Archive for the 'human rights' Category
December 3, 2013
International Human Rights Day this year marks the 20th anniversary of the UN Human Rights Office and will be celebrated with events around the world throughout the week, including a day of discussions on 5 December in Geneva on a range of pressing human rights issues. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web and founder of the World Wide Web Foundation, will join UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay in a discussion over access to the Web and the balance between security and privacy online. Sir Tim Berners-Lee has been working to ensure that the World Wide Web is made freely available to all, and to establish the Web as a global public good and a basic right. The discussion will be moderated by prominent TV presenter Tim Sebastian, former host of the BBCs Hardtalk programme. The High Commissioner and the President of the Human Rights Council, Remigiusz Achilles Henczel will also deliver speeches at the opening of the event. Hina Jilani, former Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders and Christof Heyns, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, will lead panel discussions on protecting the space for human rights defenders and building a vision for an effective human rights system over the next 20 years and beyond. Panelists will also engage on the importance of ensuring the participation and inclusion of all individuals, regardless of their background or status, in the economic and political life of a State. The panels will be moderated by journalist Ghida Fakhry Khane, who was until recently one of the primary anchors for Al Jazeera English. Civil society representatives from Zimbabwe, Colombia, Tunisia and Norway will also lend their perspectives and rich experience to the discussions. The day will end with a performance by renowned musician Salif Keita, from Mali. Known as the “Golden Voice of Africa“, Mr. Keita was born with albinism and, in 2005, founded the Salif Keita Global Foundation to raise awareness about albinism.
The event will be held on Thursday, 5 December 2013, at the Palais des Nations in Room XX, from 9h30 to 17h00. The full programme and biographies of the participants can be found on http://at20.ohchr.org/events.html.
via Human Rights Day – 20 years of working for your rights – World News Report.
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Tags: Christof Heyns, digital security, Geneva, Hina Jilani, human rights, Human Rights Day, Human Rights Defenders, international human rights day, Navanethem Pillay, panel, right to privacy, Salif Keita, Tim Berners-Lee, UN, World Wide Web
December 3, 2013
On 2 December 2013 the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights delivered a “mixed report” on human rights progress around the world, with slow and steady advances in some areas alongside causes for alarm in others. “As we look around the world at the end of 2013, we see examples of situations where that readiness of the international community to act in time is already being sorely tested,” Navi Pillay said during a press conference in Geneva. In addition to Syria, where the scale and viciousness of the abuses being perpetuated by elements on both sides almost defies belief, the situation in the Central African Republic is deteriorating rapidly, and the alarm bells are ringing loud and clear. “Elsewhere, there is much turbulence,” Ms. Pillay said, highlighting the “serious politically-driven instability” in Bangladesh which is claiming a lot of lives in the run up to the election, the “heavy-handed attempts” by successive administrations in Egypt to quell people’s right to peaceful protests. Meanwhile, reprisals against civil society organizations, individual human rights defenders and journalists working on rights issues are “extremely worrying” in a number of countries, she said. The High Commissioner also drew attention to the situation of migrants, who continue to be treated as second-class citizens in many countries, as well as the continuing political exploitation of xenophobia and racism in Europe and other industrialized areas. “Amidst all this, there is nevertheless progress, sometimes taking place slowly and steadily out of the limelight, sometimes the subject of major policy shifts – including a number of reforms announced over the past two weeks by the Government of China,” Ms. Pillay stated. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and she noted that overall, the UN human rights system is a great deal stronger than it was two decades ago. “The UN human rights institutions, however well they function, are not enough by themselves,” she added.“The rest of the United Nations – individual Member States, powerful bodies such as the Security Council and the General Assembly, and all the UN’s myriad agencies, funds and programme – need to pull their weight in the common cause of improving human rights for everyone everywhere, in accordance with the UN Charter.”
via United Nations News Centre – Taking stock, UN official delivers ‘mixed report’ on human rights progress worldwide.
