New Release: Policy Brief on 'Wellbeing, Risk, and Human Rights Practice'

Posted on 16 March 2017

The Human Rights Defender Hub at CAHR has started a Policy Brief Series, aimed at highlighting key issues that human rights defenders at risk face as they engage in their practice.

WEllbeing policy brief

The first policy brief, entitled Wellbeing, Risk, and Human Rights Practice, Human Rights Defender Policy Brief 1 (PDF , 214kb), draws upon research conducted with defenders at risk in Colombia, Mexico, Kenya, Egypt, and Indonesia. Written by Dr Alice Nah, it notes that defenders often find it difficult to talk about their mental and emotional wellbeing, even when they are concerned about it. Expectations about risk and sacrifice in human rights work and culturally-mediated understandings about 'wellbeing' shape the way defenders engage with this aspect of personal security.

This policy brief encourages policy-makers, practitioners, and human rights defenders to develop spaces for self-reflection on individual and collective wellbeing, and to develop and support tactics and strategies for wellbeing.

More information on this research project will be made available on the Security of Defenders Project website.