Acknowledgements

Authors acknowledgement written in 2011

This manual emerged from the collective experience of more than 300 women human rights defenders, as well as human rights defenders of other genders, from over 50 countries. To develop this manual, they joined us at dozens of workshops in Africa, Asia, the Balkans, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North America and the former Soviet Union.We are grateful to you all.

Julie Shaw, one of the founders and the former Executive Director of the UAF provided invaluable support for and advice on the creation of the Defending the Defenders Project and Integrated Security: The Manual. Terry Greenblatt, the current Executive Director of the UAF, continued to offer support for and encourage the creation of the manual and its testing at several integrated security workshops.

In addition to her work on the first phase of the Defending the Defenders Project, Eva Zillén, of The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation, guided the project’s second phase – Integrated Security: The Manual – from creation to completion, providing a sensitive eye for detail and unfailing commitment throughout the process.

Andrew Anderson of Front Line also provided sound advice and feedback during the first phase of the Defending the Defenders Project and the initial creation of Integrated Security: The Manual. We are also appreciative of inputs by Anne Rimmer, Training Coordinator at Front Line.

Jelena Djordjevic supplied, as always, inspiration, guidance, facilitation and deep expertise vis-à-vis the many workshops and drafts of the publication.

Many thanks to Jaclyn Sugden for reviewing the final draft, Rick Jones for proofing the manuscript, Åsa Carlman of The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation for her work during the layout and web tool process and Anna Högberg and Liv Fjellander of Futerra Stockholm for the layout.

Several people deserve particular mention for their contributions to exercises and concepts during the drafting phase.

In particular, Marina Bernal offered constant encouragement and graciously supported our liberal adaptation of her excellent manual: Self-Care and Self-Defense for Feminist Activists. Ginger Norwood (International Women’s Partnership for Peace and Justice), Ariella Futral (UAF) and Sandra Ljubinkovic also contributed exercises and ideas.

We are also grateful to Capacitar International for their inspiring work worldwide, and have included many of their excellent exercises within the manual.

The integrated security workshops were made possible thanks to the commitment and support of several organisations and individuals, including:

• The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation staff from Stockholm, Sweden, as well as the Balkans, Middle East and the South Caucasus;
• Rita Thapa and her colleagues at Nagarik Aawaz and Tewa (Asia/Nepal);
• Eleanor Douglas and Leonor Esguerra of the UAF (Latin America/Colombia);
• Eva Ayiera, Kavinya Makau and Kaari Murungi of the UAF (Africa/Kenya);
• Leyla Yunus of the Institute of Peace and Democracy (Azerbaijan/Uzbekistan);
• the Young Women’s Network of the South Caucasus; and
• the Chechnya Advocacy Network (US), Civil Rights Defenders (Sweden) and Open Society Institute (US).

Integrated workshops were co-facilitated with Edna Aquino (Philippines), Jelena Djordjevic (Serbia), Tolekan Ismailova (Kyrgyzstan), Jane Kiragu (Kenya), Sandra Ljubinkovic (Serbia), Luz Stella Ospina Murillo (Colombia – primary facilitator), Anne Rimmer (Front Line), Afaf Jabari (Jordan), Yana Ziferblat (Israel), Jadranka Milicevic (fondacija CURE, Bosnia and Hercegovina), and Maja Stajic (The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation Belgrade).

Workshops also were supported by a number of individuals, including: Alejandra Bravo, Devon Knudsen, Edwina Morgan and Feziha Soykan.
Special thanks to Megan Bastick and Dani de Torres of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), Nancy Pearson of New Tactics, Rakhee Goyal of Women’s Learning Partnership, and Mary Jane Real of the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition for reviewing early versions of the manuscript and for their guidance.

We appreciate the insights of Astrid Frey and her colleagues at Cordaid, Almut Rochowanski (Chechnya Advocacy Network), Teyo van der Schoot (Hivos), Jesse Wren (American Jewish World Service) and David Mattingly (Fund for Global Human Rights) on international protection mechanisms and the role of grant-makers in supporting human rights defenders’ integrated security.

The MDG3 Fund supported the manual’s development and testing phase.
In addition, the first integrated security workshops were supported by the:

• Foundation Open Society Institute (Zug);
• International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada;
• Oak Foundation
• Channel Foundation; and
• Overbrook Foundation.