Report on the Fourth Dublin Platform for Human Rights Defenders

INTRODUCTION

It is not possible to capture all the sharing and learning, the energy and emotion, the commitment and inspiration generated by the ninety one human rights defenders who came together from seventy one countries at the Fourth Dublin Platform. In this report we try to draw out some of the key lessons and messages.
All the HRDs who came together in Dublin Castle between the 22nd and 24th November 2007 are at risk because of their work. They face death threats and physical violence, denigration and loss of employment, arrest and harassment, and sometimes torture.
Examples of these threats and attacks were shared in often harrowing testimony. But the focus was also on strengthening mechanisms for protection, engaging the international community, holding perpetrators accountable and providing support to those under attack.

The HRDs were joined by many representatives from international human rights organisations. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Judge Louise Arbour and Mr Dermot Ahern TD, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, gave keynote speeches on the first morning.

The meeting was also addressed by Hina Jilani, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on the situation of human rights defenders (by telephone from Pakistan); Reine Alapini Gansou, Special Rapporteur on Human Rights of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Guillaume Pfeifflé, Associate Human Rights Officer and assistant to Hina Jilani at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Presentations were made about a new report on women HRDs to be published by Front Line, Urgent Action Fund and Kvinna till Kvinna, as well as Front Line’s plans for security training for human rights defenders. Feedback was also presented on a conference Front Line organised with the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) to establish stronger links between development agencies and human rights defenders. Representatives of key international institutions, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders, and the African Commission on Human Rights presented their work.

The participants also enjoyed musical and dance performances each day, at the conference and in the evenings. Front Line would like to thank Maithiu O Casaide who played the oileann pipes, cellist Hazel Fortune and her string quartet, harpist Fiona Lyons, and a young, energetic group of Irish dancers under the guidance of Rosaleen Goodman. The meeting was particularly privileged to hear Liam O’Maonlai, who sang and played the tin whistle and bodhran at the close of the conference.

As in past meetings, many Human Rights Defenders spoke movingly to the meeting about their personal experiences. At one session of this Platform, for the first time, HRDs also discussed their own state of mind and how they manage the personal stress that many of them face. This report highlights what HRDs said about their work, and the dangers and problems they have to confront. It is not a verbatim record. It aims rather to provide a feel of the meeting – some sense of what the HRDs who participated shared with one another and with others who were present.
Andrew Anderson
Deputy Director
Front Line
Dublin