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Peace Brigades International (PBI)

Mary Lawlor on the road from Dublin to Beijing

Busy week. Started in Geneva for speech at PBI 30th anniversary conference. I really admire PBI. Their accompaniment and advocacy programme for human rights defenders is very effective. Met some old friends.

Next day went to Beijing. Plane was cancelled but managed to get rerouted. There are 66,600 taxis in Beijing, but you can never get one – ‘black’ taxis were my saviour! Was told you haven’t experienced ‘proper’ Beijing unless you go to Wangfujing Shopping Street and eat fried scorpion on a stick..hmmm….

Went to Peking University to give talk on the role of international NGOs in the protection of human rights defenders and our work to protect human rights defenders globally. The students asked loads of questions and showed great interest. Had a great lunch with our ex Peking University interns who are delightful. Went to a village outside Beijing on Saturday which was very vibrant and colourful. The population is mainly composed of rural migrant workers and their families, and a bustling market was in full swing when we were there. Off to Strasbourg early on Wednesday morning for a round table in the Council of Europe on human rights defenders.

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Guatemala: Electronic Protection ‘NGO in a Box’ Trainingposted on: 2006/10/10

Front Line and one of its partners, Privaterra, organized a series of training workshops for Human Rights Defenders in Guatemala from 4-8 September 2006. The workshops were based on the tools and materials from ‘NGO in a Box’ Security Edition, a project initiated by Front Line to assist Human Rights Defenders to increase their information and technological capabilities. The full security toolkit is available at: http://security.ngoinabox.org/

The training took a participatory approach and 17 organizations in total were involved in the workshops. Each workshop was tailored to the needs of the individual participants and involved training on security concepts from physical to electronic protection, information encryption backup, antivirus protection, free software equivalents of the proprietary tools and secure email and email encryption.

Following the workshops success, Front Line is working to expand the projects in partnership with the Asociación Para el Estudio y Promoción de la Seguridad en Democracia (SEDEM), Peace Brigades International (PBI) and independent technical consultants.

Human Rights Defenders at Risk in the DRC, June 2004posted on: 2004/07/28

Front Line is very concerned about the security of human rights defenders in Bukavu and the surrounding area following the upsurge in fighting during the last days. Rebel forces, with Rwandan support, have taken control of Bukavu. There are fears of fighting spreading elsewhere in South Kivu. There are some indications that human rights defenders are being sought out and several have had to flee or go into hiding.

Front Line, in conjunction with Peace Brigades International (PBI), organised two training workshops for human rights defenders in Bukavu and Goma in May 2004. Front Line is calling on the international community to ensure that the various actors involved in the conflict ensure the protection of human rights defenders in the region, including those who have been forced to flee into neighbouring countries.