Dear friends and colleagues,

Human rights defenders are the agents of human rights change. However, their determination to protect the rights of others can leave them exposed to high risks and repressive laws.

Dear friends and colleagues,

Human rights defenders are the agents of human rights change. However, their determination to protect the rights of others can leave them exposed to high risks and repressive laws.

This May, the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project and the International Service for Human Rights are running a crucial joint fundraising appeal to support human rights defenders at risk. With your help, EHAHRDP and ISHR can support local activists, improve their access to international human rights mechanisms and ensure that national governments respond to their demands.

We need you to help us build upon our successes of the past month:

• Thanks to the backing of our supporters, ISHR and EHAHRDP lobbied successfully for the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to appoint a high-level official to combat reprisals and attacks against human rights defenders. With your help, we will push the UN to do likewise and improve human rights defenders’ safety.
• Donations mean that ISHR and EHAHRDP can generate international tools for the protection of rights, whilst strengthening local efforts to put them into action. The Indian Supreme Court recently applied the Yogyakarta Principles to prevent discrimination on the grounds of gender identity. ISHR's leadership in developing the Yogyakarta Principles was explicitly acknowledged in the Supreme Court judgment. We will use your support to work with EHAHRDP to improve their application and national level protection of rights in Africa.
• ISHR and EHAHRDP are experts in the UN and African human rights systems. Your donations enable us to provide practical training courses and strategic resources to defenders from diverse regions. With your contribution we will continue to pass skills and knowledge to defenders and strengthen their strategies for change.

Human rights defenders pay, sometimes with their lives, to promote and protect the rights of others. Please consider making a generous contribution to ISHR and EHAHRDP's work to support these brave activists and contribute to human rights change.

Yours sincerely,