Mary Lawlor, Director of Front Line

Minister, Your Excellencies, Friends,

It is with enormous joy that I welcome you to Dublin to the 3rd Dublin Platform and to have the chance to acknowledge you individually and the vital work you do.

. At the workshop on security for women human rights defenders at risk on Monday and Tuesday, I was once again reduced to silence and admiration at the casual and matter of fact way in which experiences were shared.

Throw away comments like: You never know when you will be arrested – you can be arrested at any time even in the street The children are targeted You are always beaten and there is always the possibility of sexual violence No one knows where our office is – we keep it anonymous Don’t put pregnant women and children at the front of a demonstration

And then there are the psychological effects It is painful to do this work I have nightmares I don’t feel strong doing it but I keep on doing it because it is important I feel guilt and fear for my children I can’t sleep at night – I can only sleep if I come to a conference like this

And just to prove that point “you never know when you will be arrested “ Muhtaber Tojibaeva, our participant from Uzbekistan was arrested last Friday. She was taken by 20 men, six of them wearing masks and carrying guns and batons and she has now been charged with extortion.

We begin our meeting without her presence yet another victim to add to those you just saw in the video

And what about the farcical situation where on the one hand Mohammad Abou, the Tunisian lawyer is serving a 3 year prison sentence after an unfair trial, for publishing on the internet whilst on the other the UN world summit on Information Technology takes place in Tunis next month. President Ben Ali has continuously expressed his commitment to the development of the Internet . But In 2002 a cyber police unit was set up to track down and block "subversive" websites, intercept attempts to reach sites containing "political or critical" material and track down "over-active" internet users. This is a test case for the EU's commitment to HRDs and the implementation of the EU Guidelines as the EU has significant links with Tunisia.

Here in Ireland we were proud that the Minister of Foreign Affairs and his officials pursued the EU guidelines as a human rights priority of their 2004 Presidency even when it looked like there would be no support from their partners.We pay tribute to the officials in the Human Rights Unit and particularly Eamonn MacAodha who put in place a structure for urgent response in the most severe cases. I'm sure at times he and Noel Purcell O'Byrne in DCI would just like to be left alone but I can assure you we will continue you to make their lives miserable!

We were also especially pleased that the Dutch government then took over the implementation of the guidelines during their presidency of the EU and produced a handbook for embassies. The EU Guidelines provide for concrete action by the EU to help support and protect human rights defenders and spell out the role of embassies on the ground. I look forward to hearing Mr. Matthiessen address this issue from the EU perspective and later on tomorrow, we will also hear from the Dutch, British and French governments as to how they are implementing the guidelines. I’d also like to hear what they can do for Mohammed Abou.

I cannot stress enough that we see the guidelines as a key tool in the protection of hrds and we intend to do everything we can to make them work and to remind EU governments of their commitments. They will not be allowed to gather dust but must be integrated into all relevant EU policies and actions. By the end of this meeting, I hope that you will have a better understanding as to how these guidelines can be used to help protect yourselves.

We were also very pleased when the Minister for Justice, Mr. Michael Mc Dowell agreed to our request for temporary humanitarian visas at the 2nd Dublin Platform. A structure has now been put in place to enable us to get short term visas for HRDS. The aim of the scheme is to provide a quick acting mechanism for human rights defenders who face significant immediate risks as a result of their human rights work and who need to relocate to a safe place on a temporary basis or human rights defenders who have been working in the face of significant risks for an extended period of time and who would benefit from a period of respite.

A new initiative made possible through the support of Development Co-operation Ireland is the Front Line Fellowship for Human Rights Defenders. The purpose of the fellowship is to offer a possibility for human rights defenders to take some time out of their normal work to undertake a project which will further develop their capacities and contribute to the protection of human rights defenders internationally. We will be distributing information about the fellowship at the Platform

The circle drawn by the 2nd and 3rd Dublin Platform has been a very strange and poignant time so now friends, forgive me if I publicly acknowledge some very special people whose shadow and spirit hang over me as I speak and whose deaths occurred since the 2nd Dublin Platform

Mary Blackwell, mother of our Trustee Noeline Blackwell who died of cancer on Christmas morning 2003 having faced her death with extraordinary dignity and acceptance.

My beloved father Arthur Lawlor who died just a year ago after a brutal struggle, who was such great fun and who taught me, through example, to always try to act in a humane way . Whenever we were helping with an emergency evacuation I would tell him and he would pray for the safe passage of the defender until news arrived as to whether he/she had made it or not

+ Frank Jennings, our treasured and much loved colleague in Front Line and friend of so many in the human rights movement who died last Saturday week.

