The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) is working with journalists in the Middle East and Northern Africa to investigate various violations affecting the safety of journalists and their ability to do their work.
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“I find myself wishing there was more protection [for investigative journalists], a sense of safety and even simply just hope. I watch in awe as they investigate crimes that they unfortunately know they could well be victims of in the future, or in some cases already have been.“ Zaynab Al-Khawaja, GCHR’s Journalists Protection Coordinator, working with journalists conducting the investigations
With a strong gender focus, the GCHR ensures that the majority of the investigations are carried out by women, empowering them and shedding light on cases involving women.
One investigation highlights the story of an anonymous woman journalist who quit her job and relocated due to sexual harassment. She writes:
A large proportion of society is aware of widespread harassment in the streets, resulting from an exacerbated hypermasculinity. However, statements by several Iraqi women journalists confirm that this phenomenon did not spare women in press and media outlets, forcing a considerable number of them to quit journalism for good.
The investigation also reported that 41% of women journalists in Iraq have been victims of harassment, forcing 15% to leave their jobs and 5% to quit their profession for good.
This data aligns with UNESCO’s Chilling report, revealing increasing offline and online attacks against women journalists, including stigmatization, sexist hate speech, trolling, physical assault, rape and murder.
Another investigation looked into the imprisonment and silencing of journalists, some facing fabricated allegations of sexual harassment. GCHR collaborates with the NGO Vigilance and 40 partners on a joint appeal to end the persecution and detention of journalists and human rights defenders exercising their right to freedom of expression. GCHR also supported a journalist in the Middle East investigating the case of a disappeared journalist in Syria.
Since 2022, GCHR and UNESCO have joined forces to support investigative journalism, reducing impunity for crimes against journalists and enhancing their safety through the Global Media Defence Fund. Established in 2019, this fund has supported over 120 projects globally, directly benefiting over 5,000 journalists, 1,200 lawyers and 200 non-governmental organizations.
In 2022, UNESCO published recommendations on addressing violence against women journalists, based on The Chilling, a global research project by UNESCO and the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). All reports related to this project are available here on UNESCO’s website.
Almost a third of the world’s population now lives in countries with closed civic space. This is the highest percentage since 2018, when CIVICUS began systematically tracking civic space conditions around the world. This startling decline – from 26 per cent living in closed countries in 2018 to 30.6 per cent today – points to a major civic space crisis that requires immediate, global efforts to reverse. This year we also recorded the lowest percentage of humanity living in open countries, where civic space is both free and protected. Today, just two per cent of the world’s population enjoys the freedom to associate, demonstrate and express dissent without significant constraints, down from almost four per cent just five years ago.
Since the previous edition of this report, which covered 2022, civic space ratings have changed for 12 countries over the last year, worsening in seven countries and improving in five.
The latest CIVICUS Monitor country ratings update in December 2023 indicates that civil society faces an increasingly hostile environment. There are now 28 countries or territories with closed civic space, 50 with repressed civic space and 40 with obstructed civic space, meaning that 118 of 198 countries and territories are experiencing severe restrictions in fundamental freedoms. In comparison, 43 countries have narrowed civic space and just 37 have an open rating.
The severity of the civic space deterioration is exemplified by the number of countries moving to the repressed or closed category. Of the seven countries being downgraded, five moved to the two worst categories. Bangladesh and Venezuela are now rated as closed and Kyrgyzstan, Senegal and Sri Lanka are downgraded to the repressed rating as conditions for civil society continue to worsen.
Europe continues to add to the list of downgraded countries, with Bosnia and Herzegovina now placed in the obstructed category and Germany moving from an open to a narrowed rating. Over the past six years, 12 European countries have seen their ratings downgraded due to deteriorating civic space conditions.
Five countries have upgraded ratings in 2023, although, as in previous years, the situation for civil society in these countries continues to be challenging. Libya moved from the closed to the repressed category. Benin, Lesotho and Madagascar have moved from the repressed to the obstructed category. Notably, Timor-Leste has joined the narrowed category. Regional sections describe the conditions that led to ratings changes.