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Tags: Bangladesh, Central African Republic, China, Egypt, Human right, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, human rights progress, international human rights day, Navi Pillay, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Pillay, reprisals, retaliation, Syria, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN, United Nations
December 2, 2013
“Write for Rights” is one of Amnesty International’s major global campaigns. AI is capable of getting its own outreach and does not need my blog but I want to refer to it anyway as it is such a quintessential human rights action model. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in AI, Amnesty international, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: 10 December, Advocacy Organizations, AI, Amnesty, Amnesty International, Bahrain, Belarus, Burma, Cambodia, Eskinder Nega, Ethiopia, Honduras, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human Rights Defenders, international human rights day, Mexico, Myanmar, Nabi Saleh village, Nigeria, Palestine, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Tunisia, Turkey, urgent action, Yorm Bopha
December 1, 2013
(Nasrin Sotoudeh was recently released from prison in Iran – EPA)
On 1 December Mary Lawlor, Executive Director of Ireland-based Front Line Defenders, published an opinion piece in Al-Jazeera on the place of human rights defenders in the recent developments concerning Iran and Syria. In order not to lose the coherence of the argument I give it here in full:
Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Al-Jazeera, Evin Prison, Front Line Defenders, Haitham Al-Maleh, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, international community, Iran, Mary Lawlor, Nasrin Sotoudeh, Syria
November 30, 2013
Human rights defenders play a critical role in exposing and ensuring accountability for business-related human rights violations. Despite this, around the world, there is an increase in attacks, judicial harassment, restrictions, surveillance, intimidation and reprisals against defenders who work on land and environment issues associated with business activities. A side event on 3 December in Geneva (Palais des Nations Room XX from 13h00 to 15h00) will pay special attention to challenges engendered by the increasing criminalisation or repression of those peacefully denouncing adverse human rights impacts of corporate projects, discussing the role of both States and companies. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Center for International Environmental Law, corporate accountability, criminalization, environmental issues, FIDH, Forum Asia, Geneva, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, human rights violations, International Federation for Human Rights, International service for, ISHR, Jorge Luis Morales, land disputes, OMCT, Peace Brigades International, side event, streaming, webcast, World Organisation Against Torture
November 30, 2013
Scores of peaceful marchers from Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) were beaten and some arrested by police in anti-riot gear on Friday. The women were on their way to the Mhlahlandlela Government Complex, where they submitted a petition outlining the needs and expectations of Zimbabwean women in the context of the on-going campaign against gender-based violence. WOZA leader Jenni Williams said baton-wielding officers, who were accompanied by dogs, pounced on the group of women, chasing and beating them up.
She added: “We have long argued that police in Bulawayo have seemingly a tribal and regional agenda. Why is it that when we demonstrate in Bulawayo our demos are either stopped before they even start or our members are beaten up? Yet I can go to parliament (in Harare) and nobody will arrest me?”Some women were arrested and then released without charge three hours later, at the intervention of the officer in charge at Drill Hall in Bulawayo, who simply said the women were free to go, without offering any explanation why the women had been violently and brutally arrested in the first place. Williams explained: “He just came in and said we could go, there was no problem. We said to him ‘Just like that? When people have been beaten up and dogs almost set on them and you say there is no problem?’.” The WOZA leader, who has been arrested more than 50 times, expressed concern at the heavy-handedness of Bulawayo police.
WOZA activists brutalised on Women Human Rights Defenders Day | SW Radio Africa.
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Tags: arbitrary arrest, Bulawayo, Harare, Human right, Human Rights Defenders, International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, Jenni Williams, peaceful demonstration, police brutality, SW Radio Africa, women human rights defenders, Women of Zimbabwe Arise, WOZA, Zimbabwe
November 29, 2013
Just as an example of how human rights defenders and the work to support them can appear in a Lifestyle Magazine:
Across Canada human rights supporters have recently been celebrating the releases of a number of prisoners of conscience—people jailed solely for the peaceful expression of their beliefs.
In China, poet and journalist Shi Tao was released after more than eight years in prison. Supporters of the human rights organization Amnesty International (amnesty.ca) had long campaigned for his freedom by writing letters to the Chinese authorities and signing petitions calling for his release. Shi Tao was imprisoned in 2004 for sending an email using his Yahoo account. His email summarized a communiqué from the Chinese Central Propaganda Department telling journalists how they should handle the 15th anniversary of the crackdown on the 1989 pro-democracy movement. The Chinese authorities accused him of “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities”. Shi Tao expressed his thanks to supporters: “The support and encouragement of friends from around the world have helped my mother and me through the difficult and lonely times.” Other prisoners of conscience recently released in China this year included human rights defender Ni Yulan, and Falun Gong practitioners Wang Xiuqing and her daughter Qin Hailong, released after 18 months in a “re-education through labour” camp.
In Iran, the sudden release of prisoner of conscience Nasrin Sotoudeh in September further showed how the passion and persistence of individual people around the world taking action by putting pen to paper can help human rights. Sotoudeh is widely respected for her work as a lawyer. She has represented children facing the death penalty, prisoners of conscience and human rights defenders, and has worked closely with Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi. But in August 2010 Sotoudeh was locked up in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison though she had committed no crime. During her imprisonment, Nasrin was stopped from having regular visits with her husband, Reza Khandan, and two young children. Amnesty International declared her a prisoner of conscience and quickly launched a global appeal demanding her release. Supporters tirelessly wrote letters to the Iranian authorities requesting them to free the human rights lawyer. Their efforts helped win a great victory. Sotoudeh sent a thank you for the support she had received from people around the world. “I have been aware of all your efforts on my behalf and I want to thank you!”
Human rights supporters celebrate recent prisoner releases : The Canadian Lifestyle Magazine.
