Defenders’ socio-political work space

This manual focuses on the protection and security of human rights defenders working in hostile environments and measures which are focussed on improving their security. There is of course action which can be taken at the socio-political level to improve respect for human rights and the environment for human rights defenders. The campaigning and promotion activities of human rights defenders are often aimed at securing a broader acceptance of human rights within society or more effective action from political actors to ensure human rights are protected. We don’t usually think of such activities as about security but when successful they can have a positive impact on protecting human rights defenders’ socio-political work space.

This socio-political work space can be defined as the variety of possible actions the defender can take at an acceptable personal risk. In other words, the defender perceives “a broad array of possible political actions and associates a certain cost or set of consequences with each action”. The defender perceives some of these consequences as “acceptable and others as unacceptable, thereby defining the limits of a distinct political space”.

For instance, a defenders´ group may pursue a human rights case until one of the members of the group receives a death threat. If they perceive they have enough socio-political space, they may decide to make public that they have been threatened, and eventually go on with the case. But if they perceive that their political space is limited, they may reckon that denouncing the threat will have unacceptable costs. They might even decide to drop the case for a while and improve their security capacities in the meantime.

The notion of “acceptable” risk can change over time and varies greatly between individuals or organisations. For some, torture or the death of a family member might be the most unbearable risk. Some defenders believe that being imprisoned is an acceptable risk, as long as it helps to achieve their goals. For others, the threshold might be reached with the first threat.

This political space of activity, in addition to being subjectively defined by those who move within it, is very sensitive to changes in the surrounding national political environment. You therefore have to look at it as a relative and changeable space.