Archive for the 'Human Rights Defenders' Category
October 14, 2013
Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip, protest in support of executing criminals in Gaza City, on October
9, 2013. (AFP/Mohammed Abed)
Human Rights defenders at an Abolish the Death Penalty meeting in Gaza were confronted with a demonstration of death penalty supporters days after Hamas hanged a convicted murderer. “The death penalty is Islamic law – implement it against all criminals,” one banner read. Mohammed Shurab, spokesman for Gaza’s “Families of the Victims” movement, urged “the government in Gaza to continue carrying out the death sentence against those who are killing our sons.” But speakers at the conference said the death penalty went against both international humanitarian law and the principles of Islam. “Islam doesn’t allow the death penalty or the killing of anyone,” said Suleiman Awda, a lecturer in Islamic law at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University. “It is a religion of forgiveness.” This position has been defended rigorously by several scholars including MEA 2009 Laureate Emad Baghi.
UN experts warned it was “not possible to correct a mistake… There’s no going back once the death penalty has been carried out.”
Last week’s hanging was the first time since July 2012 that Hamas has carried out capital punishment for murder. But on June 22, the Islamist movement hanged two men accused of collaborating with Israel. Under Palestinian law, collaboration with Israel, murder and drug trafficking are all punishable by death. Hamas has executed 17 people since taking over Gaza in 2007, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
via Gaza protesters demand death penalty as anti-NGOs meet | Maan News Agency.
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Tags: Capital punishment, death penalty, Emad Baghi, Gaza, Gaza Strip, Hamas, islamic fundamentalists, islamic law, Israel, Ma'an News Agency, MEA, Non-governmental organization, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Suleiman Awda
October 14, 2013
To launch its new In-Brief on reprisals against human rights defenders, the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights organized a side event at the 24th Session of the Human Rights Council. The round table discussion was presided by Prof. Andrew Clapham The main Conclusions are: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 4 Comments »
Tags: Andrew Clapham, defenders of human rights, Geneva Academy, Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, human rights, Human Rights Council, Human Rights Defenders, International humanitarian law, international protection, International Service for Human Rights, ISHR, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Reprisal, reprisals, retaliation, side event, standard setting, UN Human Rights Council, United Nations, United Nations System
October 14, 2013
The Economist of this week (11 October) carries an interesting piece on peace under the title “Peace comes dropping slow”. It argues that MALALA YOUSAFZAI would have been an appropriate recipient of the Nobel peace prize, but that her admirers should be not be too disappointed that the award went instead to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. For the Western world, and indeed for many of her fellow Muslims, Malala is an extraordinary example of disinterested courage in the face of theocrats who practise tyranny by claiming a monopoly on religion and religious law. She was already famous at the age of 11 as the writer of a blog for the BBC Urdu service, giving an impression of life under the rule of the Taliban in her native Swat Valley.
She has been showered with accolades, as this blog has also shown including last week the European Union’s Sakharov prize. However, the Economist piece says that “people who really wish Malala and her cause well should be more relieved than let down. The Nobel Prize has not always brought blessings to its recipients. Mistakes made by Barack Obama as America’s commander-in-chief will be judged even more harshly because he was granted the award in 2009 as a kind of down-payment before his presidency had really got going. Mikhail Gorbachev will probably go down in history as a peace-maker, but the award (in 1990) did nothing to enhance his domestic standing which was in freefall at the time. And whatever history has to say about Henry Kissinger and North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho, garlanded in 1973, it will hardly describe them as doves of peace“[De Klerk and Arafat are not mentioned!]
In Northern Ireland, the article states the peace prize had in some respects a “kiss of death” [mentioning David Trimble, John Hume, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan Maguire] ….”Does 16-year-old Malala really need that? She too comes from a part of the world where international accolades can cause jealousy and cynicism as well as admiration. So she may be better off without the big prize. In any case, Malala will continue to pile up various honours and distinctions; and as with Ms Maguire, there is probably a good chance that she will use her fame to say things that disturb and provoke people, even those who are lining up to admire her.“
The Nobel peace prize: Peace comes dropping slow | The Economist.
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Tags: awards, Barack Obama, European Union, human rights awards, Kissinger, Le Duc Tho, Malala, Malala Yousafzai, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nobel Peace Prize, Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, peace prize, The Economist, woman human rights defender
October 14, 2013
That there can be a risk in accepting (monetary) awards is demonstrated again by the case of Massoumeh Dehghan, retired teacher and wife of imprisoned human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani in Iran. She told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that her one-year prison sentence for accepting her husband’s human rights award has been upheld (suspended for five years, and five years’ ban on foreign travel). Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Abdolfattah Soltani, awards, backlash, Germany, human rights, human rights award, human rights awards, human rights lawyer, International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Iran, judicial harassment, Massoumeh Dehghan, Nasrin Sotoudeh, Nuremberg, Nuremberg Human Rights Award
October 14, 2013
While 130 NGOs in Africa and elsewhere call in a joint letter to the African Union not to abandon the International Criminal Court, Bishop Desmond Tutu publishes in the New York Times of 10 October an excellent piece explaining why it is a terrible mistake. Here is it is in full:
CAPE TOWN — MEMBERS of the African Union will meet in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, today to discuss recent calls by some African leaders to withdraw from the International Criminal Court. These calls must be resisted. The continent has suffered the consequences of unaccountable governance for too long to disown the protections offered by the I.C.C. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Africa, African countries, African Union, AU, campaign, Desmond Tutu, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights Watch, ICC, impunity, International Criminal Court, international justice, Protection International
October 14, 2013
You can Join the Center for Story-based Strategy CSS and the New Tactics community for an online conversation on Change the Story: Harnessing the power of narrative for social change from October 14 to 18.
