News
April 10, 2025
The city of Amstelveen joins Shelter City to support human rights lawyers
On 9th April, Shelter City Amstelveen officially launched in a council meeting hosted at the Amstelveen City Hall. Amstelveen joins the global Shelter City movement as the 14th Shelter City in the Netherlands, committed to creating safe and welcoming spaces for human rights defenders to rest, rejuvenate and re-energize.
Shelter City Amstelveen will be coordinated by Lawyers for Lawyers, in partnership with the municipality of Amstelveen and in cooperation with the Center for International Criminal Justice (CICJ) at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. It will begin hosting human rights defenders in Autumn 2025 and will focus on supporting human rights lawyers.
At the launch, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the municipality of Amstelveen, Lawyers for Lawyers, and Justice & Peace Netherlands. Alderman Marijn van Ballegooijen emphasized that offering human rights defenders a safe space for temporary relocation “is important in a world where human rights are under pressure and the democratic values that we consider so important are crumbling and cannot be taken for granted.”
Lawyers for Lawyers, the coordinating organization of Shelter City Amstelveen, is an independent and non-political foundation that operates globally for the protection of lawyers. Putting their expertise into practice, with the support of other partners, Shelter City Amstelveen will offer a holistic respite programme designed for lawyers, where human rights lawyers can rest, expand their legal network, develop skills, and acquire new knowledge in order to continue their work with renewed energy and in a safer, more effective way.
Watch below a testimony from a human rights lawyer and former Shelter City guest on the importance of safe spaces for human rights lawyers.
We are excited to welcome Amstelveen to the movement and are proud of this step towards creating a world where we can all safely contribute to just and peaceful societies.
Photos by Maria Indjeian Díaz