UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
In 2000 the UN Commission on Human Rightsi established as a Special Procedure (1) the mandate on the situation of human rights defenders in order to support the implementation of the 1998 Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. In 2008, the Human Rights Council idecided to continue the mandate for a period of three years and appointed Mrs. Margaret Sekaggya as Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, a Ugandan magistrate, Chairperson of the Uganda Human Rights Commission from 1996 to 2008 and engaged with the human rights situation of people living with HIV/AIDS, children, women and elderly and disabled people.
On 2011 the Special Rapporteur submitted her third report to the UN Human Rights Council, which had the particularity of being the first exclusively focused on the situation of women human rights defenders and those working on women’s rights or gender issues. According to the report, women defenders are more at risk of suffering certain forms of violence and other violations than their male counterparts. “This is often due to the fact that women defenders are perceived as challenging accepted socio-cultural norms, traditions, perceptions and stereotypes about femininity, sexual orientation, and the role and status of women in society”, the report stateis.
1 "Special procedures" is the general name given to the mechanisms established by the UN Human Rights Council to address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special procedures are either independent individuals (known as Special Rapporteurs, Special Representatives or Individual Experts) or working groups with expertise on particular thematic areas are mandated to, amongst other things, respond to individual complaints and conduct studies. They prepare an annual report as well as specific reports on country missions which are presented to the UN Human Rights Council and respond to questions and comments on them.
