Defenders in Development campaign

Our goal

We want to promote a safe and enabling environment, addressing reprisals and civic space issues so that communities and human rights defenders can drive their own development processes in the context of activities supported by development banks. You can read more about our 2025 – 2028 objectives here.

About the campaign

As many reports have documented, worldwide the space for civic space is shrinking: governments and corporate actors are increasingly restricting fundamental freedoms and repressing any form of dissent. In the context of development projects, where often there are high interest at stake, community members and human rights defenders expressing concerns, voicing their opinion, or sharing information are often threatened, criminalized, attacked, and even murdered. Reprisals send a chilling message to the wider community, curtail the opportunities for participation and engagement, and end up jeopardizing the success of the project itself. 

In 2018, members and partners of the Coalition for Human Rights in Development launched the Defenders in Development Campaign to ensure that communities and marginalized groups have the information, resources, protection and power to shape, participate in, or oppose development activities, and to hold development financiers, governments and companies accountable.

To achieve these objectives, the campaign engages in collective advocacy, capacity-building activities, research and campaigning.

Who we are

The Campaign is made up of defenders and those who work with them on issues of development and human rights, such as: community organizations; human rights and environmental groups; defender security organizations; transparency, accountability and press freedom NGOs; and Indigenous Peoples and women’s networks.