The desire to work on human rights at local level, as well as the role of cities in the defence of human rights, is central to the Resource Centre's work. The application of a human rights approach to local public policies includes, among other things, encouraging citizen participation and support for those entities and people who carry out actions and initiatives for the defence and protection of rights.

According to the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders (1988), human rights defenders are individuals, groups or associations that work to give effect to the rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and who contribute to the effective elimination of all human rights violations in order to guarantee the fundamental freedoms of peoples and individuals.

In the last few years, the violation of women defenders’ rights has increased to an alarming extent, and it is the public authorities who are responsible for guaranteeing their protection and creating safe spaces to help them do their work. Barcelona, a city with a commitment to human rights, promotes a number of actions for the protection of women human rights defenders at international level, such as the Institutional Declaration of Support for Women Human Rights Defenders in Mesoamerica (2018) or the Global Justice Department-driven programme ‘Barcelona Protects Journalists from Mexico’ (2018). This is why citizens need to be made more aware of the existence of women human rights defenders.

For these reasons, the CRDH is taking advantage of the presence of international women human rights defenders in our city (either for a short visit, a temporary stay or for the purpose of sharing their experiences) to arrange the following activities:

• Training on women human rights defenders for the field of education, featuring international women defenders, and using some of their experiences for this purpose.

• Meetings between local and international women defenders as part of training sessions on women human rights defenders for social entities.

• Series of current affairs talks with testimonials open to the public in municipal venues, such as libraries or civic centres, in conjunction with entities, as well as municipal programmes with international guest women defenders.