118 Human rights in practice 119 Human rights defendersinternational NGO members, human rights activists and UN staff members whose presence has attracted unwelcome attention to their human rights record.74 Human rights defenders are also increasingly at risk of reprisals from non-state actors, such as the so-called Islamic State.75 The UN has responded to these developments by establishing the position of Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Human Rights Defend-ers in 2000, which was later replaced by the UN Special Rapporteur on human, rights defenders in 2008.76 The Special Rapporteur has identified a number of developments of concern and exercises an important protective ftmction where human rights defenders are at risk. Dialogue with governments and others is critical to prevent violations but may often not be sufficient, in which case it becomes crucial to react promptly to serious threats. The UN and others have advocated putting in place mechanisms to help in a quick and infornial way where human rights defenders face adverse repercussions, such as by granting visa exemptions. These efforts have been complemented by European Union (EU}/Council of Europe (CoE) initiatives to support human ri ts defenders in the region and beyond.77 However, there are limits to the level of protection various official actors can provide in practice and human rights defenders themselves are increasingly using innovative strategies and are taking precautionary measures to minimise the risk.78 There are now an increasing number of NGOs and networks, such as Protection International, whose principal mandate is to provide protection to human rights defenders.874Beyond the issue of protection, human rights defenders, particularly NGOs, continue to be subjected to a barrage of restrictive practices aimed at control-ling their work. In early 2010, several NGOs expressed their concerns at attempts made by several states in the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) to narrow the definition of human rights defenders and better regulate their work so as to avoid the political abuse of NGO status and evasion of national laws.81 These attempts, which were ultimately unsuccessful, illustrate the atmosphere of distrust and hostility in which many human rights defenders have to operate. While some human rights defenders are reported to have engaged in questionable practices, including corruption, the thrust of the latest debate is clearly directed against the right to challenge state practices recog-nised in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which is still anathema to many governments. None the less, some states have adopted laws for the protection of human rights defenders, and the UN Human Rights Committee (HRCtee) and the UNGA have responded by reiterating the need for protection, including of women human rights defenders.82See e.g., the measures taken against NGOs in Sudan, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Addendum: Summary of Cases Transmitted to Gove
rnments and Replies Received, UN Doc. A/IIRC/13/22JAdd.1 (24 February 2010), paras 2114-18. 75 See e.g., FrontLineDefenders, Iraq-Human rights lawyer Samira Saleh Al-Nairni abducted and killed by ISIS (26 September 2014), www.frontlinedefenders.orginode/27353. 76 See www.ohchnorgjEN/Issues/SRHRDefenders/Pages/SRIIRDefendersIndex.aspx. See also TACHR, Rapporteurship on Human Rights Defenders, http://oas.orgieniiachridefenders/ default.asp, and ACraHPR, Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, www.achpr.org/ mechanisms/human-rights-defenders. , See EU Delegation to the UN, EU Council Conclusions on the 10th Anniversary of EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders (23 June 2014), lattp://eu-ina.europa.euJa.rticlesieni article_15216en.htm. 78 See E. Nesossi, Political Opportunities in Non-democracies: The Case of Chinese weiquan lawyers, (2015) 19 The International Journal of Human Rights 961, and F. Van der Vet and L Lyytikainen, Violence and Human Rights in Russia: How Human Rights Defenders Develop their Tactics in the Face of Danger, 2005-2013, (2015) 19 The International Journal of Human Rights 979. 79 See www.protectioninternation.aLorg. See also www.frontlinedefenders.org and, for a regional initiative, the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, vvww.defenddefenders.org. 80 See on the issue of protection more broadly, REDRESS, Ending Threats and Reprisals against Victims of Torture and Related International Crimes: A Call to Action (2009).After its military cotjpAI 1989, the Sudanese regime embarked on a crackdown against civil society activists and political opposition characterised by serious human rights violations, including a wave of bans, arbitrary arrests and detention, unfair trials, torture and extrajudicial killings. Throughout the 1990s any work related to human rights inside Sudan was extremely difficult due to the prevailing repressive atmosphere. Later, in 2001 and 2002, lawyers, doctors and journalists were able to establish two human rights organisations in Sudan, the Khartoum Centre for Human Rights and Environmental Development and the Amal (Hope)See Amnesty International and Others v. Sudan, (ACrnHPR) (1999).91 On 23 March 2010, a joint NOD statement expressed alarm at attempts during the negotiations to selectively quote from, rewrite, or restrict the clear provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders in order to regulate the work of NGOs and restrict protection only to those working on issues that governments had accepted or agreed with. See www.fonim-asia.org/20 0/100323-HRC13-FA,Joint-Item8-GD-reo/o2OHRDWo20draft0/0 20resolution-FENAL.pdf 82 Human Rights Council, Protecting Human Rights Defenders, UN Doc. Aft-WC/22/1_13 (15 March 2013), and UN General Assembly, Protecting Women Human Rights Defenders (30 January 2014). See also the list of measures that the IACtIEZ set out for the respondent state to implement an effective policy for the protection of human rights defenders, Human Rights Defender et al. v. Guatemala, paras. 263-4.