The GNCHR at the NHRI Academy 2025 of ENNHRI and ODIHR

Dr. Christos Tsevas, GNCHR Human Rights Advisor, participated in the Academy of National Human Rights Institutions, which was organized on 9-13 June 2025 in Warsaw by the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI) and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). The main topic of the Academy was the protection of Human Rights Defenders (HRDs).

Emphasis was placed on the UN Paris Principles, mainstreaming gender in NHRI’s work, international and regional standards of the protection of HRDs, early warning signs, smear campaigns and attacks against HRDs, laws and policies affecting freedom of association, freedom of assembly, judicial harassment and criminalization, SLAPPs, digital threats to HRDs and protecting HRDs in the digital space, identifying and responding to the early warning signs.

The participants exchanged good practices on the protection of HRDs and discussed the difficulties faced by HRDs and civil society in the region. The GNCHR presented its role in the protection of HRDs in general and in the areas of migration and asylum in particular, the connection and cooperation with civil society and the activities of the for Racist Violence Recording Network and the Recording Mechanism of Informal Forced Returns.