Hans Thoolen

Author Archive

Many NGO participants denied visa to attend Commission on the Status of Women in New York

March 21, 2019

Nishita, JhaBuzzFeed, reports on 20 March 2019 that many women who were slated to participate in the UN Commission on the Status of Women have been denied visas, especially lawyers, activists, and women who deliver reproductive health care services from African and Middle Eastern countries that fell under Donald Trump’s travel ban.

The US is obliged under a 70-year-old treaty to not restrict people or NGOs from attending the UN headquarters. BuzzFeed News is yet to receive a response from the US Mission to the UN regarding the total number of visas that have been denied this year. [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2019/03/18/irans-election-to-a-un-gender-equality-body-should-not-obscure-the-real-work/]

The International Service for Human Rights said it was aware of at least 41 women who have been denied visas to attend the conference this year — but this figure is said to be only “the tip of the iceberg” and likely to increase.

Women who wanted to attend CSW this year from countries like Iran, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Syria were asked to provide supporting documents like marriage certificates, proof of property ownership, letters stating employment status, proof of finances, and even proof of birth certificates or proof showing that they have children, according to the petition.

Lyndal Rowlands, advocacy officer with the UN-accredited organization CIVICUS, told BuzzFeed News that among all the people that were denied visas, women from countries that fell under the Trump administration’s travel ban were disproportionately affected. “Last year and this year we have also heard of women from Pakistan and Nepal who were denied visas,” she said. …Most of the women applying for visas, Rowlands said, had not traveled to the US before — a deliberate decision by organizers who wanted a diverse range of women present at the United Nations, not just pundits and experts who travel all the time but women who work at the grassroots.

“It’s essential that women who are at the front lines working on women’s rights are present when their rights and the rights of the women they serve are being discussed,” she said. “Governments and UN officials that attend the conference can make better policies when they are informed by the experiences of women who face some of the biggest uphill battles when it comes to fighting for gender equality — for example, delegates who were unable to attend include lawyers and advocates who represent women who have been imprisoned for their activism, [and] women who deliver reproductive health care services.”

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nishitajha/un-women-conference-visas-denied

Posted in Human Rights Defenders, ISHR, UN | 1 Comment »
Tags: Buzzfeed, CIVICUS, Commission on the Status of Women, conference, CSW, human rights of women, ISHR, Lyndal Rowlands, UN, visa denial

Special Rapporteur Diego Garcia-Sayan not swayed by Moroccan assurances for his visit

March 21, 2019

Morocco World News reports on 20 March 2019 that Morocco deeply regrets and denounces UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Diego Garcia-Sayan’s decision to cancel his official visit to the country. The Moroccan government addressed Garcia-Sayan’s statement, published Tuesday, 19 March, on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) website, in which he declared that he would not visit Morocco on an official trip set for March 20-26.

Garcia-Sayan said he canceled the visit because the “government of Morocco has not been able to ensure a programme of work in accordance with the needs of the mandate and the terms of reference for country visits by special procedures.” In response, the Moroccan government stated that Garcia-Sayan’s decision contradicts his earlier stand when he first began preparations for the visit on June 16, 2017, at the invitation of Morocco.

According to the government, Morocco has been keen on ensuring all the necessary “guarantees” for the success of Garcia-Sayan’s visit by including all the suggested places for him to visit to exercise his mission, contrary to what the rapporteur stated. Garcia-Sayan stated: “It is most regrettable that the suggestions of places to visit and schedule of work were not fully taken into consideration by the Government. It is an essential precondition for the exercise of the mandate of Special Rapporteur that I am able to freely determine my priorities, including places to visit.” Morocco stressed the country’s readiness to make any amendments Garcia-Sayan requested to enable him to exercise his mandate as required.

Garcia-Sayan’s visit was to examine the independence and impartiality of judges and prosecutors and the independence of lawyers.

https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24356&LangID=E

https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/03/268552/morocco-un-special-rapporteurs-visit/

Posted in Human Rights Council, Human Rights Defenders, OHCHR, UN | 1 Comment »
Tags: cancellation, country visit, Diego García-Sayán, Independence of Lawyers, independence of the judiciary, Morocco, Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, UN Special Rapporteur

News from the human rights film front (2019)

March 20, 2019

The HRW festival in London is still running (https://ff.hrw.org/london) but others have finished and here is a selection of the wining films:

ONE WORLD FESTIVAL

The film Heart of Stone has taken the Best Film prize at this year’s edition of the One World festival of human rights documentaries in Prague. The winning documentary is about an Afghan refugee in France. The Best Director award went to Denmark’s Mads Brugger, maker of Cold Case Hammarskjold.

