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29 November 2005 – 2 December 2005
Colombo, Sri Lanka

The International Coordinating Committee of the International Campaign on Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRD-ICC) is organizing an International Consultation on 29 November – 2 December 2005 in Colombo, Sri Lanka to bring together WHRDs from different countries worldwide. Nominations of participants from Asia, Pacific, Africa, Latin America, North America and Europe have been submitted to the secretariat and selected participants will be sent invitations by 1 October 2005. Ms. Hina Jilani, UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders, will attend the consultation.

The aim of the international consultation is to bring attention to the need for special protection of WHRDs and other human rights activists defending the rights of women. Specifically, it will be focus on articulating the concept, rights and entitlements of WHRDs; identifying the specific vulnerabilities, violations and abuses committed against WHRDs; and drafting recommendations and strategies to improve the protection for WHRDs.   The initiative aims to present cases and develop analyses and recommendations for better protection of WHRDs to be submitted to Ms. Jilani for consideration. Ms. Jilani is expected to submit her reports to the UN Commission on Human Rights and the UN General Assembly in 2006. 

The program of the international consultation consists of plenary discussions and workshops. The plenary during the first day will focus on clarifying the concept of WHRDs. It will also identify the key problems and obstacles faced by WHRDs such as state violence and repression; discrimination in the context of the family and community; violations committed against WHRDs by fundamentalist forces; and sexuality-based attacks against WHRDs. The second day will highlight various international, regional, national and local mechanisms for the protection of WHRDs. It will discuss the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and its relevance to WHRDs. It will present the various human rights defenders mechanisms developed in regional human rights systems such as the Human Rights Defenders Unit of the Inter American Commission on Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders created under the African Human Rights Commission. It will also look into the possible roles of national human rights institutions for the protection of WHRDs. It will also be an opportunity for the participants to share the protection mechanisms they have developed among themselves as they cope with the risks involved in their work. The last day will focus on defining justice for WHRDs and examining the various forms of accountability by state and non-state actors for violations against WHRDs.

Group discussions following the plenary presentations will give the participants the opportunity to assess various mechanisms and tools for the protection of human rights defenders and identify strategies for their protection and prevention of abuses against them. The WHRD-ICC members and other collaborating organizations will also organize different workshops during the second day. The workshops will include: a training on security especially for WHRDs at risk; a skills workshop on urgent action tools; a workshop on documention of violations against WHRDs; a workshop on support and self-care among WHRDs. There will also be open spaces for participants to develop their own discussion groups according to the urgent concerns they would want to discuss during the consultation. There will also be an exhibition space for participants to display their publications, crafts and other materials to the public.

A public event will be hosted on 2 December from 9:00 – 11:00 am to share the outcomes of the international consultation and follow up initiatives. The event will be open to the media and other local groups.

For more information about the consultation, please contact the WHRD-ICC Secretariat at lisa@apwld.org