Archive for the 'Human Rights Defenders' Category
December 14, 2013
(Photo Courtesy-Dhwanil Kapasi)
To create awareness among the masses, the Flashpoint Human Rights Film Festival was held from 12-14 December 2013 in Mumbai, India. The three-day film festival was organised by Solaris Pictures in association with ACEE – The Third Eye and Movies That Matter and Alliance Francaise de Bombay. The third edition of the film festival was held at Alliance Francaise and entry was Entry free. The films screened included
One Day after Peace
Forbidden Voices
Salma
Inshallah Kashmir
Reportero
High Tech Low Life
United in Anger
Shahid
Bottle Masala in Moile
Mumbai hosts Third edition of Flashpoint Human Rights Film Festival from 12-14 December – Mumbai – DNA.
Posted in films, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: film, film festival, Flashpoint Human Rights Film Festival, human rights, human rights films, India, Mumbai, Solaris Pictures
December 14, 2013
Laila Alawa in a post on PolicyMic of 13 December puts a good question:
should award givers not take care in selecting the one who hands out the award? She does not mince her words in stating that
Queen Noor of Jordan was the wrong choice by the
Thomson Reuters Foundation as she does not uphold the qualities that this foundation wants to reward.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Alaa Murabit, awards, human rights awards, India, Jordan, Libya, London Trust Women Conference, Neha Dixit, Queen Noor, Queen Noor of Jordan, Reuters, South Asia, thomson reuters foundation, Trust Women Awards, women human rights defenders, Women's rights
December 14, 2013
A number of protection mechanisms exist at the international, regional and national levels for the protection of Human Rights Defenders at risk. The Special Rapporteur at UN level is the prime example. We have been very fortunate with the first two mandate holders (Hina Jilani and Margaret Sekaggya) and it is crucial to ensure that the next Rapporteur in April 2014 will be of the same caliber. While in Geneva last week I came across Ravindran Daniel a human rights lawyer from India with whom I worked together in the International Commission of Jurists a long time ago. He told me – with his usual modesty – that he is a candidate for the post of HRD rapporteur. He may not have a big lobby machinery to support him but I think he should be seriously considered. Here a bit more about his impressive background. Please spread the word. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: Amnesty International, Candidate, East Timor, Hina Jilani, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, International Commission of Jurists, Mahidol University, Margaret Sekaggya, Ravindran Daniel, UN Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, United Nations Special Rapporteur
December 14, 2013
The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) is currently seeking to recruit a FULL TIME INTERN for the Urgent Campaigns and the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders. The non-remunerated position should be filled as soon as possible. Duration of the internship: minimum 3 months.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Advocacy Organizations, Human right, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, internships, job opportunity, Observatory, Observatory for the Protection of HRDs, OMCT, spanish, United Nations, vacancy, World Organisation Against Torture
December 13, 2013
62 regional and international organizations expressed their outrage over the Lao Government’s ongoing failure to shed light on the enforced disappearance of prominent human rights defender Sombath Somphone. Sunday 15 December 2013 will mark the one-year anniversary of Sombath’s disappearance. Sombath was last seen on the evening of December 15, 2012 in Vientiane. Closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage showed that police stopped Sombath’s car at a police post. Within minutes after being stopped, unknown individuals forced him into another vehicle and drove away. Analysis of the CCTV footage shows that Sombath was taken away in the presence of police officers. This fact supports a finding of government complicity. Despite the Lao Government’s pledge to “thoroughly and seriously” investigate Sombath’s disappearance, the authorities’ probe has been inadequate and unproductive and there has been no progress in the investigation.
Sombath’s enforced disappearance is not an isolated incident. To this day, the whereabouts of nine people, two women, Kingkeo and Somchit, as well as seven men, Soubinh, Souane, Sinpasong, Khamsone, Nou,Somkhit, and Sourigna, arbitrarily detained by Lao security forces in November 2009 in various locations across the country remain unknown. The nine had planned peaceful demonstrations calling for democracy and respect of human rights. Also unknown are the whereabouts of Somphone Khantisouk, the owner of an ecotourism guesthouse and an outspoken critic of Chinese-sponsored agricultural projects that were damaging the environment in the northern province of Luang Namtha. He disappeared after uniformed men abducted him in January 2007. Signed by: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Asia, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Burma, CCTV, civil society organisations, disappearance, Forced disappearance, Human right, Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, kidnapping, NGOs, Sombath Somphone, Vientiane
December 13, 2013
On 9 December 2013, 4 human rights defenders [Ms Razan Zaitouna, Mr Wael Hamada, Mr Nazem Hamaadi and Ms Samira Khalil] were abducted by masked armed men and taken to unknown whereabouts in Syria. They were kidnapped from the offices of the Center for Documenting Human Rights Violations in Syria, located in Douma. Razan Zaitouna is an award-winning human rights defender who worked on the rights of political prisoners in Syria before the revolution, and continued her activities throughout the peaceful uprising in 2011, founding the ‘local coordination committees’. In 2011, she received the Anna Politkovskaya award “RAW (Reach All Women) in WAR” and in 2013 the International Women of Courage Award. Wael Hamada is an active human rights defender who had been kidnapped by the authorities in 2011 for his legitimate work in the defence of human rights in Syria, and Nazem Hamaadi is a well-known lawyer and poet, respected for his defence of detainees who were arrested in Damascus during the revolution. Samira Khalil is a human rights activist and a member of a peaceful political opposition party in Syria.
