share information on human rights defenders, with special focus on human rights awards and laureates
The Ceremony of the Alkarama Award will be held on Friday 7 December 2012 at 18h30 in Geneva at Centre International Conférences, Genève
This year, the laureates are two human rights defenders from the Gulf region:
– Dr Mohamed Abdullah Al Roken, United Arab Emirates
– Dr Saud Mukhtar Al Hashimi, Saudi Arabia.
For more information: http://www.alkarama.org
award@alkarama.org
+41 22 734 10 06
PBI UK put on VIMEO an interesting panel discussion on Women Human Rights Defenders. It is over an hour long and you need good broadband access to see it properly.
Panellists:
Chair: Dr Sarah Wollaston MP (5 mins)
1. Jivka Petkova, Gender Advisor on Human Rights and Democracy, European External Action Service. “Protecting and supporting WHRDs through the EU.”
2. Dolores Infante, Assistant to the UN Special Rapporteur on HRDs. “An overview of the work of the Special Rapporteur’s office on addressing risks faced by WHRDs.”
3. Kathryn Lockett, Advisor, Violence Against Women and Girls, Conflict, Humanitarian and Security Department, DFID. “DFID’s work on tackling Violence Against Women and Girls: the role of WHRDs”.
4. Amy Clemitshaw, Deputy Head of Human Rights and Democracy Department, FCO. “The UK’s use of the EU human rights guidelines overseas to support human rights defenders.”
Panel 1 – Women human rights defenders: Empowering and protecting the change-makers on Vimeo on Vimeo
On 19 November 2012, human rights defender and poet Mr Li Bifeng was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment by Shehong County People’s Court in Sichuan province on charges of ‘contract fraud’. Li Bifeng has previously served two terms in prison on account of his activities in defence of human rights. It is believed he has been targeted because of his association with fellow human rights defender and writer Mr Liao Yiwu, who fled China in 2011. The charges of ‘contract fraud’, which have been described as groundless by Li Bifeng’s lawyers, reportedly relate to a property transaction with an alcohol company whereby Li Bifeng, as a businessman, undertook to sell apartments on Hainan Island. According to his wife, Ms Jiang Xia, once the apartments were sold, he was sued by the company for fraud. The company claims that it is owed two million yuan as a result of the sales agreement.
Li Bifeng is a close friend of Liao Yiwu who secretly fled China in 2011 after being denied an exit visa 17 times. Liao Yiwu, now based in Germany, reports that Li Bifeng was targeted because the Chinese authorities believe he provided the financial support that made possible Liao Yiwu’s escape from China, which Liao Yiwu has denied. Li Bifeng was detained on 12 September 2011, two months after Liao Yiwu went into exile in Germany.
Abdulhadi AlKhawaja, former President of BCHR
The Bahrain Centre or Human Rights is one the 2012 nominees of the Martin Ennals Award.
Since his election in 1994, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, has installed an authoritarian regime that represses freedom of expression, assembly and association. The human rights situation in Belarus markedly deteriorated on 19 December 2010 when riot police brutally dispersed demonstrators protesting against the unfair handling of the presidential election. This event marked the beginning of an unprecedented wave of repression, which continues to this day. Prominent human rights defender, Ales Bialiatski was arrested in Minsk on 4 August 2011 and sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison on trumped up tax evasion charges. He remains in prison to this day.
Abdolfattah Soltani, founding member of DHRC and human rights lawyer
Mohammad Seifzadeh, member of the DHRC and human rights lawyer
Nasrin Sotoudeh, member of DHRC and prominent human rights lawyer known for defending juveniles facing death penalty, prisoners of conscience, human rights activists and child victims of abuse; she is lso a 2012 MEA nominee
FIDH notes in this respect: Despite Turkey’s considerable human rights progress since 2000, those expressing ideas on “sensitive” human rights related issues continue to be targeted and criminalised by the public authorities. So-called “sensitive” questions include the promotion of alternative identities to the Turkish mainstream (e.g. asserting the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, especially Kurds, as well as the rights of sexual minorities). It also encompasses any criticism of the State and its institutions, including institutional functioning, judicial independence, and impunity for human rights violations. Members of NGOs, lawyers, trade unionists, journalists, intellectuals, academics, conscientious objectors, the families of victims of serious human rights violations, and others have been targeted by State policies that consider their expression of their views to be a threat. Fourteen members of the Human Rights Association (IHD), a Turkish FIDH member organisation, are currently being held in preventive detention under an anti-terrorism law that criminalises legitimate expression of opinion.
