Archive for the 'Human Rights Defenders' Category
February 17, 2015
Mchangama is one of the leaders of the “Madji Na Mwendje” (power and water) movement, formed by the FCC and other civil society organizations to protest the government’s inability to resolve the frequent power blackouts and water shortages plaguing the island. The movement called on all Comorian civil society groups to engage in a three-day general strike scheduled for February 9-11. The Sunday before the strike was set to start, Mchangama was summoned to appear at the police station of Moroni where he was immediately arrested and is currently being held.
“Civil society leaders like Mchangama are a threat to competitive authoritarian regimes because of their ability to channel people’s frustration at corrupt and incompetent governments. By arresting him, the government seeks to quash a legitimate demand from hundreds of thousands of Comorians living below the poverty line. He must be released immediately,” said Thor Halvorssen, president of the Human Rights Foundation. “We have seen similar instances of repressing freedom of expression in the region. In Burundi, Pierre Claver Mbonimpa was arrested for criticizing the ruling party during a radio interview; and in Swaziland Thulani Maseko and Bhaki Makubu were both arrested for questioning the independence of the judicial system. These are all legitimate concerns in any democratic society. It is these abusive governments that are at fault here, not the people,” said Halvorssen.
For more information contact: Jamie Hancock at jamie[at]thehrf.org or see the original piece:
HRF to the Comoros: Release Activist Mohamed Mchangama and Drop Incitement Charges Against Him | News | The Human Rights Foundation.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights Foundation | Leave a Comment »
Tags: arbitrary arrest, civil society activists, Comoros, Federation of Comorian Consumers (FCC), freedom of expression, freedom to demonstrate, Human Rights Foundation, illegal detention, Mohamed Said Abdallah Mchangama, Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, release
February 15, 2015
When a human rights defender from a small nation, such as the Solomon islands, is selected for fellowship programme with the United Nations, it makes a story. Teddy Kafo writes in the Solomon Star of 14 February how Watson Puiahi of the local NGO “I Lukim Sustainability Solomon Islands (ISSI)” was chosen to participate in the ‘2015 Indigenous fellowship Program’ of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Joint Mobile Group, OHCHR, UN | 1 Comment »
Tags: fellowship Program, Geneva, Human rights defender, I Lukim Sustainability Solomon Islands (ISSI), Indigenous People, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Solomon Islands, Solomon Star, Teddy Kafo, training course, Watson Puiahi
February 14, 2015
The long-read for the weekend comes from Counterpunch, 13/15 February 2015 where Graham Peebles treats the horrible media situation in Ethiopia. Basing himself on a variety of UN and NGO sources – including the recent report by Human Rights Watch – he describes in detail and by name what happens to journalists and human rights defenders who try to cover reality.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Counterpunch, Eskinder Nega, Ethiopia, freedom of expression, freedom of information, Graham Peebles, harassment, HRW, Human Rights Defenders, journalists, media, Reeyot Alemu Gobebo, repression
February 14, 2015
Reporters Without Borders recently published its 2014 World Press Freedom Index. It has a nice easy-to-use and colorful map. The accompanying text spotlights the negative correlation between freedom of information and conflicts, both open conflicts and undeclared ones. In an unstable environment, the media become strategic goals and targets for groups or individuals whose attempts to control news and information.
The ranking of some countries has also been affected by a tendency to interpret national security needs in an overly broad and abusive manner to the detriment of the right to inform and be informed. This trend constitutes a growing threat worldwide and is even endangering freedom of information in countries regarded as democracies. Finland tops the index for the fourth year running, closely followed by Netherlands and Norway, like last year. At the other end of the index, the last three positions are again held by Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea, three countries where freedom of information is non-existent. Despite occasional turbulence in the past year, these countries continue to be news and information black holes and living hells for the journalists who inhabit them. This year’s index covers 180 countries.
