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Concerns about responses by state authorities to the global COVID-19 crisis
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.
New UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Appointed
Human Rights House Foundation welcomes the appointment of Mary Lawlor as the new United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders. The appointment was made during the 43rd session of the Human Rights Council.
Georgian photographer wins Portraits of Strength Competition
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.
De facto South Ossetian authorities must drop charges against Georgian Human Rights Defender
63 members of the network of Human Rights Houses urge the Russian government to use their influence and position to drop charges against Tamara Mearakishvili, expressing their deep concern about legal actions taken by the de facto South Ossetian authorities against the prominent Georgian human rights defender.
“We had to create a movement”
Concerned that femicide was becoming the social norm in Georgia, Baia Pataraia mobilised a Women’s movement against domestic violence and the murder of women that has grown to 3000 activists on Facebook. HRHF spoke to the chair of Human Rights House Tbilisi, and the director of Sapari about her work, the challenges facing Women Human Rights Defenders, and how to empower the next generation of young Georgian women.
HRHF Annual Report 2018/19
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 Fair Tbilisi 2019
More than 150 activists, representatives of human rights defending organizations or international and diplomatic corps based in Tbilisi and other regions of Georgia joined the Human Rights Fair Tbilisi on 16 July 2019.
HRHF statement on assembly and association in Armenia at HRC41
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.
“If you can smile in the most difficult situations, you are not yet defeated”
A key contributor to creating a human rights community in Belarus, Tatsiana Reviaka was one of the country’s first human rights defenders when she began her work in the newly-independent Belarus. Reviaka was the president of Barys Zvozskau Belarusian Human Rights House between 2010 and 2018.