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Human Rights House Foundation is among 60 organisations jointly calling for the EU to take action against SLAPPs – the gag lawsuits silencing journalists, activists and human rights defenders across Europe. The coalition of organisations today endorses the Model EU Anti-SLAPP Directive ahead of the European Commission’s launch of its European Democracy Action Plan (EDAP).

More and more journalists and civil society organisations are being sued by powerful businessmen and politicians. We call on the EU to ensure those with a watchdog role are protected from gag lawsuits. This scrutiny is the lifeblood of healthy democracies, writes a group of 99 organisations including Human Rights House Foundation.

Discover in our 2019/20 annual report how Human Rights House Foundation protected and advanced the rights of human rights defenders, strengthened independent civil society, and supported a strong, active network of Human Rights Houses.

The network of Human Rights Houses is concerned by recent actions on the part of state authorities across western and eastern Europe, the western Balkans, and the Caucasus in response to the escalating COVID-19 crisis. These actions, taken to combat the rising number of infections and deaths associated with COVID-19, raise questions about states’ commitments to civic freedoms and human rights.

On Friday 17 January 2020, the “Portraits of Strength” jury unanimously chose Georgian photographer Salome Sagaradze’s photograph of Baia Pataraia of Human Rights House Tbilisi as the competition’s winner.

Discover how Human Rights House Foundation protected and advanced the rights of human rights defenders, strengthened independent civil society, and supported a strong, active network of Human Rights Houses.

Human Rights House Zagreb and partners have built on their many activities addressing hate speech and hate crimes, as they upgrade their online tool that connects the Croatian public with mechanisms to address hate speech.

The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, has announced much-needed reforms to the human rights body’s “reprisal mechanism” – launched in May 2017 to ensure “human rights defenders… never face retribution for their principled stance.”

Human Rights House Zagreb deepened its research and activities addressing hate crimes and hate speech, and the presumption of innocence in Croatia, through reports and events in June 2019.