Civil Rights Defenders Partner Security Toolkit

The global covid-19 pandemic means new security challenges for all human rights defenders. In some countries, repressive regimes use the pandemic to further repress human rights defenders and civil society and silence opposition. Unfortunately, this is not something new – repressive regimes frequently utilise crisis as a way to consolidate power.

The toolkit is available in English and Russian.

Civil Rights Defenders cooperates with partner organisations and human rights defenders globally and we all work in diverse contexts with very different conditions. The covid-19 crisis has actualized the need for Security awareness and planning. Some risks human rights defenders now face are directly linked to the pandemic, others are related to repressive measures taken by governments. But there are also risks that existed prior to covid-19 and will exist after the pandemic as well.

Civil Rights Defenders strongly believes that Security Management must be an ongoing, circular process rather than something that starts and stops with this pandemic. The Toolkit “Risk Assessment COVID-19 and Beyond” provides practical tools and templates for human rights defenders on some of the specific concerns related to the pandemic, but also tools that can be used for other risks.

The toolkit is made in Excel with the intention to make it as practical as possible. Many questions are simply yes/no-based, as this makes the filling in easy and gives a good baseline for further security work.

Civil Rights Defenders has extensive experience in security trainings for human rights defenders. The toolkit is not in any way a complete security management tool but rather a practical entry point to some of the essential areas of security management. We strongly encourage further reading and study.

We strongly encourage human rights defenders to adapt tabs, columns and content to their specific context and needs. The content is under continuous development and if you have suggestions and ideas please contact security@civilrightsdefenders.org This can help us develop the toolkit, benefiting human rights defenders in our network and beyond.

The toolkit is free to copy, use and share, but please give credit to Civil Rights Defenders.