The Bar Human Rights Committee (BHRC) and the Human Rights Lawyers Association (HRLA) are delighted to be co-hosting our third annual virtual seminar on Thursday 11 December 2025, ‘Advocacy & Strategy for Human Rights Defenders: Community, Communication & Collective Action’.
Throughout 2025, human rights defenders have operated within an increasingly volatile and unpredictable global environment. Across all regions, lawyers, judges and civil society actors have faced escalating threats to their independence, security and capacity to uphold internationally recognised human rights norms and the rule of law. Authoritarian practices are no longer confined to fragile or transitional states but are emerging within jurisdictions once regarded as stable and rights-respecting.
For human rights defenders, these developments have given rise to both acute personal risk and a profound structural crisis that has undermined the legitimacy and disrupted the effectiveness of human rights protection mechanisms. Yet, there remains reason to be hopeful for human rights, as within this febrile climate, new and often disruptive forms of advocacy, strategic communication and collective mobilisation are emerging to protect human rights and dignity, the global civic space and the normative and numinous foundations of human rights law and culture.
This virtual seminar, hosted on Zoom from 13:00 – 16:30 in the week of International Human Rights Day 2025, will bring together human rights lawyers, development practitioners and civil society actors to reflect on and share strategies for creative, digital, innovative and unconventional forms of advocacy, communication and collective action that challenge repression and protect, defend and strengthen civic space. The session aims to facilitate the exchange of good practices and lived experiences, to cultivate solidarity and inspire a renewed sense of optimism about the transformative potential of human rights in this time of profound uncertainty.
This seminar is the third annual collaboration between BHRC and HRLA following hugely popular events convened in 2023 and 2024 on skills and values for human rights careers and practice (which each attracted leading legal and civil society practitioners as well as early career lawyers and students from the UK and internationally and close to 500 online participants).
To register, please click here. The programme is below and will be updated regularly as speakers are confirmed.
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SEMINAR PROGRAMME | Advocacy & Strategy for Human Rights Defenders: Community, Communication & Collective Action
Opening Session (13:00 – 13:30)
Jo Cecil KC, Vice Chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England & Wales
Shoaib M Khan, Chair of HRLA
Keynote Speaker: Baroness Helena Kennedy LT KC, Director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute; BHRC Advisory Board; HRLA Patron
Panel 1: Hope for human rights in the current global climate (13:30 – 14:15)
The rule of law is under extraordinary attack from governments and non-state actors who seek to weaken judicial independence, manipulate legal systems and undermine politically inconvenient internationally recognised human rights standards. This panel will address how the creeping erosion of rights protections around the world is impacting human rights defenders, specifically lawyers, judges and civil society actors. Panellists will first spotlight examples of democratic backsliding, authoritarian legalism and efforts to delegitimise international institutions before considering how collective action can mobilise broader societal support for human rights action and rebuild public confidence in the rule of law.
Jo Cecil KC, Vice Chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England & Wales (Session Chair)
Aarif Abraham, Barrister, Doughty Street Chambers
Rothna Begum, Legal Advocacy Director at Waging Justice for Women, Clooney Foundation for Justice
Ben Keith, Barrister, 5 St Andrews Hill Chambers
Panel 2: Communicating and educating for human rights in the digital / AI space (14:15-15:00)
Against intensifying attacks on NGOs and civil society worldwide, this panel will explore innovative ways of amplifying human rights awareness, advocacy, training and education both within the legal profession and in wider civic and digital spaces using emerging digital tools and technologies. The discussion will also address how human rights defenders can use technology and AI tools and platforms to innovate powerful new responses to injustice, to build resilience against disinformation, strengthen civic trust and mobilise human rights action at local, national and international levels.
Dr Louise Loder, HRLA Vice Chair; BHRC Programmes / Legal Education & Training Lead; Senior Lecturer in Law, Exeter Law School (Session Chair)
Asia Eaton, Interim Executive Director, Mindbridge
Dr Kamel El Hilali, Specialist, AI & Rule of Law, UNESCO & Research Associate, Yale Law School Information Society Project
Georgia Rigg, Amnesty International Digital Disruptors
Panel 3: Transnational Solidarity: A global legal response to transnational repression? (15:00-15:45)
Globally, human rights defenders face escalating harassment, surveillance, and the misuse of Interpol Red Notices and Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, as state and non-state actors exploit international policing systems, weaponise legal processes and deploy intrusive digital surveillance to target defenders and their families in exile. These are measures designed to suppress, intimidate and silence those who challenge abuses of power, and constrain civic and political expression. This session explores how transnational solidarity in the legal profession can respond to rising concerns over transnational repression (TNR), defined by the Joint Committee on Human Rights as ‘state-directed crimes or actions against individuals that take place outside the territory of the perpetrating state’. With new international initiatives emerging to counter TNR, speakers will consider how lawyers and civil society actors can work more cohesively together to advocate for and strengthen international accountability frameworks and strategically build resilient global networks of defence and support.
Jodie Blackstock, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers (Session Chair)
Callum Birch, Senior Advocacy Officer, UN Advocacy Team, ARTICLE 19
Raphael Viana David, International Service for Human Rights
Dr Ewelina Ochab, Senior Programme Lawyer, IBA’s Human Rights Institute
Ana Žbona, Co-Head, Civic Freedoms & Human Rights Defenders Programme, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
Closing Keynote & Panel: Building positive, impactful partnerships and programmes for human rights (15:45 – 16:30)
This closing panel with a special keynote looks toward the future of human rights by examining how solidarity and collaboration across sectors can address the structural challenges confronting human rights defenders and organisations in a volatile global environment. The discussion will consider how cross-sector partnerships can strengthen protection mechanisms, reinforce accountability and expand the reach of rights-based work. The session will advance a forward-looking vision of human rights practice that is grounded in cooperation, promotes resilience and can strengthen our collective capacity to uphold justice in an increasingly complex global environment.
Shoaib M Khan, Chair of the Human Rights Lawyers Association (Session Chair)
Keynote: Nighat Dad, Executive Director, Digital Rights Foundation
Deborah Acquaah, Justice First Fellowship Manager, LEF
Samantha Knights KC, Barrister, Matrix Chambers & Chair of the Advisory Board, European Human Rights Advocacy Centre
