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In an open letter to all permanent missions to the United Nations, 399 NGOs, including HRHF, have issued a joint letter warning of a critical funding gap affecting UN human rights mechanisms and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

During follow-up discussions of Armenia’s universal periodic review in April 2019, Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs Naira Zohrabyan gave a discriminatory speech relating to issues of transgender people. Some 20 Armenian Human Rights NGOs, including Human Rights House Yerevan, issued the following statement calling on the Armenian authorities to examine the incident and condemn the speech made by Zohrabyan.

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.

Some 10 human rights organisations, including Human Rights House Foundation, issued a joint statement on 22 March 2019, responding to the outcomes of the 40th session of the UN Human Rights Council.

During an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC40), Human Rights House Foundation delivered the following statement on women human rights defenders.

Speaking at the European Parliament, Azerbaijani human rights lawyer Fuad Aghayev raises how political bias in access to the Bar and politically motivated suspensions and disbarment have left only a handful of human rights lawyers to take politically sensitive cases.

Reflecting on his six years as UN Special Rapporteur on Belarus, as his tenure comes to an end, Miklós Haraszti recalls “fighting an uphill battle” in the mandate, but how ultimately it has ensured international scrutiny of the human rights situation and provided a bulwark against some of the worst violations.

During a rare engagement between the Council of Europe’s decision-making body and civil society, human rights defenders and the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights highlighted the need to support human rights defenders and raise awareness of their work in society.

Following its first review of Belarus in 21 years, the UN Human Rights Committee concluded that there are “many issues to address.” Human rights defenders warn that these findings need to translate to changes in the country.