Phil Lynch, Director of the International Service for Human Rights, wrote an insightful post on URG Insights that is a must. It describes with concrete examples how the current Human Rights Council – and especially its Bureau – is failing to uphold the acquired right of NGOs to speak freely in the UN and – when necessary – mention names of offending countries. It seems like a complete throwback to the early 80’s when in the then Commission on Human Rights NGOs were restricted in mentioning countries by name. This let to untenable and even comical situations where NGOs would describe in detail atrocities and then say that they were talking about a big country in the south of Latin America, only to be asked by the Chair to say which country they had in mind. When the obvious answer came: “Argentina”, the NGO was ruled out of order! That States now feel that the time is right to try again to muzzle NGO criticism became already clear last year with China’s elaborate efforts to silence the ‘one minute silence’ for Cao Shunli [https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/03/20/china-in-the-un-human-rights-council-manages-to-silence-cao-shunli-as-well-as-ngos/] and the worryingly broad support it got for its procedural wrangling. Thus it would be crucial that the whole NGO movement and the States that support them take a clear stand. In meantime Lynch’s “Human Rights Council President, Bureau and Member States must respect the role and rights of NGOs” is giving the right background and follows here in toto:
“The right, and indeed the responsibility, of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to critique governments, expose and pursue accountability for human rights violations, and advocate for changes in law, policy and practice should be uncontroversial and uncontested. This is particularly the case at the UN Human Rights Council, the world’s apex body for human rights debate and dialogue, the mandate of which includes promoting and protecting the right to freedom of expression.
7 nominees for the European Parliament’s 2014 Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought, chosen by political groups and groups of MEPs, will be presented at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Development committees and the Human Rights Subcommittee on 23 September. The laureate will be decided by political group leaders and Parliament’s President on 16 October. The award ceremony takes place in Strasbourg on 26 November. The nominees in alphabetical order are [for more information on human rights awards: http://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards]
Mahmoud Al ‘Asali post mortem and Louis Raphael Sako, nominated by the ECR group, Anna Záborská and 66 other MEPs,
Mouad Belghouate, Ala Yaacoubi and Alaa Abdel Fattah, nominated by the GUE/NGL group,
CHREDO, Open Doors, Oeuvre dOrient and Aid to the Church in Need, nominated by Philippe Juvin and 60 other MEPs,
EuroMaidan, represented by Mustafa Nayem, Ruslana Lyzhychko, Yelyzaveta Schepetylnykova and Tetiana Chornovo, nominated by Jacek Saryusz-Wolski and 52 other MEPs,
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, nominated by the EFDD group,
Denis Mukwege, nominated by the S&D and ALDE groups and Barbara Lochbihler, and
Leyla Yunus, nominated by The Greens/EFA group and Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, Marietje Schaake and Ramon Tremosa.
Chris Kelly‘s film on Cambodia [https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/09/16/documentary-the-rights-of-others-shows-human-rights-defenders-in-cambodia-against-evictions/], was also shown at a side event: “Human Rights Defenders in Cambodia: A Call For Support” which took place in the Palais des Nations, Geneva today. In 2014, human rights defenders in Cambodia continue to be the target of intimidation, arbitrary arrests and spurious criminal charges, particularly when their activism relates to land and labour rights. This side event will present the perspective and outlook of human rights defenders with a view to explore ways for the international community to support the protection of human rights defenders in Cambodia. The screening of the documentary was followed by a panel – moderated by OMCT’s Anne-Laurence Lacroix – with:
Surya Prasad Subedi UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Cambodia
Am Sam Ath Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, LICADHO,
Bahraini human rights activist Zainab al-Khawaja (R), sister of jailed activist Maryam al-Khawaja, lawyer Mohammed al-Jishi (2-R) and Zainab’s husband Wafi al-Majed (2-L), near the Bahrain court building in Manama on September 6, 2014
AFP reports from Dubai that Bahraini human rights defender Maryam al-Khawaja is to stand trial from October 1 charged with assaulting a police officer. Her lawyer Mohammed al-Jishi told AFP the prosecutor general had also decided to extend her custody pending the trial. A conviction could carry a five-year prison sentence, he said. Khawaja, a director of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights who also has Danish nationality, was arrested after arriving at Manama airport on August 30.
