Risk Assessment in Human Rights Defense Methodological Guide from the Psychosocial Approach

Discussing security within the framework of human rights defense has become a priority: it is among the most important challenges due to the complexity of the contexts in which defenders carry out their work and the numerous risks they face within the structure of sociopolitical violence. This is why the different organizations that work on the issue have used their experiences to develop methodologies which make it possible to analyze the contexts, risks, and situations that people and groups are exposed to when contributing to social transformation through their work.

This guide’s content is based on international methodologies from organizations such as Protection International and Front Line Defenders, among others. Accordingly, we have incorporated some of these tools, complementing them with the accompaniment model proposed by Aluna and adapting them to the specificities of the contexts and the political subjects whom we accompany.

Through the tools we share, we aim to support groups, organizations, communities, and individuals who—amid diverse economic, political, and cultural disputes—are at risk for having sought out alternatives to liberation through their social struggles in the face of the oppression strategies imposed by power dynamics that attack people’s dignity.

This arrangement and publication were completed thanks to funding from the

World Day of Prayer, Open Society Foundations, the Civil Peace Service

and the Norwegian Human Rights Fund.

We would like to express special thanks to all of them.

We also appreciate Bread for the World, Hispanics in Philanthropy, and Misereor

for contributing to the development of Aluna’s work.