Send us a text Indigenous women human rights defenders in Africa face unique challenges, from standing up to patriarchal norms and fighting land grabs by extractive industries, to resisting the gendered impacts of climate change and forced evictions- In this episode, we chat to two indigenous women human rights defenders - Janepher Baitwamasa from Uganda, and Ilaria Potipa Loonkolia from Kenya, both of whom organise for women’s rights, land rights and access to justice within their communities. ...
Jul 04, 2025•36 min•Season 7Ep. 2
Send us a text Mona Shtaya is a pioneering digital rights defender with more than a decade of experience. Her advocacy and campaigning has resulted in exposing digital discrimination against oppressed people, building coalitions, and mobilising groups to hold governments and tech giants accountable. In this episode she talks about: - What it means to be a digital rights defender (1:00 +) - Challenges in the digital space in the MENA region (4:00 +) - The (mis)use of laws to criminalise HRDs onli...
Feb 05, 2025•50 min•Season 7Ep. 1
Send us a text Idris Khattak, a Pakistani human rights defender, was forcibly disappeared 5 years ago. He was, and remains, a single father of 2 daughters. For almost two years after his disappearance, they had no clue about his whereabouts, worried about his safety and whether he was alive. Authorities eventually revealed that he was being held in Military custody under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), a law aimed at protecting information held by government employees. He was tried and wrongfull...
Dec 11, 2024•23 min•Season 6Ep. 5
Send us a text In this multi-episode series, we take a look at the use of laws in Europe and Central Asia criminalising funding received by human rights organisations from foreign sources. In Georgia, Parliament adopted the ‘’Transparency of Foreign Influence’’ bill in May 2024. The Georgian government has already starting listing organisations as foreign agents. We chat to Nona Kurdovanidze from the Georgian Young Lawyers Association to find out how the re-introduction of this law has been, and...
Oct 11, 2024•29 min•Season 6Ep. 4
Send us a text Raji is human rights lawyer and defender from Gaza who leads a core team at the PCHR, documenting and investigating human rights violations committed under the Israeli occupation. The PCHR have contributed to important international cases at the ICJ and ICC. Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/
Aug 21, 2024•53 min
Send us a text Why have Kenyan human rights defenders been protesting? What have the consequences of their human rights work during the protests been? Listen to a human rights defender on the ground in Kenya share their perspective on why they are peacefully protesting, as well as how they have been targeted and harassed during this time. Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/...
Jul 01, 2024•15 min
Send us a text Doris is a woman human rights defender working on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for over a decade, advocating for the rights of women, girls, and marginalized communities in Kenya and beyond. She talks about the challenges and successes of her work as a human rights defender: the difficult context for SRHR, LGBTIQ+ and womens rights work in Kenya, in a society that has alot of stigma and resistance to advancing these various areas of human rights work. Doris her...
Jun 06, 2024•35 min
Send us a text "Francisca Fernández Droguett: el ciberespionaje de personas defensoras en Chile por una empresa extractiva privada". Conversamos con la defensora chilena, integrante del Movimiento por el Agua y los Territorios - MAT, sobre el ciberespionaje al que ella y otras personas defensoras de derechos humanos que protestan en contra del proyecto hidroeléctrico Alto Maipo en Chile, fueron sometidos. Francisca Fernández Droguett nos cuenta en este último episodio en español de nuestro podca...
Mar 08, 2024•29 min
Send us a text Tara Houska is a citizen of Couchiching First Nation, a tribal attorney, land defender, environmental and Indigenous rights defender. She is the founder of the Giniw Collective, an Indigenous women, two-spirit-led frontline resistance to defend the sacred and live in balance. Tara Houska has been active in resisting the Line 3 oil pipeline, the Dakota Access pipeline, and is involved in the movement to reclaim Land Back and in defunding fossil fuels. We chat to her about her journ...
Feb 02, 2024•56 min
Send us a text Mary Lawlor, the founder of Front Line Defenders, is currently the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders. This year marked 25 years of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. Mary shares invaluable insights into the achievements for human rights defenders over the last 25 years, how the landscape has changed and evolved in terms of the protection of HRDs. She also shares her story of how Front Line Defenders came into being, and special moments she has had through ...
