PUBLISHED: DECEMBER 2021

UN and regional human rights experts issued a joint declaration calling on States to strengthen international efforts to support and protect civil society actors who are increasingly being targeted in repressive and life-threatening environments.

“Around the world, courageous individuals, and their organizations at the frontlines of the struggle for human rights are in desperate need of safe refuge and urgent life-saving humanitarian assistance yet face vast barriers to protection,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Clément N. Voule.

In the declaration, experts called on States to uphold their international obligations and ease accessibility to international protection to civil society actors fleeing from violence, including recognition of refugee status and other forms of protection, such as expedited emergency visas.