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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.

On 10 July 2020, Human Rights House Foundation delivered a statement at the Human Rights Council on Freedom of Expression, highlighting the increase in threats against journalists during the Covid-19 Crisis.

In Belarus, access to independent information is the greatest threat to the authoritarian state. One vlogger, Syarhey Tsikhanouski, travels the country documenting daily life in what is referred to as Europe’s latest dictatorship.

Human Rights House Foundation and the network of Human Rights Houses express our alarm at increasing attacks by Azerbaijani authorities on peaceful protests and dissenting and opposition voices witnessed since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country. We call on the authorities to immediately cease these human rights violations and for the international community to hold the authorities accountable.

Human Rights House Foundation stands in solidarity with everyone who speaks out and fights for a world which replaces racist systems with those which recognise the inherent dignity and human rights of all.

Azerbaijan’s Mehman Huseynov has reached hundreds of thousands of people through self-publishing, with his trademark humour and refusal to be silenced in the face of a media crackdown. The millions of views that he has achieved have come amidst a hostile environment for independent media, and reprisals against him and his organisation.

Freedom of speech in Russia needs life-saving treatment. Journalists addressing the lack of crisis management during the Covid-19 pandemic are at risk of facing death threats or imprisonment.

Human Rights House Foundation is observing with increasing concern the wave of arrests and disappearances of human rights defenders and journalists across Belarus. Against the backdrop of worrying increases in COVID-19 infections and the August 2020 Presidential elections, the actions by Belarusian authorities to intimidate human rights defenders and limit the spread of information by independent journalists are alarming.

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.