A/HRC/43/51 Acknowledgment of these persons’ status and contributions as defenders must be a common agenda. What defines defenders is primarily their actions. 12. National human rights institutions have also stepped up their efforts in these areas, with guidance and support from international and regional networks. 7 Several actively report on violations of both humanitarian and human rights law, tackle conflict-induced displacement and reach out to civilians living along contact lines and detainees. They also spearhead initiatives of importance to peacebuilding, transitional justice and post-conflict education. Still, they continue to face interferences in their operations, including when seeking to protect other defenders. The wider community of defenders in conflict-affected States continues to call for the establishment and effective operation of such national human rights institutions in areas concerned. III. Normative framework of reference A. Applicable legal norms, duty bearers and States’ responsibility to protect defenders 13. Defenders operating in conflict and post-conflict areas are protected under international human rights law, international humanitarian law (which is only applicable to situations of armed conflict, including occupation), international criminal law and international refugee law. Opposable norms include obligations under customary law and peremptory norms (jus cogens).8 The Special Rapporteur recalls that international human rights law and international humanitarian law are mutually reinforcing and complementary, not mutually exclusive. 9 Parties to armed conflict, including occupying powers, must uphold the protections these regimes afford, regardless of their position on their applicability.10 States in particular cannot rely on their domestic legal system to justify noncompliance11 and non-State actors exercising government-like functions and control over a territory are obliged to respect human rights norms when their conduct affects the human rights of the individuals under their control. 12 This includes provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which is addressed to all individuals, groups and organs of society. 14. States’ responsibility to protect defenders cannot be outsourced or renounced on account of exceptional circumstances. States must exert due diligence to prevent, investigate and punish acts by private persons or entities that would impair the enjoyment of rights recognized in the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and enshrined in legally binding human rights instruments, vis-à-vis non-State actors. 13 Likewise, States have an obligation to protect defenders against violations committed by armed groups against them, including terrorist organizations. They must address the general conditions placing defenders’ lives at risk, such as armed conflict but also high levels of criminal violence.14 They must protect defenders from arbitrary deprivation of life in the context of 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, Strategy and Strategic Plan 2017–2019; Network of African National Human Rights Institutions, “The role of national human rights institutions in conflict resolution, management and peacebuilding” (Nairobi, 2017); and European Network of National Human Rights Institutions, Human Rights in (Post-) Conflict project. A/HRC/42/17, paras. 9 and 13; A/HRC/19/69, para. 106. Human Rights Committee, general comments No. 29 (2001) on derogations from provisions of the Covenant during a state of emergency and No. 36 (2018) on the right to life, para. 64; Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 30, para. 24. Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 2004, p. 136, paras. 107–112; CCPR/C/ISR/CO/4, para. 5. Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, art. 27. Security Council resolution 2286 (2016), para. 2; A/HRC/42/17, para. 12; A/HRC/25/21, para. 11; A/HRC/39/44, para. 43. Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 31 (2004) on the nature of the general legal obligation imposed on States parties to the Covenant, para. 8; A/65/223, paras. 34–36. Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 36, para. 26. 5