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.