Justice & Peace Netherlands is launching its new call for applications for human rights defenders at risk to participate in Shelter City Netherlands. The deadline for applications is 28 February 2024 . Shelter City is a global movement of cities, organizations and people who stand side by side with human rights defenders at risk. Shelter City provides temporary safe and inspiring spaces for human rights defenders at risk where they re-energize, receive tailor-made support and engage with allies. The term ‘human rights defender’ is intended to refer to the broad range of activists, journalists and independent media professionals, scholars, writers, artists, lawyers, civil and political rights defenders, civil society members, and others working to advance human rights and democracy around the world in a peaceful manner. From June and September 2024 onwards, several cities in the Netherlands will receive human rights defenders for a period of three months. At the end of their stay in the Netherlands, participants are expected to return with new tools and energy to carry out their work at home.
Application forms must be submitted by 28 February 2024. An independent commission will select the participants. Note that selected human rights defenders will not automatically participate in Shelter City as Justice & Peace is not in control of issuing the required visas to enter the Netherlands. For more information, please contact us at info[@]sheltercity.org.
Last week, on 23 January 2024, the UN Human Rights Council reviewed the human rights record of China during its fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The International Service for Human Rights reporst back on its successful campaign: Following ISHR campaign and your messages to UN member States, sixcountries, including France, Luxembourg, the UK, the US, Sweden, and Australia urged Beijing to put an end to the practice of ‘Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location’ (RSDL) – which UN experts have branded a form of enforced disappearance. This would not have been possible without you!
Following this session, the Chinese government must review the recommendations and decide whether to accept or simply note them, and report back to the Human Rights Council at its 56th session (June 2024). ISHR will closely monitor this and keep you informed. Our call to raise the case of Cao Shunli got unanswered. Cao was detained by Chinese police in September 2013 in retaliation for her work to seek meaningful civil society participation in China’s second UPR cycle. Ten years ago, on 14 March 2014, Cao died of multiple organ failure following continued denial of medical treatment in custody. Despite the emblematic nature of her case Cao’s name was not once cited by UN member States. Nevertheless, at least four States recommended to China to end reprisals against human rights defenders seeking to engage with the United Nations. We’re ramping up efforts for honouring the memory of Cao Shunli and calling for accountability in her case. We are preparing a small event on 14 March 2024 in Geneva. Stay tuned for more very soon!
Naw Hser Hser and Maggi Quadrini wrote in the Diplomat of 31 January 2024 how 3 years after the Myanmar coup, women Human Rights Defenders remain at the forefront
Three years have passed since the military coup in Myanmar. Since then, the resistance movement has flourished into an inspired example of people’s power and the defiance of authoritarian forces. In the eyes of the military, the hijacking of the 2020 general election and subsequent coup attempt was an easy conquest. They thought that violence and their long-practiced orders of “shoot to kill” would silence the civil unrest that immediately followed. It soon became clear that the generals gravely underestimated the will of the country’s people, who refused to inherit another era of military rule. The people’s rejection of the junta has been widespread and notable for the prominent role played by women in the revolution against military rule.
While the political, social, and armed aspects of the revolution have shifted, what has remained constant is the unwavering participation and leadership of women who have defied patriarchal systems, including gender stereotypes, and set an unquestionable new standard of what is possible for women and girls in Myanmar.
Women human rights defenders are resisting the military dictatorship in different ways despite the many challenges they face. They remain resilient and unwavering in their quest to see the fall of the junta. During these difficult times, women and girls, especially those from ethnic areas, including the Rohingya as well as those who identify as LGBTQ, have faced more forms of violence, including domestic assaults, sexual violence, rape, being coerced into sex work, and human trafficking.
No reliable justice mechanisms exist in Myanmar that can bring perpetrators to court and ensure accountability. Facing a myriad of barriers that prevent and undermine women’s participation, women human rights activists have defied the patriarchal systems promoted by the Myanmar military, which have been used to influence a culture that does not see women as equals.