Uzbekistan has the highest number of human rights defenders serving lengthy prison sentences in Eastern Europe/Central Asia. These sentences are usually served in penal colonies where the regime is extremely strict. Harsh conditions and ill treatment have caused the health of incarcerated defenders to deteriorate quickly. These inhumane and degrading conditions are currently the reality of several members of FIDH member organisation, the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan.
United Nations Special Rapporteur Margaret Sekaggya will visit Ireland from 19 to 23 November 2012 to evaluate the situation of human rights defenders in the country. This is the first official mission to a European Union member State by an expert mandated to assess and report on the situation of rights defenders. The UN independent expert pointed out that the coming mission “represents a unique opportunity to provide observations and recommendations on Ireland’s legal framework, institutions and other factors influencing the environment in which defenders work.”
Ms. Sekaggya, who is visiting the country at the invitation of the Irish authorities, is scheduled to meet with Government officials, representatives of the legislative and judicial branches, the Irish Human Rights Commission, a broad range of civil society actors and the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees. The human rights expert will hold a press conference in Dublin at the Buswells Hotel on Friday, 23 November 2012 at 11:30.
via DisplayNews
The Economist in its print edition of Nov 10th 2012 carries an interesting review of a new documentary on David Kato (pictured here with caption: “His death was not in vain”
In 2009 David Bahati, a backbench member of Parliament in deeply conservative Uganda, drew up a bill that proposed the death penalty for HIV-positive gay men and prison for anyone failing to turn in homosexuals. His proposals have been watered down, but not before prompting a surge in the homophobia and vigilantism that lie at the heart of an affecting new documentary, “Call Me Kuchu”.When the film begins, a local tabloid newspaper, Rolling Stone, has printed the names and addresses of 100 kuchus (gay and transgender people) under such headlines as “Homo terror! We name and shame top gays in the city”. It is here that the viewer first meets David Kato (pictured), a sweet but resilient activist and Uganda’s first openly gay man. He is suing the newspaper. “If we keep on hiding,” he says, “they will say we’re not here.” Kato is joined by fellow kuchus: Stosh, who endured a “corrective” rape, and Naome, his best friend. Theirs is the human story behind the headlines. Meanwhile, the smarmy newspaper editor is almost unwatchable in his eagerness to harness the growing bigotry.
In exploring how much of this debate has been driven by religious leaders, the film-makers, Katherine Fairfax Wright and Malika Zouhali-Worrall, maintain a careful balance: footage of a visiting American evangelical group battling the “homosexual agenda” is interspersed with that of a staunch gay-rights supporter, a controversial Ugandan bishop, Christopher Senyonjo. Ubiquitous billboards quoting the Bible appear alternately ominous and benign. But it is Kato’s brutal murder, a year after the film started being made, that breaks the mood of polite even-handedness. Officially, his death is recorded as a burglary gone wrong. No one really believes that.
“Call Me Kuchu” is too raw and urgent to be called artful film-making. But its message rings loud and clear. Life for gay people in Uganda—as in much of Africa—is not just dangerous; it is deadly.
In the film on Kasha (MEA laureate 2011: http://www.martinennalsaward.org) there are also moving images of Kasha visiting David’s mother and his grave.
On 14 November 2012, the family of human rights defender Mr Antonio González Rodiles were informed that the human rights defender is to be charged with ‘resistance to authority‘, as he remains in provisional detention. The human rights defender was arrested in Havana in a wave of police beatings and arrests of human rights defenders on 7 and 8 November 2012. Antonio González Rodiles is the head of Estado de SATS, an independent project that aims to create a space for participation and debate through panel discussions, forums and other events that are filmed and broadcast on the Internet. On 7 November 2012, another human rights defender Ms Yaremis Flores was arrested in connection with news articles in which she was critical of the Government’s response to Hurricane Sandy, as well reporting on deaths of prisoners in detention. As human rights defenders gathered at the police station to protest her detention, a number of others were also beaten up and arrested, including Antonio González Rodiles and Ms Laritza Diversent, lawyer and blogger. On 8 November 2012, blogger Ms Yoani Sanchez, blogger and writer Mr Ángel Santiesteban Prats, Mr Angel Moya Acosta, Mr Julio Aleaga, Mr Librado Linares, Mr Félix Navarro, Mr Iván Hernández Carrillo, Mr Eduardo Díaz Fleites and Mr Guillermo Fariñas Hernández were all arrested as they called for the release of those arrested on the previous day. In Camagüey, four more human rights defenders were detained and six further individuals arrested when they made their way to the police station to demand their release. After several days in detention, they were released, as were all of the human rights defenders held in Havana. However, Antonio González Rodiles remains in detention and members of his family were informed that the Public Prosecutor has requested that he be held in provisional detention on charges of resistance to authority, a charge that carries a sentence of between three months and one year in prison.
