International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH)

International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) is a Winner of the 2016 Global Sustainable Development Award and Accredited as a Global 500 Sustainable Development Agencies of the year 2016 in appreciation of its contribution towards social-economic development of the world and its contribution towards attainment of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Recognised for its commitment to promote and uphold International best practices and standards such as respect for rights of workers, quality products and services,payment of taxes,Regulatory compliance,environmental protection,Supporting productive corporate social responsibility,eliminating corruption,employment and remuneration of employees,etc.

Awarded and Accredited by Public Opinions International (Uganda-East Africa)

For FIDH, transforming societies relies on the work of local actors. Therefore, FIDH’s activities aim to reinforce their capacities and their influence.

It acts at national, regional and international levels in support of its member and partner organisations to address human rights abuses and consolidate democratic processes. Its work is directed at States and those in power, such as armed opposition groups and multinational corporations. Its primary beneficiaries are national human rights organisations who are members of FIDH, and through them, the victims of human rights violations. FIDH also cooperates with other local partner organisations and actors of change.

OUR MANDATE: PROTECT ALL RIGHTS

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) is an international NGO. It defends all human rights – civil, political, economic, social and cultural – as contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

OUR COMMITMENT: THREE PILLARS OF ACTION

FIDH acts in conjunction with its member and partner organisations. Its actions are founded on three strategic pillars: securing the freedom and capacity to act for human rights defenders, the universality of rights and their effectiveness.

GUIDING PRINCIPLE: THE ACCOUNTABILITY OF ALL

FIDH’s work is directed at States as primary human rights guarantors. However, it also addresses non-State actors such as armed groups and multinational corporations. FIDH is committed to holding individual perpetrators of international crimes to account through the international criminal justice system.

ETHICS: INDEPENDENCE AND OBJECTIVITY

FIDH is a non partisan, non sectarian, apolitical and not for profitorganisation. Its secretariat is headquartered in France, where FIDH is a recognised NGO. FIDH’s independence, expertise and objectivity are the hallmarks of its credibility. It maintains this by acting with complete transparency.

INTERACTION: LOCAL PRESENCE – GLOBAL ACTION

As a federal movement, FIDH operates on the basis of interaction with its member organisations. It ensures that FIDH merges on-the-ground experience and knowledge with expertise in international law, mechanisms of protection and intergovernmental bodies. This unique combination translates into joint actions between FIDH and its member organisations at national, regional and international levels to remedy human rights violations and consolidate processes of democratisation. It makes FIDH highly representational and legitimate.

A SYSTEM OF GOVERNANCE: UNIVERSALITY AND TRANSPARENCY

FIDH’s structure and operations place its member organisations at the heart of the decision making process, and reflect its principles of governance.

PROVEN EXPERTISE

FIDH using a wide range of methods that have proven successful: urgent responses, both public and confidential; investigative missions, judicial observation, and legal defence; political dialogue, advocacy, legal action, public awareness campaigns. The organisation relies on a network of international volunteer mission delegates and facilitates exchange among human rights defenders around the world in order to reinforce their expertise. It constantly evaluates its activities in view of becoming more efficient and regularly adjusts its short, medium and long term objectives as necessary.

Women’s Rights

Throughout the world discrimination and violence against women remain a scourge. In numerous countries, discrimination is inscribed in law, from criminal laws to laws on marriage, inheritance and access to property. Even in countries where women have obtained equality in law, discrimination continues in practice. Women are significantly under-represented in decision-making positions. Violence against women prospers, often fuelled by inadequate laws, obstacles to access to justice and inaction on the part of public authorities who tolerate such violations. The absence of adequate sanctions favours a climate of impunity which contributes to the repetition of these crimes.
Yet women are not only victims. Everywhere women are also the main actors in the struggle for emancipation.

In this context, FIDH has made the protection and promotion of women’s rights a priority. Alerted by national member and partner organisatons, FIDH:
documents violations of women’s rights;
advocates for the abolition of discriminatory laws and for the adoption of laws protecting women from discrimination and violence;
activates regional and international women’s rights protection mechanisms;
supports and represents victims of sexual violence in legal proceedings.

Violence against Women

Violence against women is a global plague: domestic violence, rape, including marital rape, sexual and gender-based crimes committed during armed conflict, attacks on women human rights defenders…
FIDH promotes access to justice for victims of these crimes. In every state, access is limited as a result of inadequate legislation, stigmatisation of victims and fears of reprisals, ill-adapted legal systems, costs of proceedings… and impunity prevails.
FIDH documents obstacles to access to justice at the national level and advocates for legal, institutional and political reforms. FIDH provides legal support and representation to victims of sexual and gender-based crimes at the national and regional level. FIDH also calls on the International Criminal Court to strengthen its contribution to fighting impunity for such crimes, including by systematically including sexual and gender based crimes in prosecution strategies.