——-

The 2019 FIFDH [see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2019/01/20/17th-edition-of-the-geneva-international-film-festival-and-forum-on-human-rights-from-8-to-17-march-2019/]. The awards list is as follows (extract):

Grand Prize of Geneva

Endowed with CHF 10,000 – Offered by the City and State of Geneva: Delphine et Carole, Insoumuses, by Callisto McNulty Learn more

Gilda Vieira de Mello Prize in tribute to her son Sergio Vieira de Mello

Endowed with CHF 5,000 – Offered by the Barbara Hendricks Foundation for Peace and Reconciliation: On her Shoulders, by Alexandria Bombach Learn more

Youth Jury Prize

Endowed with CHF 500 – Offered by Peace Brigades International (PBI): Still Recording, by Ghiath Ayoub and Saeed Al Batal Learn more

Endowed with CHF 500 – Offered by the Eduki Foundation: Carmen y Lola by Arantxa Echevarría Learn more

Grand Prize for Fiction

Endowed with CHF 10,000 – Offered by the Hélène and Victor Barbour Foundation: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, by Chiwetel Ejiofor Learn more

Prize of OMCT

Endowed with CHF 5,000 – Offered by the World Organization Against Torture: Congo Lucha, by Marlène Rabaud Learn more

——-

And there is an award-winning Bahamian film “Cargo” which is being shown in cinemas: At the age of 9, Bahamian writer/director Kareem Mortimer saw haunting images of the bloated bodies of Haitian would-be migrants washed up on a beach. Apparently they were trapped and locked in the hold of a ship by a smuggler who did not have the decency to set them free. It was this experience that inspired him to make the drama/thriller feature film Cargo. The film previously debuted in Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Curacao, Jamaica, Guyana, Grenada, Suriname and St Lucia and will be released in the Trinidad, US and Canada in the summer. It has won five awards: Best Feature, Silicon Valley African Film Festival; Bahamian Icon Award; Best Film, Haiti International Film Festival, Los Angeles; Trident Award, Barbados Independent Film Festival; and Amnesty International Human Rights Prize for Film, TT Film Festival in 2017.

The poster for the film Cargo.

——-

https://www.radio.cz/en/section/news/french-doc-heart-of-stone-takes-top-prize-at-one-world-festival

https://fifdh.org/en/edition-2019/news/article/le-palmares-integral-du-fifdh-2019-349874

https://newsday.co.tt/2019/03/18/award-winning-bahamian-film-cargo-for-tt/

Posted in films, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Cargo (film), Congo Lucha (film), documentaries, FIFDH, Geneva, Heart of Stone (film), human rights film festivals, human rights films, Insoumuses (film), International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH), On Her Shoulders (film), One World (Prague), Prague, Still Recording (film), The Bahamas, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (film)

Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson winner of 2019 Thomas Dodd Prize

March 20, 2019

On 18 March, 2019 it was announced that the Equal Justice Initiative and its founder Bryan Stevenson will be awarded the Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights at the University of Connecticut’s Thomas J. Dodd Research Center on 6 November. For more information on this and other human rights awards, see: http://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/thomas-j-dodd-prize-in-international-justice-and-human-rights

“The selection committee was singularly impressed by the commitment, courage, and creativity of Bryan Stevenson and his colleagues at the Equal Justice Initiative,” said Glenn Mitoma, Director of the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. “I look forward to welcoming Bryan and Equal Justice Initiative to UConn, both to honor them and to draw inspiration for our own work at the Dodd Center.”

Stevenson, the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, has successfully argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including a recent historic decision that found mandatory life-without-parole sentences for children 17 or younger are unconstitutional.

Under Stevenson’s direction, the organization has won major legal challenges to excessive sentencing and illegal convictions, including reversals, release, or relief for over 145 wrongly condemned prisoners on death row. The group’s education and advocacy efforts include the Community Remembrance Project, which seeks to recognize the victims of lynching by erecting historical markers at lynching sites, and the opening of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum. The museum and memorial are part of Equal Justice Initiative’s work to advance truth and reconciliation around race in America and to more honestly confront the legacy of slavery, lynching, and segregation.

