Protective Fellowships - University of York - Gulf Centre for Human Rights

Protective Fellowships – University of York

1/02/2025

One of the most important elements in bringing about improvements in human rights at a local level is the presence of active human rights defenders.

They often find themselves working in hostile environments and without adequate training and support. Over time, the cumulative challenges of working in such an environment can have a negative impact on the individuals concerned, on their contribution to human rights work and on the human rights movements they are a part of.

The Centre for Applied Human Rights has created an innovative response to this challenge through its Protective Fellowships. Human rights defenders are invited to come to York for periods ranging from three to six months.

During this time they benefit both from time away from a difficult environment, and from educational resources designed to increase their effectiveness and their ability to influence policy and practice when they return home. We believe that this scheme makes a unique contribution in enhancing the sustainability of social activism.

The benefits are three-fold:

Awardees have the opportunity to acquire new skills as well as take time to recuperate and reflect upon their work, enabling them to return to their activism re-energized.
Enhancing the skills of human rights defenders is a sustainable way to bring about medium and long-term social change in their home countries.
The Centre for Applied Human Rights benefits from the experience of the awardees, allowing it to create and share knowledge relating to best practice in human rights activism.

Applications for these fellowships can only be made via a nominating organisation.

Nominations to the fellowships are accepted from recognised civil society organisations and inter-governmental organisations working in human rights and/or specifically with human rights defenders. A reputed civil society organisation who knows an individual’s human rights work can act as their nominating organisation.

Organisations cannot nominate their own employees or volunteers and we cannot consider individual petitions.