A/HRC/43/51 17. Ultimately, defenders are also entitled to seek international protection, to benefit from relevant procedural guarantees and to be protected against refoulement. 28 They have a right to leave their own country29 and, under occupation, to exit occupied territories.30 They should be eligible for international protection in the context of conflict and generalized violence and, primarily, to refugee status, if and when facing actual risks of persecution as a result of their activities as defenders and/or based on other applicable grounds. 31 These rights remain too often systematically denied to them through restrictive laws and regulations on exit or as a result of blockades and other restrictions of movement constituting violations of international law in and of themselves. C. Key rights for defenders to operate in conflict and post-conflict situations 18. Several binding norms secure the right and means of defenders to promote and protect human rights in conflict and post-conflict settings. Defenders providing humanitarian relief must be free to move and be given rapid and unimpeded passage by all parties into and through the territories under their control, and should not be arbitrarily denied access nor subjected to targeted attacks. 32 All defenders should be in a position to assist internally displaced persons, including in return, resettlement or reintegration procedures, and to protection when doing so.33 Those active in human rights advocacy and monitoring should be protected against interferences in exercising their essential freedoms, including peaceful assembly and expression.34 19. The Declaration on Human Rights Defenders foresees legal protection under national law for defenders peacefully scrutinizing and challenging public authorities for their omissions or actions resulting in human rights violations. 35 Defenders should always be in a position to oppose emergency legislation contravening human rights norms and military or law enforcement operations conducted in disregard of international obligations, including extraterritorially. They should be protected when publicly calling upon relevant stakeholders not to violate international law. 20. The Special Rapporteur draws attention to the complementary binding norms of relevance for defenders investigating or assisting victims of recurring violations in conflict and post-conflict situations. As with enforced disappearances, defenders have a right to form and participate freely in organizations and associations, report facts to the competent authorities and be protected when doing so. 36 Defenders and their family members addressing violations of the right to life, such as extrajudicial, arbitrary and summary executions are similarly entitled to protection and participation in the relevant investigations, during and after armed conflict. 37 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, art. 33, and its Protocol; Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, art. 3; Committee against Torture, general comment No. 4 (2017) on the implementation of article 3 in the context of article 22; Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 36, para. 31. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 12 (2). Fourth Geneva Convention, art. 35. Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, art. 1 (A) (2). Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, art. 8. See also https://ihldatabases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_rul, rules 55–56. E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2, annex, principles 25–26 and 30. Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 34 (2011) on the freedoms of opinion and expression, para. 23. Art. 12 (3). International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, arts. 1, 12 and 24; guiding principles for the search of disappeared persons (CED/C/7), principles 5 and 14. Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.17.XIV.3). 7