A/HRC/RES/22/6
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
12 April 2013
Arabic, Chinese, English, Russian
and Spanish only
Human Rights Council
Twenty-second session
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development
Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council**
22/6.
Protecting human rights defenders
The Human Rights Council,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,
Guided also by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International
Covenants on Human Rights and other relevant instruments,
Recalling General Assembly resolution 53/144 of 9 December 1998, by which the
Assembly adopted by consensus the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of
Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms annexed to that resolution, and reiterating the
importance of the Declaration and its promotion and implementation,
Recalling also the continued validity and application of all the provisions of the
above-mentioned Declaration,
Recalling further all previous resolutions on this subject, in particular Human Rights
Council resolutions 13/13 of 25 March 2010 and 16/5 of 24 March 2011, and General
Assembly resolution 66/164 of 19 December 2011,
Recalling the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action,
Reaffirming that States are under the obligation to protect all human rights and
fundamental freedoms of all persons,
Acknowledging that human rights defenders play an important role at the local,
national, regional and international levels in the promotion and protection of human rights,
Reissued for technical reasons on 23 May 2013.
** The resolutions and decisions adopted by the Human Rights Council will be contained in
the report of the Council on its twenty-second session (A/HRC/22/2), chap. I
GE.13-14813