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Each Dublin Platform is special. It could not be otherwise given the quality and diversity of the one hundred or so human rights defenders who come together from over eighty countries to discuss and exchange, to work and relax together. The Fifth Dublin Platform was no exception.

As always the participants, none of whom had attended previous Dublin Platforms, brought great energy and wisdom to the discussions on how to strengthen security and protection.

The formal sessions were facilitated by simultaneous interpretation in Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish with whispered interpretation provided in more than five other languages. But the informal discussions were also extremely rich with participants building lasting bonds across linguistic and cultural divides.

All the HRDs who came together in Dublin Castle between the 10th and 12th February 2010 are at risk because of their work. They face death threats and physical violence, denigration and loss of employment, arrest and harassment, and sometimes torture. Examples of these threats and attacks were shared in often harrowing testimony. But the focus was also on strengthening mechanisms for protection, engaging the international community, holding perpetrators accountable and providing support to those under attack.

The HRDs were joined by many representatives from international human rights organisations. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Navanethem Pillay and Mr. Micheál Martin TD, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, gave keynote speeches on the first morning. The meeting was also addressed by Ms. Margaret Sekaggya, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.

A panel discussion on the specific risks facing women human rights defenders drew on expert presentations from: Lucha Castro, Centro de Derechos Humanos de Las Mujeres (Mexico); Parvin Ardalan, One Million Signatures Campaign (Iran); Bernadette Ntumba, AMCAV (DRC); and Mary Jane Real, Coordinator of the Women Human Rights Defenders’ International Coalition.

Front Line and Tactical Technology presented the updated version of ‘Security in a Box’, a package of guidance materials and software resources relating to digital security for human rights defenders. Throughout the conference there were digital security help desks operatingand there was also follow-up training on the topic in Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish. There was also feedback on Front Line's research project looking at best practice in terms of security and protection which draws on field studies with human rights defenders in Colombia, Indonesia and Zimbabwe.

The participants enjoyed a rich cultural programme with music from an array of musical talents, including the Moran family, the O’Ceannabháin family, Vincent McGrath (HRD Ireland) and Dom-an Manegdeg (HRD the Philippines), and the vibrant spirit emerging from the coming together of so many exceptional human rights defenders was vividly captured in the collective Irish dancing and wonderfully chaotic conga line at the finale event in the Old Jameson Distillery.

The attached report highlights what HRDs said about their work, and the dangers and problems they have to confront. It is not a verbatim record. It aims rather to provide a feel of the meeting – some sense of what the HRDs who participated shared with one another and with others who were present.

Front Line Report from 5th Dublin Platform and the Book of Testimonies 2010