In defence of defenders: criminalised solidarity in Europe

Watch the recording of this event.

The Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, in cooperation with the Border Violence Monitoring Network, would like to cordially invite you to join our launch event and online panel discussion on how to support criminalised Human Rights Defenders in Europe on a policy, legal and practical level.

Migration as well as solidarity with people on the move are increasingly treated as criminal acts in Europe. At the same time the so-called “management” of migration and protection are externalised outside the fortified borders of the EU. Criminalisation can come in various forms and with very different scopes and it is important that activists and organisations are aware of the existing options for action and defence. 

In order to better enable targeted Human Rights Defenders to do so, the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung published a toolkit for practitioners, authored by members of the Border Violence Monitoring Network.

This toolkit is the result of in depth research but also intensive discussions and exchanges with legal experts, practitioners and activists from all over Europe and seeks to support affected Human Rights Defenders by showing them mechanisms and avenues for help and self-defence in case of criminalisation. And while this toolkit supports individuals and organisations to deal with the consequences of criminalisation, it is important to see the greater political context of this growing phenomenon and to tackle this trend of criminalising both, people on the move and solidarity with them, on a political level.

For this purpose we are pleased to invite you to join us for the online launch of our toolkit and to follow and participate in our panel discussion with policy-makers, researchers, journalists and practitioners.

Programme

Welcome by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung

Input by Elena Beck, Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN)

Panel discussion with:

• Brian J. Dooley, Senior Advisor to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
• Marta Gionco, Advocacy Officer Migration Policy at the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM)
• Hannah Neumann, Member of the European Parliament (Greens/EFA), Vice-Chair of the EP Subcommittee on Human Rights
• David Yambio, Co-Founder and spokersperson of “Refugees in Libya”

Moderation: Neda Noraie-Kia, Head of Migration Policy Europe, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Thessaloniki

For any question, please contact Anna Mes Trzcińska.