Reporters Without Borders.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, RSF | 1 Comment »
Tags: annual report, conflict and peace, digital security, Eritrea, freedom of expression, freedom of information, Human Rights Defenders, journalists, media, North Korea, Reporters without Borders, RSF, Turkmenistan, World Press Freedom Index
February 13, 2015
The family of Rachel Corrie arrive at an Israeli court before hearing the verdict in her civil suit in August 2012. (Photo: Getty Images)
Mondoweiss Editors on 12 February 2015 disseminated the following statement by the family of Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American peace activist from Olympia, Washington, who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer on 16 March 2003, while protecting the home of a Palestinian family from demolition:
Today we received word from our attorneys that the Supreme Court of Israel dismissed our appeal in the wrongful death case of our daughter and sister Rachel Corrie. Our family is disappointed but not surprised. We had hoped for a different outcome, though we have come to see through this experience how deeply all of Israel’s institutions are implicated in the impunity enjoyed by the Israeli military.
It will take some time before we have ability to read the decision in English and to process all the court has said. Nevertheless, it is clear that this decision, affirming the August 2012 lower court finding, amounts to judicial sanction of immunity for Israeli military forces when they commit injustices and human rights violations.
The Supreme Court decision ignores international law arguments regarding the protection of civilians and human rights defenders in armed conflict and grossly violates the internationally recognized right to effective remedy.
The court has determined that our separate case against Dr. Yehuda Hiss and Abu Kabir Institute, regarding inappropriate ways in which Rachel’s autopsy was conducted, may go forward in the lower court. We continue to be appalled that it requires a lawsuit to have a truthful accounting of what occurred, and complete repatriation of Rachel’s remains. Decisions as to next steps will be made by the family in consultation with our attorneys.
Despite the verdict, our family remains convinced we were correct in bringing this case forward. The day after Rachel was killed, Prime Minister Sharon promised President Bush a thorough, credible and transparent investigation. Clearly, that standard was not met. The U.S. government continues to call for such an investigation by Israel. A civil lawsuit cannot substitute for an impartial investigation, but it is the only process through which a family can discover more information and move forward when governments fail to act.
Rachel’s case provides yet another example of how the Israeli justice system is failing to provide accountability. We urge the international community, and not least the U.S. government, to stand with victims of human rights violations and against impunity, and to uphold fundamental tenants of international justice.
We are immensely grateful to our attorney Hussein Abu Hussein and to his entire legal team for the decade of work they have contributed to Rachel’s case, and continue to provide. We are grateful to all of our friends in Palestine, Israel, and elsewhere, who in so many different ways have supported our efforts.
We have taken this path for Rachel, the daughter and sister we love, lost, and miss. Her spirit lives. She has inspired all of our actions and will continue to do so.
———–
For more information about the trial visit: http://rachelcorriefoundation.org/trial
Corrie statement on Israeli Supreme Court dismissal: ‘this decision amounts to judicial sanction of immunity for Israeli military forces’.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: demolition, fair trial, Israel, Israeli military forces, legal protection, Mondoweiss Editors, Palestinian, peace activist, Rachel Corrie, Supreme Court, USA, woman human rights defender
February 12, 2015
In the context of the current conflict in Ukraine, the following notice, dated 11 February 2015, from the Ukrainian Helsinki Union is interesting:
“Human Rights Defenders: Introduction of Certificate from Military Registration and Enlistment Office for Trips Abroad can Prejudice National Interests of Ukraine“
The initiative of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, demanding persons liable for call-up to have the certificate from military registration and enlistment office to travel abroad and even to leave region is contrary to the Constitution of Ukraine and valid legislation, perpetrates human rights and can prejudice national interests of Ukraine.
The representatives of Ukrainian Helsinki Union assert: “The implementation of forced mobilization in no way will strengthen the defensive capacity of our country and will not make better anything in our Armed Forces, except the call-up statistics of military registration and enlistment offices. Yet, Ukraine is extremely interested in free movement of people, wares and capital. Panic about mobilization breakdown is more the product of information war than the result of real processes in the society. The President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin was the first one to state the forced mobilization in Ukraine. The contempt of freedom of movement policy must be ceased immediately. Provoked by Russian propaganda, this policy is apparently harmful for the national interests of Ukraine”.
via Human Rights Defenders: Introduction of Certificate from Military Registration and Enlistment Office for Trips Abroad can Prejudice National Interests of Ukraine :: helsinki.org.ua.
