Last Thursday, 13 October, the ceremony for Kasha, the Ugandan 2011 laureate of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, took place in Geneva, again in the beautiful Victoria Hall. There was a large audience of 600 people. Moreover, the 2010 MEA laureate, Muhannad al-Hassani from Syria, also made a surprise appearance. The True Heroes Foundation made a 8-minute summary of highlights of the ceremony and this overview gives an excellent impression of the whole evening. Please go to our newly designed website: http://www.martinennalsaward.org.
Archive for the 'Human Rights Defenders' Category
Martin Ennals Award ceremony 2011 now on-line: martinennalsawrd.org
October 16, 2011Posters of Kasha, MEA Laureate 2011, all over Geneva
October 7, 2011
Posters of MEA Laureate 2011 Kasha at the entrance of Geneva university
Belarus Side event during Human Rights Council in Geneve
October 6, 2011While on the topic of Belarus I forgot to mention another event: on 20 September, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Oslo-based Human Rights House Foundation held a side event in Geneva on the prosecution of vice-president of the Federation and Chairman of the Human Rights Centre “Viasna”, Ales Bialiatski, who was arrested on 4 August 2011. The participants watched a short film about Ales Bialiatski. Later, vice-chairman of “Viasna” Valentin Stefanovich and Director of the Belarusian Human Rights House in Vilnius Anna Gerasimova made a speech.
Representatives of EU countries, the Head of EU mission to the UN Human Rights Council, Dimitris Iliopoulos, and NGOs such as AI all highlighted the political motivation of the criminal case against this prominent human rights defender and called upon the Belarusian authorities to immediately release Mr. .
Belarus: continued refusal to cooperate
October 6, 2011In the ‘series’ crime pays, Belarus is one of the top contenders. On September 30th, 2011 one more HRD, Ukrainian civil society activist Volodymyr Senko, was prevented from crossing the Belarusian state border. He is a member of the All-Ukrainian Youth Public Association “Foundation of Regional Initiatives”. Volodymyr is the 12th representative of the Committee on International Control who has been banned entry to the territory of Belarus.
It should be noted that just the day before, on September 29th, 2011, at the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw the Belarusian authorities were once again reminded of the necessity to fulfil the obligations in the field of freedom of movement that they undertook, particularly, not to prevent international human rights observers from entering the territory of Belarus for conducting monitoring of human rights observance. In response to that the representative of the Belarus official delegation de-facto admitted the existence of “black lists” of human rights defenders, who are banned entry to the country, as well as the absence of will of the Belarusian authorities to bring the situation in conformity with the international standards.
The International Observation Mission was created by the Committee on International Control over the Human Rights Situation in Belarus, which brings together representatives of the human rights organisations from the OSCE participating states, as well as international civil society networks and organisations for carrying out monitoring of the general situation with observance of fundamental rights in the Republic of Belarus, as well as the issues of defending human rights defenders and ensuring their professional activities. for more information on this NGO with the rather convoluted name http://hrwatch-by.org/en
Students in New York invited to compete with videos on Human Rights Defenders
October 6, 2011With my predilection for the use of images in the protection of human rights I can only applaud the initiative of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights and New York State United Teachers, who on 5 October launched a student video contest based on the Speak Truth To Power human rights curriculum. The contest invites New York State students to create a 3-6 minute video about a human rights violation and the defender(s) fighting to stop it. The project is aimed at demonstrating the capacity of each individual to create change. “This video contest will engage students in what it means to be a defender against human rights violations.” said NYSUT President Richard C. Iannuzzi
Prior film-making experience or expertise is not required. Details about the contest can be found at http://www.speaktruthvideo.com. All winning videos will be featured on the Speak Truth to Power web site, http://www.rfkcenter.org/sttp. The grand prize video will be shown at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. The deadline for entries is January 31, 2012.
Arbitrary arrest and detention of 31 human rights defenders in Turkey
October 4, 2011Several important human rights NGOs, including AI and HRW, have in recent days expressed concern about the situation of human rights defenders in Turkey. I base myself here on the appeal issued on 28 September by the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT).
The Observatory has been informed by the reliable Human Rights Association (İnsan Haklari Derneği – İHD) about the arbitrary arrests of 31 members and executives of İHD Şanlıurfa Branch, the Education and Science Workers Trade Union (Egitim-Sen), the Health and Social Service Workers Trade Union (SES) as well as the searches by the police of the houses of the chairpersons and executives of the above mentioned organisations and their offices.
In the morning of September 27, law-enforcement officers raided İHD, Egitim-Sen and SES Şanlıurfa Branch offices as well as the houses of their chairpersons and executives and arrested 31 members of these organisations. The police was in possession of a warrant from the Şanlıurfa Chief Public Prosecution Office mentioning allegations of “propaganda for an illegal organisation” and “participating in activities in line with the action and aims of that organisation” and has denied to release information on the reasons of the raids and arrest, on the basis of legal provisions pertaining to the fight against terrorism.
