Protection into the future

This final chapter draws on data collected across all five states to analyse key factors that shape the risks that defenders face, namely, their dynamic political, legal, economic and social contexts; their relative (in)visibility; the acceptability, legitimacy and credibility of their human rights practice; and their social connectedness and embeddedness in protective networks. This chapter puts forward eight proposals for how the protection of defenders should be reimagined and practised, namely that protection actors should: broaden the focus from protecting human rights defenders to protecting the right to defend human rights; protect collectives along with individuals; protect families and loved ones; build inclusive human rights organisations, networks and movements with an intersectional perspective, addressing discrimination, violence and inequalities; develop diverse initiatives along the “protection continuum”; develop formal protection mechanisms based on meaningful collaboration between state and civil society actors, which complement informal and self-protection initiatives; recognise that the flow of protection resources changes the power relations between civil society protection actors and human rights defenders and last but not least, develop holistic understandings and practices of security for and with human rights defenders, including their wellbeing.