A/HRC/31/55 including by promoting the legitimacy and stressing the importance of their work. Even if one initiative alone is insufficient to protect defenders adequately, each practice can contribute positively to this overall objective. 35. Protection practices are enacted and intertwined at the local, national, regional and international levels–. Practices at one level can have an impact on practices at another. It is important that protection measures at different levels complement and reinforce each other. 36. A wide range of actors engage in protection practices, including State authorities, national human rights institutions, civil society organizations, intergovernmental organizations, donors, the media, business corporations, and defenders themselves. Often, the success of these practices depends on effective collaboration and coordination between different actors. 37. Networks of defenders and their allies facilitate the provision of support, heighten recognition and strengthen solidarity for defenders. The stronger and deeper the relationships among network members, the more swiftly they are able to react and to coordinate their actions to protect defenders. This also conveys a strong message to potential violators, warning them of the consequences of targeting defenders in future. 38. Gender influences the way that defenders experience risks and threats. Discrimination on the basis of gender is linked to other factors, such as ethnicity, religion, class, age, health or sexual orientation.7 The intersection of these factors produces different vulnerabilities for women. For this reason, it is critical for gender analysis to adopt an intersectionality lens, examining how the combination of such factors has an impact on the rights and security of women defenders. 39. In strengthening the security of defenders, it is crucial that protection practices focus on a “holistic” conception of security. The physical safety of defenders should be interlinked and integrated into their digital security and psychosocial well-being, aspects that tend to be neglected by defenders themselves and their supporters. 40. It is also vital to examine and address what has become an inequitable distribution and availability of protection resources globally. The extent to which defenders are connected, recognized, respected and knowledgeable affects their access to and enjoyment of protection initiatives. Defenders who are more remote and isolated, whose work is delegitimized or stigmatized, or who have less knowledge about strategies, tactics and resources are less likely to benefit from protection initiatives and will be more vulnerable to insecurity as a result. 41. The Special Rapporteur is convinced that effective protection of defenders ultimately starts with their identification, and self-identification, as “human rights defenders”. Without being perceived by others or perceiving themselves as such, they may not be aware of their rights as defenders, not seek support from peer or support networks and may not receive protection from the State, civil society and the international community. 42. Raising awareness among defenders is therefore critical to their strengthened protection. In this context, the Special Rapporteur stresses the urgent need to popularize the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Soceiety to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and fundamental Freedoms (Declaration on Human Rights Defenders), which regards defenders as persons who, individually or with others, promote or protect human rights at the national and 7 8 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 28, para. 18.