(From left to right — Charles Harper, Estela Barnes de Carlotto, Ambassador Alberto D’Alotto and Bishop-emeritus Aldo Etchegoyen. Photo: Argentinian mission in Geneva)
A former World Council of Churches (WCC) official from Brazil, Rev. Charles Harper, has been honoured with the Order Comendador de Mayo, a high decoration of the Argentine government for his emblematic legacy of struggles for human rights in the ecumenical movement. Harper, was WCC’s director of the Human Rights Resource Office for Latin America from 1973 to 1992. He received this honour in a ceremony held on 16 September in Geneva, Switzerland. Harper, born to an American missionary father working in Brazil, joined the anti-colonial struggle through the Committee for Assistance to Evacuees (CIMADE). At CIMADE, he worked with young people and Algerian immigrants in Marseille, France, in the early 1960s. With CIMADE and later as director of the John Knox International Reformed Centre, Harper supported church leaders persecuted in Mozambique, Angola and Cape Verde. Many of those become key actors in the independence struggles of their countries. At the WCC, Harper coördinated a number of systematic international initiatives denouncing human rights violations in Latin America. He created strong networks to protect the persecuted, imprisoned and tortured people in the region.
Accompanying human rights movements in the 1970s, the WCCwas able to respond to the calls for solidarity at regional and global levels. Harper’s work at the WCC was initiated by the WCC member churches in Latin America, following a dialogue held with the WCC’s Commission on International Affairs, chaired then by the renowned jurist Dr Theo van Boven, who also received an honour from the Argentine government in 2012.
In his speech Harper pointed out the current global challenges that a new generation of human rights advocates has to deal with. “Thirty years later – today – the challenges facing the world community of nations, both as international and ecumenical family, not only persist but become more intense: The World Council of Churches, an instrument of unity and service to humanity, strives to accompany churches and groups related to them in critical situations to defend human rights and human dignity, fighting impunity, demanding punitive justice, and building just and peaceful societies.”
At the ceremony, Ambassador Alberto D’Alotto said, “Protestant churches have played an important role in defending human rights and in starting movements for human rights in my country. They helped in founding human rights organizations and sponsored their consolidation, and managed international financing much needed in the beginning…..The churches helped to find ways to overcome the information blockade imposed by the military authorities, giving international visibility to what was happening in Argentina and denouncing the military repression in international forums,” he said.
(The Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg is set to open later this month – today is the ‘soft opening’ Photograph by: JOHN WOODS , THE CANADIAN PRESS)
Light and dark is the dominant theme repeated during the 800-metre climb through 10 permanent and one temporary gallery in the new Canadian Human Rights Museum, through the constant play between translucent alabaster walkways and dark concrete and steel, through the juxtaposition of horrid abuses of human rights and the [Canadian] human rights defenders who have played a role in addressing those wrongs. “If you think about the great promise of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, it is to inspire the next generation of human rights defenders,” said museum CEO Stuart Murray.
Its critics, and there have been and remain many, argue that its makeup was wrong-headed; its origin and focus too centred on the Holocaust; its handling of the Holodomor and aboriginal issues too offhanded. It would be too heavy on the dark, too light on the light, they said.
“When it comes to the topic of human rights, individuals and communities are incredibly passionate about it,” said Murray. “It may have been their own experience or the experience of a parent or a grandparent. Their desire, of course, is to have their story front and centre. What I think we’ve been able to do … is reach out to other human rights experts and academics to ensure we were bringing balance…..I think we’ve come close, but I’m very realistic. The public will decide.”
Questions remain: Was it worth $351 million, and those $21-million annual operating costs? How can Winnipeg be the right place for a national museum? Will it draw the 250,000 annual visitors being touted by museum proponents? Does Canada even need such a monument?
A UN Human Rights Council mandated inquiry is currently investigating alleged violations of international humanitarian law, as well as gross and systematic human rights abuses, committed by the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which led to estimated 40,000 civilian deaths in 2009 alone. In a joint letter dated 25 August to the President of the UN Human Rights Council and to the Ambassador of Sri Lanka, a coalition of NGOs outline an alarming trend of intimidation, threats and reprisals in Sri Lanka against people engaging with UN human rights mechanisms, including the Commission of Inquiry.
This pattern has been brought many times to the attention of the UN Human Rights Council by civil society, human rights experts and States, and even by the UN Secretary-General and High Commissioner. ‘The Government of Sri Lanka has the primary responsibility for protecting people from threats, intimidation and reprisal, and must condemn all such acts immediately and unequivocally as well as take all necessary lawful steps to affirm and uphold the right of all persons to free communication with the UN, safe from hindrance or insecurity’ said ISHR Director Phil Lynch. See also on reprisals: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/reprisals/
Still on 13 September 2014, human rights defenders Mr Namal Rajapakshe and Mr Manjula Pathiraja in Sri Lanka were threatened with death in connection to their work as defence lawyers, reported Front Line on 15 September. Namal Rajapakshe and Manjula Pathiraja are leading human rights lawyers who have frequently appeared (often pro bono) in public interest litigation representing victims of human rights violations across Sri Lanka.