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Tags: Armed Forces of Ukraine, conflict, conscription, forced mobilisation, freedom of movement, Human Rights Defenders, international human rights and humanitarian law, Ukraine, Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union
February 12, 2015
Azerbaijani human rights defender Emin Huseynov is in hiding in the Swiss embassy in Baku since 18 August, 2014 reports the ”Caucasian Knot” referring to the Norwegian Human Rights House Foundation. He went there after the Azerbaijani authorities searched the office of the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS) and confiscated equipment and documents. The office of the organisation remains sealed since 11 August, 2014, and the employees are called to interrogation. According to the article, Florian Irminger, the head of the Geneva office of the HRHF thinks that Switzerland should go on supporting the Azerbaijani human rights defender on humanitarian grounds: ”His stay at the Embassy is justified with the crackdowns level in the country, false charges against human rights defenders in Azerbaijan, and the impossibility to defend oneself in the court because of the lack of judicial system independence in the country and pressure on their lawyers’‘. The Swiss Foreign Ministry confirmed in the “Rundschau” that they had provided the Azerbaijani human rights defender with shelter on humanitarian grounds. ‘‘Since then we’ve been discussing the matter with the Azerbaijani officials in order to find a solution to the situation,” the Swiss Foreign Ministry written response reads. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Azerbaijan, embassy, Emin Huseynov, Florian Irminger, freedom of association, harassment, hiding, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights House Foundation, Index on Censorship, journalists, Norway, Switzerland
February 12, 2015
reports that on 11 February 2015, land rights defender Mr Chai Bunthonglek was shot and killed at his home in Chaiburi District, Thailand, by an unknown man. Reportedly, the perpetrator fired six bullets at the human rights defender.
[Chai Bunthonglek was a member of the Southern Peasants’ Federation of Thailand – SPFT, a network formed in 2008 to campaign for the right to agricultural land. Chai Bunthonglek is the fourth member of SPFT who has been killed. On 19 November 2012, Ms Montha Chukaew and Ms Pranee Boonrat were shot by unknown individuals near the village of Khlong Sai Pattana in Surat Thani Province. In 2010, Ms Somporn Pattaphum was also shot dead in the area.]
The killing follows the recent incommunicado detention of Mr Pianrat Boonrit, the President of SPFT, on 3 February 2015. The human rights defender was released by the military on 5 February 2015, reportedly on condition that he would mediate between the army and the Premsub Community, and urge the community to leave the area. Allegedly, Pianrat Boonrit was threatened with seven days’ detention if he did not convince the community to leave the land. The human rights defender had been arrested and detained when he presented himself at the Vibhavadi Rangsit Military Camp, Surat Thani Province, in response to a summons to attend an “attitude adjustment camp” for three days.
Front Line Defenders strongly condemns the killing of Chai Bunthonglek, which it believes to be directly linked to his peaceful and legitimate work in the defence of land rights. Front Line Defenders is gravely concerned for the physical and psychological integrity and security of Pianrat Boonrit and other members of SPFT.
The plight of land rights defenders was the focus of the annual report of the Observatory last year, see: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/12/02/2014-annual-report-observatory-land-rights-defenders-are-the-forgotten-victims-of-unbridled-development/
Posted in Front Line, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: Chai Bunthonglek, environmental issues, Front Line (NGO), Human Rights Defenders, impunity, killings, land disputes, land rights defender, Montha Chukaew, Pianrat Boonrit, Pranee Boonrat, social economic and cultural rights, Somporn Pattaphum, Southern Peasants' Federation of Thailand – SPFT, Thailand, women human rights defenders
February 11, 2015
Catholic priest, human rights defender and key organizer, Raul Vera, addressing the assembly. | Photo: Victor Figueroa / teleSUR
Marking the anniversary of the signing of Mexico’s 1917 constitution, activists, intellectuals and citizens participated in the first national ‘Citizen’s and Popular Constituent Assembly’ to propose a ‘bottom-up’ revision of Mexico’s Magna Carta. So reports teleSur on 5 February. The assembly, held in Mexico City and attended by nearly 1000 people, proposes to develop a new constitution that prioritizes social, political and economic rights.