Stevenson is the winer of at least6 other awards including the 2000 Gleitsman award and the Wallenberg medal [see also https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2016/11/07/human-rights-lawyer-bryan-stevenson-to-receive-michigans-wallenberg-medal/]

https://today.uconn.edu/2019/03/racial-economic-justice-group-wins-2019-dodd-human-rights-prize/

Posted in awards, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: Bryan Stevenson, digest of human rights awards, Equal Justice Initiative, human rights awards, inequality, racial discrimination, Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights, University of Connecticut, USA

Human rights defender in Chechnya, Oyub Titiev, sentenced to 4 years

March 19, 2019

For details about the arrest, please see the link below to HRW

An EU spokesperson on 19 March stated:

“We believe that the sentencing of Oyub Titiev is directly connected to his human rights work for Memorial, an organisation that has been the subject of ongoing intimidation and harassment in the North Caucasus and beyond. We also believe that Mr Titiev has not received a fair trial. His sentencing continues a trend of arrests, attacks and discrediting of human rights defenders and journalists who work in that region of the Russian Federation. Mr Titiev’s predecessor as head of Memorial in Chechnya, Ms Natalia Estemirova, was killed in 2009 and, almost ten years later, not a single person has yet been brought to justice for this crime,”.

“The European Union expects Mr Titiev to be released immediately and unconditionally. The Russian Federation freely entered into commitments, first in Helsinki in 1975 and later in Copenhagen in 1990, to ensure “the right of everyone, individually or in association with others, to seek, receive and impart freely views and information on human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the rights to disseminate and publish such views and information.” We expect these commitments to be upheld”.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/03/18/russia-rights-defender-sentenced-four-year-prison-term

https://abcnews.go.com/International/human-rights-worker-chechnya-sentenced-years-prison-amid/story?id=61767764

https://www.europeaninterest.eu/article/european-union-expects-oyub-titiev-released-immediately/

Posted in EU, HRW, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: ABC News, ADC Memorial, Chechnya, fair trial, false accusation, Human rights defender, imprisonment, Kadyrov, Natalia Estemirova, Oyub Titiev, Russia

After Christchurch: reflecting on how the internet is exploited by extremists

March 18, 2019

Although strictly speaking not about human rights defenders and not really giving new insights, this long piece in the Huffington Post of 16 March 2019 is worth reading in full because it is a good overview of how the internet and extremist aspirations go hand-in-hand. For those who want to read it in full:

“Mass Shooters Have Exploited The Internet For Years. New Zealand Took It To A New Level. – The Christchurch massacre was built on existing far-right memes that fueled a live-streaming gunman’s viral aspirations“

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Anders Breivik, Christchurch, extremists, far right, Huffington Post, internet, live streaming, Mass media, mass shooting, nationalism, New Zealand, Viral video

Jamal Khashoggi murder: the plot thickens

March 18, 2019

On 17 March 2019, the New York Times reported that the Crown Prince (MBS) authorised a clandestine campaign against Saudi dissenters and human rights defenders well before Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.

The Rapid Intervention Group was authorised by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and overseen by Saud al-Qahtani, a royal court insider, US officials told the NYT [File: Reuters]

The Rapid Intervention Group was authorised by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman US officials told the NYT [File: Reuters]

More than a year before the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, approved a secret campaign to silence dissenters, the New York Times has reported. The campaign included surveillance, kidnapping, detention and torture of Saudis, said the report published on Sunday citing the US officials who have read classified intelligence reports about the effort. American officials referred to it as the Saudi Rapid Intervention Group, the Times said. [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2019/03/08/saudi-arabia-for-first-time-openly-criticized-in-un-human-rights-council/]

…..At least some of the clandestine missions were carried out by the members of the team that killed and dismembered Khashoggi in October at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, suggesting his murder was part of a wider campaign against dissidents, the report said, citing the US officials and associates of some Saudi victims. These members were involved in at least a dozen operations beginning in 2017, the officials said, including forcibly repatriating Saudis from other Arab countries.

According to the New York-based newspaper, the Rapid Intervention Group has been involved in the harassment of arrested prominent human rights activists and women’s rights defenders, including Loujain al-Hathloul, Aziza al-Yousef and Iman al-Najfan.