[On 13 September 2014, two unidentified men wearing jackets and helmets covering their faces entered the office of Namal Rajapakshe and threatened that he and Manjula Pathiraja would be killed should they appear in any more “unnecessary cases”. This is not the first time that Namal Rajapakshe and Manjula Pathiraja have been targeted. On 4 August 2014, the human rights defenders were intimidated, along with another lawyer, while they were making representations on behalf of their clients. They were harassed by a group of thugs inside the Maradana Police station – in front of the local Inspector.]
Aye Aye Win, of Associated Press, describes in an interesting way the changes in Myanmar (Burma): human rights defender Htin Kyaw is ‘free’ to march and protest in public but in every city where he passes he is being sentenced for disturbing public order. He has now accumulated 11 of such sentences and is slated to spend the next 12 years and four months behind bars, according to his wife, Than Than Maw.
just published two recent reports on kidnappings in DRC. The first is that on 13 September 2014, the corpse of human rights defender Mr Mutebwa Kaboko was found in a forest, eight days after he was kidnapped by an armed group. Mutebwa Kaboko was a training facilitator for the organisation Aide Rapide aux Victimes des Catastrophes – ARVC, created in 2008 to help disaster victims, especially women and vulnerable children. Now operating in the territories of Uvira and Fizi Walungu, the association has led a campaign against the phenomenon of forced marriage. He was abducted by men suspected of belonging to an armed group known as Mayi Mayi Yakutumba. [On 20 June 2014, Mutebwa Kaboko was abducted in a similar way by elements of Mayi Mayi Yakutumba. He had apparently denounced their presence in the locality of Katete. They had held Mutebwa Kaboko in the open forest for five days before releasing him.]
On 14 September two other human rights defenders, Ms Neema Bitu and Mr Jacques Muganga, were found back after being kidnapped and held for two days by members of a rebel group. The two defenders are investigators of l’Action des Femmes Contre la Torture – AFCT (Action for Women Against Torture), an organisation defending the rights of women based in the village of Mwaba Kangando/Kiliba, tens of kilometers from the town of Uvira near the border between Burundi and the DRC. The perpetrators are this time suspected of belonging to Forces Nationales de Libération du Burundi, a rebel group composed mostly of Burundian combatants and operating in parts of South Kivu in the DRC. On the night of 13 September 2014, the two defenders were able to escape from their captors while they were firing on the government army. Their colleagues found them at dawn on 14 September 2014 at approximately. During their captivity, they reportedly suffered terrible beatings and now require emergency medical treatment.
This follows the abduction and detention on 1 September 2014, of human rights defenders Mr Célestin Bambone, Ms Marie Amnazo and Ms Kongwa Tulinabo [from the Action Paysanne pour le Développement et la Promotion des Droits de l’Homme (Peasant Action for the Development and Promotion of Human Rights – APDPDH), a human rights organisation based in Mugutu, in the South Kivu province and specialising in the monitoring of human rights violations in Mugutu and surrounding villages].
“Protecting civil society space and preventing reprisals: National and international developments and next steps” is side event that will be held on Friday, 19 September 2014 from 9.15 to 10.45 am in the Palais des Nations, Geneva, Room XXIV.
Opening remarks Olivier de Frouville, member of the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances and member-elect of the UN Human Rights Committee
Panelists:
Reine Alapini-Gansou, Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights
Stephania Kulaeva, Director, Anti-Discrimination Centre Memorial, Russia
Patricia OBrien, Ambassador of Ireland to the UN
Eleanor Openshaw, Reprisals Advocacy Manager, International Service for Human Rights
Mothusi Bruce Rabasha Palai, Ambassador of Botswana to the UN TBC
Moderator: Michael Ineichen, Human Rights Council Advocacy Director, ISHR
The event will be webcast at www.ishr.ch/webcast. You can also follow the event on Twitter @ISHRGlobal, using the hashtag #ProtectCSS.
If you would like to attend but do not have UN accreditation, please email information[at]ishr.ch before 12 noon on 16 September.
(From left to right — Charles Harper, Estela Barnes de Carlotto, Ambassador Alberto D’Alotto and Bishop-emeritus Aldo Etchegoyen. Photo: Argentinian mission in Geneva)
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 