Human Rights at Sea  has  attended the ongoing informal consultations on the draft resolution on the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders in Geneva, Switzerland.

Reflecting civil society and state attendee’s concerns, the importance of protecting human rights defenders cannot be understated in shedding light on human rights abuses globally.

This includes abuses at sea and throughout the maritime environment.

Often frowned upon, human rights activism is crucial and necessary in helping to achieve and maintain an equitable and more just society.

Highlighted and reiterated in the Friday session were the wide-ranging risks that defenders face, with some governments and non-state actors seeking to silence them, often with clear and present dangers to individual rights, their lives and the lives of their families.

Surveillance, harassment, forced disappearances, extra-judicial killings, and all other lesser activities designed to undermine and curtail defenders’ work must be identified, called out and stopped.

In attendance, CEO David Hammond said: “There can be no question that Human Rights Defenders are protected by the State and comprehensively supported in their work. What remains clear to me is the fact that we must re-double our efforts to bring abuses at every level to the public attention and for abusers to be held accountable, not hidden by corporate or other veils”.

Human Rights at Sea is currently working in Geneva with UN agencies and International Organisations.