Archive for the 'awards' Category

« Older posts
Newer posts »

Join the campaign #EndReprisals: 4 examples of eminent HRDs being silenced

May 16, 2024

Human rights defenders and civil society are the voices of our communities. These voices must be at the heart of decision and policy making at all levels. Yet, some States and non-states actors feel those voices are too loud. Cao Shunli, Chinese human rights defender, victim of reprisals who died in detention 10 years ago. Around the world, inspiring voices echo Cao’s ambition, on different issues and in different contexts, but with the same aspiration: promoting and protecting human rights. In so doing, many have engaged with the United Nations to share evidence of abuses with experts and States. Regrettably, some are facing the same form of reprisals as Cao, and are now arbitrarily detained. 

These include Trang in Viet Nam, Irfan and Khurram in India and Abdulhadi in Bahrain.

It’s time to take a stand. Join us in our campaign to #EndReprisals and call for the release of Trang, Abdulhadi, Khurram and Irfan. Let’s ensure that no one else faces Cao’s fate. Their voices deserve to be heard, and their freedom and lives must be protected.

Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja

Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja is a Bahraini-Danish advocate known for his unwavering commitment to freedom and democracy. An outspoken human rights defender he serves as a source of inspiration for activists in Bahrain and globally. Abdulhadi has protested Bahrain’s unlawful detention and torture of several civilians since he was a student. He received political asylum in Denmark with his family where he continued his advocacy work, documenting human rights violations in Bahrain. 

He became the first civil society representative to speak at the first Universal Periodic Review of Bahrain in 2008.  He is the co-founder of both the Gulf Centre for Human Rights and the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, as well as the laureate of the 2022 Martin Ennals Award. [https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/4d45e316-c636-4d02-852d-7bfc2b08b78d]

Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja was included for five times in the Secretary-General report on reprisals, noting “allegations of arbitrary arrest, torture and lengthy sentence following his engagement with United Nations human rights mechanisms.” In 2012, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found the detention of Abdulhadi arbitrary.

See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/abdulhadi-alkhawaja/

Pham Doan Trang

Pham Doan Trang is an author, blogger, journalist and pro-democracy activist from Viet Nam. She is a well-known advocate for human rights and has written on a wide range of human rights topics, including LGBTQI+ rights, women’s rights, environmental issues and on the suppression of activists.

She is considered among the most influential and respected human rights defenders in Viet Nam today. She has always been a major source of inspiration and mentorship for Vietnamese civil society and the next generation of human rights defenders.

Trang received the Reporters Without Borders 2019 Press Freedom Prize for Impact and was the Laureate of a Martin Ennals Award in 2022. As well as the Homo Homini in 2017 and the Women of Courage 2022. See: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/fe8bf320-1d78-11e8-aacf-35c4dd34b7ba

Trang was prosecuted for her articles and reports on the human rights situation in Viet Nam, including an analysis of a 2016 report on the Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Plant environmental disaster that was shared with the United Nations. See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/pham-doan-trang/

Trang was the subject of several communications by special procedures mandate holders and an Opinion by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in 2021, which found her deprivation of liberty arbitrary. On 2 November 2022, experts addressed Trang’s detention, including restriction of her right to family visits and her deteriorating health status. 

Irfan Mehraj and Khurram Parvez

Khurram Parvez and Irfan Mehraj are two Kashmiri human rights defenders. They have conducted ground-breaking and extensive human rights documentation in the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, including through their work within the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) – Khurram as founder and programme coordinator, and Irfan as a researcher.

Both activists have been internationally recognised for their work. Khurram is the Chairperson of the Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), Deputy General Secretary of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and a laureate of the 2023 Martin Ennals Award. [see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/81468931-79AA-24FF-58F7-10351638AFE3]

Irfan is a well-regarded independent journalist with frequent contributions to Kashmiri, Indian and international news outlets. He is the founder of Wande Magazine and is an editor at TwoCircles.net. See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2023/09/05/un-special-rapporteurs-express-serious-concern-about-kashmiri-human-rights-defenders/

On 22 November 2021, Khurram was arrested again by the Indian Government, this time by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and other laws, reportedly on allegations of “terrorism funding, being a member of a terrorist organisation, criminal conspiracy, and waging war against the state.” He remains in arbitrary detention to this day. 

Meanwhile, on 20 March 2023, Irfan was summoned for questioning and arbitrarily detained by the NIA in Srinagar also under provisions of the UAPA and other laws.  The NIA targeted Irfan for being ‘a close associate of Khurram Parvez.’ Both Khurram and Irfan are presently in pre-trial detention in the maximum-security Rohini prison in New Delhi, India. If convicted, Khurram and Irfan could face life imprisonment or even the death penalty.  

