Human Rights Defenders Network

If you work in social care, health, housing, education or enabling access to justice you are a human rights defender. If you are a trade unionist, an advocate, build capacity or campaign for improvements in publicly funded services, then you are a human rights defender too. Human rights defenders work for us all, to ensure the equal enjoyment of economic, social, civil, political, cultural and environmental rights. Each one of us operates in a field of work or within a network and it’s now time to come together to think about how we can work more effectively together.

The UN agreed a ‘Human Rights Defender’ framework 20 years ago setting out roles for duty bearers and rights holders. The UN says human rights defenders are partners, an asset to be valued and not marginalised or treated as a threat. Experience and practice shows that human rights defenders shape policies which address real needs and propose practical solutions on a wide range of processes such as making complaints systems accessible. 

It is a good idea to put the UN Framework in place in Glasgow in 2019. GCVS has decided to convene a meeting about establishing a ‘Human Rights Defender Network’ to: discuss human rights practice, rather than theory; to seize current opportunities for integrating human rights into decisions on services, funding and policy; to think about how we can individually and collectively realise human rights standards and remedies in Glasgow. 

The meeting is open to civil society organisations working in Glasgow to:

• be briefed on developments and opportunities

• think about human rights within our organisations and in external activity

• how we can collectively maximise our influence on making human rights a practical reality for the people we work with, for ourselves and our families.

Please come along to discuss the idea and give your views. 

GCVS is the main development agency and advocate for voluntary and community organisations in Glasgow and one of the largest Council’s for the Voluntary Sector in the UK. We are also one of four key partners – (GCVS, Volunteer Glasgow, Glasgow Social Enterprise Network and the Third Sector Forum) – that form Glasgow’s Third Sector Interface – the partnership that supports and represents the third sector in Glasgow and through which the Scottish Government engages with the third sector. For more information visit our website  http://www.gcvs.org.uk/