Despite their critical role in consolidating Malawi’s democracy and human rights culture, the operating environment for HRDs remains hostile and ‘obstructed’. HRDs have constantly been a target of violent attacks by state and political agents. The state has also often times used criminal laws to subject HRDs to judicial harassment including arbitrary arrests, and prosecution on trumped-up charges. Since independence, there has been constant crackdown on fundamental rights including the rights to freedom of association, assembly, and expression as well as right to personal safety and security, privacy and dignity. Despite a constitutional bill of rights, it can be dangerous to be an HRD in Malawi. In response to growing hostility and the risks faced by HRDs across the globe, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 1999 adopted the ‘Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognised Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms’ (UN Declaration on HRDs). This Declaration guarantees fundamental rights for HRDs including rights to freedom of expression, security, association and assembly. These rights are critical enablers for the effective operations of HRDs. Furthermore, the UN Declaration on HRDs reinforces the duty of the states to protect HRDs. Since its adoption, various national, regional and global instruments and mechanisms have emerged to guarantee protection of HRDs. At the national level, Malawi has different mechanisms and instruments that deal with various aspects of human rights, including the legislation and state organs such as the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC), Office of the Ombudsman, Courts, Malawi Police Service, and Legal Aid Bureau. However, little is known about the extent to which the national human rights protection frameworks guarantee the rights of HRDs in Malawi. There is a dearth of academic literature, documentation and recent data at national level about Malawi’s protection mechanisms for HRDs. Thus, this study seeks to contribute to the scholarly work about the protection of HRDs in Malawi. The study investigates the situational analysis of HRDs in Malawi drawing the challenges faced by HRDs and their potential impact on their work. Secondly, it examines the regional and global human rights legal framework on protection of HRDs. Furthermore, the study analyses the national mechanisms for protection of HRDs in Malawi, drawing attention to legal, policy and institutional frameworks. Finally, the study presents the conclusion and recommendations. / Mini Dissertation (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Centre for Human Rights / LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa) / Unrestricted

This study has aimed at examining the nature and function of the support and protection that is offered and provided to human rights defenders trough a selected few international as well as regional human rights instruments and mechanisms, among them the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders as well as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court on Human Rights. In order to conduct such a study in a fairly limited and concrete way a number of cases were selected of human rights defenders who have undergone or are currently undergoing criminal prosecution and are incarcerated in Guatemala. The selection was based on the notion that apart from murder, criminal prosecution and incarceration of human rights defenders constitutes one of the most harmful and effective ways to actively hinder the continuance of valuable human rights work. Consequently, it impedes the promotion, implementation and protection of human rights on a general level. In regards to this States such as Guatemala have found ways to circumvent their international human rights duties by allowing others or themselves to label human rights defenders as criminal and violent actors, thus taking away the legitimate aspect of their roles and functions when it comes to promoting and safeguarding the enjoyment and exercise of human rights. The examined cases were meant to shed light on the situation for defenders in Guatemala but most importantly they were meant to illustrate a context in which one can examine the role and function that international human rights instruments and mechanisms have to combat such types of situations. The study found that although the concerned instruments and mechanisms such as the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the EU-guidelines on Human Rights Defenders, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court on Human Rights have a positive, important and impacting role in providing support to human rights defenders they have not yet reached/obtained the function of preventing persecution of human rights defenders, most notably of the legal kind. Since these mechanisms can only recommend but not force States to recognize and treat advocates of rights as “human rights defenders” their role and function for this specific purpose becomes less effective. All is not negative however, and the instruments and mechanisms that exist today are an illustration of the ambitions of States to follow international human rights principles and standards, at least to some extent.

Previous research in the academic literature established the existence of a culture of violence in Colombia. This article focuses on the perpetuation of this culture of violence according to the framework of Waldmann (2007) after the signature of the Colombian Peace Agreement in 2016, and the influence of this phenomena on the persecution of human rights defenders. Colombia remains one of the most dangerous places for human rights defenders, as they are facing multifaceted risks due to the socially anchored culture of enmity and the stigmatisation of political contestation. Given the multifaceted challenges and actors related to violence in this country, the multilevel framework of Steenkamp (2005) will allow to understand the impact of state and nonstate actors. This research will be conducted according to a process-tracing study of Colombian media and policies relating to the strategies of both types of actors. This innovative method will enable to understand the effects of a culture of violence directly from the point of view of both victims and perpetrators. The purpose of this method is to promote the understanding and knowledge of the actors involved rather than international perception of the phenomena. The aim of the research is to understand the causal mechanisms at stake in a...

