Human Rights Defenders Under Siege

Edited by Felipe Gómez Isa, Professor of International Human Rights Law and Gorka Urrutia Asua, Senior Lecturer of Sociology and Director of the Pedro Arrupe Human Rights Institute, University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain

‘This book highlights the global relevance of the 1998 UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. Its chapters identify the multiple obstacles that these defenders face today including severe restrictions on civic spaces and threats to democracy, ultimately highlighting how these factors impede defenders’ contribution to the further development of human rights. It is an important tool not only for academics but for human rights defenders in the field.’

• ContentsForeword xivPreface xvPART I INTRODUCTION AND CONCEPTUAL ISSUES1 The UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders: FromMomentum to Contestation 2Felipe Gómez Isa2 What’s in a Name? The Debate on Human Rights Defendersin the European Union 23Dolores Morondo TaramundiPART II SHRINKING SPACE FOR CIVIL SOCIETY3 Shrinking Space for Civil Society: Paradoxes and Responsesin the Defence of Human Rights 43Antoine Buyse4 Exploring Strategies to Counter the Shrinking Civic SpacesTrend. Lessons learned from civil society initiatives inKosovo and the Philippines 52Lena Muhs5 Reducing Human Rights Defenders to Silence in Turkey 72Zelal Pelin Doğan6 Time to Take Action against SLAPPs: Defending HumanRights Defenders. Experiences from the PATFox Project 94Alessia Schiavon7 Lawfare against human rights defenders: Zimbabwe’s PrivateVoluntary Organizations Amendment Bill and the Patriot Bill 112Kevin Toro Sánchez8 Surveillance, Suppression, and Solidarity: Unveiling LawEnforcement Tactics Against the Anti-Law EnforcementViolence Movement in Minnesota 127Amelia Shindelar9 Stigmatizing Indigenous Human Rights Defenders asTerrorists: A Case Study of Social Protest and Peruvian StateRepression to Secure Extractivism 142Sarah KerremansPART III INCREASING OBSTACLES TO MIGRANTS’RIGHTS DEFENDERS10 Saving Lives is not a Crime! Legal Persecution of Migrants’Rights Defenders at Greek and Spanish Borders 164Araitz Peña Mallona11 Beside Criminalization of Solidarity: The Legal Exclusion ofHuman Rights Defenders from Refugee Camps in Europe 180Isabella Leroy12 No Aid Without Surveillance: The Facilitators Package andthe Expansion of Crimmigration Towards Civil Society 198Gustavo de la Orden BoschPART IV ACADEMIA AND HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS13 Collaboration between Academia and Human RightsDefenders for Refugee and Migrant Children: LessonsLearned in the Balkans 215Bogdan Krasiğ and Nikolina Miliğ14 Bridging Academia and Human Rights Defenders: TheStudent Pro Bono Legal Work Connection 240Aikaterini Koula15 History of the Association of Human Rights Institutes (AHRI) 260Manfred Nowak and Imke SteimannBILBAO DECLARATION ON HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS 293