Stories from Human Rights Defenders

The idea for the project I Defend Rights began as a response to the changing environment many NHRF grantee partners in the world had been facing and the need for effective communication about the work of rights defenders. In 2017, the NHRF formed a partnership with Memria.org with the aim to collect and disseminate the stories of human rights defenders all over the world, celebrate them as essential agents of change, and foster global narratives that support their work.

In 2017, I Defend Rights was launched to the human rights defenders’ community at the Front Line Defenders’ Dublin Platform by former Executive Director of the NHRF, Sandra Petersen and CEO of Memria, Louis Bickford.

Memria is a social enterprise that provides digital tools to capture and share audio accounts at a scale otherwise impossible to manage manually. Through their innovative internet platform, the initiative sought to collect, curate, and distribute hundreds of testimonies in which human rights defenders describe their experiences, achievements, and the challenges they face through audio and photo. While many stories were recorded by human rights defenders from their homes and collected through the digital platform, many were collected at conferences and platforms such as the Human Rights Defenders World Summit in Paris in 2018, the Dublin Platforms in 2019 and 2022, and regional gatherings such as Red TDT Mexico and Forum Asia Human Rights Defenders platform in 2019. The interaction with human rights defenders and making it possible for them to listen to other stories were essential parts of the collection.

At the Front Line Defenders conference in 2019: Inviting human rights defenders to listen while collecting stories.

Since the launch of the initiative in 2017, and from then on, hundreds of stories have been collected and disseminated through exhibitions and participation in conferences. In 2020, in cooperation with the Dutch designer collective Foundation We Are, a travelling exhibition was brought to the Museum of Memory in Medellín, Colombia.

Photo from the exhibition “I Defend Rights” displayed in Medellín, Colombia 2020. Photo by: David Sierra

Photo from the Dublin Platform in 2022: NHRF staff were collecting stories and inviting the participants at the conference to listen to the stories collected.

In 2024, both partners decided to archive the project and make the stories accessible on various internet platforms, so that they are permanently available for as many people and generations as possible.

With a total of 300 collected stories in three languages - Spanish, French and English - from human rights defenders around the world, the collection uniquely displays a vast variety of experiences.

In the words of the former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders (2014-2020), Michel Forst:

Now it is your turn to delve into the wealth of stories! You can find them on the website of I Defend Rights, through the Internet Archive, or Permanent.org. We wish you happy listening.