Archive for the 'Front Line' Category
June 12, 2014
“If just a fraction of the global attention given to football could be given to securing human rights, we would all be celebrating victory.”
Front Line Defenders and Brazilian NGO partners Justiça Global and Terra de Direitos launched today an online and social media campaign to focus attention on the plight of 42 human rights defenders (HRDs) from each of the participating World Cup nations (www.sportshrd.org). The international campaign kicks off in a few hours just before the first World Cup match between Brazil and Croatia with an event in Dublin.
“Front Line Defenders draws attention to these heroes in our societies who work at great personal risk, against seemingly insurmountable odds to secure fundamental rights and freedoms for others,” announced Mary Lawlor, Executive Director of Front Line Defenders.
The campaign site allows visitors to send messages of solidarity, which will be delivered to the HRDs. On Twitter, please use #sportshrd to enlarge the reach of the campaign.
For more information contact adam[at]frontlinedefenders.org
World Cup Countdown: Front Line Defenders HRD Team | Front Line.
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: 2014 FIFA World Cup, awareness raising, Brazil, football, Front Line (NGO), Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor, Mundial, World Cup, worldwide campaign
May 30, 2014
The Democratic Republic of Congo remains a terrible place for human rights defenders. These two recent events reported by Front Line make it abundantly clear:
1. Attempted murder of human rights defender Mr Leonard Lusimba
On 22 May 2014, human rights defender Mr Leonard Lusimba was shot in an attempted killing by a member of the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo – FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo). He underwent surgery on 25 May, and a second operation will be necessary in the coming days. Leonard Lusimba is the regional representative of Collectif d’Actions pour la Défense des Droits de l’Homme – CADDHOM, an organisation which, since the 1990s, has worked to promote human rights and peace education in different regions of the DRC, in particular in the Eastern provinces of the country where a number of armed groups are still active.
[Over recent years, numerous Congolese human rights defenders have been killed as a result of targeted attacks. In the rare cases where serious investigations have been undertaken, they have often failed to lead to results, favouring impunity.]
2. Closure of the office of human rights organisation Solidarity for Social Advancement and Peace
On 21 May 2014, the Congolese human rights organisation Solidarité pour la Promotion Sociale et la Paix – SOPROP (Solidarity for Social Development and Peace) was closed by the Direction Générale des Impôts – DGI in relation to an investigation into allegations of tax fraud. The DGI declared that it needed time to reach a compromise with SOPROP, and proposed a settlement to SOPROP of 20% of the amount it allegedly owed in unpaid taxes. SOPROP rejected the proposal on the grounds that there was no basis for the amount originally demanded. The same day, SOPROP brought a complaint to the local Prosecutor’s Office, which identified irregularities in the procedure and ordered that the medical centre be reopened. The office, however, remains sealed, and it is unknown when it will be reopened
[SOPROP is an organisation which, since its foundation in 1994, has supported victims of torture and other violence through medical, social and legal assistance. The organisation is also known for its activities in human rights education, particularly in schools, as well as for its investigations into human rights violations and corruption. In 2011, SOPROP had published a report on the corrupt practices of state companies in Kinshasa, which highlighted agencies of the DGI, amongst others.]
For previous posts on DRC: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/congo-drc/
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: anti corruption, CADDHOM, Civil society, closure, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, Front Line (NGO), Human Rights Defenders, impunity, Leonard Lusimba, shooting, SOPROP
May 29, 2014
reports that on 26 May 2014, the Bujumbura Court of First Instance refused a request for release due to unlawful arrest (Habeas Corpus) filed by human rights defender Mr Pierre Claver Mbonimpa in Burundi. Mbonimpa – Laureate of the MEA in 2007 – has been in detention since 16 May 2014 and is currently being held in the Central Prison of Mpimba. More information on Pierre Claver Mbonimpa’s case is available on http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/25956 and my previous post https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/alert-mea-laureate-2007-pierre-claver-mbonimpa-arrested-in-burundi/.
Posted in Front Line, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Burundi, detention, freedom of expression, Front Line (NGO), Habeas Corpus, Human rights defender, Mbonimpa, MEA, MEA Laureate, Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, unlawful arrest
May 29, 2014
The Treaty Body that oversees the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, composed of independent experts, recently completed its review of China‘s compliance. In its conclusions (called ‘Concluding Observations’), the UN committee expressed serious concern about ‘instances where labour and human rights activists, and their lawyers, have been victims of repression and reprisals while taking up cases of violations of economic, social and cultural rights’ and said that China is obliged under international law ‘to protect human rights and labour activists, as well as their lawyers, against any form of intimidation, threat and retaliation‘.
