Dear Friends and Partners of the ISHR,

As 2022 comes to a close, the task of defending human rights globally but especially in some of the countries you are operating in remains enormous.

Of course, Russia’s war on Ukraine has been one of the defining challenges for us as an organization that has many sections in Eastern Europe – and also a section in Ukraine itself – in recent months. We have systematically monitored human rights violations and humanitarian challenges in the wake of the war in Ukraine and neighboring countries, brought them to the attention of the European and global public, and very practically, through advocacy and humanitarian assistance, helped to ensure that some acute crises at least do not worsen, and ideally are mitigated somewhat.

Together with partners in Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine itself, we designed and implemented new aid projects and received great support from our partners. All of you – institutional partners but also individuals who support us thematically as well as financially – make our work possible and for that I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart.

In addition to the war in Ukraine, we have been occupied with numerous other hot spots of global human rights work – decisive for us as the international ISHR secretariat are always the diverse activities of our national sections and working groups. To name just a few prominent issues: Of course, we have dealt a lot with the Mahsa Amini protests in Iran since September 16, 2022, with the human rights situation in China and the global Chinese influence and the intensifying China-Taiwan conflict. In addition, however, our work has focused throughout the year 2022 on the less visible crises and human rights threat situations. A good source of information on this are the reports from our sections in Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

What brings us a lot of joy and motivation is to see our global network is constantly expanding and deepening. Especially through our efforts to strengthen existing African ISHR sections and build new sections on the African continent, we have seen some wonderful dynamics and developments in the year 2022 with new additions to our network of human rights defenders, new projects and new topics.

Also, as an international ISHR secretariat, we were pioneering new communication channels, especially in social media, and new event formats in the year 2022. Just think of the great and inspiring Twitter spaces events that we were able to have in autumn of this year. At this point, let me specifically mention my dear colleagues in the ISHR secretariat, Ms. Irene Bonjeh Azong-Wara (ISHR’s head of communication) and Mr. Alex Martin Musiime (ISHR’s Project Support Officer) who have done a remarkable job in communications but more than that in many other fields, too, like event management, network development and thematic research.

2022 has been a special year in another regard, too: We celebrated 40 years of ISHR and 50 years of our German section – IGFM. Doing so, we salute the human rights defenders that make up our sections in over 30 different countries. We honor their work in fighting for democracy so that independent courts can function, for press freedom, for robust legislature and civil society that keeps the checks and balances in place.

Who are these human rights defenders? They are people like our colleagues in Ukraine led by Anton Aleksev who have carried out court monitoring in Ukraine and Armenia and have now switched to offering humanitarian aid within Ukraine. They are people like Olga Karatch from Belarus amongst many other things that she does supporting women against repression. Or people like Wanjeri Nderu – a Kenyan activist who uses social media to mobilize people on issues such as constitutional rights, rape of male minors or extrajudicial killings amongst others.

Let me return to the topic of the war in Ukraine. For Europeans, and I am one of them living with my family in Germany, the year 2022 has been the year in which not only a major war broke out on our doorstep but in which the fear of war swept through the continent like never before in the past couple of peaceful decades. For many Europeans this meant waking up to an ugly reality that on the other hand many people in other – less peaceful – parts of the world live with every day. Personally, I had the chance in this context – besides other trips outside of the continent – to travel to each and every European country in 2022, to meet with citizens and activist and to listen to their perspectives, fears but also joys. And I can say what makes me hopeful is that there is still – in the midst of all trouble – so much hope, so much determination to defend freedom and democracy, values and rights and so much European togetherness.

These are all things I wish for all of us in the global ISHR family and among our partners and supporters at the end of this year: Let us be hopeful, let us be determined in our important work and let us walk together. In the complex challenges of today, we need one another, we need to be in touch with each other, communicating, discussing, wrestling with each other. In summary, this is my invitation to all of you: Let us be the International Society for Human Rights together in 2023.

Season’s Greetings and a blessed and peaceful new year 2023!