OSCE/ODIHR Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders: Time for a genuine implementation across all the OSCE area and beyond

Paris-Geneva,August 14, 2014. The Observatory for the Protection of Human RightsDefenders, a joint programme of FIDH (the International Federation for HumanRights) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), welcomes the launchof the Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders of the OSCE Office for DemocraticInstitutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on June 10, 2014 under the SwissChairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)in Bern, and calls for a genuine implementation by all OSCE ParticipatingStates.

The OSCE/ODIHR Guidelines on HumanRights Defenders provide for a solid corpus of recommendations based onexisting international and regional law, standards and practices. They call onOSCE Participating States to establish human rights defenders' protectionmechanisms both on their territories and in third countries, through theirdiplomatic representations.

The fact that the 57 States of the OSCEare required to implement this text in a similar manner constitutes the bestresponse to the fallacious arguments brought so far by a number of EasternEurope and Central Asia countries on so-called “foreign interference ininternal affairs” with regards to the protection of human rights defenders.They are also a major progress for the protection of human rights defenderswithin the European Union (EU), as they also apply to all EU member-Statesnationally, while the already existing EUGuidelines on Human Rights Defenders were only applying to non-EUcountries.

The Observatory believes that these Guidelines should pave the way for thedevelopment of a human rights defenders' protection mechanism at the OSCElevel, which would be in charge of monitoring the implementation of thesecommitments.

The Observatory contributed to the elaboration of this document through itsparticipation in an OSCE/ODIHR Advisory Group on the matter, and had released aposition paper with a set of recommendations at the very beginning of theprocess in 2013, which is accessible on FIDH and OMCTwebsites. A number of FIDH and OMCT member and partner organisations were alsoconsulted throughout the elaboration of the project.