[The ISHR had briefed the treaty body experts on the case of Chinese human rights defender, Cao Shunli, on of the 3 Final Nominees of the MEA 2014, who died in detention after being denied access to adequate health care. In its briefing, ISHR also expressed concern at ongoing intimidation and reprisals against other human rights defenders, saying, ‘The Chinese Government again restricted human rights defenders from travelling to Geneva to attend this session, a pattern which is widespread. We call on the Committee to recommend that the government immediately cease its harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders, and that it guarantee the right of everyone to safely access and communicate with international bodies, such as this Committee. Further, we request that the Committee remain vigilant about reprisals, and that it recommend that the Government investigate all cases of alleged reprisals, and hold perpetrators to account.’] [http://www.ishr.ch/news/china-un-committee-demands-respect-human-rights-activists-and-end-reprisals]
Two days earlier, 26 May, the NGO Chinese Human Rights Defenders reported that Chinese authorities have detained a top rights lawyer and questioned dozens of activists and family members of victims of the 1989 military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement after they held a seminar to mark the sensitive 25th anniversary.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, ISHR, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Cao Shunli, China, China Human Rights Defenders, Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, Cui Weiping, Front Line (NGO), harassment, Hu Jia, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, inner mongolia, International Service for Human Rights, Liu Shihui, MEA final nominee 2014, Pu Zhiqiang, Renee Xia, reprisals, retaliation, Tiananmen Square
May 19, 2014
Mexico is one of the worst places in the world for human rights defenders. This is brought home again with this news item via Front Line Defenders that on 12 May 2014, human rights defender Ms Sandra Luz Hernandez was killed in Culiacán, Sinaloa. The human rights defender was shot 15 times in the head in broad daylight. Sandra Luz Hernandez was a member of Madres con Hijos Desaparecidos (Mothers of Disappeared Children), an organisation made up of mothers seeking to combat impunity for the enforced disappearances of their children in Mexico. The human rights defender has been searching for justice for her son, Edgar Guadalupe García Hernández, who worked in the State Prosecutor’s Office of Sinaloa, since he was abducted from their home on 12 February 2012 by unknown armed persons.
According to the record of the Red Nacional de Defensoras de Derechos Humanos en México (The National Network of Human Rights Defenders in Mexico), since 2010 to date, there have been a total of 31 killings of human rights defenders, including the shooting of Sandra Luz Hernandez.
[At approximately 4pm, Sandra Luz Hernandez was shot by a man as she walked along Calle Constitución with a friend. The human rights defender was reportedly on her way to meet a person who she had been told had information regarding her son’s case. Sandra Luz Hernandez had stated that, the day before, she was approached by a stranger in a shopping centre who said that he knew someone who could tell her where her son was. On 12 May 2014, the human rights defender reportedly received a call arranging a meeting with the person at the Benito Juarez Colony. The human rights defender had met with the State Prosecutor of Mexico to discuss her son’s case at 11:30am the same day.]
Posted in Front Line, human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: disappearances, Extrajudicial killing, Front Line (NGO), Human Rights Defenders, Mexico, Mothers of Disappeared Children, murder, Sandra Luz Hernandez, The National Network of Human Rights Defenders in Mexico, woman human rights defender
May 18, 2014
In an excellent piece written for CNN, Tanya Lokshina of Human Rights Watch, on 15 May gives an overview of the different measures that threaten human rights defenders in Russia. While attention is on Ukraine, a vicious crackdown on civil society in Russia itself also escalated with every week brings a new pernicious law or legislative proposal:
- The authorities have blocked or essentially took editorial control over a number of independent news portals and are pushing new laws to stifle freedom of expression.
- A week ago, President Vladimir Putin signed a law requiring Russian bloggers with significant followings to register with the authorities and comply with media regulations.
- The same law requires blogging services and social networks to store user activity for six months.
- Another legislative proposal would introduce administrative and criminal offenses for editors who publish “false anti-Russian” information or offer media support to “anti-Russian extremist and separatist forces.”
- Another new draft law introduces a ban on publishing negative information about the Russian government and military.
- Also, amendments presently under review by the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, would enable the authorities to throw people behind bars for up to five years for repeated participation in unauthorized public protests.