Rather than submit to the military junta and its patriarchal dictates, women have increased their participation in various facets of the pro-democracy movement. The women’s rights movement has also become more intersectional than ever. Women from urban and rural backgrounds, different ages, ethnic groups, and religions have united in their shared goal of defeating the Myanmar armed forces, quashing the patriarchy, and ensuring gender equality.
In the immediate aftermath of the coup, many women human rights defenders were forced into exile. Many fled to border areas, their names rapidly reaching the top of the lists of those wanted by the junta. This also put a target on their family members. The threat of unlawful arrest and the possibility of torture and death has taken an immense strain on women fighting the military. Yet they have continued to resist the junta’s tactics of intimidation and terror in pursuit of a gender-equal future for Myanmar that is free from military rule.
Women human rights defenders have refused to adhere to Myanmar’s patriarchal status quo in many ways. This was evident through their strong participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), where many female majority professions, including garment workers, health care providers, teachers, engineers, police, and even those in the military, quit their jobs following the attempted coup and refused to work for the junta. The Gender Equality Network has estimated that women comprise over 60 percent of frontline protest leaders and roughly 70 to 80 percent of the CDM’s leaders…
Women have been actively involved in resolving the many struggles of this revolution, including in the political, social, and armed arenas. However, there is still a lack of funding support and a lack of recognition within the resistance of women’s roles. There is also a lack of women’s participation in decision-making.
Findings from a new report called “Triple Resistance,” released this month by the Women’s League of Burma (WLB), a community-based organization working on the rights of the country’s women, revealed that despite the risks facing women human rights defenders, including threats to their physical and digital security, they have not been discouraged. On the contrary, they remain committed to seeing an end to military rule – something that is only possible through the participation of women. Of the women interviewed for WLB’s report, nearly 100 percent are involved in humanitarian work, and 50 percent have taken on new roles in the political arena, particularly as federalism becomes more established.
Women-led organizations are driving relief efforts on the ground, particularly in conflict-affected areas of Myanmar. These organizations provide services for victims of gender-based violence, counseling, food kits, and dignity kits, including menstrual care items and materials for expectant or new mothers. In Karenni State, where the capital city is being attacked relentlessly, the Karenni National Women’s Organization is continuing its operations to ensure displaced and vulnerable communities receive urgently needed humanitarian assistance and access to safe houses as gender-based violence rises.
Similarly, in Karen State, the Karen Women’s Organization works with its networks to ensure the swift and secure delivery of aid through cross-border channels effectively and efficiently to meet the needs of displaced groups, the majority of whom are women and children.
In addition, as local leadership across ethnic states and regions in Myanmar adopt federal bodies and institutions, women have participated in leadership capacities and have been central to forming a new federal Myanmar. For example, in Karenni State, women occupy several positions in the Karenni State Consultative Council, the Ta’ang Political Consultative Council, and other locally-driven bodies, as well as in People’s Administration Teams and village administrations.
Women leaders bring decades of experience working with armed actors and rights groups to provide security and protection for their communities. Their leadership must be recognized, encouraged, and accelerated. Without women, there is no sustainable development and consideration of gender perspectives during operations, service provision, or other political developments.
At an international level, governments and donors must understand that knowledge and expertise on locally-led challenges and solutions come from lived experiences and trust, which women and ethnic people can speak to. Global actors must recognize the efforts of women human rights defenders who continue to defy the status quo to ensure that the fall of the military junta will also lead to substantial improvements in gender equality. To do so, they must reinforce their commitment to amplify civil society organizations, including women-led initiatives. This new political space must be supported in order to hold the military junta accountable, at the International Criminal Court, if not in Myanmar itself.
In short, support of gendered programs, and for women’s participation more generally, is an integral part of the struggle against the military junta. Whether on the frontline, in political positions, or the classroom, women make up the substance of the revolution and are gradually carving out a new, progressive Myanmar. They deserve the world’s support.
Human rights activist Gregori Vinter appears in court in Cherepovets, Russia, on January 17.
