Stephen Cragg KC on PBI’s vital work with human rights defenders
When those who champion human rights become targets themselves, how do we protect them? Stephen Cragg KC, PBI UK ambassador, explores the vital role played by Peace Brigades International and its network of volunteers.
As a recent Chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee, I worked with many organisations in my two-year tenure, but one stood out for me as a very special NGO: Peace Brigades International (PBI). I was fortunate enough to take part in an independent human rights delegation to Guatemala in 2023 organised by PBI, and I am now an ambassador for PBI UK alongside some illustrious members of the legal community including Lord Carnwath, Baroness Kennedy and Sir Nicolas Bratza.
Founded in 1981, PBI has evolved into a globally respected human rights organisation operating across multiple countries. The UK section, established in 1992, serves as a vital hub within this international network, providing crucial support to field projects and advocating for human rights defenders worldwide.
PBI addresses some important questions for human rights defenders. How do we protect those who defend human rights when they themselves become targets? What support exists for lawyers documenting state crimes?
PBI’s distinctive operational model: a powerful deterrent of violence
PBI’s distinctive operational model centres on the concept of protective accompaniment which combines physical presence in the field with international attention to create space for local human rights defenders to continue their essential work. In essence, PBI provides international volunteers on the ground – often with a legal background – to accompany human rights defenders facing threats, to stand alongside them, demonstrating that the world is watching and creating a visible international presence that deters potential aggressors. PBI also then lobbies hard for recognition of the work carried out by human rights defenders with detailed reports and campaigns aimed at the international community. This approach is fundamentally rooted in non-violence, political independence and non-interference principles.
Accompanying human rights defenders takes various forms including physical presence alongside threatened activists, observation at demonstrations and public events, visits to remote communities and monitoring trials and hearings. The protective effect stems from the international attention such accompaniment generates. Potential perpetrators of violence recognise that harming accompanied activists would trigger international diplomatic pressure and unwanted visibility – a powerful deterrent in many contexts. As Ben Leather, the director of PBI UK says: ‘Our commitment is to ensure that human rights defenders are safe and heard, while holding governments and businesses to account for their role in the threats they face.’
PBI’s long-term support for defenders around the world
PBI UK supports vital field projects across the globe – currently including Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Indonesia, Kenya and Nepal. In Colombia, for example, despite the 2016 peace agreement, human rights defenders continue to face alarming levels of violence, with environmental and land defenders at particular risk. PBI UK has maintained a presence there since 1994, accompanying organisations defending land rights, supporting victims of state crimes, and advocating for marginalised communities. Bar Vice-Chair Kirsty Brimelow KC has been instrumental for many years in the work in PBI’s work in Columbia.
Similarly, in Mexico, the escalating violence against defenders – particularly those working on environmental issues, indigenous rights, and cases of enforced disappearances – requires an ongoing protective presence. A good recent example is the case of Guatemalan justice defenders who faced judicial harassment for their anti-corruption work. International legal observation of proceedings, coordinated with protective accompaniment, created a protective environment that mitigated some of the most serious risks.
Advocacy in the UK and international legal delegations
Supporting these field projects, PBI UK engages in targeted advocacy to influence British foreign policy and corporate behaviour affecting human rights defenders. This work involves building and maintaining relationships with Parliamentarians, civil servants, corporate stakeholders and international bodies. The publication of detailed legal reports provide both a tool for local human rights defenders to draw attention to international human rights norms, and a learning and educational function to inform those with influence in the UK and internationally.
Two recent examples illustrate. The 2023 delegation of which I was part was organised because land defenders in Guatemala had successfully used a previous international delegation report from 2015 to support their work and requested a new and up-to-date report. We are not trespassers: this is our land was the product of our week-long mission, launched in September 2023. It describes the four Maya Q’eqchi communities and human rights defenders who met with the delegation and the account they gave of human rights abuses, together with details of meetings with local lawyers, law enforcement agencies, the private sector and the international ambassadorial community. However, the report also provides a full analysis of international human rights law in particular the way it applies to land and cultural rights in Guatemala. The report has already been successfully used in ongoing case law and local campaigns, as well as in cases at the Inter-American Commission where it has been used as the basis for amicus curiae briefs.
Another delegation visited Nepal in 2024. At a time of political change, the delegation met with similar groups as did the Guatemala group, launching Peace without Justice and Accountability? – A caution against impunity in post-conflict Nepal. The report served as an opportunity for the Nepali state to provide accountability, truth, justice and comprehensive reparations to victims of the country’s decade-long armed conflict. One important reason for the success of the delegations and their reports is that they were initiated at the request of local human rights groups, took place at a time when maximum impact could be achieved, and as PBI UK says form ‘part of a wider strategy for catalysing international connections for long-term support’.
PBI UK is also very keen on local and international businesses taking their human rights responsibilities seriously. Its current policy advocacy agenda aims to strengthen the policies and practices of governmental and business actors who have the power to alter the context for human rights and environmental defence. Government is called upon to develop a comprehensive legislative framework that intertwines business practices with human rights and environmental protection, as part of a fully funded, cross-departmental and gender-responsive strategy to support the vital work of human rights defenders.
PBI volunteers: human rights work at the sharp end
Would you want to be a volunteer? Each volunteer goes through a training period to fully prepare them for the challenges of working with a PBI field project before they are deployed. Volunteers must meet the language requirements of the relevant project and are expected to serve a minimum of 12 months as a field volunteer.
For those of us who mostly ply our trade in stuffy courtrooms, largely safe from the dangers that human rights defenders face in many countries, the work of those defenders and volunteers recruited by PBI UK is without doubt human rights work at the sharp end. Of course, not all of us will be able to work in the field to protect human rights defenders. But for members of the UK legal community, recognising the commitment of those who can, supporting financially or with our pro bono time, and promoting the defence of human rights defenders through PBI UK is a worthwhile and rewarding way of giving something back to those facing injustice and oppression in other countries.
This opinion piece was originally published by Counsel magazine, the monthly journal of the Bar of England and Wales, on 7th July 2025.
Read PBI UK’s impact report 2023-25.
