Reunited: Human Rights Houses Network meeting 2023
After several years of unprecedented global events, the Network of Human Rights Houses convened in Warsaw from 20-24 November for the first in-person Network meeting since 2019. Colleagues from 28 CSOs from 12 countries reconnected to discuss successes, common challenges, and emerging human rights trends.
Network of Human Rights Houses“These are particularly challenging times for human rights defenders across the regions where we work. This Network meeting of Human Rights Houses, the first following the pandemic, allowed Network members to reconnect and recommit to our core values. Solidarity, experience-sharing, and cooperation across borders makes us all better equipped to continue our work to protect and advance human rights,” Maria Dahle, Human Rights House Foundation
The 2023 Network meeting was the first held following the onset of the global pandemic and amid global upheavals, including a renewed political crackdown in Belarus, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and armed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Following the format of previous Network Meetings, this year, human rights defenders from across the region reunited with old colleagues and met with new ones, shared successes, updates and ideas, initiated new processes and projects, and stood united in solidarity with imprisoned colleagues. The Network Meeting also served as a platform to discuss critical trends: the rise of authoritarianism, and the spread of disinformation.
Liudmyla Yankina, Human Rights Centre ZMINA…
The Network Meeting served as a platform for participants to discuss practical possibilities for cooperation and harnessing new working methods, and also for moral support, says Ukrainian participant Liudmyla Yankina.
“These meetings are always of the most practical nature from the point of view of my work and the most supportive effect from the personal impact point of view.”
“Such meetings have great value for me – also due to the specific people I admire and respect as professionals, and with whom we have become friends and keep in touch – those who, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, have shown tremendous care and support for me personally. I am very grateful to them for that, even when we meet outside of Ukraine – for me it is like a kind of therapy.”
“For us [Ukrainians], the Network Meeting is not only about new opportunities [for cooperation], but also about moral support – we share with our colleagues some of our difficult moments.”
Liudmyla Yankina with Serhiy Burov and Yana Sobko, Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv“Online communication is, of course, valuable, and it is wonderful that we still have it… But seeing each other physically, hugging, sharing some of our worries, or consulting about new potential solutions, is very valuable.
For instance, lately, I think a lot about AI and how we can use it, e.g., to help victims of war crimes. And today I had the opportunity to discuss it with my colleagues and the invited experts and we will continue the opportunities in this regard together.
I developed this idea during the meeting – thanks to the lively atmosphere. For me, these meetings are always of the most practical nature from the point of view of my work and the most supportive effect from the personal impact point of view.”
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Source: Human Rights House Foundation
