Obstacles currently faced by Human Rights Defenders:
The following barriers were mentioned by 18 participants from 8 organizations during a training session:
- Lack of laws to protect human rights defenders: Lack of security and personal protection and lack of individual protection mechanism;
- Political environment not very favorable: Gathering information related to human rights violations is difficult;
- Confined space for the exercise of freedom of opinion and strict supervision of public authorities as well as their interference in the internal affairs of organizations;
- Threats by law enforcement officials when gathering information: suspected of having a bad influence on the people;
- Fear of being viewed badly by the political authorities: Being suspected of going against the general orientations of the country’s governance and being considered as close to the opposition political parties;
- An unfavorable working environment, especially the denial of permission to enter places of detention and imprisonment;
- The political climate that does not allow criticism and publication of government actions makes advocacy at all levels difficult;
- Fear the harmful consequences related to the work of HRDs;
- The culture of silence: people are reluctant to speak out about the violation of their rights because of the fear of further violence against them.
STRADH also took advantage of the meeting with all its partner organizations to identify the areas of intervention of each. This makes it possible to know well its area of action and to locate the people of contacts who are on the ground for more synergy.