About Defenders’ Days Conference
Defenders’ Days Conference is one of the world’s largest conferences with and for human rights defenders. It is organised by Civil Rights Defenders and takes place in Stockholm every second year, where roughly 200 human rights defenders from five continents participate in the conference.
The purpose of the conference is to strengthen and support human rights defenders. It also creates opportunities for networking and exchange of knowledge between people who, every day, despite risks to their own safety, fight for democracy, freedom of expression, and human rights.
The conference includes workshops for and together with human rights defenders. Defenders’ Days offers a broad list of topics to learn more about, such as digital security, psychosocial aspects of security, and innovation as a means to combat human rights violations.
Organised since 2013
Defenders’ Days Conference was first organised in 2013 and held annually until the strategic decision was made to organise the conference every two years. The most recent Defenders’ Days was held in 2022 and gathered over 200 human rights defenders from five continents. The previous conference agendas, including information on workshops, trainers and panellists, can be found in the list below.
The global networking platform Defenders’ Days
Defenders’ Days is Civil Rights Defenders’ global networking platform for human rights defenders, informed by the defenders’ needs and focused on using innovative tools to combat human rights violations. The platform consists of the Defenders’ Days Conference, Bootcamp, and Community.
The Defenders’ Days Bootcamp offers human rights defenders remote training and skill-sharing opportunities. The bootcamps give human rights defenders a chance to participate in various Civil Rights Defenders’ training opportunities and for Civil Rights Defenders to evaluate and develop our training concepts.
The aim of Defenders’ Days
- To strengthen the capacity and protection of human rights defenders;
- To support cooperation, networking and exchange of knowledge among human rights defenders;
- To strengthen the recognition of human rights defenders and highlight the situation of human rights defenders at risk.
Civil Rights Defenders’ ambition is to ensure that the participating human rights defenders leave Defenders’ Days with enhanced knowledge of relevant topics and a feeling of strong moral support from the international community.
Contact
Questions regarding Defenders’ Days? Please email defendersdays@crd.org.
For updates and news from the conference, follow #defendersdays on social media.