
In November 2016, on the initiative of Front Line
Defenders, a coalition of 22 national and international human rights
organisations, including OMCT, launched a major new collaborative project to highlight the escalating issue of
the killing of human rights defenders.
The HRD Memorial - www.hrdmemorial.org
All of the organisations, listed below, are
increasingly concerned about the number of human rights defenders who are
killed each year because of their peaceful human rights work. Collectively we estimate that since1998, when
the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders was unanimously
approved by the UN, an estimated 3,500 HRDs have been targeted and killed.
Repressive governments continue to kill HRDs because
they believe that these are expendable people who will soon be forgotten. The
HRD Memorial aims to challenge this thinking by celebrating the work and
achievements of HRDs. The HRD Memorial will document the cases of all those
human rights defenders killed since the adoption of the United Nations
Declaration on Human Rights Defenders in 1998.
The HRD Memorial was inaugurated by the President of Ireland, Michael D
Higgins, in November 2016. www.hrdmemorial.org
This project goes beyond creating a list of names aiming instead to celebrate
their life and work for others: to build something to which their families and
colleagues can contribute. We believe that while we continue to fight against
impunity it is important to resist the banality of statistics and keep alive
the flame of justice. Those who carry out this struggle are, of course, those
who continue to defend human rights at the local and national levels despite
the murders, but by creating a memorial we would also create a powerful
testimony about the sacrifice of those who have already been lost as well as
being an eternal condemnation of widespread impunity.
Stop the Killings
At the same time we want to mobilise the strength of the entire network to
mount an international campaign on the topic of "Stop the Killings",
which will be launched by the end of March 2018.
The main objective of this project is to challenge this climate of impunity
which allows the almost daily killing of human rights defenders to go
unpunished. . We hope we can count on your support. You can add your name to the list of
organisations who are supporting this project.
Equally you can send us details of cases you would like to see in included in
the HRD Memorial.
Currently, the Network includes: ACI-Participa, Comite
Cerezo, Amnesty International, Brazil Human Rights Defenders Network AWID,
CALAS, CIVICUS, ESCR-Net, East and Horn of Africa Defend the Defenders
Programme, FIDH, Forum Asia, Front Line Defenders, Global Witness, ILGA,
KARAPATAN, Iniciativa Mesoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras de Derechos Humanos
(IM-Defensoras), OMCT, PBI, Protection International, RMP-NMR. Somos
Defensores, UDEFEGUA, Urgent Action Fund.
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