As part of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Festival 2018, the Equality Coalition invites to you to a panel discussion on the increasingly hostile environment faced by human rights defenders.
Online abuse, trolling and threats have become common place in the digital age for human rights defenders. Women rights activists and LGBT activists often face the brunt of online attacks, with relatively little remedy or intervention from public authorities.
The last year in NI has also seen a worrying resumption of political attacks in Westminster and in the UK tabloids against human rights lawyers, reminiscent of the climate that preceded the assassinations of Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson.
In a chilling development for media freedom, journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney were arrested and the offices of several media organisations raided by police in relation to their ‘No Stone Unturned’ film, which revealed further evidence of state involvement in the 1994 Loughinisland massacre.
This panel discussion will deal with these experiences, reflect on the current climate and ask what can collectively be done to address such attacks. Lunch will be served directly after the event at 1pm.
Panel members will include:
Patricia McKeown (Regional Secretary, UNISON)
Seán Brady (Deputy Director, PPR)
Goretti Horgan (Activist & Academic)
Caroline Maguire (Equality Duty Enforcement Project Coordinator, CAJ)
Barry McCaffrey (Journalist, The Detail)
Niall Murphy (Human Rights Lawyer, KRW Law).