On 29 January 2024, Rafio Free Europe reported that Russian paleontologist and human rights defender Gregori Vinter, who was sentenced to three years in prison earlier this month on a charge of distributing “false” information about Russian armed forces involved in Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, has asked President Vladimir Putin to euthanize him “to avoid an excruciating death of diabetes.”
Vinter’s lawyer, Sergei Tikhonov, on January 28 called the letter written by his client before he was handed his sentence on January 18 “a gesture of despair.”
In the letter, Vinter says prisons could not supply the insulin he needs to treat his diabetes, while getting supplies from outside the institution would be impossible because he would have to visit doctors to get prescriptions, something that wouldn’t be allowed.
“My experience tells me that without my medicine my life in custody will be very short…. I will face a process of a long and cruel death…. Knowing that as an inmate I will face a mere excruciatingly painful death among the alien, cruel, and absolutely indifferent people of the prison, I ask you to allow a voluntary medical euthanasia for me,” Vinter’s letter to Putin says.
“Imprisonment for a person like me, a person who survived a stroke, a clinical death during COVID, an attempted murder in 2018, actually means an execution, a public execution accompanied with long-term suffering through a slow and painful death. This is not just 1937 [period of Josef Stalin’s great purge] — it is perverted pathological sadism that is known to the whole world as the Russian Federation’s Federal Penitentiary Service.”
Prison officials have not commented on Vinter’s letter and whether he would have regular access to the medical assistance he needs.
The 55-year-old Vinter is the leader of the For Human Rights group branch in his native city of Cherepovets. His human rights activities in recent years helped to reveal the mass beatings of inmates at a local prison and investigations of the penitentiary’s guards. He also made headlines in 2019 after he led several rallies protesting against the local government’s deforestation activities in the region around Cherepovets.
During the pandemic in 2020, Vinter was handed a parole-like two-year sentence over an online post about the transportation of convicts without medical masks and other COVID precautions.
Before the sentence was pronounced, Vinter spent time in a detention center where, he said, investigators tortured him with electricity and broke his leg.
Vinter later told journalists about what he endured in the detention center, which led to a public outcry and investigations of the center’s administration.
The case against Vinter was initiated in August 2022 after he posted materials on the Internet about alleged atrocities committed by Russian troops against civilians in Ukraine.
The Memorial human rights group has recognized Vinter as a political prisoner.
On 31 January 2024 several NGOs – including HRW and AI -came out in support of a bill in the US Senate. Senator Ben Cardin introduced the Human Rights Defenders Protection Act of 2024, which aims to protect individuals abroad “who face reprisals for defending human rights and democracy.” The law, if enacted, would strengthen the US government’s ability to “prevent, mitigate, and respond” to such cases.
Senator Cardin said this legislation “will help elevate, guide, and enhance US efforts to support these courageous individuals globally at a time when their efforts are more important than ever.”
HRW said: The bill would integrate support for rights defenders into various US policies and programs and encourage engagement with the private sector. It aims to improve assistance for rights defenders living in exile from their home countries and strengthen US tools to hold perpetrators of rights abuses accountable.Human Rights Watch has long documented the risks, threats, and attacks that rights defenders across the globe face. In Rwanda, for example, the government for many years has targeted with impunity rights defenders at home and extended its repression beyond its borders to silence Rwandan critics living abroad. Last December, the Emirati government brought new charges under its counterterrorism law against 87 activists and dissidents, including imprisoned rights defender Ahmed Mansoor.
The proposed legislation would create a new US visa for rights defenders who face a “credible fear of an urgent threat,” allowing those who qualify to reach safety before they are detained or harmed. It would also increase the number of US government personnel dedicated to democracy and human rights issues in the federal government and at embassies in countries with a high risk of rights abuses.
Andrew Fandino, Advocacy Director for the Individuals at Risk Program at Amnesty International USA. stated: “The Human Rights Defenders Protection Act of 2024 is a critical piece of legislation that will help strengthen and improve the U.S. government’s ability to support human rights defenders around the world,” ..“With over 401 human rights defenders killed globally in 2022 alone, now more than ever, human rights defenders need this additional support and protection.”