Sexual and Reproductive Rights

On all continents, repressive legislation criminalising access to abortion remains in force, resulting in serious violations of women’s rights. In many countries, the law imposes an absolute prohibition on abortion. Elsewhere, limited exceptions are permitted, in cases of serious risk to the life or health of the woman, rape, incest or malformation of the foetus. These laws usually contain additional – often costly – procedural restrictions (medical certificate signed by one or several doctors, decision of a court) which prevent women having recourse to abortion in practice, even in the cases allowed by law.
The consequences are violent and sometimes deadly. In addition to regulating women’s bodies, such laws encourage recourse to clandestine and unsafe abortions. For young girls, carrying a pregnancy to term can have disastrous effects on their bodies and their futures. Most of the countries which refuse to recognise the right to abortion also inflict criminal penalties on women who undergo illegal abortions as well as on the medical personnel who practise such abortions. The United Nations has repeatedly called on states to abolish these repressive laws.
FIDH documents violations of the rights of women and girls caused by restrictions to access to abortion, to life, health, education and participation in public life, and advocates for the adoption of reforms which respect women’s rights.

Discrimination in Law and Practice

The struggle against misogyny and patriarchy – which continue to dominate all regions of the world – necessitates the elimination of discrimination and the guarantee of equal rights between men and women in law and practice. FIDH advocates for the ratification without reservation of international and regional women’s rights protection instruments (the CEDAW Convention and its Optional Protocol, the African regional Maputo Protocol…) and for their effective implementation. In collaboration with national members and partners, FIDH calls on states to reform legislation in accordance with these instruments.
FIDH has participated in the launch of two major regional campaigns aimed at fighting discrimination against women:
The campaign “Equality without reservation”, initiated in 2006, unites women’s rights and human rights NGOs in Arab countries to bring about the withdrawal of reservations to CEDAW. The campaign has contributed to the withdrawal of reservations by Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia, opening the way for reform of national discriminatory laws.
The campaign “Africa for Women’s Rights”, launched in 2009, led by more than 100 NGOs across the continent, calls on States to ratify and respect international and regional women’s rights protection instruments in law and practice.

Human Rights Defenders

Human rights defenders, as a result of their commitment to human rights and fundamental freedoms, are the target of repression by States or by private or parastatal groups. This repression takes the form of restrictive laws and practices regarding freedom of association, expression and peaceful assembly, smear campaigns, abuse, death threats, arbitrary arrests and detention, forced disappearance, torture and assassination.

In 1997, in partnership with the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), FIDH pioneered safeguarding human rights defenders by creating a unique programme devoted to this issue and entitled the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders. FIDH’s mission, through the work of the Observatory, is to take action in support of individuals, whatever their status, title or function, who are exposed to reprisals as a result of their human rights activities. The objective of FIDH is to ensure that the voices of non-profit organisation workers and campaigners, lawyers, journalists, trade unionists, rural and community leaders and ordinary citizens are heard, and that they are no longer left isolated and marginalised.

The Observatory has developed several ways to take action in response to the demands and specific nature of each situation: issuing and distributing urgent alerts in 6 languages, provision of emergency grants (medical, psychological and legal support; help with relocation) and capacity grants, prison visits, judicial observation and defence, national and international advocacy, investigative missions, public campaigns on social media and the internet, urgent advocacy directed at actors of social change, initiating legal and paralegal recourse, analysing repressive trends (Annual Report), consolidating the intergovernmental system for protecting defenders (‘inter-mechanism’ process and advocacy), etc.

The Observatory is a member of the EU Mechanism: ProtectDefenders.eu

Migrants’ Rights

3.2% of the world’s population are international migrants. This figure includes refugees fleeing persecution or fear of persecution, persons displaced by environmental factors, those who leave their country of origin to seek employment and retired persons from Northern countries in search of sunshine. The percentage has remained stable for years, yet the reasons for migration – voluntary or forced – have become increasingly complex and the countries of destination more diverse.
Given the attraction of emerging economies (Brazil, India, China) and oil-producing countries such as the Gulf states and several African countries, the majority of migration takes place towards the Southern hemisphere (south-south or north-south), or from one country in the North to another. Despite this, states in the Northern hemisphere remain obsessed by a fear of “invasion” by poor migrants from the Global South. As a result of ever-increasing controls on migration, the vulnerability of migrant persons to violations of their human rights is exacerbated. While the United States continues to “protect” itself by an illusory wall, Europe strengthens controls at its external borders, with the help of Frontex, forcing exiles to take ever more dangerous routes which often lead to death, gradually transforming the Mediterranean sea into a vast cemetery. These policies prioritise economic and security interests over respect for human rights. Meanwhile, the responses provided by international institutions remain widely inadequate.

The protection of the rights of migrant persons is one of FIDH’s priorities.
Through its network of members and partners in countries of departure, transit and arrival, FIDH documents violations of the human rights of migrant persons throughout their journeys and calls on national authorities to adopt legal and political reforms. FIDH participates in the campaign for the universal ratification of the Convention on the protection of the rights of all migrant workers and members of their families;
FIDH fights against impunity of perpetrators of violations of the human rights of migrant persons, including through strategic litigation;
FIDH denounces the failure of European migration policy and calls on the EU to overhaul its approach in order to protect human rights.

