Implementing 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 through providing a safe and
enabling environment for human rights defenders and ensuring their protection
A/RES/74/146
17 December 2015 and 72/247 of 24 December 2017, and Human Rights Council
resolutions 13/13 of 25 March 2010,3 22/6 of 21 March 2013, 4 31/32 of 24 March
2016,5 34/5 of 23 March 2017 6 and 40/11 of 21 March 2019, 7
Reaffirming that States have the primary responsibility and are under the
obligation to respect, promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms
of all persons,
Reiterating that all human rights and fundamental freedoms are universal,
indivisible, interdependent and interrelated and should be promoted and implemented
in a fair and equitable manner, without prejudice to the implementation of each of
those rights and freedoms,
Reaffirming the importance of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and
its full and effective implementation, and that promoting respect, support and
protection for the activities of human rights defenders, including women, indigenous
and environmental human rights defenders, is essential to the overall enjoyment of
human rights, and recognizing the substantial role that human rights defenders can
play in supporting efforts to strengthen conflict prevention, peace and sustainable
development, including environmental protection, through dialogue, openness,
participation and justice, including by monitoring, reporting on and contributing to
the promotion and protection of all civil, political, economic, social and cultural
rights, and other rights, including the right to development, and in the context of the
implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, 8
Recognizing the positive, important and legitimate role played by human rights
defenders in the promotion and protection of human rights as they rel ate to the
enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and deeply
concerned that human rights defenders working in environmental matters, referred to
as environmental human rights defenders, are among the human rights defenders most
exposed and at risk,
Underscoring the positive, important and legitimate role of human rights
defenders in promoting and advocating the realization of all human rights, at the local,
national, regional and international levels, including by engaging with Go vernments
and contributing to the efforts in the implementation of the obligations and
commitments of States in this regard,
Stressing that, in the exercise of the rights and freedoms referred to in the
Declaration, human rights defenders, acting individually and in association with
others, shall be subject only to such limitations as are in accordance with applicable
international obligations and are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing
due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the
just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic
society,
Underscoring that the legal framework within which human rights defenders
work peacefully to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms is
that of national legislation consistent with the Charter and international human
rights law,
__________________
3
4
5
6
7
8
2/7
See Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-fifth Session, Supplement No. 53 and
corrigendum (A/65/53 and A/65/53/Corr.1), chap. II, sect. A.
Ibid., Sixty-eighth Session, Supplement No. 53 (A/68/53), chap. IV, sect. A.
Ibid., Seventy-first Session, Supplement No. 53 (A/71/53), chap. IV, sect. A.
Ibid., Seventy-second Session, Supplement No. 53 (A/72/53), chap. IV, sect. A.
Ibid., Seventy-fourth Session, Supplement No. 53 (A/74/53), chap. IV, sect. A.
Resolution 70/1.
19-22249