Khurram’s situation has been included in the Secretary-General’s report on reprisals since 2017 and Irfan’s case was included in the 2023 report.

In June 2023, United Nations experts expressed serious concerns regarding the charges against and arrest of Irfan and Khurram, stating that their continued detention is ‘designed to delegitimise their human rights work and obstruct monitoring of the human rights situation in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.’ The United Nation Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) published an opinion in the same year, finding Khurram’s detention arbitrary. 

What do we want? It’s simple. We want Irfan, Khurram, Trang and Abduhadi to be freed so they can continue their work without fear of further reprisals, and we want accountability for Cao. 

How do we achieve this?

We mobilise diplomatic missions, encouraging them to speak out and raise individual cases of reprisals against defenders at the UN and in other spaces and hold their peers to account. We convince the UN Secretary General and his team to acknowledge and document ALL cases of reprisal and intimidation by including them in his annual report on reprisals and intimidation against defenders engaging or seeking to engage with the UN and its human rights mechanisms. We push the UN system to establish clearer protocols on how to consistently and effectively prevent, respond and follow up on cases of reprisals.  We encourage governments, activists, and concerned individuals to stand in solidarity with human rights defenders and organisations who are subjected to reprisals and intimidations.

What can you do?

To achieve our goals, we are drawing attention to some of the most emblematic cases of reprisals that illustrate how human rights defenders are prevented from or punished for engaging with the UN.   Here are impactful actions you can take:

Write to State representatives at the UN in Geneva and New York

ISHR’s #EndReprisals database

In order to assist stakeholders with research, analysis and action on cases of reprisals and intimidation, ISHR launched an online database compiling cases or situations of intimidation and reprisals documented by the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General between 2010 and 2020.

  • 878 Cases of intimidation and reprisals against human rights defenders engaging with the UN reported by the UN Secretary General between 2010 and 2020.
  • 81 Countries were cases of reprisals were documented by the UN Secretary-General between 2010 and 2020.
  • 13 Reports published by the UN Secretary General on intimidation and reprisals.

Visit ISHR’s #EndReprisal database

https://ishr.ch/campaign/endreprisals2024

Posted in awards, Human Rights Defenders, ISHR, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Call for nominations for the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize 2024

May 16, 2024

On 4 May 2024, during World Press Freedom Day, the European Parliament launched a call for the submission of entries for the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize 2024. The award is for all journalists who work in newspapers registered in one of the 27 member countries. The purpose of the award is to recognize outstanding work that promotes and defends the fundamental principles and values of the European Union, such as human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law, and human rights. [see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/ea7f958d-a957-4495-9ab4-9550741a8a58]

An independent jury, comprising representatives of the press and civil society from EU countries and members of leading European journalists’ associations, will award the 20,000 euro  prize. The award ceremony will be around October 16, the anniversary of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder. Journalists have until 12 on July 31 to submit their entries.

The award aims at remembering Daphne Caruana Galizia, a Maltese journalist active against corruption, who was killed in 2017 by an explosive device planted in her car. The president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, in presenting the 2024 edition, was keen to remember Daphne Caruana Galizia: “She was murdered, but her spirit endures in the work of journalists who, like her, defend truth, pluralism, and justice. This prize is for them.”

Presented the 2024 edition of the Daphne Caruana Galizia journalism award

Posted in awards, EU, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Young Right Livelihood Laureates in Geneva panel

May 15, 2024

Right Livelihood Laureates illuminated the struggles and triumphs facing youth activists in a panel discussion organised by its Geneva office in March 2024. With speakers including Laureates from Belarus, Cambodia, and Egypt, as well as the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, the event painted a vivid picture of the evolving landscape of youth activism.

Natallia Satsunkevich, representing Belarusian Laureate organisation Human Rights Center “Viasna”, shared her journey, beginning as a civil rights summer school attendee to becoming an activist with Viasna to shed light on the abuses of Belarus’s repressive regime.

“I realised that I have this power to monitor and control the government,” she said. “This is obviously the aim of civil society in each country.”

She has faced backlash for her work: her apartment was searched and her mother was questioned by authorities. Eventually, Satsunkevich had to flee Belarus to avoid criminal prosecution. Five of her Viasna colleagues, including founder and Right Livelihood Laureate Ales Bialiatski, are imprisoned for their work.

