On 8 April 2014 Sarah Cortes posted a short report on Cambridge Community Television about how Cambridge internet freedom advocates trained human rights defenders at the recent Civil Rights Defenders Conference in Stockholm.
Civil Rights Defenders [CRD] brought 121 human rights defenders from over 30 countries together last weekend to share their stories and participate in training by legal, security and technology specialists. One of them is Andrew Lewman from Cambridge-based Tor who provided training in internet and digital security to help activists who may be under surveillance from governments whose policies and activities they protest. “Activists may not realize the extent to which their governments may monitor their computers, cellphones and other devices,” said Lewman. “Learning to improve digital security may save their life, in some cases“. CRD itself has not yet published a general report.
Former President Jimmy Carter (89 years old!!) has incredible stamina but his latest book – A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power– is remarkable not just because of that high age but because it is incredibly blunt in describing how religions have systematically denigrated women, leading to prejudice, infanticide and horrific violence. The highlights of the interview below with KERA’s vice president of news, Rick Holter, about “the human and civil rights struggle of our time”, in too interesting to try and summarize and the same goes for the long excerpt from the book following: Read the rest of this entry »
describes a classical but fearsome case of intimidation of a human rights defender, Nasrullah Baloch, who is assisting the Supreme Court in Pakistan with cases of disappearances.
Nasrullah Baloch is the Chairperson of Voice of Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) and has come to prominence for his work on cases of missing persons and extrajudicial killings. The human rights defender is also assisting the Supreme Court in the context of an investigation into mass graves in Balochistan. Nasrullah Baloch took part in the Supreme Court hearings concerning a number of disappeared persons on 25 March 2014. He also met with the head of the Norwegian Mission to discuss the cases. The hearings were attended by officers of the military and intelligence, who observed the exchange with the Norwegian diplomat Read the rest of this entry »
After 32 years, the NGO “INTERIGHTS” [International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights] ceases to exist as from 27 May 2014 due to lack of funding. This is bad news but at least there is a clear public statement. Too often human rights NGOs or awards are announced with great pomp but their demise is muffled. The Executive Director John Wadham made the following clear-headed statement: Read the rest of this entry »
How can human rights defenders lead and manage human rights organisations well? How can human rights defenders practice rights-based approaches and principles in their workplace? What key issues do human rights defenders face when working in organisations? These are the questions that inspired the Centre for Applied Human Rights, University of York, United Kingdom, to run a 10-week course from 23 April to 1 July 2014. This module is aimed at human rights defenders and practitioners interested in leading and managing organisations more effectively.
This course is part of CAHR’s Defending Human Rightsdistance learning programme delivered wholly online in a fully supported environment. Students can take one, two or three modules as a continuing professional development (CPD) student, without academic credit, or complete all three modules as a postgraduate student, with academic credit. Postgraduate students who complete all three credit-bearing modules are awarded a Postgraduate Certificate (PGCert) in Defending Human Rights.
Partial scholarships (50 percent of fees) are available for both types of students in non-OECD countries who are:
actively involved in human rights work; and
either hold a leadership position in a civil society organisation or demonstrate strong potential for such leadership.
The NGO Persatuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor (Empower) is deeply saddened by the passing of Irene Fernandez. This is how her colleagues reacted:
“Many of us knew her as a comrade and friend, stretching back years to the beginnings of our lives as activists and human rights defenders Irene Fernandez has had a long and vibrant engagement with human rights since the 1970s. She worked tirelessly for the rights of people whose causes were unpopular even among more sympathetic Malaysians: migrant workers, domestic workers, sex workers, and people living with HIV. She was there at the birth of the women’s movement in Malaysia in the 1980s and became a founder member of All Women’s Action Society (Awam) as well as Women’s Development Collective. Empower and Tenaganita, under her direction, collaborated on a one-year project in 2010. We were looking forward to many more such collaborations with Irene before her unexpected passing.
Irene was a hero to many for her deep commitment to her principles. She could be stern and unyielding, but these were qualities that served her well in fighting against relentless State persecution. Neither the 13-year criminal trial nor the 2012 sedition case succeeded in breaking her will. Empower regrets that should her harassers be one day brought to account for their actions, she did not live to witness it. We must believe, as she did, that the struggle to reaffirm our democratic rights is universal. It is our right and our responsibility to stand up for justice and equality. No human being is unimportant, no matter the gender, ethnicity, wealth, or social status. In carrying her legacy to the future, we must find in ourselves the courage she showed in standing up to those who deny the common humanity of our brothers and sisters.”
The 24th Episode of the Human Rights Asia Weekly Roundup by the AHRC covers the encouraging peace agreement which has been signed in Mindanao, putting an end to a 40-year-old conflict between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Philippine government.
In Qatar, hundreds of migrant workers have died in the slavery-like labour conditions on FIFA World Cup construction projects.
Indonesian, MP candidates for the upcoming elections met with Hong Kong’s domestic helpers to discuss improving protections and rights.
