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In 2021, Human Rights House Foundation and the network of Human Rights Houses worked in partnership to meet human rights challenges across Europe from the Thames to the Caspian. Find out how we did this and continued our work together to advance human rights at home and abroad.

In June 2022, a series of events organised by PEN Armenia, PEN Georgia and PEN America, and entitled “Burning Poet(s)” was held in Armenia highlighting and celebrating the cultural ties between Armenia and Georgia, and bringing the literary communities of both countries together to highlight free expression and human rights in the South Caucasus.

At the 50th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, Human Rights House Foundation continued its work calling on the Human Rights Council to take action on the human rights crisis in Eastern Europe characterised, in part, by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, and the increasingly dire human rights situation in Belarus.

On 28 June 2022, Human Rights House Foundation urged states to ensure that responses to the spread of disinformation comply with international human rights law, to refrain from conducting or sponsoring disinformation campaigns, and to seek to strengthen the resilience of societies against the negative impact of disinformation. This statement was delivered at the 50th session of the UN Human Rights Council.

ARTICLE 19 issued this statement on behalf of 12 NGOs, including Human Rights House Foundation, during the Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression at the 50th Session of the UN Human Rights Council.

Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) highlighted the chilling effect that online surveillance and legal harassment including SLAPPs have on freedom of expression. In addition, HRHF raised its concern about the situation for independent journalists and media outlets in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, and Russia.

“For years I believed that our greatest success was that we, the pro-democratic forces in Poland, managed to lead our country, as the first in the socialist bloc, along the path of peaceful transformation from socialism to liberal democracy. And also that we managed, relatively efficiently and quickly, to build a stable system of a democratic rule of law in the country. For some years now, this belief of mine has been put to a very difficult test.”

On 23 June 2022, Human Rights House Foundation and several international human rights organisations hosted the HRC50 virtual side event “The human rights situation in the Russian Federation: Building a bridge with civil society as human rights violations intensify”.

Watch it again: HRC50 digital side event “Human Rights in Crisis, Belarus 2022” organised on Tuesday, 14 June, 2022 by Human Rights House Foundation, PEN America and the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Lithuania, Geneva.