“Nevertheless, I think the decision to become a human right activist and joining Viasna was one the best decisions of my life,” she said, pointing to the close friendships and working relationships she has developed. “The most important point is that I feel like I am doing the right thing, I know that I am making this world better.”

She called on young people around the world to “check your rights”: keep an eye on leaders and make sure that all human rights are respected.

Ratha Sun, from the Laureate organisation Mother Nature Cambodia, highlighted the innovative approaches of young activists. Despite facing legal challenges and imprisonment, the group’s viral campaigns and grassroots mobilisation have sparked significant environmental advocacy.

“For all our videos and campaigns, we … think about creativity and technical ideas to get more involvement from young people,” Sun said. “We also work closely with the local community that is being affected by the project [we’re fighting].”

The group’s activism has stopped damaging construction and extraction projects such as a hydropower dam and sand mining.

Their successes have resulted in more attention from the Cambodian public and, at the same time, also drew the ire of the government.

“Between 2015 and now, 11 members of Mother Nature Cambodia have been in jail, and now, six of us still have charges against us from the court,” Sun said, noting that the charges include insulting the king and plotting against the government. Sometimes, they are also accused of being members of the CIA.

“Even though we are facing 10 years in prison, our activists, who are young, are still standing to fight the government,” Sun said.

2016 Laureate Mozn Hassan, the founder of Nazra for Feminist Studies and the Doria Feminist Fund, talked about the double bind of being a young female activist in the Global South. Battling stereotypes and systemic challenges, Hassan emphasised the importance of expressing feminism and fighting gender-based discrimination creatively.

“Being a woman in these contexts is so problematic and has all these barriers from the private and the public – and all of them are affecting us,” Hassan said. “Especially if they are young: … it is also about resources, accessibility and acceptance.”

She noted that in the Middle East and North Africa region, the stigma for young feminist activists working on gender issues has been increasing, and they are targeted more often.

“For example, in Iraq, it’s not allowed to name any of the activity as something relating to gender,” she said, noting that this was especially the case for young activists expressing their femininity or sexuality in non-traditional ways.

When it comes to the tools young activists are using, in many countries, such as Egypt, they are being targeted and imprisoned for social media posts.

Having just finished a report on youth and child human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, provided a global perspective. She highlighted the unique contributions of youth and child activists, drawing attention to their innovative use of social media, decentralisation, and creativity in campaigning.

“Young people face the same challenges as all other human rights defenders, and they often use the same approaches as other human rights defenders,” Lawlor said. “But where they differ is that they are very creative, and they have novel tools and methods.”

She noted their “extremely clever use of social media” that can garner attention.

However, she also pointed out the challenges they face, including exclusion from formal decision-making.

“Ageism is a frequent barrier to young and child activism: Young defenders feel they are not being heard, not being taken seriously, and their views are not being taken into account,” Lawlor said. “Even when their participation in public and political decision-making has been increased, it’s usually a tokenistic box-ticking exercise.”

Young activists also face rampant online harassment, requiring strengthened protection and security for human rights violations perpetrated online. Lawlor’s new report aims to address these challenges and enhance protections for young activists. See: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2024/03/07/mary-lawlors-new-report-focusses-on-youth-human-rights-defenders/

https://rightlivelihood.org/news/geneva-panel-highlights-youth-activism-through-the-lens-of-right-livelihood-laureates/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2024-05-08&utm_campaign=Change+in+action+The+latest+news+from+Right+Livelihood

Posted in awards, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Denis Mukwege, Congolese Human Rights Defender, awarded 2024 Aurora Prize

May 13, 2024
Aurora Humanitarian Initiative (PRNewsfoto/Aurora Humanitarian Initiative)

On 10 May 2024, the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative announced that eighth Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity was awarded to Dr. Denis Mukwege, a world-renown gynecological surgeon and human rights activist from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Dr. Mukwege is the president of Panzi Hospital and Foundation in the DRC, which he founded in 1999 to address the systemic issue of maternal healthcare and maternal mortality. Amidst ongoing conflict and critical healthcare needs stemming from war, the hospital has become one of the world’s pre-eminent treatment centres for survivors of sexual violence in conflict. Dennis Mukwege is one of the most recognized HRDs in the world, as shown by the 14 human rights awards already received [see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/30515CB2-A763-412A-B61D-549E71306CD4]

In recognition of his courageous work and dedication to improving human rights for all, the Aurora Prize Selection Committee revealed their decision after conferring during a three-hour closed session. The Laureate receives a $1,000,000 award and a chance to continue the cycle of giving by supporting local grassroots leaders helping people in need. See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/denis-mukwege/

“Dr. Mukwege has dedicated his life not only to caring for women and girls suffering from the brutality of sexual violence, but also fiercely advocating for their rights,” said Dr. Noubar Afeyan, Co-Founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative. “Aurora is honored to support Dr. Mukwege’s mission to help those in need, demand justice for the victims of sexual violence in war, and bring the perpetrators to justice.”

