The FIDH in Paris reported that Dr. Vo Van Ai, a life-long independent Vietnamese human rights defender, has been awarded the 2011 Special Prize for Freedom (Premio Speciale alla Liberta) by the Italian organisation Società Libera. The Prize was presented in Lucca on June 24, 2011. Dr. Vo is the President and founder of the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR), a member organization of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). The Vietnam Committee aims to monitor human rights in Vietnam, mobilise support for victims of human rights abuses and promote efforts to advance democracy in Vietnam. The Special Prize is a deserving recognition of Dr. Vo’s tireless efforts to demand greater respect and protection of human rights and to lend a strong voice to the silent majority in Viet Nam where the mere exercise of, and aspirations for, fundamental freedoms is stifled or, even worse, criminalised, the FIDH added.
Archive for the 'Human Rights Defenders' Category
Emad Baghi, Laureate 2009 of the Martin Ennals Award, released from prison
June 21, 2011Yesterday we received the good news that Emad Baghi (Iran), MEA Laureate 2009, has been released from prison. He had started a hunger strike again which may have contributed to him having been released ‘normally’ at the end of his one-year term.
With the liberation of Muhannad Al-Hassani (Syria) on 3 June, this is most encouraging news and the postcard campaign for them is suspended for the time being.
Tiananmen Commemoration by the Visual Arts Guild Highlights Modern Rights Defenders
June 14, 2011Tiananmen Commemoration Highlights Modern Rights Defenders 22 years later. Victims and witnesses of the 1989 TiananmenMassacre shared the way they saw and experienced the demonstrations, the massacre, and the long-term effect it has had on the Chinese psyche at a commemoration held by the Visual Arts Guild. Two contemporary rights defenders, Ai Weiwei and Zhao Lianhai, both currently detained in China, were honored at the event.
One of those recognized was Ai Weiwei. The world-renowned artist/activist is currently detained by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for his political expressions, which include a recent video (Without Fear or Favor by Ai Weiwei on TED). Zhao Lianhai was also recognized for his efforts in bringing to light the melamine-tainted milk scandal in 2008. Zhao was sentenced by the CCP to 2 1/2 years in prison after he set up a website, Kidney Stone Babies, to advise parents of the toxic milk after his own child suffered from kidney illness from the tainted dairy. He was released on medical parole last December, then again taken into custody on May 26, apparently because of his public demand for the release of Ai Weiwei that same week.
The keynote speaker, Perry Link, a professor of Comparative Literature and Foreign Languages at UC Riverside, is one of the West’s top experts on China, its language, culture, and people. His report on how China is good at “forgetting” massacres and how also the media quickly lose interest in worth reading in full on http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/united-states/tiananmen-commemoration-highlights-modern-rights-defenders-57592.html
Confirmed: MEA Laureate 2010 Muhannad al-Hassani freed
June 3, 2011It is now official: MEA Laureate Muhannad Al-Hassani (or al-Hasani), who spent the last 22 months in jail, was released today 3 June. He was among a large number of other ‘political prisoners’ which the Syrian regime has been releasing over the last days. He thanks all of you who have continued to support him while he was in detention.
MEA Laureate Muhannad Al-Hassini soon free?
May 31, 2011There is good reason to think that Muhannad Al-Hassani will finally be out of jail soon!. Let’s see what the morning brings…
Human Rights Award of Dutch Government now open for nominations
May 31, 2011And before i forget – again as a loyal Dutch citizen – nominations are now being accepted for the 2011 Human Rights Defenders Tulip, a human rights award presented by the Dutch government. Human rights defenders the world over are eligible. Nominations close on 15 June. please go to: http://www.humanrightstulip.org/simplepage/page/Nominations
Marvelous: Human Rights Defenders in Minsk detained just before detention seminar
May 30, 2011The Belarusian police decided to contribute – rather spontaneously – a hands-on element to a NGO training course on detention conditions:
On Saturday 28 May 2011 seven human rights defenders were detained at the BPF Minsk office, where a seminar on detention conditions was expected to take place. The detainees, including Belarusian Helsinki Committee leader Aleh Hulak, Belarusian human rights defenders Liudmila Isakava and Aliaksandr Sasnou, Russian expert Olga Solomatova, Ukrainian activists Alla Blahaya, Vadim Pivovarov and Oleh Martynenko, were taken to Minsk Savetski District police department. At about 2.30 p.m. all of them were released without charges. However, the defenders were officially warned of possible prosecution for violation of the Belarusian legislation.
