232 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 79 PART 2 MARCH 2021
Lest lawyers in Western democracies be complacent, one need only look
to events in the United States in 2020 to see how vilification can be used to
justify and incite attacks against defenders. In 2020, the then-U.S. president
labelled peaceful protestors as “left wing extremists”29 and journalists as
“enemies of the people”.30 Subsequent crackdowns against peaceful protestors
during 2020 included arrests in numerous cities of hundreds of journalists31
and dozens of clearly marked legal observers reporting on protests.32
“Then They Build Monuments”
Generations of human rights defenders have achieved the creation of inter-
national law aimed at prevention and remediation of human rights viola-
tions. Over the past 70 years, international human rights norms have been
accepted by the vast majority of countries, including (in varying degrees)
by China, Colombia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Looking at the international human rights treaties, one might imagine a
world of peace and human dignity. Have the treaties become impotent
monuments to international human rights to which states only pay lip service?
International human rights law and standards came about as a result of
the work of human rights defenders, sometimes at the cost of livelihoods,
reputations, freedoms or even their lives. And it will be defenders who
bring about the respect, protection and fulfillment of rights, through docu-
mentation of facts, legal research, public reporting, advocacy and interna-
tional human rights education. Effective implementation of international
human rights law and standards depends on the support of lawyers, legal
scholars and other rights advocates.33
ENDNOTES
1. Labour rights lawyer Nicholas Klein, speech deliv-
ered 15 May 1918, quoted in Documentary History
of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America:
1916-1918, Proceedings of the Third Biennial Con-
vention of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of
America (Baltimore, Maryland, 13–18 May 1918) at
53, online: <books.google.ca/books?id=QrcpAAA
AYAAJ&q=monuments&redir_esc=y#v=snippet&>.
A similar quote is misattributed to Mahatma Gandhi:
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then
they fight you, then you win”. See “Quote Wrongly
Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi”, Associated Press (5
October 2018), online: <apnews.com/article/23158
80316>.
2. Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada, LRWC Biennial
Report 2017-2018, at 2, online: <www.lrwc.org/
ws/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/LRWC-Biennial-
Report-2017-2018.Edition.May_.2019.F-1.pdf>.
3. UN General Assembly, Declaration on the Right and
Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of
Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, 8
March 1999, A/RES/53/144, online: <www.ref
world.org/docid/3b00f54c14.html>. See also the
UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, 7 September
1990, online: <www.refworld.org/docid/
3ddb9f034.html>.
4. Global Witness, Defending Tomorrow: The Climate
Crisis and Threats Against Land and Environmental
Defenders (July 2020), online: <www.globalwitness.
org/documents/19939/Defending_Tomorrow_EN_
low_res_-_July_2020.pdf>.
5. Erika Guevara-Rosas, “Stop the Killing of Human
Rights Defenders!”, Amnesty International (10
December 2018), online: <www.amnesty.org/en/
latest/news/2018/12/stop-the-killing-of-human-
rights-defenders/>.
6. Amnesty International, “Saudi Arabia: Chilling
Smear Campaign Against Women’s Rights Defend-
ers” (19 May 2018), online: <www.amnesty.org/en
/latest/news/2018/05/saudi-arabia-chilling-
smear-campaign-tries-to-discredit-loujain-al-hath
loul-and-other-detained-womens-rights-defenders/>.
/Defending_Tomorrow_EN_low_res_-_July_2020.pdf
/LRWC-Biennial-Report-2017-2018.Edition.May_.2019.F-1.pdf
/LRWC-Biennial-Report-2017-2018.Edition.May_.2019.F-1.pdf
/3b00f54c14.html
/3b00f54c14.html
/3ddb9f034.html
/3ddb9f034.html
/LRWC-Biennial-Report-2017-2018.Edition.May_.2019.F-1.pdf
/Defending_Tomorrow_EN_low_res_-_July_2020.pdf
/Defending_Tomorrow_EN_low_res_-_July_2020.pdf
/books?id=QrcpAAAAYAAJ&q=monuments&redir_esc=y#v=snippet&
/2315880316
/
/
/3b00f54c14.html