Guests at the Aurora Prize Ceremony also honored the contributions of two other shortlisted Aurora Humanitarians: Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, a human rights advocate who has been fearlessly defending the most vulnerable communities in Bahrain and the MENA region, and Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent Iranian human rights defender.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dr-denis-mukwege-congolese-gynecological-surgeon-and-human-rights-activist-awarded-the-2024-aurora-prize-302142129.html

Posted in awards, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Kofi Annan Courage in Cartooning Award 2024

May 10, 2024

On World Press Freedom Day, May 3, the Freedom Cartoonists Foundation recognized the talent and
courage of cartoonists working under difficult circumstances. The Kofi Annan Courage in Cartooning Award 2024 was presented by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Shirin Ebadi of Iran, during a public ceremony at the Geneva Graduate Institute, in presence of CNN’s international chief anchor Christiane Amanpour. For more on this award see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/f60cb3d4-c79a-43aa-9b5c-351c56c02ae1. This award is presented every two years in alternance with a prize presented by the allied organization Cartoonists Rights in the United States.
The accompanying international exhibition Cartooning for Freedom, visible on the shores of Lake Geneva until June 2, 2024, features nearly 60 press cartoons selected by Freedom Cartoonists, in partnership with Cartooning for Peace in Paris.
Chaired by Kenneth Roth, former Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, the international jury shares the 2024 Prize between two winners: Rachita Taneja (India) and Zunzi (Hong Kong).

see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2022/05/10/new-kofi-annan-courage-in-cartooning-award-to-ukrainian-and-hungarian-press-cartoonists/

For Chappatte, president of the Foundation, “Both brilliantly embody the fundamental values of editorial cartooning: talent, freedom of spirit, and courage. With a bit of mischief.”

International Editorial Cartoon Prize 2024 by the Freedom Cartoonists Foundation

https://www.barrons.com/news/indian-hong-kong-satirists-win-press-cartoon-award-8db6c9b8

Posted in awards, films, Human Rights Defenders, THF | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Geneva celebrates press freedom and women cartoonists

May 2, 2024

On 3 May, 2024 at 5.30 pm in the Maison de la Paix, Geneva Graduate Institute, and to mark World Press Freedom Day, the Freedom Cartoonists Foundation and the City of Geneva will be awarding its 2024 international editorial cartoon prize [City of Geneva’s International Press Cartoon Award]. See: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/EBEE0ECF-565B-6614-9B67-A6938EB46155

The public event is fully booked, but a livestream will be available on this page.

Keynote by the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi from Iran, (mentor of Narges Mohammadi, current Nobel Peace Prize winner imprisoned in Teheran), in discussion with Christiane Amanpour, CNN chief international anchor and member of the Foundation’s advisory board.

Followed by a debate on women cartoonists around the world, with Ann Telnaes (USA), Rachita Taneja (India) and Willis from Tunis (Tunisia), moderated by Christiane Amanpour. Presentation of the “Kofi Annan Courage in Cartooning Award 2024” by the City of Geneva and the Freedom Cartoonists Foundation.

Introductions by Chappatte and Marie Heuzé (Chair and Vice-Chair of the Foundation), Sami Kanaan (Administrative Councillor of the City of Geneva) and Volker Türk (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights).

Film made by True Heroes Films.

Christiane Amanpour, CNN anchorwoman, member of the foundation’s advisory board

https://freedomcartoonists.com

Posted in awards, films, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Geneva Human Rights Film Festival: winners announced

March 19, 2024

On 14 March 2024, the FIFDH published the film awards for its 2024 Festival. They include:

Gilda Vieira de Mello Prize

provides a moving account of the daily life of Mohamed Jabaly, who is stranded in Norway after the closure of Gaza’s borders. A call for freedom of movement, but above all freedom to pursue your dreams. “Gaza as depicted in Life is Beautiful no longer exists. Its streets, squares and the faces that populate filmmaker Mohamed Jabaly’s memories have been eradicated in the ongoing genocide in Palestine. What we are left with are the images that tell of the past, already under Israeli occupation. The violence of the borders, but also the solidarity and determination of an individual to lead a dignified existence. Cinema becomes the compass of an odyssey that takes us all to Gaza.”