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Tags: Amnesty International, Canada, Canadian Lifestyle Magazine, China, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Iran, Nasrin Sotoudeh, Ni Yulan, prisoner of conscience, Shi Tao, Shirin Ebadi, woman human rights defender, Yahoo
November 29, 2013
The Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition (WHRD IC) celebrates International Women Human Rights Defenders Day (29 November 2013) by focusing on 4 areas:
1. Tools for Defence
The Online Directory of Urgent Responses for WHRDs is a mapping of “Urgent Responses for Women Human Rights Defenders at Risk”. The Online Directory outlines the diverse responses that exist and, where available, are specific to WHRDs. It is a tool for WHRDs to locate the best resources available for their protection, support, and wellness. Two new areas have been added: Digital Security and Training opportunities. http://urgent-responses.awid.org/
2. Training
Given the risk specialized training on various aspects of safety and protection are intended to strengthen the capacity of WHRDs to respond or prevent attacks. These training programs address the gender dimension that highlight subtle risks that WHRDs miss when they are exposed to gender based violence and gender specific risks. It is important that they multiply this knowledge with other WHRDs and members of the communities they work with.
3. Digital Security
Women defenders face many unique threats and obstacles both offline and online. Technology is transforming activism, and the promotion and defence of human rights but awareness there are also digital dangers to WHRD’s freedom of expression and association online and knowing how to communicate securely is important in ensuring a holistic approach to security for WHRD’s. WHRD IC hosted a train-the-trainer workshop for a global group WHRDs in digital security and is currently supporting their in-country activities. In 2014 it will assist WHRDs to access further training in digital security. Examples of attacks:
– On 21 September the Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network’s (LACWHN) website was hacked and disabled. The attack occurred immediately following the launch of several campaign activities on September 19th and 20th including the #28SAbortoLegal social media campaign as well as the posting of a photo album and posters. This was a deliberate attempt to silence legitimate feminist voices, suppress dissent and stifle women’s political participation in the public sphere on these issues by stigmatisation and sabotage.
http://www.defendingwomen-defendingrights.org/statement_whrdic_LACWHN.php <http://www.defendingwomen-defendingrights.org/statement_whrdic_LACWHN.php>
– In 2012 the offices of Women’s Organization Network for Human Rights Advocacy (WONETHA) were raided, staff arrested and authorities confiscated documents, computers and other material from the centre. They demanded passwords and read emails and correspondence, which seriously compromise the privacy and security of staff and members of WONETHA.
4. Celebrate, honour, remember
This tribute takes the form of an online photo exhibition <https://plus.google.com/photos/110714837166729000165/albums/5947969816908571489> launched on November 25th 2013, Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women with a special slide show featuring 16 WHRDs from around the world and will end on December 10, International Human Rights Day. The tribute features photographs and biographies of women’s rights leaders from around the world. Each day of the campaign AWID will share the story of a WHRD(s) on its website as well as through Facebook and Twitter using hashtags #16days and #AWIDMembers and link back to the full online exhibit which will commemorate and celebrate the work and lives of WHRDs who have passed away since January 2011. http://www.awid.org/eng/Our-Initiatives/Women-Human-Rights-Defenders/WHRD-Tribute.
The new THF Digest of Human Rights Awards features several awards for women human rights defenders: http://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/
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Tags: awards, AWID, digital security, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, Latin America, THF, training, twitter, Uganda, Urgent Responses for Women Human Rights Defenders, WHRD IC, women human rights defenders, Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition, Women's rights
November 28, 2013
A special issue on the Protection of Human Rights Defenders has appeared in the Journal of Human Rights Practice. This special issue contains insightful articles from human rights defenders, scholars and organizations across the globe focused on promoting and protecting human rights defenders. The Oxford Journal wants to bridge the gap between human rights practitioners and academicians. Exceptionally, this entire special issue of the Journal of Human Rights Practice is available free of charge for the next 3 months at http://jhrp.oxfordjournals.org/content/5/3.toc. You find there also the full text of my Review Essay on awards. Table of content: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in AI, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 4 Comments »
Tags: awards, Hans Thoolen, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Journal of Human Rights Practice, OUP, Oxford Journal, Protection of Human Rights Defenders, publication, United Nations Declaration, York university
November 28, 2013
A UN General Assembly committee has agreed a landmark first resolution on women human rights defenders, but compromise forced some weakening of the text. A Norwegian-led coalition, which prepared the resolution, had to delete language that condemned “all forms of violence against women” to get the text passed by consensus late Wednesday 27 November. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Africa, AP, China, cultural relativism, GA, Geir Sjoberg, Holy See, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, International Service for Human Rights, Ireland, Norway, Russia, sexual rights, UN Resolution, United Nations General Assembly, Vatican, Violence against women, women human rights defenders, Women's rights
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 