Oct 17, 2023•1 hr 3 min
Send us a text We chat to the Media initiative for human rights, a prominent Ukrainian human rights organization working on the topic of civilian hostages, political prisoners and prisoners of war. Their recent investigation looked at secret prisons in Russia and Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine where civilian hostages from Ukraine are kept together with prisoners of war, subjected to torture and ill-treatment, all in violation of international humanitarian law. Media initiative for human...
Oct 11, 2023•40 min
Send us a text In this episode, Salah tells us about how his upbringing inspired his human rights work, what the revocation of his residency means and other tactics being used to silence human rights defenders in Palestine. He gives us insights to the inhumane tactics which Israeli authorities use to break the spirit of political prisoners, systemic neglect of healthcare in prison, his own experience of hunger strikes in prison and more. Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlin...
Jul 17, 2023•27 min
Send us a text Hiba sheds light on the situation for human rights defenders in Syria in the aftermath of the recent earthquake - expressing how HRDs have been detained and harassed by authorities for speaking out about the corruption with humanitarian aid to Syrians, as well as how WHRDs have been absurdly blamed for the earthquake. Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/
Mar 16, 2023•23 min
Send us a text A special storytelling episode - follow Bidya Shrestha Maharjan's story with sound effects as she narrates her story of being a woman human rights defender and defending the rights of the Newa Guthi indigenous people.Bidya is a teacher by profession, as well as the women’s president of the World Newa Guthi, an indigenous community organization. Bidya has long been leading the movement to stop illegal road expansions in the valley of her hometown. She has been threatened several ti...
Feb 20, 2023•15 min
Send us a text We hear from HRD Prof. Colin Harvey on advocating for human rights in Northern Ireland, and what a united Ireland means to him in the context of human rights. He also shares his experiences being targeted and harassed as a human rights defender for his work over the last few years. Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/
Dec 05, 2022•37 min
Send us a text AGE networks Matina Ebri (Head, Administrator), Esther Odiong (Finance Officer) and Margeret Oyigeya (Operation officer) share the challenges they face in their work advocating for womens rights, the nuances of advocating for womens rights within a patriarchal society, and their own experiences and stories as women regarding the work they carry out at AGE network in Nigeria. Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/...
Nov 25, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Send us a text We hear from Palestinian land rights defender Hafez Huraini, a farmer from at-Tuwani village in Masafer Yatta, Hebron, Occupied Palestinian Territory. He speaks about the context of Masafer Yatta, and his most recent experience being brutally assaulted and harassed by settlers and Israeli authorities on his own land. Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/
Nov 02, 2022•10 min
Send us a text On this episode of rights on the line, we talk to Olena Schevchenko, the chairperson of Insight, an NGO that focuses on promoting and protecting the rights of LGBTQI + persons in Ukraine. This year, amidst a crisis of war, pride month was different for LGBTIQ defenders in Ukraine. While Olena and Insight would usually be organising pride events around this time, this year they are providing support and protection to the LGBTQI+ community during the war in Ukraine. Olena shares ins...
Jun 22, 2022•34 min
Send us a text Abahlali baseMjondolo is a grassroots movement of poor shack dwellers in Durban and other parts of South Africa, advocating for the rights of people living in shacks, including access to decent housing, services and education. Since their inception, leaders of the fast growing movement – with a member base of up to 100,000 – have been targeted and sadly, killed. In the last two weeks, two leaders were again murdered, bringing the number of HRDs killed in the movement to over 20. 3...
Mar 25, 2022•27 min
Send us a text Season 4, episode1:Gaps in state-reported data on land and environmental rights defenders negatively and severely impacts the ability to monitor and mitigate situations where human rights defenders are at risk.In 2020, Front Line Defenders reported that 331 human rights defenders were killed, 69% being land and environmental rights defenders. But, Official data on killings remain limited, while there is even less data on physical and other types of lethal attacks on defenders. In ...
Feb 04, 2022•35 min
Send us a text Topics covered: - How the situation unfolded since the suspicion of an initial hack and breach- How the announcement of the 6 organisations deemed as‘’terrorist’’ linked to the unfolding investigation- Who NSO Group is and what Pegasus is- How the devices were confirmed to be infected, and what happens when spyware is installed on a device- Recommendations on the situation and what the international community can do. Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefen...