Prize of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)

Total Trust follows the daily lives of activists who are watched and oppressed by the Chinese government through the use of technology, artificial intelligence and human rights. “Unveiling what appears to be a real-life Orwellian 1984 scenario, the documentary vividly portrays the persecution of Chinese human rights defenders and exposes the use of cutting-edge state surveillance technology tools to tightly control the lives of millions of people. This disconcerting image of rising authoritarianism prompts an important question: “Is a future controlled by technology, where we are no longer free to exercise our rights, a real risk for us all?” The prohibition of torture is what allows individuals to shape their personality and views, and establish their dignity, which is the very essence of being human.” [https://www.omct.org/en/resources/blog/one-moment-of-darkness-wont-blind-you-forever-award-winning-filmmaker-jialing-zhang-on-state-surveillance-technology-and-persecution-of-human-rights-defenders-in-china]

In March 2024, also noteworthy is that at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival the top prize in the International Amnesty Award competition went to Maciek Hamela’s Oscar-shortlisted In the Rearview. Hamela shot his film almost entirely within the confines of a van evacuating Ukrainian civilians fleeing the Russian invasion of their country. [https://deadline.com/2024/03/thessaloniki-internationa-documentary-festival-2024-awards-my-stolen-planet-stray-bodies-1235860706/]

For the full table of FIFDH winners, see:

https://www.euronews.com/culture/2024/03/18/human-rights-film-festival-winners-hone-in-on-russia-and-gaza

Awards 2024

Posted in awards, films, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Call for applications for the Courage to Think Award

March 12, 2024

Scholars at Risk is seeking nominations for the 2024 Courage to Think Award, which will be presented at the SAR 2024 Global Congress taking place in Vilnius, Lithuania from June 25-27, 2024, in partnership with the European Humanities University (EHU). Nominations will be reviewed on a rolling basis. See: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/courage-to-think-award/

For more on the Courage to Think Award and its laureates, see https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/165B4CC5-0BC2-4A77-B3B4-E26937BA553C

Nomination Guidelines:

  • Nominations may recognize individuals, groups or institutions;
  • Nominations may be submitted by individuals or organizations;
  • SAR sections are encouraged to submit nominations on behalf of the section;
  • Incomplete nominations will not be considered.

Submit a nomination

Posted in awards, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , ,

18th edition of the International Women of Courage Awards

March 5, 2024

On Monday, 4 March 2024, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and First Lady Jill Biden hosted the annual International Women of Courage (IWOC) Awards ceremony at the White House. See: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/A386E593-5BB7-12E8-0528-AAF11BE46695

Now in its 18th year, the Secretary of State’s IWOC Award recognizes women from around the globe who have demonstrated exceptional courage, strength, and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equity and equality, and the empowerment of women and girls, in all their diversity – often at great personal risk and sacrifice.  The 2024 awardees and many earlier laureates can be found via the Digest link above.

USAID Administrator Samantha Power had the following to say: It has always taken bravery and stubbornness to stand up for human rights. But today the threats that human rights activists and defenders face – from threats to their families to legal retribution to imprisonment and outright violence at the hands of those who would prefer to see them silenced – those threats are grave, and sadly they are growing. In 2022, more than 400 human rights defenders were murdered, the highest number ever recorded in a single year. I am in awe of the women we are honouring today for their courage. 

They refuse to back down because of a shared conviction captured by Fatima Corazon, one of the women we are recognizing today. As she puts it, courage, even in the face of danger and fear is the driving force to achieve positive change. The women we are honoring live this conviction every minute of every day. They have been unjustly imprisoned, they have been driven from their homes or trapped inside their homes, they have seen their families and their colleagues attacked, or they have received death threats and been assaulted themselves. 

But they do not relent. They go on fighting, they fight for the rights of political prisoners, they organize movements to bring services to marginalized communities, they publish articles, they host rallies, and they call out injustice wherever they can. Even in the most dangerous places against all odds, they are continuing their work demonstrating incredible, inspiring courage and putting their lives on the line to defend human rights. 

Benafsha Yaqoobi has dedicated her life to defending the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan. A former attorney and member of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, she has helped women escape violence and visually impaired children attend school. Today, she continues to fight for the future of Afghanistan – one that respects human rights and human dignity.