In India, the Supreme Court ordered for a time-bound adjudication of all trials involving legislators within a year. This is the first of a series of reports on court delays and what it means for justice in India.
India is the biggest importer of arms in the world while millions still lack basic health care. AHRC calls for the country to reconsider its priorities.
Voices of Survivors: this week hears from Hechin Haokip who was displaced from her mountain village in Manipur because of the on-going conflict but has managed to get back on her feet and help many vulnerable people in her community through human rights activism.
On 26 March 2014, the family of human rights defender Mr Maen Al-Ghoneimi was informed by the Damascus Military Police in Syria that he had died in detention two months earlier, on 14 January 2014. The police declared that he died of heart failure and delivered to the family the personal possessions of the human rights defender, but refused to disclose where he had been buried. Maen Al-Ghoneimi was a human rights lawyer and a member of the lawyers’ syndicate in Damascus. The human rights defender was an active participant in lawyers’ peaceful protests and sit-ins and provided legal aid to internally displaced people in Syria. Maen Al-Ghoneimi was arrested on 20 May 2013, and was then kept incommunicado until news of his death emerged. No charges had been brought against him. The family stated that he was in good health at the time of the arrest, and therefore believes that he may have been tortured or have become ill and denied medical treatment while in detention.
Front Line Defenders rightly demands a thorough, impartial and immediate investigation into the deaths of detained human rights defenders, including also Ayham Mostafa Ghazzoul https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/21602
US-based NGO Freedom House, in cooperation with the Lithuanian Parliament and Belarusian human rights defenders, launched on 26 March 2014 the MP4Freedom initiative inviting Lithuanian MPs to become “godparents” of political prisoners in Belarus. “As neighbors, Lithuanians should care about the future of the Belarusian nation,” said Petras Austrevicius, deputy speaker of the Seimas, who championed the initiative on behalf of the Lithuanian Parliament. “The idea behind this initiative is to encourage Lithuanian MPs to engage on the issue personally by becoming ‘godparents’ of political prisoners in Belarus.”
“To make this initiative effective, Lithuanian MPs should address the Belarusian authorities and demand the release of political prisoners,” said Marina Lobava, the mother of a political prisoner Eduard Lobau. “MPs can write to the heads of detention facilities requesting information about the health of a particular political prisoner. They can also help by contacting the International Red Cross and facilitating its visits to prisons. International advocacy in the EU to keep the political prisoners issue on the foreign policy agenda towards Belarus is also necessary.”
Under this campaign, the participating Lithuanian parliamentarians, who represent the governing and opposition political parties alike, take the responsibility to follow the cases of particular political prisoners in Belarus, meet with their relatives, and speak publicly both at Lithuanian and international venues on human rights violations in Belarus. There are currently 10 political prisoners in Belarus, according to the Human Rights Center Viasna.
On 28 March 2014, human rights defender Mr Musa Usman Ndamba, a defender of the rights of the Mbororo community in Cameroon, appeared before the Bamenda Court of First Instance, and the trial was once again adjourned to the 23rd of May 2014. The trial of 28 March 2014 was the eighth such hearing in an ongoing trial against Musa Usman Ndamba led by a local wealthy landowner, Baba Ahmadou Danpullo, who has never attended any of the hearings. Meanwhile, two other defenders of the rights of the Mbororo, Messrs Abdulkarim Shehu and Mallam Yunusa are in detention whilst an arrest warrant has been issued for human rights defender Mr Fon Christopher Achobang. Musa Usman Ndamba is the Vice-President of Mbororo Social and Cultural Development Association (MBOSCUDA). Abdulkarim Shehu is a male nurse and social development worker, as well as founder and co-ordinator of the Angel of Hope Foundation, a health centre that caters for people with disabilities. Mallam Yunusa is an organiser of the Mbororo community of Banjah. Fon Christopher Achobang is a land rights campaigner and journalist sympathetic to the plight of the Mbororo.
Members of the community and their defenders have long been facing severe judicial and other harassment owing to disputes over their land. ……On 19 March 2014, authorities of the Catholic Church, led by a representative of the Archbishop of the Bamenda Archdiocese, directed a group of hired militias with a bulldozer to demolish the homes of the Mbororo in the Ndzah village. The community mobilised and stopped the demolition from taking place. However, during the stand-off both the representative of the Archbishop and Fon Christopher Achobang were injured. After the incident, at which he was not present, Abdulkarim Shehu reportedly took members of the police to the site to show them what had happened. Fon Christopher Achobang was forced to go into hiding after threats on his life following the incident. According to lawyers for the Mbororo Banjah community, the invasion took place in spite of a court case pending in the Bamenda Administrative Court with a Stay of Execution of the Order on the now disputed land, as a contested eviction notice had been issued the week before. Additionally, despite having been alerted to the impending invasion, government officials did nothing to stop it from going ahead, in complete violation of the law and the legal rights of the Mbororo community.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 