August 31, 2023 - The Sunflower Declaration
is a call to action to protect human rights defenders at risk, with
concrete recommendations to governments, multilateral organizations,
businesses, cities and universities. It was drafted together with the
Nobel Peace Prize laureates 2022; Center for Civil Liberties, Memorial
and Viasna (on behalf of Ales Bialiatsksi) and other human rights
organizations. Presented at the Nobel Peace Conference HUMAN RIGHTS
HEROES 31 August 2023, it is signed and endorsed by a number of Nobel
Prize laureates, human rights organisations, icluding the International
Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against
Torture (OMCT), in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection
of Human Rights Defenders, and individuals.
The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize focuses the world’s attention on
the important role civil society and we as individuals— play in
protecting human rights and democracy. Whenwe act to secure human
rights—political, civil, social, cultural, environmental, and economic
rights—for ourselves and others, we help build just and peaceful
societies.
According to the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders,
“Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others,
to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human
rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international
levels.”
Human rights defenders are persons, who individually or in
association with others, act to promote or protect human rights
peacefully. [1]
This can include a great diversity of people such as activists for the
environment, women’s rights, LGBT rights, indigenous rights and
religious freedom, journalists, and union representatives. Concretely,
they inform people about their rights, document abuses, speak out
against oppression, and call for accountability for crimes. Human rights
defenders have helped improve our laws and systems, promoted policies
and standards where they are lacking, made vital resources and
privileges available to more people, broadened understanding and respect
for humans regardless of our strengths or vulnerabilities [2], and are indispensable to achieving progress on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Peace cannot exist without human rights, and human rights cannot exist without those who defend, promote, and protect them.
Growing Risks
As humanity faces multiple crises, the ability of human rights
defenders to safely do their work is a precondition for creating
positive and lasting change. [3]
And yet, in a time of rising authoritarianism, growing inequalities,
unsustainable economic growth, and opaque algorithm-steered
disinformation, perpetrators increasingly threaten human rights
defenders and the space in which they work for what they do or who they
are. As a result, according to Front Line defenders 2022 Global Analysis, for the first time, the HRD Memorial documented more than 400 target killings of human rights defenders.
Rising authoritarian tendencies [4]
all over the world challenge the work, security, and well-being of
defenders. To maintain power, these regimes repress freedom of assembly,
freedom of expression, and freedom of association—rights that are
fundamental to human rights work. They manipulate historical memory to
impose their views on society. Authorities capitalize on
crises—including environmental disasters, war, pandemics, and
displacement—to crack down on civic freedoms and further restrict the
ability of human rights defenders to do their work. They use laws to
target civil society and human rights defenders, and to marginalize
their position in society. New technology strengthens authorities’
ability to surveil and persecute as well as implement weaponized laws
within and across borders. Facing harassment, detainment, and violence
at home, some defenders are forced to flee. Yet, in exile, states do not
protect them or facilitate their continued work. Meanwhile —and at
times hand in hand with authorities— businesses prioritize profit over
the environment and people’s rights. In addition, states fail to protect
defenders from harassment and extra judicial killings by non-state
actors or to secure accountability.
The vast majority of attacks on human rights defenders rest in
impunity. This is unacceptable. There must be tangible consequences for
those who harm human rights defenders if we wish to safeguard our
democracies and, ultimately, peace. On a systemic level—to ensure that
human rights defenders are empowered and enabled to continue their
work—governments must adopt international standards and then
consistently fulfill these responsibilities. In addition, they must
publicly recognize human rights defenders’ contribution to sustainable
peace and consequently consistently provide political, financial, and
practical support to them wherever they are at risk.
We Nobel Prize laureates, alongside civil society actors, experts,
and others, call for urgent action to protect human rights defenders at
risk on a coordinated, global scale. We call on:
Democratic Governments to:
- Introduce a flexible, rapid
response, temporary protective visa system for human rights defenders
facing imminent danger. It should allow for multiple entries over a
longer period of time, providing those in need the option to swiftly
temporarily relocate with their family. States should increase
transparency and consistency in the application and issuance process.
- Develop a plan of action to seek
the unconditional and immediate release of political prisoners, increase
access to prisoners and information related to prisoners’ medical
conditions and treatment, demand judicial accountability for crimes
committed, and make these above-mentioned point conditions of bi-lateral
and multilateral agreements.
- Curb the practice of
criminalizing and harassing human rights defenders through the use and
abuse of law relating to freedom of expression, association, and
assembly, the misuse of counter-terror and state security legislation to
charge human rights defenders, and the application of onerous reporting
and regulatory requirements to limit their effectiveness.
- Combat transnational repression
of human rights defenders in exile. Governments should train officials
to recognize and respond to transnational repression, ensure that human
rights defenders are protected from extradition requests, exempt them
from sanctions targeting their home state, and enable them to continue
their work.
- Address digital information
threats to human rights defenders by implementing the 2021 Nobel Peace
Prize laureates’ 10-point plan.
- Create or update official
policies for how embassies and diplomatic staff can support human rights
defenders including by recognizing their work, raising their cases with
host authorities, monitoring and attending court proceedings, setting
up secure communication channels, supporting access to relief programs,
and ensuring structured follow up of guidelines implementation.
Multilateral Organizations, including the United Nations, the
European Union, the Council of Europe, the Organization of American
States, the African Union and The Association of Southeast Asian Nations
to:
- Encourage their member states to hold perpetrators to account through existing and new international legal mechanisms.
- Make 1) monitoring abuses against
human rights defenders; 2) release of political prisoners; and 3)
obstruction of lawfare conditions of bi-lateral and multilateral
agreements.
- Introduce systems for
safeguarding human rights defenders from transnational repression
including extradition claims based on trumped up charges, an example of
which is Interpol’s Red Notice system.
Businesses and investors (particularly high-risk sectors for defenders, including mining, agribusiness, logging, and energy) to:
- Adopt and comply with guidelines
from OECD and UN on business and human rights and adopt a publicly
facing, gender sensitive, human rights policy. The policy should make
reference to the legitimate work of human rights defenders, commit to
meaningful stakeholder engagement with them, strengthen due diligence
processes, pledge zero-tolerance for retaliation against defenders who
expose human rights violations, and lay out mechanisms for
accountability.
- Refrain from engaging in
Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation (SLAPPs) targeting human
rights defenders, and publicly commit to doing so.
Donor organizations to:
- Enable human rights defenders
through rapid, flexible, stable, and accessible long-term funding,
nuanced financial reporting requirements which protect defenders from
lawfare, and greater investment in organizations working to provide
holistic protection to human rights defenders at global, regional, and
national level.
Cities and Universities to:
- Establish “shelter cities” and
“shelter study spaces” initiatives from which defenders can continue
their work safely while processing their experiences and rebuilding
physical and psychological strength.
You can read the full Sunflower Declaration here, with the list of signatories.
|