Around the world, human rights defenders persist in their work despite shrinking civic spaces and relentless attacks. HURIDOCS stands in solidarity with these defenders, especially those at risk or unjustly detained for their pursuit of justice. The price they pay remains steep and deeply unconscionable.
Join us on 10 December 2024 for this webinar that will feature four initiatives that recently collaborated with HURIDOCS to safeguard those who champion human rights:
- Observatory for Human Rights Defenders in Chiapas
- SOS-Defenders
- Detention Landscapes
- Papuans Behind Bars
Event details
- Date: Tuesday, 10 December 2024
- Time: 15:30 – 17:00 CET
- Register on Zoom: https://tinyurl.com/huridocs2024
Moderated by Matel Sow, Director of Programmes at HURIDOCS, the discussion will explore the strategies and tools these initiatives use to spotlight arbitrary detention and oppression while mobilising support for systemic change.
Featured projects
- Observatory for Human Rights Defenders in Chiapas
A community-led state-wide coalition
The southern Mexican state of Chiapas is marked by poverty, social inequality, conflict, militarisation and violence. Despite these challenges, a strong social network of communities, human rights organisations and human rights and land defenders exists who resolutely continue their work of building strong, healthy, and secure communities.
This initiative is a community-led state-wide coalition that brings together more than 20 organisations and defenders to document and share information related to the growing security threats for human rights and land defenders in the region. The Observatory will be launched in 2025, and will equip Chiapas civil society with the necessary mechanisms to push back against the increasing pressures of the region. - SOS-Defenders
Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (OMCT-FIDH)
The soon to be launched SOS Defenders initiative supports human rights defenders worldwide who face arbitrary detention. This secure database and public microsite document cases of detained defenders and advocate for their release.
By leveraging technology-driven documentation, SOS Defenders amplifies advocacy efforts and gives voice to those persecuted for defending human rights. This initiative highlights the urgent need to protect those on the front lines of justice. - Detention Landscapes
Border Criminologies, Faculty of Law, Oxford University, Mobile Info Team and the Border Violence Monitoring Network
Detention has become a worrying fixture of asylum and removal procedures across Europe, subjecting individuals to reprehensible conditions and systematised violence that takes place within closed structures that are increasingly restricted from the public. This results in a vacuum whereby detainees find it virtually impossible to claim their rights. By pooling knowledge and making it freely available, this project documents the conditions and behaviour of law enforcement personnel inside detention centres, serving as an evidence base to support further research, legal action and advocate for justice and accountability.
Detention Landscapes is an ongoing collaborative project that seeks to develop and maintain an interactive, open access database of human rights violations inside immigration detention facilities, with an initial focus on Greece. - Papuans Behind Bars
TAPOL
In West Papua, the criminalisation of free expression and activism has led to a troubling surge in political arrests. Relaunched in 2024, Papuans Behind Bars is a vital online platform documenting political prisoners to ensure their stories are not forgotten.
Led by TAPOL in collaboration with a coalition of civil society groups, the initiative provides accurate, transparent data to fuel advocacy for justice and freedom. Published in English and Indonesian, it connects local struggles with global solidarity, sparking debate and action to defend human rights in West Papua.
Speakers
Karla was born in El Paso, Texas and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and Ethnicity and Race Studies from Columbia University. She has worked with migrants and refugees and incarcerated people, particularly with women and youth. She has experience accompanying migrant and refugee women in Chiapas and Tabasco, southern border of Mexico. Before this, she worked with multigrade elementary and middle schools in Chiapas, as well as with incarcerated students in detention centres in New York. She currently works with Movilidades Libres y Elegidas (CoLibres), a non-profit organisation in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas that defends women’s rights, migrant and refugee rights, and digital rights.
Giuseppe is a Human Rights Adviser at the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), where he coordinates a global project on the arbitrary detention of human rights defenders in partnership with local and international HRD protection organisations. Before joining the OMCT, he worked on business and human rights to monitor the activities of private security companies (PSCs) operating in complex and conflict-affected environments and their compliance with international human rights and humanitarian law principles. Giuseppe holds an LL.M. in Human Rights Law from the University of Nottingham and a Master’s Degree of Law for the University of Naples Federico II.
Manon is an open-source analyst focused on visual investigations and interdisciplinary research methods. She has worked extensively in research and investigations, field reporting, testimony collection and advocacy with the Border Violence Monitoring Network and previously coordinated EU advocacy efforts for the Mobile Info Team. Her work focuses on immigration detention, pushbacks, and violence at EU borders with a particular focus on the Greek-Turkish border. She worked closely with Border Criminologies to collect data, develop and further expand the Detention Landscapes platform.
Oliver is a director at TAPOL. He is an international human rights lawyer with over 15 years of experience working on a wide range of human rights and rule of law issues. He is the founder of the consultancy rights: applied, where he works with NGOs and other clients on multi-track accountability solutions.
Moderator:
Matel joined HURIDOCS in 2019 as a Programme Officer supporting organisations worldwide in implementing effective documentation methods and tools. She subsequently progressed to the Program Director role, assuming increasing responsibility for strategic planning, team leadership, and programme implementation.
The event will take place on 10 December 2024, at 15:30 CET.