Human Rights Without Frontiers International

Human Rights Without Frontiers International (HRWF or HRWF International) is a non-profit organization based in Brussels, Belgium.

HRWF International was founded in 2001 by Willy Fautré, its executive director who also heads Human Rights Without Frontiers (Belgium).[1] The latter was renamed from Brussels – Human Rights which originated in 1989 with a bi-monthly magazine Droits de l’homme sans frontières.[2] HRWF International appears to be the current organization carrying out the HRWF activities.[2]

Fautré was a researcher in pedagogy at the University of Mons and a chargé de mission at the Cabinet of the Belgian Ministry of Education and the Belgian Parliament.[3] He serves as associate editor of Bitter Winter,[4] a magazine focusing on religious liberty and human rights in China published by the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR).[5]

The international network of HRWF International correspondents monitors human rights concerns in various countries and maintains a global database of freedom of religion or belief cases with over 6,000 cases of prisoners of faiths.[6] It highlights the documented cases in China covering Christians, Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong, and the Church of Almighty God.[6]

The U.S. Department of State has cited HRWF International for its cases collected in the U.S. Department of State's annual County Reports on International Religious Freedom for countries such as China,[7][8] Russia,[9][10] Iran,[11] Libya,[12] Azerbaijan,[13] Czech Republic,[14] Egypt,[15] India,[16] Latvia,[17] and other countries.

HRWF International's recent efforts include investigating and publishing a report in August 2023 on the deportation of Ukrainian children by Russia from the territories Russia has occupied since the beginning of the war against Ukraine.[18][19]