Mapping Protection Architectures for Human Rights Defenders at Risk

The aim of this project was to map ‘protection architectures’ in three regions – Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia – that is, to identify actors involved in protecting human rights defenders at risk, the types of interventions they provide, the challenges these protection actors face, and to identify key gaps and priorities for strengthening the international protection regime in these regions so that human rights defenders can work with greater security, wellbeing and sustainability. This project also charts pathways for facilitative interventions whereby defenders at risk are enabled to utilise self-driven and localised means to attain and maintain their own security, wellbeing and sustainability.

This work builds upon other research projects led by Dr Alice Nah in mapping and evaluating the ‘international protection regime’ for human rights defenders at risk.