People and communities use stories to understand the world and our place in it. These stories are embedded with power – the power to explain and justify the status quo as well as the power to make change imaginable and urgent. …This conversation is an opportunity for human rights defenders to learn more about story-based strategy and how to integrate it into campaign planning. This is also an opportunity for those practitioners using story-based strategy to share their experiences, questions, and ideas with each other. Practitioners to lead this conversation are:
Danielle Coates-Connor, Conversation Facilitator of the Center for Story-based Strategy
Nathan Schneider of Waging Nonviolence
Soriano of Lionswrite Communications
Kathleen Pequeño of the Progressive Communicators Network
Nadia Khastaqir of the Design Action Collective
Kristi Rendahl of the Center for Victims of Torture
Lama Sangye and Justin Von Bujdoss of the New York Tsurphu Goshir Dharma Center
Chris Cavanagh of the Catalyst Centre
Dr. Cara Lisa Berg Powers of Press Pass TV
Laura Revels, Digital Storytelling Trainer
Shreya Atrey, practitioner.
September’s Conversation on Media Tactics for Social Change now has a summary posted and in November there will be a Conversation on Visualizing Information for Advocacy, in partnership with Tactical Technology Collective.
via Join our conversation on the power of narrative, this week!.
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Tags: activism, Advocacy, audiovisual communication, conversation, Human Rights Defenders, internet, Mass media, Narrative, New Tactics in Human Rights, New Tactics online, on-line conversations, social change, Tactical Technology collective, television, Visualizing
October 14, 2013
Mario Joseph, Haiti – Final Nominee MEA 2013
An unintended consequence of the MEA ceremony on 8 October was that Mario Joseph – one of the 3 Final Nominees for this award – used his speech to make clear how disturbed he was by the UN’s refusal to assume its responsibility for the cholera epidemic caused by UN troops in Haiti. Mrs Pillay – the UN High commissioner for human rights – in her speech replied to the challenge by repeating an earlier position that had mostly gone unnoticed: “I have used my voice both inside the United Nations and outside to call for the right — for an investigation by the United Nations, by the country concerned, and I still stand by the call that victims of — of those who suffered as a result of that cholera be provided with compensation”. Associated Press reported this on 8 October but left out the context by just stating: ‘Pillay said at an awards ceremony for human rights activists in Geneva… streamed live on the Internet.’ So, now you know!
via UN human rights official urges compensation for Haiti cholera victims – Washington Post.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, MEA | 2 Comments »
Tags: Associated Press, Cholera, compensation, Geneva, Haiti, immunity, Mario Joseph, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, MEA, MEA ceremony, MEA nominees 2013, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations, Washington Post
October 10, 2013
(Malala Yousafzai during ceremony for the Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award 2013 – (c) AFP/Peter Muhly)
On 5 October I reported that Malala got the RAW award – after receiving quite a few others (as seen above in the picture). Since yesterday she is also laureate of the European Parliament’s Sacharov award, beating Edward Snowden and dissidents from Belarus. In the meantime the rumors are that she also gets the Nobel Peace Prize.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Amnesty International, awards, Belarus, Edward Snowden, European Parliament, human rights awards, Malala, Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Peace Prize, Sacharov, Sakharov Prize
October 10, 2013
24 hours after the event, those who missed the 2013 ceremony of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders can already see the highlights on Vimeo. Gives absolutely good impression of the impressive evening.
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Tags: 2013 ceremony, Advocacy Organizations, Chechnya, City of Geneva, Egypt, Haiti, Human right, Human Rights and Liberties, Joint Mobile Group, Mario Joseph, Martin Ennals, Martin Ennals Award, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, MEA, Mona Seif, Russia, Vimeo
October 8, 2013
The Joint Mobile Group was selected by the International Human Rights Community (See Jury Below) as the Laureate 2013 of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, MEA | 1 Comment »
Tags: award, Chechnya, Civil society, Egypt, Geneva, Haiti, Human right, human rights, human rights awards, Human Rights Defenders, international community, Joint Mobile Group, Jury MEA, Mario Joseph, Martin Ennals, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, MEA 2013, Micheline Calmy Rey, Mona Seif, NGOs
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 