic and rising political repression.
The words of the human rights defenders accompanied by PBI, featured in the report, prove the value of PBI’s physical presence, with Donald Hernandez a Honduran human rights lawyer describing PBI as “unarmed bodyguards'', allowing the country’s activists and organisations to carry out their vital work safely. In 2021, PBI’s field teams carried out 984 acts of physical protective accompaniment, from observing hearings investigating war crimes in the courts of Guatemala, to accompanying the relatives of disappeared persons in Mexico as they reported evidence to the authorities, to observing LGBTQI+ rights marches in Honduras. Activists request PBI’s presence in order to prevent attacks against them and ensure an international presence. The human rights defenders and organisations accompanied by PBI support 205,928 people through the work they carry out supporting communities in defending their rights.
In 2021, PBI partnered 58 organisations, comprising 1,784 individuals, across eight countries. Around a third of these activists work on issues related to land and environmental rights, including indigenous communities defending their territory and rights. Around half work on civil and political rights, pushing for accountability and an end to issues like enforced dissappearances and torture. We support women human rights defenders across our field projects and an increasing number of activists working on sexual and reproductive rights and LGBTIQ+ rights.
PBI’s work depends on its ability to build and activate national and international networks to support the work of defenders, and advocate to prevent and react to attacks against them. Throughout 2021, PBI participated in over 2,356 advocacy meetings including political engagement with local, national and international decision-makers across the globe. Where safe and appropriate, these meetings take place jointly with human rights defenders, a number of whom travel to carry out international advocacy together with PBI. Notably, Faith Kasina and Collince Maxx, organisers from urban settlements in Nairobi, Kenya, participated in a virtual speaker tour at the end of 2021 to highlight issues surrounding environmental justice, security during the country’s upcoming 2022 general elections, extrajudicial killings, and to advocate for proper implementation of the National Coroners’ Service Act and the Prevention of Torture Act.
PBI continued to enhance defenders’ ability to keep themselves safe by providing direct training to 2,686 defenders through 335 workshops on security and protection, digital security, protection plans with a gender focus, and other topics.
Throughout 2021 PBI continued to strengthen a gender focus in all aspects of its work, as well as evaluating how to best respond to intersectional needs. On the ground, PBI supported women human rights defenders through workshops on supporting victims of socio-political violence, training on risk assessment tools and strategies with a gender perspective, and by facilitating dialogue between diplomatic missions and women defenders.. In the Netherlands, PBI worked together with WO=MEN and Cordaid, on a toolkit for diplomats, staff and policy makers. The kit includes recommendations for the international community on supporting women defenders in contexts of violence, which were discussed at the UN Security Council session about Women, Peace and Security in October.
PBI’s UK office supported this international work in a range of ways, including:
Recruiting field volunteers for PBI’s Honduras and Guatemala projects.
Online and in-person speaker tours by human rights defenders seeking to advocate with UK-based decision makers.
Advocacy with the Foreign Office (FCDO) and MPs to ensure governmental and diplomatic responses to threats against human rights defenders and to push for a more systematic approach to human rights defender protection by the UK.
Working with the legal community to provide technical support for human rights lawyers and other activists, including through the launch of a Legal Empowerment Project.
Fundraising for PBI’s international work with human rights defenders at risk.
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