In 2020 Mary Lawlor took up the mandate as UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders. Investigating and reporting on the risks and challenges of human rights defenders was a task she then had already spent many years on.

Ms Lawlor has a background as Chair and Director of the Irish section of Amnesty International, and in 2001 she founded Front Line Defenders – the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders at Risk. In her most recent work for the UN she focused on challenges faced by child and youth human rights’ defenders as well as climate change activists. Her upcoming and final report to the Human Rights Council takes a wider approach as it will describe how human rights’ defenders respond to the current and unprecedented threat to the international human rights’ system. Mary Lawlor wants to bring the voices of the Human Rights defenders of the world straight to the state representatives in the Council.

Her presentation will be followed by questions from and dialogue with the audience and Swedish human rights defenders.

Mary Lawlor is invited to participate in the  Swedish Forum for Human Rights by the Swedish Human Rights’ Institute.