Its stated mission is to offer long-term accompaniment and support human rights defenders at risk by building capacities for managing their protection and security effectively.

Their headquartersed are located in Brussels while also have permanent presence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guatemala, Colombia, Kenya and Thailand, as well as non-permanent activities in another 30 countries in collaboration with local partner organisations.

[3] Protection International has also been promoting a strategy to the protection of human rights defenders that includes a psychosocial approach to assess the “impact of the social and political context on the emotional well-being” of defenders, and aims at mobilising the national and international community (parliaments, governments, the United Nations, the media and public opinion).

At the same time, training activities on security and protection of HRD's were held in more than twenty countries (among others, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Honduras, Bolivia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Ingushetia, Serbia, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand).

While developing its presence in sensitive areas, PI began working in 2003 with members of Parliaments in various European countries on the adoption of resolutions and motions on the protection of defenders.

[10][non-primary source needed] In December 2019, Protection International Africa (PIA) was officially launched, setting its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.

[11] In 2020, the organization's Mesoamerica hub was launched in Guatemala City, aimed at expanding and serving human rights activists in the region.

[17] They also launched jointly a platform named VERIFICO to check fake news and disinformation used to stigmatize human rights activists in Colombia.

[19] The organization helped fund the documentary film The Illusion of Abundance, which follows three women that attempt to hold corporations in the European Union and the United States accountable for environmental harm.

Therefore, PI covers a wide range of activities: In 2004, Protection International led an observatory mission in DRC and organised two seminars on the EU Guidelines on HRDs.

In July 2006, PI organised a conference with 30 Congolese HRDs, Michael Matthiessen, Javier Solana's personal representative for human rights and the ACHPR's Special Rapporteur, Reine Alapini.

[28] En 2006, PI produced Les armes de l'impunité ("The Weapons of Impunity"), a documentary that recounts the assassination of Pascal Kabungulu, a Congolese human rights defender, who worked for the "Ligue des Droits de l'Homme dans la Région des Grands Lacs" (The Human Rights League of the Great Lakes) and the Protestant NGO "Héritiers de la Justice" (Heirs of Justice), and denounces the systematic intimidation or physic violence against the defenders who documented the abuses committed during the Second Congo War.