ISHR Human Rights Defenders Advocacy Program 2026 for Human Rights Defenders (Scholarships Available) – Opportunities For Africans

189

Application Deadline:  15 January 2026, midnight CET (Geneva Time)

Applications at the moment are open for the 2026 ISHR Human Rights Defenders Advocacy Program. The 2026 Human Rights Defender Advocacy Programme (HRDAP26), which is able to happen each remotely and in Geneva and will probably be targeted on thematic and context space! 

• Mandatory distance studying course: 13 April – 8 June 2026 (part-time)
• In-person course: 10–20 June 2026 (full-time)

The annual Human Rights Defenders Advocacy Programme, (HRDAP)
equips HRDs with the information and abilities to combine the system into their current work at
the nationwide stage in a strategic method. The programme additionally gives a possibility for
members to interact in lobbying and advocacy actions on the UN with the purpose to impact
change again home.

Programme Details

The HRDAP programme consists of the next parts:

• A 8-week distance studying course to help members to consolidate current information and develop advocacy targets, which incorporates entry to:
• The HRDAP Platform, the place you’ll be able to entry interactive studying supplies together with e-learning programs on every key UN human rights mechanism (the Human Rights Council; the Special Procedures; the Universal Periodic Review; the Treaty Bodies ) and on advocacy methods.
• Interactive studying supplies and case research on the ISHR Academy
• Live Questions and Answers and sensible periods with human rights specialists.
• Other instruments and assets to help defenders’ advocacy work.

An intensive in-person coaching of 10 days to finalise the personalised advocacy roadmap, improve information, abilities, perspective and confidence, which is able to embody:

• Refreshers on every UN Human Rights Mechanisms.
• Additional periods on the best way to deal with reprisals, crafting efficient narratives on the UN, the best way to implement UN suggestions on the home stage and wellbeing.
• Case-studies situations to practise real-life conditions and submissions.
• Workshops on the best way to have interaction and act as human rights defenders to affect outcomes of the Human Right Council periods and different UN fora.
• Exclusive periods with diplomats, specialists, NGOs and UN Mandates holders.
• Sharing tales of fine practices.

Course necessities
In order to finish HRDAP and obtain a certification, members will probably be required to:

• Complete roughly 7 hours of labor per week, which incorporates finishing pre-reading assets, equivalent to ISHR Academy modules and e-learnings.
• Take part actively and constantly in dwell webinars, Q&A periods and discussion board discussions held on-line.
• Be current and actively take part in the course of the in-person session and put together prematurely mandatory necessities.
• Attend and take part in particular person and group teaching periods, which will probably be held through videoconference and in-person.
• Develop and submit a set of private advocacy targets by submitting brief particular person assignments each 2 weeks, in addition to a ultimate submission on the finish of the course which is able to define the defender’s “Advocacy Roadmap” (i.e principle of change).
• Prepare some advocacy instruments/paperwork to help advocacy actions in Geneva.

Application course of
By midnight Geneva time on Thursday 15 January 2026 every applicant should:

• Submit a accomplished application kind obtainable right here (take a while to learn fastidiously
  the necessities and acquire data you want, possibly save your reply in a
  Google doc or Word doc for occasion);
• Attach 2 letters of advice to your application kind (ideally in English, however
  we additionally settle for Arabic, French or Spanish): these letters shall be signed and submitted in
  PDF format. The suggestions shall come from 2 totally different organisations and dated
  2025.
• The Smartsheet application kind will point out to you in case your application has been submitted
  with success, and we encourage you to tick the field on the finish of the ‘send me a copy of my
  responses’ and or put together in a separate doc to avoid wasting your work.

Cost

• The tuition price is 1000 Swiss Francs (CHF), and the typical price of journey, lodging,
  meals, per diem and programme logistics administration is roughly 3000 CHF for the ten
  days interval.

Scholarships

• Full scholarships cowl the entire price of 4000 CHF, while partial scholarships could cowl both the 1000 CHF tuition price. Scholarships will probably be attributed at ISHR’s discretion, based mostly in your want evaluation.
• Finally, members could must safe funding to make sure steady and dependable web entry and connectivity all through the period of the gap studying course.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the ISHR Human Rights Defenders Advocacy Program