WHO WE ARE

The Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) is a network of Human Rights Organisations and Defenders established and registered in 2018 and officially launched on 11 December 2017, a day after the commemoration of the World Human Rights Day as a space to promote, among other rights, the enjoyment of the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly by the civil society.

The HRDC was established by the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR), Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP) and the Malawi Law Society (MLS) following a UNDP-supported roundtable discussion on the civic space that was held on 13 December, 2016 in Lilongwe, attended by human rights defenders and journalists.

The establishment of HRDC is in line with the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders 1998 and the Commission’s Resolutions on Human Rights Defenders including ACHPR/Resolution 69(XXXV) 04, ACHPR/Resolution 119(XXXXII) 07, and ACHPR/Res.196 (L) 11.

The HRDC’s formation was Malawian civil society’s strategic and urgent response to the shrinking civic space in Malawi, evident in the proliferation of repressive new polices which aimed to restrict the civic space, arrest dissent views, decrease CSOs access to financial support, and threats as well as attack against human rights defenders engaged in legitimate human rights work.

CORE VALUES

We use the following guiding principles to evaluate all our decisions and purposefully move us toward our vision to be recognized as a support system for and capacity developer of human rights defenders in Malawi:

Transparency

We ensure that we operates in an open and transparent manner and that we are accountable and uses trusted channels of communication and consultation to engage effectively with its stakeholders

INTEGRITY

HRDC acts with the highest moral and ethical standards. We ensure honesty, consistently and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values.

IMPARTIALITY

We act with impartiality and our decisions will be based on objective criteria, rather than on the basis of bias, prejudice, or preferring to benefit one person over another for improper reasons.

INCLUSIVITY

HRDC provides equal opportunities to both male and female, and where necessary, shall deliberately work to promote the interest of women, youth, people living with disabilities and the marginalised groups for the realization of equal rights for all in society.

SOLIDARITY

Our determination is to work to the good of all in a spirit of mutual responsibility in participatory partnerships, ensuring broad participation and ownership, shared values, collaborative spirit and mutual respect underpinned by transparency and accountability

ACCOUNTABILITY

We are accountable, reliable and act responsibly. We value the ability of our staff and members to honour our commitments, to stakeholders and ourselves. We take ownership of our work and promptly correct mistakes to the greatest extent possible.

DO NO HARM

All members of HRDC are guided by the principles of DO NO HARM and we safeguard the rights of children and other vulnerable groups when carrying out our work

OUR WORK

The Malawi Human Rights Defenders Coalition is an organisation that works to protect and defend human rights in Malawi, through advocacy and activism. HRDC’s main objective is to respond to safety and security needs of human rights defenders and create an engagement platform for all Human Rights Defenders in Malawi. HRDC seeks to achieve its mission through civic education, research, capacity building, evidence-based advocacy and public interest litigation. The Human Rights Defenders forum is currently co-hosted by CHRR and CEDEP.

The coalition has membership across the four administrative regions in Malawi –the Southern, Eastern, Central and Northern, as well as members in each of Malawi’s 28 districts, and chapters in tertiary institutions, mainly Universities of Malawi, Mzuzu, Malawi Assemblies of God and Livingstonia.

Notably, the HRDC has for over the recent year—from March 2019 to June 2020, organised peaceful countrywide civil resistance activities in reaction to the rampant adaption and killings of persons with albinism and pressurised government for the need to adequately protect them; the positive impact of which being the realisation of allocation of some significant funding in the current seating of parliament considering the 2019-2020 national budget.

The actions led to the 2019/2020 National Budget including MK600 million ($819 000) to construct houses for persons with albinism, and MK400 million ($546 000) to implement the action plan for the protection of persons with albinism. There also has been significant reduction in abductions and killings of persons with albinism.