Alia al-Hathloul says that al-Qahtani attended several such sessions to torture her sister. He also threatened to kill Loujain and throw her body into the sewers, Alia says. According to the newspaper, the women were beaten, subjected to electric shocks, waterboarding, and threatened with death and rape during the interrogations. Loujain’s sister says that at first the Saudi authorities did not send the arrested women to jail, but in a secret location in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. According to US intelligence assessment, the brutal interrogations prompted university professor al-Najfan to attempt suicide. [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2019/03/13/saudi-arabia-persist-with-trial-for-women-human-rights-defenders/]

Saudi officials declined to confirm or deny that such a team existed, or answer questions from the Times about its work.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/mbs-approved-intervention-dissidents-nyt-report-190318075621971.html

Posted in Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Al-Jazeera, al-Qahtani, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, death squads, Human Rights Defenders, Jamal Khashoggi, killings, Loujain al-Hathloul, New York Times, Saudi Arabia, torture, women human rights defenders

Sri Lanka and the UN Human Rights Council: a Tale of Two Stories

March 18, 2019

In Resolution 30/1 adopted in 2015, Sri Lanka (which cosponsored it!) committed itself to a range of measures on human rights, accountability and reconciliation. Sri Lanka’s progress in fulfilling its commitments will be discussed on March 20, 2019, at the 40th session of the UNHRC. It is interesting to contrast two reactions:

One at the political level: On 17 March it was reported that a Sri Lankan parliamentarian – who will be a member of a delegation to be sent to the UN Human Rights Council next week – has slammed the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights report on his island, calling it “an atrocious piece of writing containing lies, half lies and highly contestable statements”. Sarath Amunugama, a senior former minister said the Sri Lankan delegation would be meeting with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to take up their complaints in person.

The report, released last week, said Sri Lanka had made “virtually no progress” on the investigation of war crimes, and also raised several other issues, including concerns over on-going reports of abduction, torture and sexual violence, institutional failures within the criminal justice system, ongoing harassment of human rights defenders since 2015 and the military’s continued occupation of civilian land. Amunugama though claimed the report was “methodologically incorrect” and contained “totally unwarranted statements”.

His comments come after less than a day after Sri Lanka’s ministry of foreign affairs agreed to the co-sponsoring of a roll-over UN resolution, the president Maithripala Sirisena said he wanted it stopped. Sirisena also said that the delegation he would be sending to Geneva would argue that Sri Lanka should be allowed to ‘solve its own problems’.

—–

And the other more ‘scientific’, fact-based approach of Verité Research which is engaged in a four-part series on government progress in fulfilling commitments in Resolution 30/1.

Since 2016, Verité Research has annually assessed government progress in fulfilling all 36 actionable commitments in Resolution 30/1. According to Verité’s latest assessment, the government has fulfilled 6 out of 36 commitments as at March 2019. This concerns only Part II: Rights, the Rule of Law & International Engagement

Figure 1: Government progress on Rights and Rule of Law

Rights and Rule of Law: 2/15 completed

The government made fifteen commitments on rights and the rule of law. These include reviewing, repealing and replacing the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), criminalising enforced disappearance, and investigating attacks on journalists, human rights defenders, religious minorities and civil society. As at March 2019, two of the fifteen commitments in this category have been fulfilled (See figure 1).

Sri Lanka criminalised enforced disappearance by enacting the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance Act, No. 5 of 2018. This law also introduced new procedural safeguards for persons taken into custody, such as the right to legal counsel and to contact a family member. There has also been some progress in issuing certificates of absence. A certificate of absence is issued to relatives of missing persons and affirms the status of victims as ‘missing’. The measure offers an alternative to receiving a death certificate for missing and disappeared persons. By April 2018, the Registrar General had issued 616 certificates out of 827 applications.

There has been limited progress in investigations and prosecutions pertaining to violence against journalists and religious minorities. Some of these cases have been subject to interference from the security and political establishment, thus impeding their progress. For instance, the military is reported to have withheld key evidence relating to the 2010 disappearance of cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda.

