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Annual Report 2025
04

SOS-Defenders

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cases of human rights defenders arbitrarily detained have been documented on SOS-Defenders.

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human rights defenders were released with support of SOS-Defenders contributions.

In 2025, SOS-Defenders continued to document the arbitrary detentions of human rights defenders (HRDs) in a selected number of countries, reaching over 500 cases published on the platform since its launch. After the initial pilot phase, the project began to expand to include new partners and enable data collection in new countries, in order to provide a more comprehensive picture of the phenomenon of censorship by detention at the global level. Throughout the year, project partners engaged in multilateral advocacy efforts to mobilise actors for the protection of HRDs arbitrarily detained, contributing to 41 releases. In a global context of increasing repression and growing criminalisation of human rights work, SOS-Defenders contributed to key policy debates to reaffirm the right to defend human rights and challenge censorship by detention. The initiative was featured at major international events, such as the Global Week Against Torture 2025, the International Civil Society Week 2025, and the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council.

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Strengthening the Collective Response to Human Rights Defenders’ Arbitrary Detention

This year, within the OMCT–FIDH Observatory partnership, the 12th Inter-Mechanisms Meeting (IMM) brought together UN and regional mandate holders, civil society organisations, and European Human Rights Ambassadors to strengthen collective responses to this global pattern. The conversations made one thing clear: no mechanism alone can match the sophistication and persistence of state repression, but together, coordinated action can shift outcomes

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In the image from left to right: Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; Michel Forst, UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention; Gina Romero, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; and Roberta Clarke, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and Justice Operators.