On November 12, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) presented the Declaration+25, published in the middle of this year, in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders by the United Nations General Assembly in 1998.
The Declaration+25 incorporates standards to strengthen the protection and recognition of human rights defenders, addressing changes in the international context and new challenges faced, highlighting the advances of the original Declaration and the current challenges in its implementation. It recognizes the essential contribution of human rights defenders and the dangers they face, including attacks, threats and criminalization, and underscores the need to protect human rights defenders through the effective implementation of the Declaration+25.
The project that gave rise to this update began in 2023 with the collaboration of 18 organizations that identified the main challenges faced by human rights defenders that were not addressed in the 1998 Declaration. The consultations also focused on analyzing the evolution of international and regional contexts and jurisprudence. As a result, a call to action was drafted for governments, multilateral organizations, the private sector and civil society to protect human rights defenders.
In its articles, the Declaration defines and reaffirms the right to defend human rights, establishes a series of rights and protections for human rights defenders and urges States to take decisions to ensure the effectiveness of the standards.
Among its main requirements, the Declaration calls on states to ensure a safe environment for the defense of human rights, to promote anti-discrimination laws and to protect defenders from stigmatization and criminalization. This includes prohibiting defamation and harassment practices by state entities or companies. In addition, it highlights the need for comprehensive protection, covering everything from physical and psychological health to digital security and access to justice. The Declaration also extends protections to defenders’ families, associates and communities.
It establishes the diplomatic support that states should offer to human rights defenders, especially when they are at risk outside their country. In this regard, embassies and consulates are required to provide assistance to defenders in vulnerable situations, including measures such as temporary refuge, safe resettlement, access to resources, employment, health and education, as well as the facilitation of secure communications with international organizations. Violations of the rights of human rights defenders should also be investigated and punished, even when they occur outside national territory, collaborating in international investigations and coordinating with other States to ensure justice.
It also underscores the importance of the collaboration of international and regional bodies to ensure the protection of human rights defenders, focuses on the role of business in the protection of human rights, and stresses the responsibility of states to protect human rights defenders from abuses committed by non-state entities, including businesses and criminal groups.
In this context, the Declaration+25 underscores the shared responsibility of states, non-state actors, companies and international organizations to protect human rights defenders, establish mechanisms for diplomatic support and cooperation, and ensure accountability for any form of abuse or intimidation.
Article 5 of the document precisely addresses protection against the stigmatization and criminalization of human rights defenders, a phenomenon that has intensified and become a significant threat.
Stigmatization involves defamation practices and smear campaigns or the negative social labeling of human rights defenders, thus seeking to isolate them and legitimize violations of their rights, constructing a narrative that justifies the repression of their activities. Criminalization, on the other hand, involves the use of legal and administrative systems to prosecute and detain defenders for activities that are protected by international law, or to impose excessive inspections, sanctions and administrative requirements as a form of repression.
It establishes the need for states to take strong action to prohibit the use of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and any related activity. SLAPPs are seen as a tool of judicial abuse aimed at deterring advocates through lengthy and costly legal battles that seek to exhaust their resources and limit their participation or debate on matters of public interest. In this regard, the paper recommends that states enact anti-SLAPP legislation to protect defenders against such judicial intimidation tactics.
Thus, once again, the need to combat this phenomenon of judicial abuse is brought to the forefront, joining other legislative trends and regional and international projects that seek to attack the factual imposition of these abusive practices in recent times by powerful groups, as well as to prepare and train legal actors to have sufficient weapons to deal with these mechanisms of censorship and persecution that are often extremely tactical and based on the political and economic power of their perpetrators.
During this time FIBGAR has also worked together with other organizations to strengthen the fight against SLAPPs, with the implementation of the PATFox Project and the formation of the “Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe” (CASE), which among a variety of other actions and interventions has managed to promote the approval of the recent European Directive No. 2024/1069. In September 2023, during the annual conference of the Association of Human Rights Institutes (AHRI) held in Bilbao, FIBGAR presented on “Possible Strategies for Addressing Constraints in Civic Space” where it sought to highlight the key role of human rights defenders in today’s society, as well as the challenges and dangers they face in certain contexts and presented the PATFox Project.
The Bilbao Declaration was adopted. This declaration, signed at the University of Deusto, also sought to reinforce and mark the challenges of the Declaration of human rights defenders by highlighting the right to be protected and to have sufficient resources to carry out their work freely, highlighting initiatives such as the creation of special rapporteurships by international organizations (UN, IACHR, African Commission) and emphasizing the contribution of progressive decisions such as those of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the protection of human rights and in the creation of favorable environments for their work.
However, despite the progress made, the Bilbao Declaration also denounces critical gaps in the protection of human rights defenders. Among them, the insufficient response to the criminalization, stigmatization and transnational threats they face, as well as the lack of specific protection for vulnerable groups such as women defenders, LGBTIQ+ activists, indigenous people and journalists. It also points out the need to regulate the responsibility of non-state actors, including companies and armed groups.
Again, Declaration+25 is not a legally binding instrument in itself; its legal value is more declarative and guiding. However, the text is based on human rights principles already established in international treaties, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which are legally binding for the States that have ratified them. In this sense, many of the rights mentioned in the Declaration+25 are rights already recognized under international law and, therefore, States have pre-existing obligations to protect and respect those rights.
This declaration exerts a significant normative influence by consolidating and expanding international standards that can guide national and regional policies; and serves as a reference for civil society, international and regional human rights bodies that can use it to monitor, evaluate and promote the implementation of standards for the protection of human rights defenders in their respective jurisdictions.
In short, the Declaration+25 represents a further step towards strengthening the protection of human rights defenders in an increasingly complex and challenging global context, recognizing both the progress made and the new risks faced by those who fight for human rights, and making an urgent call for action by States, international organizations, companies and civil society.
Javier Graña, FIBGAR collaborator.
