The Annual Front Line Defenders Lecture was established in 2013 to provoke discussion and debate about the range of issues affecting human rights defenders as they work tirelessly to bring about changes and build robust civil societies. Held in partnership with universities in Dublin, Belfast and Galway, the lecture is broadly accessible to a general audience with an interest in philosophy, law, human rights, current affairs and politics.

About the Lecture

The Taliban’s takeover in August 2021 sparked a new period of prolonged and profound repression of human rights in Afghanistan, which has impacted Afghan women and girls in particular.

Horia Mosadiq’s lecture will address human rights, particularly the situation for women’s rights under the Taliban and the struggle of Human Rights Defenders and Women Human Rights Defenders in this context, as well as what we can do to support them.

About the Lecturer

Horia Mosadiq is an Afghan Woman Human Rights Defender (WHRD) and journalist with more than two decades of experience in human rights, peace, justice and reconciliation, transitional justice, gender, security, and violent extremism in Afghanistan and South Asia. A well-known and well-respected WHRD, Horia is the founder of a number of organisations, including Conflict Analysis Network (CAN), a research, advocacy, and capacity-building think thank focusing on violent extremism, radicalisation, and its impact on human rights; as well as Safety and Risk Mitigation Organization (SRMO), which focuses on the protection of Human Rights Defenders.

With ample experience as a researcher and advisor, she has worked with many international organisations and think thanks including European Institute of Peace (EIP), Geneva Call, Safer World, PEN International, International Alert, Amnesty International, UNICEF, Action Aid, CIVICUS, UNICEF and UNDP among others. She has received numerous awards including the 2007 National Human Rights Award in Afghanistan, the 2012 and 2015 Women Rights Defender Award from Amnesty International, and her most recent one, the 2020 Award from Afghan Women’s Network (AWN) for her outstanding work on women, peace, justice and reconciliation.

The Annual Lecture Partners include: UCD School of Philosophy, UCD School of Politics and International Relations (SPIRe), UCD Centre for Human Rights, Trinity College Dublin's Law School, Irish Centre For Human Rights at the University of Ireland Galway, and The Human Rights Centre at Queen’s University, Belfast.

About Front Line Defenders

Front Line Defenders is an international human rights organisation founded in Dublin in 2001, with the specific aim of protecting human rights defenders at risk (HRDs). The organisation works to improve the security and protection of human rights defenders and organisations around the world at risk for their peaceful and legitimate human rights work. As identified by human rights defenders themselves, Front Line Defenders responds to protection and security needs by providing support through grants, capacity building, visibility, networking and advocacy, at the international, regional and local levels. Front Line Defenders has been awarded the 2018 United Nations Human Rights Prize.

You can register for the Dublin or Galway lectures below:

Dublin: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/2024-front-line-defenders-annual-lecture-dublin-tickets-818632290217

Galway: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/2024-front-line-defenders-annual-lecture-galway-tickets-818707354737