08 May 2007
Mary Lawlor Director, Front Line
Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam Chairperson of SUDO, the Sudan Social Development Organization
Gégé Katana President of SOFAD, the Solidarity Movement of Women Human Rights Activists (Solidarité des Femmes Activistes pour la Défense des Droits Humains)
Mary Lawlor
Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
In the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Eleanor Roosevelt gave the most powerful rationale for why the work of human rights defenders is so important and why it is so important to protect them.
"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world” 
