When travel bans are imposed on Human Rights Defenders, they can no longer carry out many of their important activities, such as informing the international community of the state of human rights in their country. They also leave defenders vulnerable; unable to leave if their life or wellbeing comes under threat.
This new interesting study by Inés Jiménez Llorente explores the use of travel bans against HRDs, and how a select group of States in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) justify their use.
From the study:
“[T]he increased use of travel bans interferes with the cycle of information between HRDs and their regional and international partners. Less human rights monitoring by civil society worsens states’ compliance with human rights commitments… [Travel bans] are effective in blocking human rights monitoring without a real international mechanism to address it, they hardly represent a cost for governments, and because they are a relatively new practice, they are given low priority attention by the international community.”