Progress in preventing new attacks has also been limited. In February 2019, journalist Nadarajah Kugarajah was reportedly attacked by policemen in Kokuvil, Jaffna. There were fresh outbreaks of violence against Muslims, first in Ginthota, Galle in November 2017, and thereafter in the Ampara and Kandy districts in early 2018. In response to the 2018 violence, the government declared a state of emergency under the Public Security Ordinance (PSO). The PSO grants the president extraordinary powers during a state of emergency, such as calling out the Armed Forces and imposing a state curfew. Resolution 30/1 contains a commitment to review the PSO, but the government is yet to announce clear plans to do so.

Progress in repealing the PTA remains slow. The Counter-Terrorism Bill slated to replace the PTA is currently under further deliberations in Parliament, following a Supreme Court ruling that certain clauses in the Bill was inconsistent with the Constitution.

International Engagement: 2/3 completed

The government made three commitments on international engagement: to continue engaging the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), to cooperate with UN special procedure mandate holders, and to implement specific recommendations made in the report of the OHCHR’s investigation on Sri Lanka (See figure 2).

Sri Lanka continues to engage the OHCHR, and has extended invitations to UN special procedure mandate holders. Visits by special rapporteurs have been made in the past four years, with more scheduled for 2019. However, there has been ‘poor progress’ in implementing the recommendations of the OHCHR Report. For example, there has been no progress in enacting new modes of criminal liability, or in criminalising war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. There has also been no review of convictions under the PTA, including those secured through confessions made to police officers during custody. There has also been limited progress in releasing detainees held under the PTA.

Conclusion

Over the past year, progress was achieved in fulfilling two of the commitments under the theme rights and rule of law: criminalising enforced disappearance and issuing certificates of absence. Progress in repealing and replacing the PTA, and investigations of attacks on journalists, religious minorities, and civil society has remained ‘partial’. The government continues to engage the OHCHR, but in 2018, did not make any significant improvements in implementing the recommendations of the OHCHR Report.

To access the full implementation monitor, visit: www.veriteresearch.org/publications

https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/un-report-‘atrocious-lie’-claims-sri-lankan-delegation-member

http://www.dailynews.lk/2019/03/18/features/180557/resolution-301-four-years-636-completed

Posted in Human Rights Council, OHCHR, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: cooperation with UN, disappearances, Resolution 30/1 (2015), Sarath Amunugama, Sri Lanka, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Human Rights Council, UN Resolution, Verité Research

Iran’s election to a UN ‘Gender Equality’ body should not obscure the real work

March 18, 2019

UN Commission on the Status of Women opening session, March 2019. Photo: Li Muzi/Xinhua News Agency/PA Images. All rights reserved.

Anne Marie Goetz in Open Democracy of 13 March 2019 goes in more depth on what the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York can do and points our that “Never before has social protection – pensions, health insurance, social security, child benefit, parental leave – been addressed by the CSW. Achieving progress on these issues is threatened by both religious and market fundamentalisms – though a number of states including Lebanon, Namibia, and Uruguay are resisting this backlash.“…

The US, Bahrain and Malaysia have reiterated during this week’s CSW discussions that the family – not the state – is the main source of social protection for many women. This is what I’d call a ‘family fallback’ approach which, combined with cuts to public services, requires women to expand their mothering roles to pick up the slack. Some countries, including Russia and Saudi Arabia, defend this maternal focus as a national cultural preference. The US is now among those supporting this view, arguing that any proposals on women’s rights should only be applied ‘as nationally appropriate’. This allows the notion of ‘national sovereignty’ to trump global standards on gender equality.

But the US position is so extreme that Shannon Kowalski, advocacy and policy director at the International Women’s Health Coalition, told me it’s expected that “major fractures will emerge” even with its conservative friends. Few developing countries can stomach the Trump government’s drift towards abstinence as the foundation of family planning.

Moreover, the US’s refusal to participate in the 2018 Global Compact for Immigration discussions has alienated countries such as the Philippines, Mexico and Indonesia, which have proposed, for instance, that social security benefits earned by immigrant women should be portable and redeemable when they return home.

