Rights On The Line

Mona Shtaya is a pioneering digital rights defender with more than a decade of experience. Her advocacy and campaigning has resulted in exposing digital discrimination against oppressed people, building coalitions, and mobilising groups to hold governments and tech giants accountable.In this episode she talks about:- What it means to be a digital rights defender (1:00 +)- Challenges in the digital space in the MENA region (4:00 +)- The (mis)use of laws to criminalise HRDs online (8:00)-  Digitial rights aspects of Israel/Palestine and the most recent Gaza genocide: (11:00 +, 46:00 +)- Shadow banning (20:20 +; 29:00 +)- How social media companies have responded to the violation of rights online (22:00 +)- Personal challenges she has faced online as a woman human rights defender (25:00 +)- Technology facilitated gender based violence (27:00+)- How algorithms and other technical aspects of censorship works (35:00 +) - How to beat the algorithm (41:00+)*Note: This was recorded in October 2024, prior to the ceasef

Idris Khattak, a Pakistani human rights defender, was forcibly disappeared 5 years ago. He was, and remains, a single father of 2 daughters. For almost two years after his disappearance, they had no clue about his whereabouts, worried about his safety and whether he was alive.Authorities eventually revealed that he was being held in Military custody under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), a law aimed at protecting information held by government employees. He was tried and wrongfully convicted by a military court under the OSA and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment in December 2021. An appeal against his conviction is pending before a military court and offers some hope for his release, but there has been little movement or response. The human rights defender has spent nearly five years of imprisonment in crowded and unsanitary conditions. We talk to his daughter, Talia, who has been campaigning tirelessly for his release and for the Court to respond. She tells us about what it was like to lose her only parent,

In this multi-episode series, we take a look at the use of laws in Europe and Central Asia criminalising funding received by human rights organisations from foreign sources.In Georgia, Parliament adopted the ‘’Transparency of Foreign Influence’’ bill in May 2024. The Georgian government has already starting listing organisations as foreign agents.We chat to Nona Kurdovanidze from the Georgian Young Lawyers Association to find out how the re-introduction of this law has been, and will be, impacting human rights defenders and organisations.Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/

Raji is human rights lawyer and defender from Gaza who leads a core team at the PCHR, documenting and investigating human rights violations committed under the Israeli occupation. The PCHR have contributed to important international cases at the ICJ and ICC.Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/

Why have Kenyan human rights defenders been protesting? What have the consequences of their human rights work during the protests been? Listen to a human rights defender on the ground in Kenya share their perspective on why they are peacefully protesting, as well as how they have been targeted and harassed during this time.Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/

Doris is a woman human rights defender working on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for over a decade, advocating for the rights of women, girls, and marginalized communities in Kenya and beyond. She talks about the challenges and successes of her work as a human rights defender: the difficult context for SRHR, LGBTIQ+ and womens rights work in Kenya, in a society that has alot of stigma and resistance to advancing these various areas of human rights work. Doris herself has been a victim of targeting, harassment, home raids, and more, as a result of her work. She shed light on this and tells us why she will never stop her human rights work.Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/

"Francisca Fernández Droguett: el ciberespionaje de personas defensoras en Chile por una empresa extractiva privada". Conversamos con la defensora chilena, integrante del Movimiento por el Agua y los Territorios - MAT, sobre el ciberespionaje al que ella y otras personas defensoras de derechos humanos que protestan en contra del proyecto hidroeléctrico Alto Maipo en Chile, fueron sometidos. Francisca Fernández Droguett nos cuenta en este último episodio en español de nuestro podcast, Rights on the Line, cómo la justicia chilena respaldó a la empresa extractiva privada incluso después de que reconocieran haber participado en ciberespionaje. Esto, en un contexto en que Chile se adhiere al Acuerdo de Escazú que pretende dar garantías a líderes ambientales.Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/

Tara Houska is a citizen of Couchiching First Nation, a tribal attorney, land defender, environmental and Indigenous rights defender. She is the founder of the Giniw Collective, an Indigenous women, two-spirit-led frontline resistance to defend the sacred and live in balance. Tara Houska has been active in resisting the Line 3 oil pipeline, the Dakota Access pipeline, and is involved in the movement to reclaim Land Back and in defunding fossil fuels. We chat to her about her journey as a human rights defender including the resistance to the Line 3 and Dakota Access pipelines, what drives her, what the earth means to her, and more.Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/

Mary Lawlor, the founder of Front Line Defenders, is currently the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders. This year marked 25 years of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. Mary shares invaluable insights into the achievements for human rights defenders over the last 25 years, how the landscape has changed and evolved in terms of the protection of HRDs. She also shares her story of how Front Line Defenders came into being, and special moments she has had through her career with HRDs, as well as what it means to be a Special Rapporteur to HRDs.Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/

