I have spent many years working alongside human rights defenders (HRDs) – people who promote or protect human rights – most recently at the Centre for Applied Human Rights in York. This direct work on the protection of HRDs has given rise to many questions concerning the way we operate in this field. There are some inconsistencies in the types of people we support and protect. Why, for example, are climate activists (environmental HRDs) in the UK not receiving the same level of support from international protection organisations and government bodies as that offered to those working on similar issues overseas. My proposed research question will consider the conditions of solidarity human rights protection organisations place on whom they offer support.
There has been growing criminalisation of nonviolent climate protesters in the UK in recent years. In July 2024, harsh prison sentences were handed to Just Stop Oil protestors planning to block the M25, on the basis that they conspired to commit public nuisance – the longest sentences meted out for non-violent protest in the UK. The UN’s Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders has expressed serious concern at the treatment of climate activists in the UK. In cracking down on protesters, governments
are violating their legal commitments to protect basic rights.
These actions stand in stark contrast to the UK’s public commitment to the protection of human rights defenders [commonly known as HRDs] around the world. The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office has produced policy guidelines in 2019 entitled ‘UK Support for Human Rights Defenders’, highlighting HRDs working on environmental rights as one of the groups facing particularly high risks. However popular and policy discourse too often fails to make a connection between domestic treatment of defenders and its position in relation to defenders at risk overseas”. British politicians and media tend to label environmental HRDs in the UK as ‘activists’, ‘protesters’ or ‘campaigners’, rather than ‘human rights defenders’.
My main area of research is to explore why the British government and civil society actors do not offer activists in the UK the same level of support as those operating overseas. In partnership with Amnesty International, my project explores the following research questions in relation to non-violent climate activists in the United Kingdom:
- What are the political and social conditions under which state authorities, civil, society, and the media recognise climate activists as ‘human rights defenders’ and see them as deserving of protection?
- How does such recognition – or the lack of it – impact on how they are portrayed and treated?
Previous publications
Nah, A.M., Maliamauv, K. and Bartley, P. (2018) Countering the Stigmatization of Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights Defender Hub Policy Brief 5, Centre for Applied Human Rights, University of York
Jones, Nah and Bartley (2019) Temporary Shelter and Relocation Initiatives, Perspectives of Managers and Participants.
Bartley (2020) Wellbeing During Temporary International Relocation: Case Studies and Good Practices
Bartley, P., Monterrosas, E. and Ruiz, P.P., 2020. Resisting a hostile and insecure environment for defending rights in Mexico. In Protecting human rights defenders at risk (pp. 104-129). Routledge.
