Canada’s Guidelines on Supporting Human Rights Defenders (the Guidelines) is a clear statement of Canada’s commitment to supporting the vital work of human rights defenders. The Guidelines outline Canada’s approach and offer practical advicefor officials at Canadian missions abroad and atHeadquarters to promote respect for and support human rights defenders. Missions should do their utmost to implement these Guidelines, recognizing that each approach should be tailored to local contexts and circumstances, and respond to thespecific needs of individual human rights defenders.Section 4 of these Guidelines provides detailed guidance for Canada’s diplomatic missions.

The Guidelines reflect the experience gained over the years by Canadian representatives working across the globe to support human rights defenders and are informed by the work and advice of Canadian civil society organizations.

Canada’s approach to supporting human rights defenders is based on these key values:

  • Human rights are universal and inalienable; indivisible; interdependent and interrelated.
  • Do no harm—the safety and privacy of the human rights defenders are paramount.
  • Consent—actions on specific cases should betaken with the free, full, and informed consent of the human rights defenders in question, wherever possible, or of their representatives or families, in the alternative.

The ultimate goal is to ensure that Canada continues to provide effective support to people around the world who work for human rights, by helping human rights defenders to be more effective advocates, ensuring they are able to carry out their work in a safe and enabled environment, and protecting them from harm. Human rights defenders help defend the vital and fundamental human rights that we all enjoy. We need to continue to be strong advocatesfor them.

Voices at Risk: Canada's Guidelines on Supporting Human Rights Defenders DOWNLOAD

post

page

attachment

revision

nav_menu_item

custom_css

customize_changeset

oembed_cache

user_request

wp_block

wp_template

wp_template_part

wp_global_styles

wp_navigation

wp_font_family

wp_font_face

acf-taxonomy

acf-post-type

acf-field-group

acf-field

ai1ec_event

exactmetrics_note

OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct
Guidance

Businesses can play a major role in contributing to economic, environmental and social progress, especially when they minimise the adverse impacts of their operations, supply chains and other business relationships. The OECD Guidelines for Multinatio...Read More

Reducing Modern Slavery
Guidance

Committee of Public Accounts, Thirty-Sixth Report of Session 2017–19 Modern slavery encompasses slavery, servitude and compulsory labour and human trafficking. In 2014 the UK Home Office (the Department) estimated that there were between 10,000...Read More

”You Hear my Concern and Help Me Think of Solutions”
News & AnalysisGuidance

This policy brief summarises findings from the European Commission-funded project SARAH “Safe, Aware, Resilient, Able and Heard – protecting and supporting migrant women victims of gender-based violence” conducted in 2021 and 2022. The SARAH p...Read More

TAGS: Europe
Handbook on Anti-Trafficking Data Collection in South-Eastern Europe: Developing Regional Criteria
Guidance

In recent years a number of improvements regarding policy development in combating trafficking in human beings have taken place in South-Eastern Europe. One of the main open issues in relation to the development and revision of national responses to...Read More