THE HRD MEMORIAL PROJECT
COMMEMORATING AND CELEBRATING THE LIVES OF HRDs KILLED SINCE THE UN DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS CAME INTO EFFECT IN 1998
Front Line Defenders, in partnership with a network of more than 20 national and international organisations, is currently working on the development of an International Human Rights Defenders Memorial, which will document the cases of all those human rights defenders killed since the adoption of the UN Declaration of Human Rights Defenders in 1998. Since that day, when the international community agreed to make protection for rights defenders a key priority, an estimated 3,500 have been murdered.
Inauguration of Human Rights Defenders Memorial
The Oak Room – The Mansion House
Thursday 24 November 2016
12.30 Photocall President Higgins meets human rights defenders from Colombia, Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras and the Philippines
12.30 Event begins
Press contact: erin@frontlinedefenders.org
Front Line Defenders is increasingly concerned at the number of human rights defenders who are killed annually because of their peaceful human rights work. In its Annual Report for 2015, Front Line Defenders reported the killing of 196 HRDs. This is an increase in both the number of killings and the number of countries in which they occur.
Front Line Defenders believes that we need to find a way of working together to challenge this trend head on.
Front Line Defenders is particularly keen to highlight the situation of women and LGBT+ human rights defenders who face double discrimination, being targeted for who they are, as well as for what they do. In Honduras, 6 members of the LGBT+ rights organisation Arcoiris were murdered because of their human rights work over the course of eight months in 2016. This is just one country, and, sadly, many other cases simply go unreported and are soon forgotten.
The HRD Memorial will consist of a database and a website that will be launched on 24 November 2016 by President Michael D Higgins of Ireland. Our idea is to build not just a list of names but rather to celebrate their life and work on behalf of others. We want to build something to which their families and colleagues can also contribute.
In creating an International HRD Memorial we will create a powerful testament to the sacrifice of those we have lost and which will also be an enduring indictment of pervasive impunity. We hope that ultimately there will be an actual physical memorial to be located in Dublin. In October 2017, the HRD Memorial Network will launch a global campaign on the theme of Stop the Killings.
BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP
The key to the success of this project is the collection of the names and details of all the human rights defenders who have been killed since 1998. If you would like to submit names for inclusion in the HRD Memorial please contact Jim Loughran by email at jim@frontlinedefenders.org
We would be especially grateful if you could send us the names of human rights defenders killed in 2016. These names will be included in Front Line Defenders’ 2016 Annual Report, which will be published in January 2017.
Current membership of the Network includes:
ACI-Participa (Honduras); ACCUDEH (Mexico); Amnesty International, International Secretariat; AWID; CALAS (Guatemala); CIVICUS; East and Horn of Africa Defend the Defenders Programme; ESCR-Net; FIDH; Front Line Defenders; Forum Asia; Brazilian Committee for Human Rights Defenders; Global Witness; Human Rights First; ILGA; IM Defensoras; KARAPATAN (the Philippines); Meso American Initiative; OMCT; PBI; Protection International; Reporters Without Borders; RMP-NMR (the Philippines); Somos Defensores (Colombia); UDEFEGUA (Guatemala); Urgent Action Fund