Born in Isla Luis Vargas Torres, one of the most violent enclaves within Esmeraldas, Ecuador, Fátima Corozo has put her life on the line to draw hundreds of young people away from rising gang violence and help them get the education and job opportunities they need to build the futures they want for themselves.

Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello was the only woman amongst 75 people imprisoned during the black spring, Cuba’s crackdown on dissidents two decades ago, Martha was jailed for her activism. After her release, she continued to fight for the rights of political prisoners documenting fraudulent court hearings and supporting activists and their families. Unfortunately, as the Secretary relayed, the Cuban government is preventing Ms. Roque Cabello from leaving the country. So she is not here to accept the award, but let us give her a heartfelt round of applause.

As a result of Fariba Balouch’s outspoken activism for the rights of women and systematically oppressed ethnic minorities in Iran’s poorest province of Sistan and Baluchestan, Iranian authorities have threatened her life. And after she escaped to London, they detained her son and brother in a further attempt to intimidate her. Yet, Ms. Balouch believes the only way forward is resistance, and she continues to advocate for marginalized communities in Iran refusing to be silenced.

https://www.miragenews.com/2024-intl-women-of-courage-awardees-unveiled-1185728

https://www.usaid.gov/news-information/speeches/mar-04-2024-administrator-samantha-powers-remarks-international-women-courage-awards-ceremony

Posted in awards, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Colombian human rights lawyer Meléndez loses security after winning prize

February 23, 2024

Haroon Siddique in the Guardian of 15 February 2024 relates the story of lawyer Adil Meléndez Márquez who received a call from his bodyguards 20 minutes after receiving the Sir Henry Brooke award from the Alliance for Lawyers at Risk. Meléndez is no stranger to death threats, but things have just got a lot scarier. With bitter irony, 20 minutes after receiving the Sir Henry Brooke award from the Alliance for Lawyers at Risk, his bodyguards called him to say that they had been stood down from, leaving him without protection.

In an interview with the Guardian in London, Meléndez said he is a human rights lawyer who hails from among those he represents. He is Afro Colombian and works predominately on cases for Afro Colombians and Indigenous communities, often in areas under the control of paramilitaries rather than the government. He was kidnapped when he was 12 so has first-hand experience of the violence which blights the country and has received threats since becoming involved with Movice (movement of victims of state crimes) in 2006. See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2014/02/12/death-threats-in-colombia-on-the-rise-again/

After receiving threats Meléndez took a case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights – an organ of the Organization of American States – which, in 2009, ordered Colombia to provide him with protection. For the first eight years this amounted to three personal bodyguards and a bulletproof car, then the bulletproof car was removed and later one of the bodyguards, leaving him with two until last week, he says.

Meléndez describes his work as taking on “politicians, business interests, cattle ranchers, the armed forces and paramilitary groups”.

He expands: “Rampant corruption and violence is taken advantage of by [foreign] companies. They operate in such a way that it denies the rights of communities because all they’re interested in is the exploitation of natural resources. It means that they don’t have to provide compensation or justice for the communities because the rule of law, the writ of law doesn’t apply.”

One of the projects Meléndez has been helping to resist is the upgrading of the 115km Canal del Dique in Colombia’s Caribbean region, which he helped to get temporarily suspended. He believes that proper consultation was not carried out prior to the project, as is required by law and it involves “the privatisation of rivers which are the source of life of the Afro-descendent communities”. He said that as a result of the suspension he was called an “enemy of development” by a Colombian minister, words he claims were echoed by the the paramilitary group and notorious drug cartel, Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia (AGC), also known as the Gulf Clan.

While he counts Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, the country’s first leftist head of state, as a friend and acknowledges his lack of control over swathes of the country, at the same time he says disapprovingly: “President Petro speaks in international fora about the protection of the environment but in his own country his government is awarding contracts to a project that is damaging to the environment.”

Meléndez does not blame Petro for the removal of his bodyguards, believing it was the work of someone lower down the food chain, but he believes it is for the president to ensure they are reinstated. Not doing so would put the government in breach of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, he says. “I have had to stop all my activities at the moment and it’s possible even that I will have to make the decision not to return to Colombia,” says Meléndez.

However, he hopes that the prize he was presented with in London, which he calls a reward for “the rebellious and those in resistance”, might offer a degree of protection. “This prize raises my profile,” he said. “It provides evidence that I’ve got support from the international community. The organised criminal actors or others who are against me, they calculate the consequences of their actions and so the calculation now includes a much higher level of risk for them if they make a decision to act against me.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/15/adil-melendez-marquez-colombia-interview

Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

« Older posts
Newer posts »