As his friend James O'Connor said "Frank taught us how to live and how to die" At the 2nd Dublin Platform we paid tribute to his courage and determination to fight the brain tumour which caused him such dreadful suffering and forced him to have to let go of so much. Bit by bit he had to relinquish the job he so loved, his looks, his independence, his movement, the clarity of his thoughts and his sight. It was Frank who developed the idea of the Human Rights Defender Card. One of the main issues highlighted to us by HRDs working in extremely difficult situations is that the relevant authorities try to deny the legitimacy of their work. The card seeks to demonstrate in a visible way that the HRD has international connections that can be called upon if they are in trouble. Frank was a wise and unobtrusive guide, a compassionate and calm presence and will always be with us in spirit. In honour of Frank we have decided to call our Dublin Geneva internship The Frank Jennings Internship

Bur though Mary Blackwell, Arthur Lawlor and Frank Jennings displayed great courage - it was a courage forced on them and one which they had no choice about.

Human Rights Defenders who never know when they get up in the morning what the day will bring and if they will still be alive that night and yet still be willing to put their lives on the line for others display an exceptional kind of courage. There are so many and yet I have time to mention but a few.

Pascal Kabungulu was the Secretary-General of Héritiers de la Justice (Heirs of Justice), in the Democratic Republic of Congo which has documented grave human rights abuses including war crimes in eastern drc. .Pascal was assassinated in his home in Bukavu, eastern Congo, in the early hours of July 31. Three armed men in uniform broke into his house, dragged him out of his bedroom and shot him in front of his family. Family members reported that just before his execution the attackers said, "We were looking for you and today is the day of your death."

Teresa Yarce from Colombia, one of the leaders of the Asociacion de mujeres de las independencias (AMI) in Medellin, Colombia, was shot dead on 6 October 2004 as she walked on the street. A few weeks before she had escaped another attempt to abduct and kill her. She had been threatened and detained without charge in November 2002, after she reported human rights violations, committed during a security forces operation . Murad Muradov Hamidov, chairperson of the organisation 'Lets Save the Generation' has been missing since April 15, 2005. He was last seen by eyewitnesses in the forecourt of the buildings of his office in Grozny. Hamidov was driven away in a car by members of the armed forces, Members of the armed forces then allegedly entered the office of 'Lets Save the Generation'and seized all the equipment and records. 'Lets Save the Generation' is a Chechen charity that works for children who are victims of mine explosions and shelling. The files that were taken contained documentation of approximately 3000 victims of shelling and mine explosions in Chechnya and registration documents for the construction of a children's rehabilitation hospital in Grozny.

38 year old Munir, died on Garuda flight 974 while en route from Jakarta to the Netherlands to pursue graduate studies. Munir was a founder and director of Kontras,the Commission for "Disappeared" Persons and Victims of Violence , was most recently the director of the Jakarta-based human rights group Imparsial whom Front Line commissioned to write the report on the situation of HRDS in Indonesia. He complained of being unwell during the flight, and died just hours before the flight arrived at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. Two months later, the Dutch Forensic Institute made public the findings of its autopsy, revealing that the cause of death was the presence of a lethal dose of arsenic in Munir's body.

And we also think of those who leave their own roots and are killed because of their human rights work for the people of another country

HRDs such as 74 year old Sister Dorothy Stang , was killed on 12 February of this year in Anapu, Brazil. Although a citizen of the US, Sr. Dorothy Stang had been working for the rights of poor farmers and peasants in Brazil for over 30 years. Prior to her death she had received a number of threats for her work in defense of the environment and rural communities. It is believed that Sr. Dorothy Stang was killed by paramilitaries operating under the instruction of large landowners, loggers and miners whose human rights abuses she sought to expose

And so for Frank , for Pascal, Teresa, Murad, Munir, Dorothy and all of your friends and and exceptional colleagues that have died, we offer a quiet rememberance with some of Pablo Casals recording of Bach's Cello Suite a piece which Frank requested for his funeral. We remember the brother of Yvonne Artis , our participant from Jamaica whose brother was murdered in Jamaica last Friday.

Being with you here invigorates us and inspires us and makes us want to do more . We want you to look on Front Line as an organization ready and eager to assist you. We have a 24 hour line in English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Russian which you can contact us on in case of emergency.

We realize that you are truly alone when facing great danger but as one participant said to me the other night of international solidarity “ sometimes it is useful, sometimes it is not - but always it makes you feel good” If we do nothing else, we would lilke to make you feel good!

All of you do not waver in your determination to stay true to your values. You hear the call of conscience constantly and you try to act according to that call. And the great thing is The absolute mad thing is You don’t give up

You don’t give up even though you live under enormous stress and pressure You don’t give up despite the most inhuman of physical and psychological attacks You don’t give up despite self doubt and exhaustion

and so we will never give up on you.