Safeguard Defenders (SD) is a human rights NGO founded in late 2016 that undertakes and supports local field activities that contribute to the protection of basic rights, promote the rule of law, and enhance the ability of local civil society and human rights defenders in some of the most hostile environments in Asia.
SD also utilizes its extensive field network to spot changing or emerging trends on the ground, and to study, expose, and formulate responses to such developments. It also uses such information to release a steady stream of cutting-edge research, exposing issues often long before the greater sphere of media, NGOs, and governments become aware of them.
At any given time, Safeguard Defenders is running about a dozen programs in target countries, primarily China and Vietnam. Our small group of management and central staff, spread between Western Europe and East Asia, work with local partners, who include teachers, lawyers, local independent media organizations, and civil society organizations engaged in the promotion and protection of human rights and the rule of law.
For safety reasons, most staff and partners are kept anonymous, a testament to the severity of the human rights situation in our target countries.
Safeguard Defenders is a registered foundation in the European Union (Spain), under the name Fundacion Safeguard Defenders (G88426192).
The story behind Safeguard Defenders goes back to 2009, the year when a small NGO called China Action was founded in Beijing by human rights activists Peter Dahlin from Sweden and Michael Caster from the U.S. and a small group of Chinese rights lawyers and other human rights defenders (HRD).
Its mission was to support China’s fledging lawyer community. It ran training programs and capacity-building projects as well as provided direct support for legal interventions and other assistance to HRDs at risk.
It also established a string of legal aid centres across China, working with and specializing in supporting China’s frontline legal defenders, also called "barefoot" or "citizen" lawyers. These stations offered pro-bono legal aid in China’s smaller cities and to local communities. Cases often concerned the rampant abuse and violation of laws by local police and government.China Action was shuttered in 2016 after Chinese authorities targeted it in a major crackdown and when many of its staff and partners were detained, disappeared, or imprisoned, including Peter.
In the six years before it was forced to close down, China Action worked quietly behind the scenes, expanding its support programs year by year. Despite its low profile, the organisation was periodically harassed by the Chinese authorities. China's Ministry of State Security pressured a young assistant to work as a "mole". Another young assistant was targeted as part of an attack on gender and LGBT activism. Meanwhile, both police and state security agents would regularly force training programs to close down, detaining and harassing staff and, more frequently, partners. They would also track, monitor, and surveil training activities held in nearby countries. Despite such setbacks, the reach and scope of China Action's work continued to grow.
By the time China Action was forced to close, it had conducted 150 direct interventions to help HRDs, trained some 800 lawyers and "barefoot" lawyers at over 100 training sessions, and provided legal aid and filed some 1,000 lawsuits on the behalf of victims of illegal government actions.
The foundation for Safeguard Defenders was laid in 2016, followed by a public launch in 2017. The organisation has inherited the mission of China Action, but with an expanded scope to support the survival and effectiveness of civil society and HRDs in some of Asia's most hostile environments, including China.
Safeguard Defenders (SD) is a Pan-Asian Human Rights NGO that seeks to protect and promote human rights, the rule of law, and local civil society operating in the most hostile environments. It works through direct actions to support and strengthen front-line rights defenders and civil society. It also provides tailored support to strengthen local civil society capacity to affect change and protect and promote basic rights.
Safeguard Defenders (SD) engages in field operations in hostile environments and must therefore be mindful of the associated security implications. Only management and central staff are presented here.
Our management and central staff are based throughout Western Europe and East Asia. All field staff are based locally, alongside both long- and short-term partners and partnering civil society organizations.
Contractors and consultants complement Safeguard Defenders' staff as required. All field staff and local partners are nationals of those countries.
You can reach us using the relevant specific mailboxes for the following issues:
General outreach > General inquiries
Press and media-related inquiries > Media inquiries
To seek support for in-country emergency aid in China or Vietnam, for legal aid, financial aid, or support for public interest litigations > In-country urgent assistance. Click Request Urgent Assistance button at top, or here, to read more about how to request such aid.
To seek support related to transnational repression, extraditions, deportations, and related abuse by China internationally > Transnational repression, extradition or abuse outside China. Click Request Urgent Assistance button at top, or here, to read more about how to request such aid.
Safeguard Defenders sends out occasional updates on news, campaigns, and other developments. To sign up click here.
Our Twitter and BlueSky accounts, which tweet in English and Chinese, also provide timely updates.
