Defending Human Rights: A Resource Book for Human

Chapter 2
Human Rights Defenders Under Threat: A Field Security Approach to
their Work
The challenges faced by human rights defenders
working under threat, pose the need for
comprehensive and dynamic systems to cope with
the security requirements. Knowing their work
context or “taking care”, cannot answer all the
questions: we must take a step further and discuss
a system for security management. In this paper,
we propose an overall framework for a security
management process and an incremental approach
to security management, as well as some reflections
on basic concepts like risk, vulnerability and threat.
We also include some proposals to improve and
develop the level of security for human rights
defenders to work. All these topics should allow
NGOs and defenders to better undertake strategies
for coping with the increasing security challenges of
human rights work. 3
Introducing some key ideas
In the last few years, general awareness has
increased about the enormous risk human rights
defenders face due to their work. That risk can be
detected easily when defenders work in a hostile
context (this is the case when the laws of a country
penalise some aspects of human rights work);
defenders are also seen as at risk when the law in
their country fully sanctions human rights work, but
impunity prevails for those who threaten or attack
human rights defenders. The context becomes even
worse when there is an armed conflict in place.
Beyond a few chaotic situations (in which a
defender’s life may be in the hands of the soldiers
at a check point), we cannot state that the violence
against defenders is indiscriminate; in most
scenarios such violence is linked to clear military
or politic-military objectives for the aggressors.
Knowing adequately the conflict scenario and
understanding the politico-military logic are
key elements to correctly manage human rights
defenders’ security.
This paper does not offer “tailor-made solutions”
ready to be applied, but examines strategies which
are necessary to improve the defender’s security
management. In the last few years, international
humanitarian NGOs have developed their own
security strategies and procedures with respect to
3 Article written by Luis Enrique Eguren.
security management. As all too often happens,
these developments have not been adapted and
transferred to the human rights defender’s world,
and this is a pending task.
We have to be aware, anyway, that the main source
of risk for defenders is the fact that the threats too
often become actual attacks, given the aggressor’s
will and the means and impunity they enjoy. For this
reason the most important tool to protect defenders
is political action because, beyond technical advice,
the big issue still to be addressed is that the need for
governments and civil society to exert the required
pressure and take the necessary action against those
who day after day threaten, harass and kill human
rights defenders.
Nevertheless, defenders could achieve significant
improvements in their security if they followed
certain strategies and proceedings which have
been tested and are effective. Knowing that this
is a partial, but useful, effort, we want to have a
look now at some proposals to improve defenders´
security.
Security Management versus Security
Proceedings
Generally speaking, we can say that most
threatened human rights defenders do not have a
security strategy. Even the few ones who do have it
(normally in the context of their NGO’s work), their
security plan may consist of a series of protective
measures, contingency plans and safety rules,
which may be useful as security guidelines but do
not grasp the fact that that security requires an
adequate overall management, and it means much
more than a security plan. Security cuts through all
aspects of an NGO´s work: it has to do with activities
(as any targeting the agency may suffer can be a
consequence of its operations), with assessing a
changing context (and conflict scenarios can change
quickly), with flows of information (recording and
assessing security incidents), with personnel (from
recruiting to training and team building), with
budgeting and funding and so on.
The question still pending is: how can we achieve
the necessary integration of security into all aspects
of the management of an NGO´s work We know
Defending Human Rights: A Resource Book for Human Rights Defenders | 2nd Edition 11