These emergency grants cover items such as food, living expenses, accommodation, furniture, travel and medicines in the UK and overseas.
In 2018 we gave more than 50 hardship relief grants totalling over £25,000.
Alena Lazarchyk has long been one of Belarus’s most fearless activists. As part of the civil campaign “European Belarus,” she has taken part in every peaceful protest since 2010, often alongside her late husband, Serguei. Both were detained multiple times for their commitment to freedom and democracy. Her activism came Read more…
For years, Simmy*, a Christian farmer in Pakistan, endured harassment because of his faith. Local extremists pressured him to convert to Islam, but he stood firm in his beliefs and refused to abandon his identity or convictions. In February 2025, his resistance came at a terrible cost. While cutting wood, Read more…
Sara*, a Kurdish journalist and political activist, has routinely been subject to persecution at the hands of the Turkish authorities due to her Kurdish ethnicity, Alevi faith, political activism and journalism.
Two years ago to the day, the Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated in a car bombing near her home. Known for her investigative reporting that exposed official corruption in Malta and beyond, she was the country’s most prominent journalist. Despite the high-profile nature of the case and the Read more…
In April 2018 Abiy Ahmed was chosen as the Chairman of the ruling coalition in Ethiopia, the EPRDF, and as a result was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Ethiopia. Since Ahmed’s appointment as Prime Minister, Ethiopia’s human rights record has improved significantly. Almost immediately after he was sworn Read more…
Prisoners of Conscience was delighted to hear the news that Asia Bibi has left Pakistan after blasphemy acquittal. However, her story is just the tip of the iceberg. Our experiences supporting prisoners of conscience in Pakistan show that there are hundreds of cases similar to Asia’s. Many religious minorities suffer Read more…
Paying a high price for expressing his views Eric is a human rights defender, a journalist from Rwanda, and a father of four. He was routinely harassed by state agents for critically reporting on the government’s socioeconomic policies, for fighting for justice, press freedom and democracy in Rwanda. Paul Kagame’s Read more…
Shahidul Alam, an award-winning photographer, writer and activist from Bangladesh, was being held indefinitely and without bail after openly criticising the government’s violent handling of student led demonstrations. On 29 July 2018, two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus, sparking peaceful demonstrations by students calling for better road safety laws. In an interview Read more…
Amina, a Christian Pakistani nurse, has been continuously harassed by one of her Muslim colleagues at the hospital where she works. Using either bribes or derogatory and abusive comments, he has been trying to convert her to Islam and force her to marry him. Refusing his advances and requests, the Read more…
![Petr Adam Dohnálek [CC BY-SA 3.0 cz (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/cz/deed.en)], from Wikimedia Commons](https://www.hrpf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/People-1-Kamil-Khartoum-University-360x240.jpg)
In Sudan, objecting to government decisions can be dangerous, as Kamil, a teaching assistant at the University of Khartoum, was to discover. After protesting on behalf of suspended students, he was persecuted and tortured by the Sudanese Security Authority. In April 2016, after a decision by the Sudanese government to sell part of Read more…