Many of those arrested are members of the “Demanda ciudadana por otra Cuba” (Citizens’ Demand for Another Cuba) campaign. A meeting of the group was to be held in Antonio González Rodiles’ home. The campaign is calling on the Cuban Government to immediately put into practice the legal and political guarantees endorsed in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, through the ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which the Cuban authorities signed in February 2008. In August 2012 the document “Demanda ciudadana por otra Cuba” was signed by hundreds of Cubans around the island and the diaspora, and then delivered to the headquarters of the National Assembly.
The NGO Front Line Defenders believes that the arrests of the aforementioned human rights defenders and the continued detention of Antonio González Rodiles are directly related to their legitimate and peaceful work in defence of human rights. The regular prevention of peaceful gatherings by police, who block off access to the venues on the date of planned events, constitutes a clear denial of the right to freedom of assembly in Cuba. In addition, human rights defenders continue to face harassment and physical attacks from police around the island.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Human rights campaigners say no dissidents are among prisoners to be released in ‘goodwill gesture’ reports Jason Burke in Delhi (guardian.co.uk, Thursday 15 November 2012)
The Guardian and many other newspapers have announced that the Burmese authorities have freed more than 450 detainees in a goodwill gesture before a historic visit by the US president Obama but local and international human rights campaigners said the list of released prisoners did not include any political dissidents.
Announcing the amnesty – the latest in a series that have coincided with high-profile visits of foreign dignitaries or trips by senior Burmese leaders overseas – state media said late on Wednesday that its aim was “to help promote goodwill and the bilateral relationship”. A home ministry official told Reuters that a certain number of the remaining 300 political prisoners would be released. However Bo Kyi, of the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), said no prisoners of conscience had been freed so far. “All are common criminals or foreign nationals …… We know of no political prisoners among the 452 freed today,” he said.
However the Wall Street Journal (15 Nov) just reported that U Myint Aye, a 61-year-old human rights activists and one of the most high-profile dissidents currently detained, held at Loikaw, was included.
No word on Aung Naing either (see my post of 24 September this year).
Let’s wait and see whether President Obama is willing to press for a more substantive release.
The case I referred to yesterday of the three Zimbabwean human rights defenders, who were detained on 5 November and illegally transferred between Harare and Bulawayo on 7 November, has seen some improvement.
They were charged and released on bail on the afternoon of 8 November 2012.
Protection International announces the 2nd edition of its “Postgraduate Diploma on Integral Protection for Human Rights Defenders and Social Activists”.
It will begin in January 2013. It is organised jointly with the Universidad Pablo de Olavide.
This Diploma is the first of its kind, since it is the only international Postgraduate Diploma addressing the need to protect defenders.
The course addresses that protection in a comprehensive way, covering the existing national, international and regional laws and protection mechanisms; also studying security management, psychosocial support, the design of protection programs, etc. The course will also include an introduction to the protection of witnesses and victims.
The two institutions running it are:
– The Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville, Spain) which has been offering Post-graduate education in human rights for many years, and has introduced to the university the critical theory of human rights.
– Protection International (Brussels) which offers an extensive experience working directly for the protection of defenders in over fifteen countries in Africa, Asia, America and Europe.
Directors: Rosario Valpuesta Fernández and Luis Enrique Eguren
Dates: January 2013 – July 2013
Credits: 30 ECTS
Enrolment fees: 800 Euros (certificate fees not included)
Pre-registration and enrolment: Online
Languages used during the training process: Spanish or English
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 