We chat to the Media initiative for human rights, a prominent Ukrainian human rights organization working on the topic of civilian hostages, political prisoners and prisoners of war. Their recent investigation looked at secret prisons in Russia and Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine where civilian hostages from Ukraine are kept together with prisoners of war, subjected to torture and ill-treatment, all in violation of international humanitarian law. Media initiative for human rights documented more than one thousand cases of civilian hostages. Among those hostages are Ukrainian Human Rights Defenders and journalists who found themselves on Russian-occupied territories and abducted by the Russian army to silence civil society and cease any form of peaceful resistance. We chat to one of the founders of media iniative for human rights to find out more.Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/

In this episode, Salah tells us about how his upbringing inspired his human rights work, what the revocation of his residency means and other tactics being used to silence human rights defenders in Palestine. He gives us insights to the inhumane tactics which Israeli authorities use to break the spirit of political prisoners, systemic neglect of healthcare in prison, his own experience of hunger strikes in prison and more.Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/

Hiba sheds light on the situation for human rights defenders in Syria in the aftermath of the recent earthquake - expressing how HRDs have been detained and harassed by authorities for speaking out about the corruption with humanitarian aid to Syrians, as well as how WHRDs have been absurdly blamed for the earthquake.Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/

A special storytelling episode - follow Bidya Shrestha Maharjan's story with sound effects as she narrates her story of being a woman human rights defender and defending the rights of the Newa Guthi indigenous people.Bidya is a teacher by profession, as well as the women’s president of the World Newa Guthi, an indigenous community organization. Bidya has long been leading the movement to stop illegal road expansions in the valley of her hometown. She has been threatened several times, physically attacked and arbitrarily detained as a result of her work.Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/

We hear from HRD Prof. Colin Harvey on advocating for human rights in Northern Ireland, and what a united Ireland means to him in the context of human rights. He also shares his experiences being targeted and harassed as a human rights defender for his work over the last few years.Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/

AGE networks Matina Ebri (Head, Administrator), Esther Odiong (Finance Officer) and Margeret Oyigeya (Operation officer) share the challenges they face in their work advocating for womens rights, the nuances of advocating for womens rights within a patriarchal society, and their own experiences and stories as women regarding the work they carry out at AGE network in Nigeria.Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/

We hear from Palestinian land rights defender Hafez Huraini, a farmer from at-Tuwani village in Masafer Yatta, Hebron, Occupied Palestinian Territory. He speaks about the context of Masafer Yatta, and his most recent experience being brutally assaulted and harassed by settlers and Israeli authorities on his own land.Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/

On this episode of rights on the line, we talk to Olena Schevchenko, the chairperson of Insight, an NGO that focuses on promoting and protecting the rights of LGBTQI + persons in Ukraine. This year, amidst a crisis of war, pride month was different for LGBTIQ defenders in Ukraine. While Olena and Insight would usually be organising pride events around this time, this year they are providing support and protection to the LGBTQI+ community during the war in Ukraine. Olena shares insights on the situation for HRDs on the ground during the war, how it has affected the LGBTIQ and Human rights community, and how Insight and other lgbtqi + groups have adapted their work to support the current needs of the war crisis.Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/

Abahlali baseMjondolo is a grassroots movement of poor shack dwellers in Durban and other parts of South Africa, advocating for the rights of people living in shacks, including access to decent housing, services and education. Since their inception, leaders of the fast growing movement – with a member base of up to 100,000 – have been targeted and sadly, killed. In the last two weeks, two leaders were again murdered, bringing the number of HRDs killed in the movement to over 20. 30-year old activist Ayanda Ngila was gunned down while tending to a communal garden in Cato Crest. He was a branch chairperson at the time of his murder. Shortly after, Bongumusa Manqele was killed in eNkanini informal settlement during a raid by a large police contingent. We chat to one of Abahlali’s prominent leaders, Sbu Zikode, to hear more about the situation.Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/

Season 4, episode1:Gaps in state-reported data on land and environmental rights defenders negatively and severely impacts the ability to monitor and mitigate situations where human rights defenders are at risk.In 2020, Front Line Defenders reported that 331 human rights defenders were killed, 69% being land and environmental rights defenders. But, Official data on killings remain limited, while there is even less data on physical and other types of lethal attacks on defenders. In this episode, we talk about the gap in data in terms of land rights defenders, touching on the crucial gap report and the data working group. We chat to Carole Excell, Director of Environmental Democracy Practice at the World Resources Institute, and Eva Hershaw, who works on land and monitoring data at the international land coalition.Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/

Topics covered: - How the situation unfolded since the suspicion of an initial hack and breach- How the announcement of the 6 organisations deemed as‘’terrorist’’ linked to the unfolding investigation- Who NSO Group is and what Pegasus is- How the devices were confirmed to be infected, and what happens when spyware is installed on a device- Recommendations on the situation and what the international community can do.Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontlinedefenders/