Annual Report 2024
14

Funding and Finance

A Darkening Context

In 2024, the world continued down a path of global fragmentation, instability, polarisation, and conflict. Armed conflict is at an 80-year high, authoritarianism is on the rise, and respect for human rights is sharply declining - all ingredients for an upsurge in torture and ill-treatment, which in turn erode public confidence in institutions and exacerbate instability. Everywhere we are seeing weakening commitments to multilateralism – felt acutely in narrowing or disappearing budgets for human rights groups. In many countries, civic space is shrinking, progressive foundations are not fully capable of filling these gaps, and only precious few corporations are choosing rights-based approaches and social responsibility, despite record-breaking inequities.

In 2024, OMCT, together with other partners in Brussels, released "The Landscape of Public International Funding for Human Rights Defenders (HRDs)," which confirmed that funding for HRDs has not changed significantly since 2016, and stunningly still represents a mere 0.11% of total Official Development Assistance (ODA) annually. This underscores the need for boosting support to safeguard the promotion and protection of human rights locally and globally. Also in 2024, OMCT and partners in the United Against Torture Consortium held our first major Briefing for Donors jointly organized by six major international anti-torture organisations (APT, FIACAT, IRCT, Omega Research Foundation, OMCT, and REDRESS), highlighting the clear gains by our movement when we join forces, pool resources, and expand our reach and impact. Yet these positive results have been overshadowed by global turbulence and increased public attention to scarce resources in an outrageously unequal world.

Turning to Innovation and Collective Action

Funding for the fight against torture and protection of human rights defenders is also stagnating because the social benefits are not always visible or tangible to people feeling the twisting squeeze of inequity on their lives. The needs of our local partners are even more urgent, requiring more funding, new tools and collective work to handle multiplying cases and crises. In our view, innovation and collective action are the clearest answers to the challenges facing our cause.

Despite this new period of fragmentation, we are deeply grateful to our Network Members and our donors, who have all stood with us to build collective actions through the years, and we very warmly welcome new partners and donors investing in our movement. We also hope that more will join us in 2025, as we pursue innovation and coalition-building to win back broader public opinion supporting the absolute prohibition, and to protect the right to defend human rights and freedoms.

Thank you. Contact us, stand with us, consider a donation, and help us advance against torture together.

  1. Commission européenne / European Commission
  2. Département d'Etat américain - DRL / US Department of State
  3. Open Society Foundations / Open Society Foundations
  4. The Sigrid Rausing Trust / The Sigrid Rausing Trust
  5. Départ. des aff étr. de la Suisse - DPDH / Federal Dep. of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland FDFA
  6. Fondation Oak / Oak Foundation
  7. Ministère des affaires étrangères de la Finlande / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
  8. Département fédéral des affaires étrangères de la Suisse – Ambassade - Division Coopération Internationale / Federal Dep. of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland FDFA
  9. Département fédéral des affaires étrangères de la Suisse – Division Paix et droit de l’homme
  10. Donations privées / Individual donations
  11. République et Canton de Genève / The Republic and Canton of Geneva
  12. Ville de Genève / City of Geneva
  13. Bureau des affaires étrangères du Liechtenstein / Office for Foreign Affairs Principality of Liechtenstein
  14. Ministère des affaires étrangères du Danemark / Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark
  15. MISEREOR-KZE / MISEREOR-KZE
  16. Département des affaires étrangères et du commerce d'Irlande / Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland
  17. Association Genevoise privée / Private Genevan Association
  18. Donation privée / Private Donation
  19. Fondation Philanthropia Lombard Odier/ Philanthropia Foundation Lombard Odier
  20. Fondation Philanthropique Famille Sandoz / Philanthropia Foundation Sandoz Familly
  21. German Federal Foreign Office – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e. V. (IFA)
  22. Haut-Commissariat des Nations Unies aux Droits de l’Homme (HCDH)
  23. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of the Netherlands
  24. Commune de Plan-les-Ouates
  25. Norwegian Human Rights Fund (MRF - MENNESKERETTIGHETSFONDET)
  26. Rafto Foundation for Human Rights

Join our global movement against torture to help protect human rights defenders worldwide and empower survivors to recover and obtain justice. Consider supporting OMCT and its SOS Torture Network – your donation can make a real difference in promoting human dignity.

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