LGBTI rights

Countless people face discrimination for their sexual orientation and/or their gender identity. The rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersexual (LGBTI) people are violated in a large number of countries: inequality in status and civil rights, discrimination, intimidation, persecution, ill-treatment, torture, execution, including the application of the death penalty.

Close to 80 countries still criminalise homosexual relations. LGBTI persons are often targeted for hate speech and crimes.

Besides personal attacks, they suffer from differences in treatment and legal status between them and heterosexual people especially in fields related to family, employment and freedom of association. FIDH documents LGBTI rights violations based on sexual orientation and advocates for the adoption and implementation of egalitarian law.

FIDH, together with other NGOs, intervenes regularly in cases brought before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

FIDH thereby is contributing to the development of ECHR case law on LGBTI rights, which often precipitates legal changes in the discriminating countries.

International Justice

Promoting international justice to fight impunity for the most serious crimes (genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture, enforced disappearance) contributes to restoring respect for human rights and the rule of law in our societies and to upholding victims’ rights.

FIDH documents these crimes, assists victims before the courts and advocates for the adoption and implementation of independent procedures and judicial mechanisms.

FIDH intervenes before the national courts, and in application of extra-territorial or universal jurisdiction, before hybrid tribunals such as the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) and international courts such as the International Criminal Court (ICC).

International Justice

FIDH documents these crimes, assists victims before the courts and advocates for the adoption and implementation of independent procedures and judicial mechanisms.

Globalisation & Human Rights

The world’s inequalities are constantly growing : millions of people continue to suffer from forced evictions, inadequate access to education and basic health treatment and appalling working conditions. Economic actors, especially multinational corporations, have acquired increased power in the past decades. Liberalisation of trade and investment flows, protection granted to foreign investors, the high degree of dependency between the world’s economies but also foreign debt and policies of international financial institutions have restrained the ability of States to uphold their human rights obligations. Human rights defenders and those participating in protests denouncing corporate abuse are being increasingly targeted. Communities struggle to obtain justice for violations of economic, social and cultural rights , even more so when involving multinational companies that operate across national borders.

FIDH advocates for the full recognition and justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights, and campaigns for the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Together with its member organisations, FIDH works with communities throughout the world to ensure corporate accountability and improve victims’ access to justice through documentation, advocacy and litigation. FIDH calls on States to take their human rights obligations into account when they negotiate trade and investment agreements with third countries and promotes respect for human rights and the environment in investment.

Death Penalty

FIDH is against the death sentence, regardless of the crime or circumstances, and together with its member organisations is striving for its universal abolition. Capital punishment equals to inhumane treatment and torture. FIDH has furthermore shown that the death penalty is usually a sentence given at the end of an unfair trial and is carried out according to terms that are often discriminatory. Lastly, FIDH recalls that the so-called deterrent effect of the death penalty has never been proven. The last resolution of the United Nation General Assembly calling for a universal moratorium on the death penalty was adopted by 117 countries in December 2014 and confirms the growing international momentum in favour of universal abolition.

More than two-thirds of the countries in the world have abolished capital punishment in its laws or practices. FIDH therefore calls for:
the abolition of the death penalty for all crimes;
the establishment of a moratorium on executions;
the universal ratification of treaties providing for abolition, including the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

FIDH is a founding member of the Worldwide Coalition against the Death Penalty.

Terrorism, surveillance and human rights

Causing unimaginable trauma and deep division in the world geopolitical order, September 11, 2001 woke the world up to the horror of terrorism and the importance of fighting against this plague. September 11 also marked the beginning of a setback in people’s rights and freedoms. Ostensibly to fight terrorism, extraordinary and particularly repressive legislation was adopted in a large number of countries, even in democratic countries making it legal to arrest non-nationals for an undetermined period of time merely on the grounds of suspected participation in terrorist activities or having unproven ties with terrorist organizations. Many authoritarian states adopted similar laws which they also used to legitimize the repression of opponents and human rights defenders and to criminalize any other type of social protest.

In 2015, the temptation to strengthen protective measures has gained ground in the countries of Lebanon, Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt and France. as a result of the wave of attacks attributed to ISIS.

To fight terrorism, and more broadly in the name of security, many laws that attack freedom of expression and the right to a private life have been adopted and give extraordinary surveillance rights to intelligence agencies. Furthermore, companies around the world are developing, selling and exporting surveillance systems that governments and private parties can use to violate human rights and facilitate repression of all dissident voices, without fear of punishment.

In light of this situation, FIDH is calling for legislation to be repealed and for an end to the draconian practices that are being adopted or made stricter ostensibly to fight terrorism. FIDH is also calling for tighter control of the sale, exportation and use of surveillance systems, and is urging the States to guarantee the safety of citizens all the while scrupulously respecting the international conventions on the protection of human rights.