A/75/165
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights
defenders, Mary Lawlor
Summary
The present report is the first submitted by the current mandate holder. She
outlines herein how she intends to approach and develop the subject of her mandate in
the coming years. She presents her priorities and working methods and offers a brief
overview of her activities in the first weeks since she took up her role. She describ es
the change in working methods for herself, and for human rights defenders more
generally, in the immediate term brought about by the coronavirus disease
(COVID-19) pandemic. She details her priorities, which include focusing on those
defenders most exposed to killings and other violent attacks, including a focus on other
violations, with attention paid to the most marginalized and vulnerable, among them
women defenders, those defending the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and
intersex persons, defenders who are children, defenders with disabilities, defenders
working on the rights of migrants and related issues, those working on the climate
crisis and defenders working in isolated and remote areas. Her priorities also include
defenders serving long terms in prison, reprisals against defenders who cooperate with
the United Nations on human rights, the issue of impunity for those who attack
defenders, the role of businesses and financial institutions in both harming and
protecting the work of defenders and strengthening follow-up to individual cases
brought to her attention. She sets out her focus on how the universal periodic review
mechanism can be better used for protecting defenders and how she intends to
strengthen cooperation with other mandate holders. She seeks to contribute to the
development and sharing of good practice among States to better protect defenders and
promote their work positively.
2/16
20-09601