The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (Slovene: Odbor za varstvo človekovih pravic) was a civil society organization in Slovenia, which functioned during the so-called Slovenian Spring between 1988 and 1990.
Immediately after the news of his arrest was released in Slovenian media, the Committee for the Defence of Rights of Janez Janša was founded.
In the months following the arrest, the Committee became the most powerful civil society initiative in Slovenia, connecting a wide spectrum of individuals and organization.
During the so-called JBTZ trial which followed the arrest, the Committee organized massive protests, and kept a constant pressure on the Communist leadership of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia.
Already in mid-1988, the Presidency was dissolved and a wide 32-member collegium was formed, which included many renowned public figures of the most various political and ideological convictions, including journalists Ali Žerdin, Viktor Blažič and Franco Juri, jurists France Bučar and Matevž Krivic, philosophers Slavoj Žižek and Spomenka Hribar, theologian Anton Stres, political theorist and historian Tomaž Mastnak, sociologists Rado Riha and Braco Rotar, rock musicians Gregor Tomc and Igor Vidmar, physician Dušan Keber, actor Boris Cavazza, poet Veno Taufer, and future politicians Lojze Peterle, Franc Zagožen, and Alojz Križman.