One of the assembly’s key organizers, catholic bishop and social activist, Raul Vera, said that the current state and crisis of violence as well as political and economic corruption in Mexico is a primary driving force behind the initiative.“Justice and rights have disappeared for the mass majority of the Mexican multitude of poor and the small number of middle class that remains…thus, the idea of forming a new constitution in Mexico comes from the idea, finality, objective that we Mexican citizens can be become subjects of the country’s historical construction,”said the human rights defender in his address to the crowd.
Participating in the assembly were families of the disappeared 43 Ayotzinapa students, their fellow classmates, as well as human rights defenders, writers, artists, priests, students and labor leaders.
The Catholic priest and respected migrant rights defender, Alejandro Solalinde, exclaimed that the assembly and its objectives rule out the participation of political parties in the process, declaring that legislators “do not represent anybody.” Solalinde went on to send a message to Mexico’s president, Enrique Pena Nieto, that the work of the assembly will move forward to push for peaceful systemic political and social change. “It depends on you [Pena Nieto] that the changes will be pacific, we are going to carry them out no matter what, but if you repress or use force and violence, you will be the only one responsible … you will be guilty,” Solalinde stated.
Although it remains unclear as to how the assembly’s findings and declarations will be implemented legally, organizers say that the grassroots work and proposals of viable alternatives will carry on beyond 2017, marking 100 years of the original constitutional assembly of the Mexican Revolution.
Mexico Activists Convene First People’s Constitutional Assembly | News | teleSUR.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Alejandro Solalinde, Ayotzinapa, civil society activists, Constituent Assembly, Constitution, disappearances, Human Rights Defenders, human rights violations, Mexico, mobilisation, Raul Vera, Telesur
February 10, 2015
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights [OHCHR] published today (10 February) a report, which will be formally presented to the Human Rights Council only in March, describing the situation of human rights in Libya during 2014. It paints a bleak picture of increasing turmoil and lawlessness, fanned by a multitude of heavily armed groups amid a broadening political crisis. Rampant violence and fighting, including in the country’s two biggest cities, Tripoli and Benghazi, as well as many other cities and towns across the country, is badly affecting civilians in general and particularly cases of harassment, intimidation, torture, numerous abductions, and summary executions of human rights defenders, civil society activists, journalists and other media professionals, as well as members of the judiciary, politicians and law enforcement officers.
The report, produced in conjunction with the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), also describes numerous incidents of violence against women over the past year, including reports of threats, attacks and killings of female human rights defenders, politicians and other women in public positions. Minority groups, including Egyptian Coptic Christians, have also been increasingly targeted. The report also highlights the extremely vulnerable situation of migrants.
Thousands of people remain in detention – mostly under the effective control of armed groups – with no means of challenging their situation as prosecutors and judges are unable or unwilling to confront the armed groups. UN human rights staff have received reports of torture or other ill-treatment in many places of detention. The deteriorating security environment has impacted heavily on the justice system, which is no longer functioning in parts of the country. Prosecutors and judges have frequently been subjected to intimidation and attacks, in the form of court bombings, physical assaults, abduction of individuals or family members and unlawful killings.
The report highlights the need to strengthen State institutions, ensure accountability for human rights violations and support the ongoing political dialogue.
The full report can be found here: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session28/Documents/A_HRC_28_51_ENG.doc
via: OHCHR PRESS BRIEFING NOTES – (1) Libya, (2) Malaysia, (3) Thailand, (4) Venezuela – Press releases – News – StarAfrica.com.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Council, Human Rights Defenders, OHCHR, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: armed groups, Failed state, harassment, Human Rights Council, Human Rights Defenders, killings, lawlessness, Libya, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, OHCHR, paramilitary, report, UN, UNSMIL, women human rights defenders
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 