2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Bosnia and Herzegovina - Reports

The 2023 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Bosnia and Herzegovina provides a thorough examination of human rights cases and violations occurred in Bosnia and Herzegovina throughout last year

Poland: Journalists must be allowed access to Belarus border - Article

Since early September, access to the border with Belarus is denied to journalists. MFRR partners urge the Polish authorities to immediately allow journalists to re-enter the border zone, stressing the fact that the free and uninterrupted flow of information at the border is vital

The Situation of Human Rights Defenders in Selected OSCE Participating States - Reports

The report provides an analysis of findings of ODIHR's assessment visits to the Czech Republic, Georgia, Italy, Mongolia and Montenegro, undertaken as part of the first country-specific assessment cycle focused on human rights defenders

Shelter City - Support Centres

Shelter City is a nationwide initiative of Justice and Peace Netherlands to protect human rights defenders, in cooperation with a growing number of Dutch cities and local organizations.

Human rights defenders defend the rights of themselves and of others. Through their work they play an important role in the promotion of democratic values, political freedoms, and civil rights. This is a challenging and dangerous fight: they are often silenced, threatened, arrested, tortured and sometimes they disappear.

Justice and Peace established Shelter City in 2012 on the request of their network of international human rights defenders. After the first Shelter City in The Hague, Middelburg joined in 2014, followed by Nijmegen, Maastricht, Utrecht, and Amsterdam in 2015, Tilburg and Groningen in 2016 and Zwolle and Haarlem in 2017. In 2018 Deventer also joined the Shelter City network. Rotterdam followed in 2020. Tbilisi & Batumi (Georgia), Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania), Cotonou (Benin) and San José (Costa Rica) have joined the network as International Shelter City Hubs. The expectation is that other cities (in or outside the Netherlands) will join in the future as well. The growing number of applications from Human Rights Defenders under threat shows that new Shelter Cities are strongly needed.

In every Shelter City the municipality, local organizations, universities, and Justice and Peace provide the shelter and take care of the program for the human rights defender. Together with the human rights defenders they organize meetings and workshops that contribute to the raising of awareness about human rights issues among the inhabitants of the Shelter Cities.

Shelter City is affiliated with the EU Human Rights Defenders Relocation Platform

Protecting the Safety of Journalists, Protecting Freedom of Expression: A Handbook for EU Delegations - Manuals

Media4Democracy has released a comprehensive guide to assist EU Delegations and EU Member States in protecting the safety of journalists and other media actors in diverse contexts, at a time when the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are exacerbating existing threats to freedom of expression around the world. Media4Democracy is an EU financed technical assistance project to support freedom of expression around the world

What do fundamental rights mean for people in the EU? - Fundamental Rights Survey - Reports

FRA’s Fundamental Rights Survey collected data from 35,000 people about their experiences, perceptions and opinions on a range of issues that are variously encompassed by human rights

Human Rights Defenders in the Western Balkans. Intimidation instead of Recognition - Reports

This landmark report by Civil Rights Defenders explores how human rights defenders face intimidation instead of recognition in the six Western Balkan states

EU Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World 2018 - Reports

The EU engaged in activities across the globe in line with the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy (2015-2019). Focusing on a number of thematic issues, this report provides a snapshot of this commitment

Informing the “disinformation” debate - Reports

A joint report by Access Now, Civil Liberties Union for Europe, and European Digital Rights discusses the Report by the High Level Expert Group on Fake News and Online Disinformation and related policy documents

M.L. AND W.W. v. Germany: Recent Developments in Judicial Balancing of Privacy and Free Speech Online - Legal Resources

Recently, ECPMF reported on a ECtHR case concerning the “right to be forgotten” vis-à-vis two convicted criminals. A more in-depth analysis of this case follows, including a look into the question of judicial balancing online