Posted in Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: abduction, Anna Politkovskaya, Center for Documenting Human Rights Violations in Syria, Damascus, Douma, Front Line (NGO), Human right, human rights awards, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, International Women of Courage Award, kidnapping, Nazem Hamaadi, Razan Zaitouneh, Samira Khalil, Syria, Wael Hamada, women human rights defenders
December 13, 2013
On 12 December 2013 Tasnim Nazeer published a list of 5 women human rights defenders who in spite of setbacks in the “Arab Spring” have no plans to stop fighting:
- Tawakkol Karman. The first Yemeni and the first Arab woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize. A Yemeni journalist, human rights activist and politician member of the Al-Islah political party, Karman is the leader of the renowned group “Women Journalists Without Chains,” which she co-founded in 2005. She became the international public face of the Yemeni “Arab Spring” uprising in 2011. The people of Yemen know her as the “Iron Woman” and “Mother of the Revolution” due to her courage in sticking up for human rights injustices in Yemen.
- Razan Ghazzawi Razan, an award-winning Syrian blogger, campaigner and human rights activist. She has been actively involved in the events during the Syrian Civil War, and has been particularly outspoken on activists’ arrests and the violations of human rights committed by the Bashar al Assad regime.Razan, who has been arrested by the Syrian regime several times and is forbidden to leave Syria, was named as an “iconic blogger and leading activist” by The Telegraph as well as awarded the 2012’s Human Rights Defenders at Risk award by the Dublin-based Front Line Defenders foundation.
- Moushira Mahmoud Khattab, an Egyptian human rights activist, former politician and diplomat. She has previously held the positions as Minister of Family & Population as well as ambassador to South Africa, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Khattab is a renowned human rights activist who speaks up for the rights of children and women in Egypt and the MENA region. Her efforts to advocate human rights have been recognized internationally through numerous awards, including the two highest honors that can be bestowed on any foreign national in South Africa and Italy.
- Nawal El Saadawi, an Egyptian feminist writer, human rights activist, physician and psychiatrist. Saadawi has authored many books on the subject of women and Islam and advocates human rights issues involving women. The founder and president of the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association and co-founder of the Arab Association for Human Rights, she has been awarded numerous honorary degrees on three continents.
- Manal al-Sharif. Women’s rights activist from Saudi Arabia who helped start a groundbreaking women’s right to drive campaign in 2011. An outspoken voice on the rights of women in the Kingdom, she was detained and released on 21 May and rearrested the following day on the conditions of returning for questioning if she were to continue talking to the media about rights for women to drive in Saudi Arabia.
via Five Women Human Rights Activists who are Changing the Middle East | Informed Comment.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 3 Comments »
Tags: Arab spring, Bashar al-Assad, Egypt, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Manal al-Sharif, MENA, Middle East, Nawal El Saadawi, Razan Ghazzawi Razan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Syrian Civil War, Tawakkol Karman, women human rights defenders, Yemen
December 13, 2013
On the occasion of Human Rights Day, 10 December 2013, the largest ever body of independent experts in the United Nations Human Rights system urged Governments to coöperate with them, and allow human rights organisations and individuals to engage with the UN “without fear of intimidation or reprisals.” The appeal by the 72 special procedures experts stated that: “Over the years more than 160 UN member States have been visited by at least one of our human rights experts, and a total of 106 States have extended an open invitation to special procedures,” Around 30 States have not yet accepted a visit by any of our experts while others have given only selective access. “Unfortunately, it has become a reality that a standing invitation cannot necessarily guarantee that a visit will actually take place.” Mr. Chaloka Beyani said on behalf the group. “The work we do relies heavily on our interaction with civil society, national human rights institutions, human rights defenders, other individuals working on the ground and victims of human rights violations,” the expert explained. “It is of utmost concern that some of these become victims of intimidation and reprisals. The protection of these vital partners is of utmost importance,” he said, calling on world Governments “to respond firmly against any act which threatens them and seeks to obstruct human rights work.” Reprisals are a critical challenge facing the UN system and its human rights mechanisms. “We call for the designation of a focal point on the issue of intimidation and reprisals as soon as possible,”
[The United Nations human rights experts are part of what it is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures is the general name of the independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms of the Human Rights Council that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. They are charged by the Human Rights Council to monitor, report and advise on human rights issues. Currently, there are 37 thematic mandates and 14 mandates related to countries and territories, with 72 mandate holders. In March 2014, three new mandates will be added.]
via DisplayNews.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: anti-reprisals focal point, Civil society, cooperation with UN, country visit, enforcement, Expert, Human right, human rights, Human Rights Council, Human Rights Defenders, human rights experts, human rights violations, international human rights day, intimidation, Member states of the United Nations, Reprisal, reprisals, retaliation, UN, UN Rapporteurs, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights, United Nations Human Rights Council
December 10, 2013
In the context of 10 December, Human Rights Day, Curt Goering of the Centre for Victims of Torture posts in the Huffington Post a piece on the value of information technology to prevent torture. .. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Centre for Victims of Torture, Curt Goering, Egypt, FDEP, Front to Defend Egypt Protesters, Huffington Post, human rights, Human Rights Day, Human Rights Defenders, information technology, Lebanon, LGBT, Middle East, New Tactics in Human Rights, SMS, torture, United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
December 6, 2013
On 7 December 2013, Satur C. Ocampo wrote in the Philippine Star a remarkable tribute to a Swiss woman, Alba Viotto, who died recently. After a short context of the human rights scene in his country, he then describes the work of a Swiss human rights defender that most of us will never have heard of. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Alba Viotto, Asia, campaigner, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, mayor of Geneva, Philippine Star, Philippines, Sandrine Salerno, solidarity action, Switzerland, woman human rights defender, women human rights defenders
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 