At the same time the infamous Russian law “on foreign agents”, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Front Line, HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: ADC Memorial, bloggers, Civil society, foreign agent law, freedom of association, freedom of expression, Front Line (NGO), Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights Watch, judicial harassment, media, nationalist group, Russia, Tanya Lokshina, Women of the Don
May 16, 2014
MEA Laureate 2007 Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa
MEA Laureate 2007, Pierre-Clavier Mbonimpa, was arrested this morning early. The latest information is that he is still detained at the Police-Judiciare. The background is rising tension in Burundi, where it is feared that President Pierre Nkurunziza is expected to campaign for a third term in office in 2015 despite a two-term constitutional limit. The Economist of 29 March 2014 already carried an article under the prescient title “Trouble Ahead” and on 17 April Paul Debbie, security chief at the UN office in Burundi, was ordered to leave the country in connection with a UN report disliked by the Government containing “allegations of weapons distribution to members of the youth league of the ruling party”. [http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/04/burundi-expels-un-official-over-arms-report-2014417144546195161.html] It is feared that this youth wing, named the Imbonerakure, are being armed and trained in weapons use, raising fears of a return to civil war, even of genocide. No charges have been brought against Mbonimpa, but it is believed that the arrest is related to comments made on the radio regarding the above. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, MEA | 3 Comments »
Tags: APRODH, Burundi, ethnic conflict, freedom of expression, Front Line, illegal detention, Imbonerakure, judicial harassment, laureate MEA, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, MEA, Nkurunziza, Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, Pierre-Clavier Mbonimpa, UN
May 13, 2014
Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, must sometimes be doubting her power: on 5 May 2014, human rights defender Mr Ko Htin Kyaw was arrested by the police for distributing pamphlets in Yangon, Burma. On 9 May 2014, two of his colleagues were also arrested when they attended the trial against him. Ko Htin Kyaw is director of the Movement for Democracy Current Force (MDCF), a community-based organisation working to promote development and democracy. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in FIDH, Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma, FIDH, freedom of expression, Front Line (NGO), Human Rights Defenders, Ko Htin Kyaw, Ko Tin Maung Kyi, Ko Zaw Win, Movement for Democracy Current Force (MDCF), Myanmar, United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
May 11, 2014
For the weekend a longer read: On 22 April 2014, human rights defender Dr Yuri Melini in Guatemala discovered that intimidating text had been painted on his front gate. The text names the member of the police provided as personal security to the human rights defender since an assassination attempt was made against him. Yuri Melini is the Director of the Centro de Acción Legal, Ambiental y Social de Guatemala (CALAS) – Legal, Environmental and Social Action Centre of Guatemala. CALAS is an organisation working for the strengthening of environmental issues, community participation and respect for the collective rights of indigenous communities in relation to environmental concerns. The human rights defender was awarded the Front Line Defenders Award in 2009. The human rights defender has previously faced harassment, intimidation, defamation and an attempt on his life as a result of his human rights work, see: http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/23190 [Last year eighteen human rights defenders were assassinated, a 72-percent increase over 2012, even as the country’s general murder rate has decreased.]
To place this incident in context one should read the report by Patricia DAVIS published in Eurasia Review of 28 April 2014: “GUATEMALA: SUPPRESSING DISSENT AT HOME AND ABROAD – ANALYSIS”
After a lengthy introduction concerning the ad personam attack by Guatemalan President Molina on Tim Rieser, majority clerk on the Senate State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee (for blocking military aid), the article dives into the numerous human rights problems in the country. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, ICJ | Leave a Comment »
Tags: death threats, environmental issues, extrajudicial killings, Front Line (NGO), Guatemala, Human Rights Defenders, indigenous groups, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, International Commission of Jurists, intimidation, land disputes, Mining, Pérez Molina, trade unionists, Tuyuc, Yuri Melini
May 8, 2014
On 7 May 2014, human rights defender Mr Raif Badawi was sentenced by a Jeddah Criminal Court in Saudi Arabia to 10 years in prison, 1000 lashes and a fine of 1 million Saudi riyals. The human rights defender is a co-founder of the “Free Saudi Liberals” website and was convicted of “insulting Islam”. As Raif Badawi’s page https://frontlinedefenders.org/RaifBadawi on Front Line Defenders explains, the human rights defender was originally sentenced to “ONLY” seven years’ imprisonment and 600 lashes. See also last year’s post: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2013/07/30/saudi-website-founder-to-be-imprisoned-and-lashed-·-global-voices/
Posted in Front Line, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: corporal punishment, Free Saudi Liberals, freedom of expression, Front Line (NGO), Global Voices, Human rights defender, illtreatment, Islam, lashes, Raif Badawi, Saudi Arabia, website
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 