Bangladeshi Human Rights Defender survives abduction and interrogation
May 26, 2011The Asian Human Rights Commission on 25 May 2011 issued an urgent statement of extreme concern for the situation of human rights defenders in Bangladesh, and in particular over the disappearance of a young human rights activist, Dipal Barua, yesterday, May 24. Dipal has been working for the last few weeks on the efforts for the life and security of another human rights defender, FMA Razzak, on whom the AHRC has been conducting an international campaign:http://www.humanrights.asia/campaigns/attack-on-fma-razzak. Fortunately the AHRC was able to confirm that Dipal returned to his house around 3:30pm local time, the next day, May 25, having been abducted and interrogated over his human rights activities. The story of his terrifying ordeal reveals that the concerted attacks on human rights defenders in Bangladesh are part of a programme by agencies of the government of Bangladesh, operating in secret, to counter the campaign of the AHRC and its partners who have acted to protect the life of FMA Razzak and demand that his perpetrators be brought to justice.
The details of his abduction and interrogation are to be found in the press statement of the Asian Human Rights Commission: http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-066-2011. Let’s keep an eye on developments in Bangladesh…
Tools for Human Rights Defenders: New Tactics offers on-line dialogue on Being Well and Staying Safe
May 24, 2011Human Rights defenders are often in a weak position standing up against powerful interests (as this and other blogs often illustrate). Still they are not without their own resources and support as shown by e.g. New Tactics. This organisation, with the help of Jane Barry and other practitioners, is offering an online dialogue on Being Well and Staying Safe from June 22 to 28, 2011: http://www.newtactics.org/en/dialogue/being-well-and-staying-safe-resources-human-rights-defenders.
The nature of their work exposes human rights defenders to distressing and threatening situations. The need to take care of one’s self is extremely important, as is the need to take care of, protect and support each other. Human rights defenders cannot be well without being safe. Likewise, they cannot truly be safe without being well. Often, security is thought of as a stand-alone concept, rooted in the set, militaristic concepts of war and conflict. Human rights defenders are defining a new concept of security – one that comes from a feminist and anti-militarist standpoint. Women in Black have defined security as including: freedom from constant threats, economic security, political security, environmental security, and health security. How would a new, more integrated and holistic definition of security impact the human rights community?
This online dialogue is an opportunity to further explore the ways in which well-being and security are mutually inclusive for human rights defenders. This is a space to discuss how these issues and concepts relate to gender, identity, human rights work, budgeting and fundraising.
Syrian Human Rights defender Anwar Al – Bunni released from prison on Monday 23 May 2011
May 23, 2011
Anwar Al-Bunni
Anwar Al-Bunni winner of the 2008 Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk has been released today. He finished serving his sentence on the 17th of May 2011 but was taken initially to a branch of the security apparatus before being finally released today. Anwar Al-Bunni was originally sentenced to a five year prison sentence because of his courageous work defending human rights defenders and opposition activists facing charges before the State Security Court, now slated to be abolished by a regime under pressure from the protests. He had also set up a human rights centre in Damascus to support the work of human rights defenders and publicly denounced the use of torture in Syrian prisons. This is very similar to the work and condemnation of Muhannad Al-Hassani the 2010 MEA Laureate which is still in prison.
The good news re Al-Bunni is tempered by the consideration that he was not released before he had served his time and that the Syrian regime still holds hundreds of human rights defenders in detention or under threat.
