Protecting Civic Space - the Role of Human Rights Defenders and Freedom of Peaceful Assembly: Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting II
When
Where
Organized by
Supplementary Human Dimension Meetings provide a platform for an exchange of views between OSCE participating States, OSCE institutions, international organizations, civil society, and other stakeholders to discuss the implementation of specific OSCE commitments in the human dimension.
Topic
The second Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting of 2025 will focus on protecting civic space, the role of human rights defenders and freedom of peaceful assembly.
Across the OSCE region, civic space is shrinking, restrictions on freedom of peaceful assembly are increasing, and human rights defenders face growing challenges in carrying out their work.
The first session will look at rising threats to freedom of peaceful assembly, including the excessive use of force, undue restrictions and disproportionate penalties. It will highlight how respecting this right is interlinked with strong civic space and democracy and the central role played by independent assembly monitors in protecting it.
The second session will examine challenges faced by a broad range of human rights defenders in all their diversity at home, in exile, and across borders. It will also discuss effective responses to challenges such as “foreign agents” laws, stigmatization and discreditation campaigns, criminalization and judicial harassment, and censorship and surveillance.
The third session will explore how to safeguard civic space for the future, including ensuring human rights defenders can work safely and effectively. It will highlight experiences of dedicated coalitions and networks, good practices in assisting those at risk, cooperation across borders, and the use of technology to support human rights defenders.
Participants
Representatives of the 57 OSCE participating States and OSCE institutions and structures, will be joined by representatives of international organizations, civil society organizations, media and other stakeholders. The Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting is open to those with relevant experience in the human dimension from the OSCE region. The Partners for Co-operation are invited to attend and contribute with respect to their co-operation and links with the OSCE in the field.
This meeting will be held in person only. In order to attend, participants need to register in advance before the deadline indicated below.
Registration
Online registration for the conference is open at https://meetings.odihr.pl and will close on Wednesday, 23 April, at 17:00 CET.
It is advisable to register well in advance. To facilitate the timely processing of registrations, it is important that user account information on https://meetings.odihr.pl is both complete and up to date. To assist with registration, a user guide is available in English and Russian.
Modalities
Supplementary Human Dimension Meetings are mandated meetings, organized within the framework of the Permanent Council by the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, with support from ODIHR and other OSCE Institutions.
The modalities of the meeting are set out in the decision of the Permanent Council (PC.DEC/476, 23 May 2002).
Interpretation will be provided in the six official OSCE languages: English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish.
Side events
Registered participants are welcome to request a side event slot at https://meetings.odihr.pl between 15 April at 13.00 CET and 17 April at 13.00 CET.
To assist participants in requesting a slot, a user guide is available in the resources section
Contact
Meeting co-ordination: Martin Toplišek, Human Dimension Meetings Officer at Martin.Toplisek@odihr.pl.
Programme enquiries: Johannes Heiler, Acting Deputy Head, Human Rights Department at Johannes.Heiler@odihr.pl
Registration, side events and other enquiries: hdmeetings@odihr.pl.
More information about the event and participation will be published on this webpage in the coming weeks.