At the International Roundtable Conference 2026 in Leipzig, Araminta introduced a proposed EU Directive aimed at helping human rights defenders find safety without losing the ability to continue their work.
What happens when defending human rights becomes too dangerous to stay, but leaving means losing the very connections that make that work possible?
For many human rights defenders facing persecution, this is more than a hypothetical question. Seeking safety abroad can mean leaving behind communities, professional networks and years of advocacy, often with no clear path back.
At the International Roundtable Conference (IRT26) in Leipzig, this dilemma became the starting point for a discussion on how Europe can better protect those who defend fundamental rights.
Organised by the Stiftung Friedliche Revolution from 8 to 10 October, the conference brought together activists and civil society representatives to exchange ideas on democratic change, civic resistance and human rights.
A Different Approach to Protection
During an open-space session on 9 October, Nadiya Shafi and Getu Saketa Roro, who attended the conference as representatives of Araminta, presented Araminta’s proposed EU Directive on the protection of human rights defenders.
The proposal calls for clearer, more accessible pathways to temporary safety within the European Union, while allowing defenders to maintain their cross-border advocacy and return home when conditions permit.
As Getu Saketa Roro puts it:
“Protection should give human rights defenders the space to continue their work, not force them to leave their mission behind.”
The discussion explored what such protection would require in practice, from eligibility and residence arrangements to mobility and the possibility of safe return.
Bringing Lived Experience into European Advocacy
These questions are also central to Araminta’s efforts to build a European Community of Advocates, connecting human rights defenders living in exile who want to remain politically active and contribute their expertise in their countries of residence.
Their first-hand experience of displacement, legal uncertainty and barriers to mobility offers valuable insight into what effective protection should look like.
Envisioned as a Europe-wide initiative, the Community of Advocates is being developed in Germany in collaboration with CSF.
The discussions at IRT26 marked another step in bringing the proposed Directive into European civil society conversations. Turning these ideas into policy will require continued engagement with human rights defenders, civil society organisations and European decision-makers.
The principle behind that work is simple: Finding safety should not mean leaving the fight for human rights behind.
The fifth International Roundtable (IRT26) took place in Leipzig, Germany, from 8 to 10 October 2026. Organised by the Stiftung Friedliche Revolution (Peaceful Revolution Foundation) under the theme ‘Democratic Memories. Democratic Futures’, the biennial conference brought together international participants to discuss democratic memory and contemporary challenges facing civil society. The event commemorates Leipzig’s Peaceful Revolution of 9 October 1989, when more than 70,000 people peacefully demonstrated against the East German regime, helping pave the way for the fall of the Berlin Wall. Further information is available from Revolutionale and @revolutionale_leipzig.