Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Expansion of Political Space
The UNESCO Chair in the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Expansion of Political Space is based at the Centre for Applied Human Rights (CAHR), University of York (UK). The goal of the Chair, and its network of university and civil society partners, is to enhance the role of universities in activism and protection.
The Chair will develop communities of practice, understood as multi-stakeholder spaces for dialogue; exchange of experience, knowledge and learning; trialling grounds for collaboration and innovation; and routes to impact.
Key activities of the Chair to date include bringing together universities, NGOs, donors and human rights defenders to co-produce Guidelines for Universities Hosting Human Rights Defenders and supporting the establishment of three regional university hubs. The Guidelines represent an invitation for universities to get involved in hosting human rights defenders, a source of inspiration about why this work matters, and a guide and set of tools on how to provide support and become part of the protection ecosystem. The aim of the regional hubs—in Africa, Asia and Latin America—is to support the localisation of protection closer to defenders’ home countries.
Universities can play diverse roles in championing and protecting activism and activists. These roles require engagement with three core themes:
Latest news and recent publications
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2026 Symposium Report
The Africa Hub in partnership with the UNESCO Chair brought together 46 participants from universities, civil society organisations, and donor institutions working on democracy and the protection of human rights defenders across 22 countries in Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe.
The symposium responded to intensifying democratic backsliding and the systematic contraction of civic space, and the significant implications for both HRDs and the institutions that support them.
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New research published on resourcing strategies in an era of permacrisis
Drawing on the first in-depth academic study of Feminist Funds’ resourcing practices, this research highlights a critical disconnect: while grassroots feminist movements are already delivering trusted, locally grounded and intersectional responses to crisis, the funding models intended to support them remain limited, short-term, and fragmented.
This research examines the alternative, and hopeful, resourcing practices being offered by Feminist Funds, proposing a new resourcing model that shifts power from donor-led systems to movement-led resourcing.
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New working paper
"Since universities have moral human rights responsibilities and legally binding human rights duties, institutional neutrality is not an option, and to observe human rights becomes a matter of duty."
Written during a research stay at CAHR, this paper by Professor Wouter Vandenhole of the University of Antwerp argues that it is time for universities, as emerging human rights duty-bearers, to embrace their institutional responsibility for human rights, to adopt a human rights position, and to set up a governance structure for taking a stance on specific human rights issues.