Who is the programme for?
When setting up a programme, universities need to establish who the programme is for. If it is broadly for human rights defenders, how is this term defined?
Who is a human rights defender?
The Declaration on Human Rights Defenders defines human rights defenders as ‘individuals or groups who act to prompt, protect or strive for the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms through peaceful means’. Human rights defenders may be teachers, journalists, lawyers, public prosecutors, representatives of indigenous organisations, members of social movements and community organisations, development workers, unionists, or staff of human rights organisations. The term has a wide application, including anyone who carries out an act that defends a human right. This may be professionally or in a voluntary capacity
Professional activists or grassroots defenders?
You will need to consider whether your programme is better suited to professional activists or if you wish to support grassroots defenders, or both. If you offer places to grassroots activists, how will you support their work within a university context?
Professional activists usually have paid employment in the field, and often have high levels of formal education and training in human rights. Typical examples of professional activists are journalists, lawyers, UN staff, and those that manage or work for NGOs.
Grassroots defenders are local activists, members of movements or communities, and are often closely connected to the issue they work on through lived experience. Their work takes a ‘bottom-up’ approach, and may use a more political – rather than legal – human rights framing.
Leaders or potential leaders?
A further set of questions relate to whether leadership – actual or potential – is an important criterion? Will you require applicants to have a certain level of seniority or number of years of experience? How might it affect a person’s application if they have already had extensive international opportunities or little/no such exposure?
Regional and / or thematic schemes?
Whilst some relocation programmes are open to all defenders from all regions, others focus on a specific type of defender, such as environmental defenders or student activists, or human rights defenders from a particular region or country.
Examples of specialist schemes
Indigenous human rights defenders – University of Deusto, Spain
Democracy and anti-corruption defenders from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras – George Mason University, USA
Journalists – Oxford University, UK
Human rights defenders from Colombia – University of Burgos, Spain
Activists from former Soviet states – American University of Central Asia
Student activists – Student at Risk Programme (StAR), Norway
Is risk a requirement?
University programmes for human rights defenders often offer rest and respite for those who are threatened or at risk. If the programme specifically targets defenders who are at risk, how will you define risk – public / private, shortterm / long-term, physical / psychological / administrative / legal / financial? To begin with, new programmes might choose low risk people until the scheme is established. Protection providers may decide to work with a continuum of risk, balancing higher and lower risk people as time passes or within cohorts of human rights defenders. How risk may alter, and how it can be mitigated, during the fellowship itself is covered in the next section of these Guidelines.
Some programmes do not accept applicants who are living in a third country where they are safe, or who have been out of their country of origin for a certain number of years.
What qualifications and language skills are needed?
Requirements for academic qualifications and fluency in the host language also need to be taken into consideration. You may decide no formal qualifications are necessary and instead recognise different forms of knowledge. However, in some cases a minimum level of qualifications may be mandatory for the visa category you are using. For example, academic qualifications would not be necessary if entering on a tourist visa, but would be required for those entering the country on a research visa.
Criteria to consider
How to define human rights defender / type of human rights work
Level of risk
Professional or grassroots, or both
Leadership role / potential
Previous support / training / international exposure
Qualifications / educational background
Desire to learn, teach, research
Need for research capacity building
Language(s)
Legal status and ability to return to country of origin, or to a third country
Potential value the university can add, and vice versa, for example how the applicant can add to teaching and research
Commitment to continue human rights work after the programme
Potential impact of human rights work
Innovation in human rights work
Contribution to diversity of the programme
Please note: no programme will apply all, or even most, of these criteria, and the list is not intended to be in priority order. Schemes should select criteria from this list and beyond that best fit their needs and priorities.
More information
‘Define the target group, purpose and features of Shelter City’ in How to set up a Shelter City by Justice and Peace Netherlands (pages 9 to 10).