Human Rights Defenders

In 2025, OMCT intensified its efforts to protect human rights defenders (HRDs) worldwide in a context marked by escalating repression, shrinking civic space, restrictive legislation, and severe cuts in funding for civil society. Crackdowns in countries such as Georgia and Venezuela led to the closure of organisations advocating for human rights, underscoring the urgency of sustained international solidarity and protection.

OMCT combined advocacy, documentation, monitoring through country visits and engagement with international and regional mechanisms across all regions. In the Americas, OMCT facilitated advocacy visits to Washington, D.C., Brussels and Geneva for defenders from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Venezuela and Peru, engaged with UN and Inter-American mechanisms, and published the Observatory report on civic space in Venezuela. In Asia, a country visit to Nepal and the publication of a report on Iran were key milestones, complemented by support to an Iranian organisation in exile providing psychosocial assistance to defenders subjected to torture. In the Middle East and North Africa, OMCT organised side events at the Human Rights Council and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and supported women’s rights and LGBTQI+ organisations in Iraq and Tunisia. In Africa, OMCT conducted country visits and solidarity actions with HRDs in exile in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Togo, while strengthening regional partnerships. In Europe and Central Asia, OMCT organised side events within the OSCE framework and carried out a country visit to Georgia.

For Afghanistan, HRDs attended all Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva and organised three side-events, five closed-doors meetings, with a highlight of the approval for the establishment of an international independent investigative mechanism for Afghanistan. OMCT organized a psychosocial workshop for Afghan HRDs in exile and continue to support HRDs and their grassroots projects inside Afghanistan.