A diverse counter-movement against the current global ‘illiberal drift’ is also visible at this year’s CSW. The ‘Buenos Aires Group’, consisting of many South American states (notably Argentina, Chile and Uruguay), has emerged as a defender of LGBTIQ rights and a skeptic about privatisation of public services. This year Tunisia and Lebanon, in the Arab states group, and South Africa, Namibia, Liberia and Cape Verde in the ‘Africa Group’ of countries, are championing progressive positions on women’s rights as well. This support from the Global South vitally shows that the gender equality agenda is not just the concern of the usual suspects in the North – Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and the EU.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/religious-and-market-fundamentalisms-threaten-gender-equality-un-summit/

https://www.eurasiareview.com/18032019-iran-appointed-to-un-womens-rights-committee-oped/

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/iran-wins-symbolic-leadership-post-un-gender-equality-body-after

Posted in human rights, UN | 1 Comment »
Tags: Anne Marie Goetz, Commission on the Status of Women, human rights of women, Iran, Multilateral diplomacy, Nasrin Sotoudeh, New York, Open Democracy, UN

Equatorial Guinean human rights defender Alfredo Okenve gets house arrest instead of award ceremony

March 17, 2019

Alfredo Okenve, a leading rights activist in Equatorial Guinea, was arrested at Malabo's airport on Friday night — AFP reported on 16 March 2019 that **Alfredo Okenve**, a leading human rights defender in **Equatorial Guinea** was arrested in the capital Malabo after travelling there to receive an award for his work, his NGO and a police source said Saturday. Okenve had arrived in Malabo on Thursday, a day ahead of a ceremony at the French Institute where he was to receive the **Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law** from French and German ambassadors. He was arrested at Malabo airport on Friday night when he was about to board a flight to Madrid after the cancellation of the awards ceremony earlier in the day.

A leading figure in the country’s civil society movement, Okenve is one of the leaders of the Center for Studies and Initiatives for the Development of Equatorial Guinea (CEID-GE), which said he had been flown back home to the port city of Bata and placed under house arrest. The authorities “prevented him from flying to Spain,” said Mariano Nkogo, who is also a senior figure within the NGO. He said a military plane had been chartered to fly Okenve back to Bata.

His arrest was also confirmed by a police officer at the airport and by the opposition Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS) whose members have been previously targeted in a crackdown by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has ruled the West African state for 39 years.

Friday afternoon’s award ceremony was cancelled after the Guinean government sent a formal note to the envoys’ representatives saying it did not recognise the award, a regional diplomatic source said. “*Due to the lack of transparency in the awarding of this prize, the government of Equatorial Guinea cannot recognise its validity,*” said the note, a copy of which was seen by AFP. The French and German embassies then postponed the ceremony. [for more on this award – authorities take note! – see: http://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/franco-german-prize-for-human-rights-and-the-rule-of-law]

In late October, Okenve was seized and beaten by unidentified men who left him in a remote area of Bata. He then went to Madrid to seek medical care, only returning home in mid-February.

See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2018/03/08/cartoonist-ramon-esono-ebale-freed-in-equatorial-guinea/

https://www.yahoo.com/news/e-guinea-rights-activist-arrested-tries-receive-award-114828089.html?

Posted in awards, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Alfredo Okenve, Development of Equatorial Guinea (CEID-GE), digest of human rights awards, diplomatic pressure, Equatorial Guinea, Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law, human rights awards, Human rights defender, Obiang Nguema

Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards

Author Archive

Many NGO participants denied visa to attend Commission on the Status of Women in New York

Kena Betancur / Getty Images

Special Rapporteur Diego Garcia-Sayan not swayed by Moroccan assurances for his visit

News from the human rights film front (2019)

Grand Prize of Geneva

Gilda Vieira de Mello Prize in tribute to her son Sergio Vieira de Mello

Youth Jury Prize

Grand Prize for Fiction

Prize of OMCT

The poster for the film Cargo.

Equal Justice Initiative founder Bryan Stevenson winner of 2019 Thomas Dodd Prize

Human rights defender in Chechnya, Oyub Titiev, sentenced to 4 years

After Christchurch: reflecting on how the internet is exploited by extremists

Jamal Khashoggi murder: the plot thickens

The Rapid Intervention Group was authorised by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman US officials told the NYT [File: Reuters]

Sri Lanka and the UN Human Rights Council: a Tale of Two Stories

Figure 1: Government progress on Rights and Rule of Law

Iran’s election to a UN ‘Gender Equality’ body should not obscure the real work

UN Commission on the Status of Women opening session, March 2019. Photo: Li Muzi/Xinhua News Agency/PA Images. All rights reserved.

Equatorial Guinean human rights defender Alfredo Okenve gets house arrest instead of award ceremony

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