Defending Human Rights: A Resource Book for Human

Operational Security Managment in Violent
Environments
Humanitarian Practice Network (2010)
Since the publication of the first edition of
Good Practice Review 8 on Operational Security
Management in Violent Environments a decade
ago, the global security environment has changed
significantly. New conflict contexts have created
new sources of threat to international humanitarian
action. Increasing violence against aid workers
and their operations, including more kidnappings
and lethal attacks, has had serious implications
for humanitarian relief work in insecure contexts.
Meanwhile, agencies themselves have become
much more conscious of the need to provide for
the safety and security of their staff. To reflect these
changes, the Humanitarian Practice Network has
published a new version of GPR 8. The new edition
both updates the original material and introduces
new topics, such as the security dimensions of
‘remote management’ programming, good practice
in interagency security coordination and how to
track, share and analyse security information. The
new edition also provides a more comprehensive
approach to managing critical incidents, in particular
kidnapping and hostage-taking, and discusses issues
relating to the threat of terrorism.
Link: http://www.odihpn.org/hpn-resources/goodpractice-reviews/operational-security-managementin-violent-environments-revised-edition
Cameras Everywhere: Current Challenges and
Opportunities at the Intersection of Human
Rights, Video and Technology
Witness (2011)
This report asks the hard questions about how
to protect and empower those who attempt
to expose injustices through video. It provides
specific recommendations for immediate and
future actions that can reduce danger for those
risking their lives. This report is an important step
to understanding how we can harness the power
of video and technology to empower activists to
protect and defend human rights. This is the age of
transformative technology.
Protection of Human Rights Defenders Best
Practices and Lessons Learned: Legislation,
National Policies and Defenders’ Units
(Volume I)
Protection International (2009)
In recent years several governments have
developed specific national mechanisms to protect
defenders, all of them in countries seriously lacking
in protection for human rights defenders. These
mechanisms (laws, action policies, offices) have
been established under pressure from (and with
the cooperation of) national and international
human rights organisations, with essential legal
support from the UN Declaration on Human Rights
Defenders.
At Protection International, this development has
led us to study these national initiatives: what are
they and what do they consist of How did they
come about, how do they work and what is their
impact on the protection of defenders We set
up a study group (made up of protection lawyers
and experts) and carried out a large number of
interviews with men and women defenders as
well as government officials in 16 countries on
three continents. We also embarked on a process
of compiling and analysing legal enforcement
instruments at the national level (while examining
existing universal and regional ones). During the
study we only found national non-governmental
initiatives of this type in Brazil, Colombia,
Guatemala, Mexico and Peru (Central and South
America), in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of
Congo (Africa) and Nepal (Asia). While there may be
several organizations working on protection-related
matters and making important contributions, only
Guatemala (UDEFUGUA), Uganda (EHAHRDP) and
Colombia (Somos Defensores Programme) have
three defender units specifically set up by civil
society. They are pioneers in the field and together
with the Protection Desks established by PI and
supporting organizations (such as Peace Brigades
International), are among those civil society groups
whose sole mission is the protection of defenders
on the ground.
Link: http://focus.protectionline.org/-Protection-ofhuman-rights-
English: http://witness.org/cameras-everywhere/
report-2011/inquiry-form
Arabic: http://witness.org/sites/default/files/
downloads/ce_exec_summary_arabic-final2.pdf
Defending Human Rights: A Resource Book for Human Rights Defenders | 2nd Edition 63