Among those arrested were İHD Şanlıurfa Branch President Cemal Babaoğlu, İHD executivesMüslüm Kına and Müslüm Çiçek, Eğitim-Sen Branch President Halit Şahin, Eğitim-Sen former Branch President Sıtkı Dehşet and Eğitim-Sen executive Veysi Özbingöl.
The Observatory denounces the continuing policy of arbitrarily arresting human rights defenders in Turkey, and particularly İHD members and members of trade unions, which seems to merely aim at sanctioning their human rights activities. To that extent, the Observatory recalls that other İHD members are in pre-trial detention, notably Mr. Muharrem Erbey, İHD General Vice Chairperson and Chairperson of its Diyarbakir Province branch who had been detained since December 2009, Mr. Arslan Özdemir and Ms. Roza Erdede, İHD members in Diyarbakır, or that others remain in provisional release pending the outcome of criminal trials on alleged terrorism charges.
Accordingly, the Observatory calls upon the Turkish authorities to put an end to the continuing harassment against human rights defenders, including members of İHD, and urges the Turkish authorities.
for more detials and suggested actions you can take, see:
On-line Activism and the Real World: a blogger’s honest thinking
October 1, 2011One of the winning blogs of the Communication Initiative, by Bhumika Ghimire, expresses the doubts that many of us feel when we read the hyperbole assessments of how the new media are going to the save the world and bring about the realisation of human rights. Some of the things Bhumika states:
“Are cyber campaigns comparable to the real world action?”
“What about online activists in repressive regimes like China, Burma, North Korea, Iran? These activists and their work in spreading the word, creating networks and keeping the fight alive is admirable and deserves recognition. In many countries, they face almost the same level of scrutiny from their governments as the real world activists. Do we cyber activists in the developed world face a similar level of threat or harassment? Certainly not.”
“The point is, we have to stop glamorizing all and every cyber activist and give credit where it is due. Recognizing the sacrifice of real heroes will add to the validity of online activism as a real force and help online campaigns be more effective.”
see the whole piece on: Online Activism and the Real World: Where Do We Meet? | Communication, Media, Policy.
Help make 9 December a special day for Human Rights Defenders!
October 1, 2011
I proposed some time ago to do something special for HRDs on 9 December see: Human Rights Defenders Day // Bloggers Unite.
There are now 8 bloggers ‘participating’ which is a good start, but I think we need more persons and especially the ears and minds of the larger human rights NGOs. And then we need I new ideas……Please let me have yours..
What I wrote is the following:
10 December is International Human Rights Day but individual human rights defenders (HRDs) are so important that they deserve special and separate attention. On 9 December 1998 the UN adopted the ‘Declaration on the right and responsibility of individuals, groups and organs of society to promote and protect universally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms’. It marks a historic achievement in the long struggle toward better protection of those at risk for carrying out legitimate human rights activities and is the first UN instrument that recognizes the importance and legitimacy of the work of human rights defenders, as well as their need for better protection. The UN Council for Human Rights also has a Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders. Most NGOs have some kind of mandate to come to the rescue of their colleagues in difficulty. It is not necessary to create another formal UN-sanctioned International Day for Human Rights Defenders, but more focus could be achieved on this special day. I am open to ideas from others. I could think of a common list HRDs in prison or killed, to be remembered the next day, human rights day.
Iran again: HRD Narges Mohammadi gets 11 years prison sentence
September 30, 2011Narges Mohammadi, who became ill after being detained by security officials, was convicted by a court in Tehran to 11 years in jail. Narges Mohammadi, 39, the deputy head of Iran’s Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC), a rights organisation presided over by the Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, was picked up last year by security officials who raided her house without a warrant for her arrest. She was taken to Tehran’s Evin prison where she was kept in solitary confinement but was released after a month and taken to hospital. It emerged on Tuesday that a court in Tehran has now convicted her on three charges: acting against the national security, membership of the DHRC and propaganda against the regime.
“I’m not involved in politics, I’m only a human rights activist,” Mohammadi said by phone from Tehran. “I was informed of the 11-year sentence through my lawyers, who were given an unprecedented 23-page judgment issued by the court in which they repeatedly likened my human rights activities to attempts to topple the regime.” In March the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, a US-based non-governmental organisation, reported that security forces had stolen Mohammadi’s medical records from the hospital. Her husband, Taghi Rahmani, a political activist, has spent a third of his life in jail.
Amnesty International reacted with outrage to Mohammadi’s conviction. “The verdict claims that Narges Mohammadi is a liar and has tarnished the image of Iran,” said Drewery Dyke, Amnesty’s researcher on Iran. “However, this latest verdict regrettably does exactly that by showing what Iran’s judiciary thinks of the government’s so-called commitment to uphold human rights in the country, and indeed exactly how it deals with those advocating international human rights standards.”
for more info see inter alia:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/28/iranian-activist-narges-mohammadi-jailed?newsfeed=true
