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On the 20th anniversary of the UN adoption of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and the 5th anniversary of the UN Resolution on the Protection of Women Defenders, we -women human rights defenders (WHRDs) from 19 countries around the world who gathered together during the 22nd sessions of the UN Working Group on discrimination against women – demand an end to the violence and discrimination that continue to put our lives, our rights and our indispensable work for justice and equality at risk. In the 20 years since the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, we, women human rights defenders, have contributed our participation, voice, and leadership to all social movements, strengthening efforts for justice, equality, and peace around the world. To our own movements and international human rights community we say: we must strengthen our commitment and efforts to end discrimination and violence against women defenders, even within our own ranks; prioritize alignment and support for locally-led strategies and more coordination at regional and international levels; recognize the voice and collective power of women human rights defenders and feminist perspectives; strengthen our self-protection strategies and networks; promote community-based and collective strategies that enable organizations and communities to be stronger, more resilient, more cohesive and inclusive. Women activists and human rights defenders from Brazil, Cambodia, Catalonia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, India, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Philippines, Uganda, Togo, Zimbabwe, USA, and gathered at the UN Headquarters in New York in July 2018: Asociación Mujeres de Aq’ab’al (Guatemala), Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), Amnesty International, Article 19, Comité Brasileiro de Defensoras y Defensores de Direitos Humanos (Brasil), CFEMEA (Brasil)

We, the human rights defenders gathered at the HRDs World Summit held in Paris between 29-31 October 2018 call on all governments in the MENA region to stop immediately all kind of attacks, harassment including judicial criminalisation, and targeting of HRDs and civil society organisations. We also declare our full solidarity with all the detained human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience in various countries across our region who are detained solely for their peaceful and legitimate human rights activities that are focused on defending and promoting public freedoms including freedom of expression. We, convening in Paris, declare our full solidarity with detained HRDs wherever they are imprisoned and express our deep concern for their physical integrity, as some are facing death penalty charges and ill-treatment or even torture in countries where the international community has documented its gross and continuing violations of human rights throughout recent years such as Saudi Arabia. We urge the governments of the region to: Immediately and unconditionally release all detained human rights defenders and all other prisoners of conscience; Lift all travel bans and stop retaliation against all human rights defenders for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly; Ensure the physical and psychological integrity and security of all detained human rights defenders and ensure they enjoy their legitimate and unrestricted right to meet with their families and lawyers; and Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in the region are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions including judicial harassment.

Today 28th October 2018, on the eve of the Human Rights Defenders World Summit, in Paris, France, the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition (WHRD-IC) express grave concern on the ongoing attacks and criminalisation of women human rights defenders in the Philippines. Targeting W/HRDs by killing and listing them as enemies of the state makes it evident that the Duterte administration is going on an all-out war against human rights defenders who dare to speak against rights violations and the prevalent culture of impunity in the Philippines. The government’s actions against human rights defenders hinders and delegitimises their work to defend women’s and human rights. The WHRD-IC together with the international HRD community present in Paris for the Human Rights Defenders World Summit, marking the 20th anniversary of the Declaration on human rights defenders, calls on the Duterte government to:

Recognising the fundamental right to express our views, free from repression, over 160 civil society organisations call on the international community, including the United Nations, multilateral and regional institutions as well as democratic governments committed to the freedom of expression, to take immediate steps to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for grave human rights violations, and not allow impunity to prevail. This includes convening a Special Session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) on the recent wave of arrests and attacks against journalists, human rights defenders and other dissenting voices in Saudi Arabia. This case, coupled with the rampant arrests of human rights defenders, including journalists, scholars and women’s rights activists; the potential imposition of the death penalty on demonstrators; and the findings of the UN Group of Eminent Experts report which concluded that the Coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, have committed acts that may amount to international crimes in Yemen, all demonstrate Saudi Arabia’s record of gross and systematic human rights violations. Saudi Arabia has never had a reputation for tolerance and respect for human rights, but there were hopes that as Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman rolled out his economic plan (Vision 2030), and finally allowed women to drive, there would be a loosening of restrictions on women’s rights, and freedom of expression and assembly.