Categories as boundaries

the debate on human rights defenders in the European Union

Abstract

A limited yet significant aspect of the discourse surrounding the status of human rights defenders pertains to the conceptual definition of the term itself. Scholars and practitioners have argued that the absence of a universally accepted definition hinders the establishment of precise and enforceable standards for their protection. This article examines some issues in this debate in the context of the European Union’s human rights policy. From a critical perspective, the debate on the incoherence of the lack of recognition of human rights defenders within the space of the European Union is problematised and a decolonial reading of the resulting double standard in European policy on human rights defenders is proposed.