Nov 10, 2021•14 min
Send us a text In this episode, we talk about human rights defenders in Africa experiencing challenges in the digital space, on social media platforms and more. Ronald shares his insights as the Digital Protection Coordinator for the Africa region at Front Line Defenders, as well as very NB tips on how HRDs can protect themselves in the Digital space. Abdifatah, and HRD from Digital Shelter in Somalia, talks about a recently released report by Digital Shelter on how HRDs in Somalia and Africa ar...
Sep 28, 2021•1 hr 5 min
Send us a text Zambias national elections will be held on the 12th of August 2021. This comes against a dangerous background of the country veering towards dangerous authoritarianism. Human rights defenders (HRDs) in Zambia face arrests, violent threats, intimidation tactics, surveillance, and smear campaigns as the government persecutes civil society and challenges the legitimacy of HRDs who speak out against the crack down on freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and ...
Aug 10, 2021•1 hr 16 min
Send us a text Front Line Defenders Rights on the Line podcast, presenting the voices, perspectives and experiences of human rights and human rights defenders (HRDs) across the globe. In this episode, we chat to two HRDs who were a part of the SEA-EYE 4 ship crew, which rescued 408 people from five different refugee boats in distress in May 2021. Sophie Weidenhiller is from the German NGO Sea-Eye, who works for the rescue of fleeing people in the central Mediterranean Sea. Sara Cincurova is a Sl...
Jul 06, 2021•58 min
Send us a text In the last two weeks, unwarranted violence against Palestinians by Israeli authorities has increased. Palestinians on the ground have resisted, and in turn, Israeli forces have since used repeated excessive force on Palestinians. As Airstrikes continue, Israel is cracking down on media with strong censorship of Palestinian content, and the recent targeted bombing of Al-Jazeera and Associated Press building. Israel is using its connections and influence with social media companies...
May 16, 2021•53 min
Send us a text We discuss the challenges faced by human rights defenders working on gender and LGBTI issues, in light of the recent withdrawal of Turkey from the Istanbul Convention. We chat to Aslıhan Tekin, the EU Representative /Alternate Board Member of the European Women's Lobby Coordination for Turkey, as well as Yildiz Tar, Media and Communications Program Coordinator at Kaos GL, an organisation which aims to advance the rights of the LGBTIQ community in Turkey. Our guests will shed light...
May 11, 2021•42 min
Send us a text In this episode, we discuss the findings of the Front Line Defenders Global Analysis report 2020, focusing on the impact of Covid-19 on the work of human rights defenders, especially in terms of digital security and lockdown regulations. Guests include: Ed O' Donovan, Head of Protection at Front Line Defenders; a HRD from Zambia, an HRD from the Colombian organisation ''Somos Defensores'' speaking on the killings in Colombia, and Bestang Sarah Dekdeken from the Philippines speakin...
Apr 02, 2021•49 min
Send us a text This is a special episode, produced by the Coalition for Human Rights in Development. in collaboration with Front Line Defenders.Ahead of the upcoming Finance in Common Summit in Paris, we speak with defenders in Kenya, Guatemala and India, about the human rights impact of projects imposed in the name of developmentFrom the 9th to the 12th of November, all public development banks in the world will be together for the first time ever. Over 450 finance institutions and heads of gov...
Nov 10, 2020•29 min
Send us a text Episodio SP 2 - Defender Derechos En Tiempos De COVID - 19Una conversación con Sandra Patago, Front Line Defenders; Guillermo Rodríguez García. Oficial de incidencia del programa para México y centroamérica del Centro por la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional (CEJIL); Argentina Casanova, codirectora ejecutiva de la RNDDHMX; Waquel Drullard, facilitadore de proyectos en Artículo 19 en la oficina de Mx y Centroamérica y colabora en la facilitación del Espacio OSC en México; María M...
Oct 21, 2020•1 hr 4 min
Send us a text Interview with Palestinian artist and human rights defender Hafez Omar for Cypher 02:https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/sites/default/files/cypher02.pdf Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/
Oct 05, 2020•26 min
