Will the programme support participants’ families or other dependants?
If protection and support for human rights defenders is to be ‘holistic’, then in many cases it must include families and dependants. If defenders are content that their families / dependants are secure they are much more likely to benefit to the full from the programme. Women defenders, in particular, may not be able to participate in a protection scheme if they cannot bring family members with them.
“If I wouldn’t be able to bring my kids and my husband … it would mean that for me it wouldn’t be possible to decide to have this … cause I will be mad thinking about what may happen to my kids, what may happen to my husband. That’s why for me it was an only option … and from another side, having a family around you, it’s a moral support to you. ”
Relocation programmes differ as to whether and how they support the families and other dependants of participants. Some schemes provide an increased stipend to cover the cost of supporting family members in the country of origin, either paid to all participants regardless of circumstances or offered only to those with dependants. Others fund the relocation of family members to the host country along with the human rights defender. The family support offered may impact the overall number of defenders hosted, or reduce the length of the fellowship. Examples of how universities and other relocation providers fund dependants are summarised below.
Where family members are relocated with defenders a number of considerations need to be kept in mind. These include cost, accommodation, language support and the need to arrange school or college places, or find childcare facilities.
Support for families and dependants
Some relocation programmes do not explicitly support participants’ families and / or dependants, instead expecting those on their programme to provide this support through the stipend they receive. Nevertheless, research has identified the importance of including defenders’ families and loved ones in protection measures, and many schemes are reviewing how they can provide such support. While discussions about what constitutes good practice in this regard is ongoing among protection providers, some examples currently in place are:
Providing additional funding for defenders with families
Providing a stipend that allows for support of family members to all defenders
Supporting relocation of family with defender
Funding for school tuition fees (at home)
Emergency fund for family-related issues, such as medical expenses
Offering resettlement grants when defenders return home
Among the questions to address when deciding whether and how to support families and dependants are the following:
Are some categories of defender discouraged from applying / discriminated against because of the lack of family support e.g. women, care providers?
How is family defined (nuclear, extended), and if dependants are included, how is this category defined?
How can fairness be ensured within cohorts of defenders with different personal circumstances e.g. is a higher amount of funding for all fairer than top ups for particular defenders?
If additional funding for family / dependant support has to be applied for by defenders, what are the criteria and how will the process be handled?
Applications for some additional funding to support families, either to relocate or when remaining in the country of origin, can be made to organisations such as the European Temporary Relocation Platform (EUTRP) and other grant makers listed on the EUTRP website.
A human rights defender from Kazakhstan spent six months on a relocation programme along with her teenage daughter. Below, she explains how her daughter benefited from the relocation experience and became a human rights defender.
“She went to lots of meetings … and after that she understood the specifics of our human rights work. It’s not easy. It’s difficult. And she, as a youth … she created the Children’s Committee of Human Rights … And (she) collected more than 40 different children from different regions of Kazakhstan, and
every month they provided different events … many public lectures … So they talked with a professor from Mexico, defenders from India, Ethiopia, Palestine, France, Kyrgyzstan … human rights defenders from more than 10 countries. They talked about the wars in different countries, for example… about children’s rights, women’s rights, children with disabilities ...”