Four years after the signing of the Final Agreement for the Termination of the Armed Conflict in Colombia, the promises made to achieve a stable and lasting peace have by no means materialized at the expected pace. The implementation of the Agreements has focused on the demobilization of the FARC-EP while structural transformations to reduce the causes for the existence or prolongation of the conflict have been neglected. While the political and economic elites make efforts to halt the implementation –especially the compromises dealing with the rural reform– those who promote such structural changes have been stigmatized and violated in an effort to maintain the status quo. As a result, Colombia has the highest number of killings of social leaders in Latin America. The leaders mobilizing peasant causes have suffered with particular intensity from this violence.  This thesis thus uses a qualitative method of study, developed through data collection, to analyze the relationship between the elite resistance to the implementation of the Comprehensive Rural Reform and the assassinations of social leaders in Colombia. The conceptual basis for the research is the theory of structural violence. / Cuatro años después de la firma del Acuerdo Final para la Terminación del Conflicto Armado en Colombia, la promesas hechas para lograr una paz estable y duradera no se han materializado al ritmo esperado. La implementación de lo pactado se ha centrado en la desmovilización de las FARC-EP mientras las transformaciones estructurales para disminuir las causas de la existencia o prolongación del conflicto han quedado relegadas.. En este escenario, aquellos que impulsan esos cambios estructurales o mobilizan a sus comunidades en las exigencies de sus derechos han sido estigmatizados y violentados en un esfuerzo por mantener el estatus quo; mientras las élites políticas y económicas hacen esfuerzos para frenar lo pactado. Como resultado, Colombia presenta la cifra más alta de asesinatos en contra de líderes sociales en America Latina. Los líderes que mobilizan causas campesinas han sufrido con especial intensidad esta violencia.  Esta tesis usa un método cualitativo de análisis, desarrollado a traves de la recolección y análisis de datos, para analizar la relación entre la resistencia de las élites a la implementación de la Reforma Rural Integral y los asesinatos de líderes sociales en Colombia. La base conceptual para esta investigación la violencia structural.

Violence targeting politically active women is increasingly researched and recognised as a barrier to gender equal political participation. Previous studies on political violence targeting women have tended to focus on women in formal politics and mostly on the prevalence of violence rather than the impact it has on actors who continue to navigate violent political contexts. This case study uses semi-structured, digital interviews with eighteen Colombian women human rights defenders, focusing on their appraisal of (gendered) political violence and the coping strategies they use to navigate their political space. It finds that both strategies that involve taking up more political space and strategies with a silencing impact are used. For women human rights defenders in Colombia, their geographical conditions and access to resources, especially networks, are important factors to take into account when describing their possibilities to cope with political violence. Their perceptions of where and how gendered political violence occurs indicate that disproportionate impacts of political violence can be underestimated if research and policy does not account for the experiences of different groups of women. The thesis finds that studying lived experiences and micro-level mechanisms can contribute to the literature on macro-level phenomena such as barriers to participation, political violence and marginalisation.

While existing literature has made significant contributions on violence against human rights defenders (HRDs), there remains a gap in understanding local perceptions, leadership roles, responses to violence, and their impact on collective action for peacebuilding. This research investigates the role of HRDs in promoting territorial peace in post-conflict Colombia, addressing the question of which type of HRDs mobilization strategy increases the likelihood of territorial peace during the post-conflict. By implementing a structure focus comparison, the study analyzes two sub-regions, Northeastern of Antioquia, and Western Valle del Cauca – Buenaventura. The findings of the study support the hypothesis that the implementation of adaptive strategies by HRDs, such as approaches, adjustments, and avoidance, leads to increased levels of territorial peace, in terms of enhancing self-determination and consolidating organized protection measures. This is because as the theoretical argument suggested, adaptive strategies have facilitated HRDs' to address emerging territorial tensions and enhance their capacity for the establishment of internal and external mechanisms for peacebuilding. Moreover, these findings underscore the importance of coordinated implementation of adaptive strategies to effectively promote territorial peace. The study collected data by conducting interviews with HRDs and experts in Colombia and triangulating information from secondary data sources.

Abstract This study investigates the legal discourse in case law regarding the violation of freedom of expression for human rights defenders, in order to examine how they are represented by states and within an international legal framework. There are still gaps in research trying to explain how and why HRDs get prosecuted for their work of promoting and continuing the respect for human rights. Through employing a critical discourse analysis on legal cases concerning HRDs, while applying the perspective of international legal documents and of the critical theory on power, the current thesis presents depictions of how HRDs are represented in discourse by States and International bodies. The focus here is to identify guidelines of legal protection and at the same time to observe the ways of governments legitimizing violations of the rights of HRDs.

Title: “Holy” War on Human Rights - A hermeneutic study of the complex situation of human rights activists in Afghanistan Author: Zandra Bergman Supervisor: Maud Eriksen Examiner: Johanna Romare Department of TheologyMaster program of Religion in Peace and ConflictMaster’s thesis, 15 credits  In September 2020, the latest attempt to bring peace to Afghanistan, the intra-Afghan peace talks formally began. The opening of the peace negotiations failed to produce the long-desired ceasefire. Instead, it marked an increase of violence: a sharp number of deliberate killings of human rights defenders. The purpose of this study is to examine lived experiences of human rights activists in Afghanistan and the complex situation in which they are operating and to gain a deeper understanding of why they have increasingly been subject to violence. Furthermore, it is an attempt to explore the meaning of violence against Afghan human rights activists promoting women's rights. This is a hermeneutic study primarily based on data collected through interviews with two Afghan human rights activists. Rather than touch every topic and present data about an objective reality or truth, the aim is to shed light on the shared experiences of the respondents, providing snapshots of the current situation of Afghan human rights defenders, and to discuss their stories in the light of selected theories. The following research questions have been used to guide the study: (1) How can we understand the complex situation of human rights activists in Afghanistan, and (2) What are the underlying reasons they are being targeted? By adopting mainly, the concepts of hegemony: to decode underlying dimensions of power struggles, and a critical feminist approach: to grasp the gender dimensions of the conflict, I have exposed how my respondents in their positions of human rights defenders bring new life to a historical conflict of interests impinging on the future nature of Afghanistan. Moreover, they expose a recurrent clash between opposing hegemonic aspirations: a struggle over the maintenance of social order in the Afghan society, in which they are being placed at the center.