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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.”

HRHF raises hate speech and smear campaigns against women human rights defenders in Armenia, in its statement to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC41) on 26 June 2019. This follows the UN special rapporteur on freedom of association and assembly presenting his report on his November 2018 visit to Armenia.

The Venice Commission expresses that “States must create an enabling environment in which associations can effectively operate and access funding, including foreign funding.” This comes in its review of standards applying to funding of NGOs within Council of Europe member states, published in March 2019.

Armenian authorities should condemn hate speech, smear campaigns, and threats against human rights defenders, express support for defenders, and create an enabling environment, writes Human Rights House Foundation in a letter raising threats against defenders in Armenia.

Some 45 human rights organisations of the Civic Solidarity Platform warn of the Russian authorities’ crackdown on human rights activists and other individuals in occupied Crimea.

Join us at Human Rights House Oslo on 21 March 2019, five years after the Russian annexation of Crimea, for a briefing by human rights defenders on the human rights situation. This will draw on the findings of the recent mission to Crimea by representatives of three Human Rights Houses.

Almost half of the 484 violations recorded relate to freedom of expression and the right to a fair trial, according to the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre (EMDS), member of Human Rights House Azerbaijan.

Keeping human rights in focus, member organisations of Human Rights House Belgrade have issued thematic and country reports on human rights for 2018. Taken together, they highlight the human rights trends and priority issues in the country and the situation for civil society.

The project fund supports Houses and member organisations to be creative and innovative, to test new ideas, and to share and benefit from the vast experience in the network of Human Rights Houses.