By NHRI mandate
By topic
Enabling environment for HRDs & CSOs
Environmental HRDs
Freedom of assembly and association
Freedom of expression
Freedom of the media
Funding of CSOs
Non-government controlled territories
Prohibition of discrimination
Protection of HRDs
Right to a fair trial
Right to an effective remedy
Right to privacy
Right to respect for private and family life
Sustainable Development Goals
Whistleblowers
Women HRDs
By country
Danish Institute for Human Rights
The Human Rights Annual Award is granted by the Danish Institute for Human Rights’ Council to an exceptional person or organisation that has promoted and protected human rights in Denmark, Greenland, or the Faroe Islands. Candidates are nominated through a public consultation and by the media, with the NHRI acting as the secretariat for the Council jury.
In June 2024, the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) published a report on the right to freedom of speech and expression and self-censorship (Ytingsfrihed og selvcensur). The report shows that one in 10 Danes (10 %) have refrained from participating in public debate in the physical public space through demonstrations, public meetings, etc. in the past year because of fear of negative reactions. Fear of violence and threats is the reason for self-censorship for one in three (31 %) of those who have refrained from participating in public debate in a physical space in the past year.
The Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) awards the Danish Human Rights Prize (Menneskerettighedsprisen) yearly. In February 2024, the prize was awarded to Ms. Naja Lyberth and the so-called Spiral Case Working Group.
They received the prize for shedding light on the abuse of thousands of Greenlandic women and girls who have had their human rights violated by the Danish state by having a spiral (IUD) inserted without their consent. In the podcast The Spiral Campaign, made by the Danish news media DR, it was reported that from 1966 to the 1970s, 4,500 spirals were placed on almost half of the 9,000 fertile girls and women in Greenland. The Spiral Campaign was carried out as part of the Danish authorities’ strategy to reduce population growth in Greenland.
In December 2024, the prize was awarded to the organisation Repatriate the Children for rescuing Danish children and their mothers from prison camps in Syria after the Danish government had refused to evacuate them. Behind Repatriate the Children are journalist Natascha Rée Mikkelsen and lawyer Knud Foldschack, who founded the organisation in September 2020 after visiting the Syrian prison camps, al-Hol and Roj. On 29 August, the Danish Supreme Court ruled that the Danish government was obligated to offer assistance to evacuate the last Danish child with her mother from Roj camp in Syria.
Danish Institute for Human Rights
The Danish Institute for Human Rights publication “Furthering the right to defend rights through the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development” underlines states’ human rights obligations and political commitments within the 2030 Agenda. It also sets out how these promote and facilitate an enabling environment for human rights defenders and their work.
The document stresses that human rights defenders should participate in planning and monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals. It can also guide efforts towards comprehensive assessment of the enabling environment for human rights defenders, based on both human rights standards and SDG commitments. Various actors can make good use of the publication, including state institutions, local authorities, civil society, NHRIs, and human rights defenders.