If passed, the legislation would require the US government to establish a “Global Strategy for Human Rights Defenders.” The strategy would survey current tools and resources to support human rights, identify how the government would prioritize and bolster protections for rights defenders, and establish specific goals for implementing the legislation’s policy objectives. This would link to the existing EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders (2008), and the OSCE Guidelines on the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (2014) and those of a small group of European countries.
Anyone may nominate a candidate for the UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award. If you nominated someone in the past but they did not win, you may nominate them again.
The strongest nominations will provide a detailed account of the candidate’s work and results for displaced or stateless people, as well as three solid references to vouch for their character and impact. References should not all come from the same organization or group.
Please note that self-nominations are strongly discouraged. Current or former UNHCR employees are not eligible.
Criteria
Candidates may be individuals, groups or organizations.
Their work must have a direct and positive impact on the lives of forcibly displaced or stateless people.
Their work relates to a major displacement situation or issue.
This year they especially encourage nominations that relate to statelessness, climate, sports, solutions and inclusions but they are open to other themes.
They devote substantial time and effort to support forcibly displaced or stateless people, going above and beyond the call of duty and outside their expected role.
They have the capacity to successfully implement a suitable project with the prize money (US$100,000 for the global laureate, US$25,000 for regional winners).
AFP on 25 January, 2024 reported that UN experts urge Bangladesh to carry out major human rights reforms to reverse “repressive trends” following controversial elections that were boycotted by the opposition.
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was sworn in for a fifth term on January 11. Her ruling Awami League party won nearly three-quarters of elected seats in parliament, with allied parties and friendly independent candidates making up nearly all the remainder.
Hasina has presided over breakneck economic growth in a country once beset by grinding poverty, but her government has been accused of rampant human rights abuses and a ruthless crackdown on dissent.
The UN experts said they were “alarmed” at reports of “widespread attacks, harassment and intimidation of civil society, human rights defenders, journalists and political activists, which marred the recent elections”. See also my earlier posts on Bangladesh: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/bangladesh/.
The experts called on the Government to:
Immediately and unconditionally release all civil society and political activists detained without charge or on charges inconsistent with international human rights law; and ensure fair public trials in accordance with international human rights standards for those charged with criminal offences.
Institute urgent and substantial reforms to guarantee the integrity and independence of the judicial system.
Guarantee the free and unobstructed exercise of freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, refrain from imposing undue restrictions on protests and political rallies, and ensure effective accountability for serious violations of these fundamental freedoms.
Respect the independence, freedom, diversity, and pluralism of the media, and ensure the safety of journalists from threats, physical and online violence, or judicial harassment and criminal prosecution for investigative and critical reporting.
To mark the Day of the Endangered Lawyer, the Law Society of England and Wales issued a press release on 24 January honouring legal professionals who are targeted for upholding the rule of law and defending a strong justice system.
The Law Society has published its annual intervention tracker which shows that the Society took 40 actions relating to 17 countries in 2023. Most of these actions were initiated by concerns relating to arbitrary arrest or detention (58%) followed by harassment, threats and violence (27%).
Law Society president Nick Emmerson said: “Across the world, lawyers continue to face harassment, surveillance, detention, torture, enforced disappearance and arbitrary arrest and conviction...
We use this day to draw attention to the plight faced by countless lawyers across the globe, as they fight for their right to freely exercise their profession and uphold the rule of law.
A recent example comes from Amnesty International on 25 January 2024: On 31 October 2023, human rights lawyer, Hoda Abdelmoniem, was due to be released after serving her unjust five-year prison sentence stemming solely from the exercise of her human rights. Instead, the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) ordered her pretrial detention pending investigations into similar bogus terrorism-related charges in a separate case No. 730 of 2020. During a rare visit to 10th of Ramadan prison on 4 January, her family learned that her health continues to deteriorate and that she developed an ear infection, affecting her balance and sight. She must be immediately and unconditionally released. [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2020/11/29/2020-award-of-european-bars-associations-ccbe-goes-to-seven-egyptian-lawyers-who-are-in-prison/]
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 