A group of United Nations experts has expressed serious concern at reports that Chinese human rights defenders have suffered reprisals for seeking to participate in a major UN human rights assessment of China. Read the rest of this entry »
Archive for the 'human rights' Category
UN alarmed by reprisals against Chinese activists
October 16, 2013WCC consultation urges protection of human rights in Papua, Indonesia
October 16, 2013On 16 October Scoop News reports on a consultation, held on 25 September 2013 in Geneva, entitled Isolating Papua which highlighted the increasing practice of limiting access to the Papuan provinces of Indonesia. Read the rest of this entry »
Kenya: Human Rights Defenders under attack but continue to speak out against skipping the ICC
October 15, 2013Yesterday, 15 October, the Kenyan police arrested seven members of Bunge la Mwananchi on suspicion of illegal assembly as they were protesting a tax increase on commodities. Amongst those arrested was human rights defender Ruth Mumbi. Read the rest of this entry »
Risks for Women HRDs: “To be a human rights defender is to make a choice…”
October 15, 2013
From 8 – 11 October 2013 took place the 7th Dublin Platform for Human Rights Defenders organised by Front Line Defenders. I share the impression as posted by Executive Director, Deon Haywood, of Women With A Vision [WWAV’s] who joined 145 activists from 95 different countries for the meeting. “This is a vital international forum for human rights defenders at risk, as many cannot speak freely in their own country. Through plenary presentations and working group discussions, defenders shared experiences, learned from each other and came up with new and more effective strategies for their security and protection. This year’s Dublin Platform also included a specific focus on the risks faced by women human rights defenders.”
When addressing this global community of activists during the Dublin Platform opening, Deon Haywood spoke of a choice that rang true for so many attendees: “To be a human rights defender is to make a choice between standing up for what is right and defending the rights of others, or passively accepting that there is no other way. Being here with 145 other human rights defenders from every corner of the globe, all of whom face very similar risks, reminds me of the rightness of our cause. When you see the energy and the commitment of the people in this room, then there is a real cause for optimism for the future.”
Gaza protesters demand maintaining death penalty while NGOs discuss abolishing
October 14, 2013
Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip, protest in support of executing criminals in Gaza City, on October
9, 2013. (AFP/Mohammed Abed)
9, 2013. (AFP/Mohammed Abed)
Human Rights defenders at an Abolish the Death Penalty meeting in Gaza were confronted with a demonstration of death penalty supporters days after Hamas hanged a convicted murderer. “The death penalty is Islamic law – implement it against all criminals,” one banner read. Mohammed Shurab, spokesman for Gaza’s “Families of the Victims” movement, urged “the government in Gaza to continue carrying out the death sentence against those who are killing our sons.” But speakers at the conference said the death penalty went against both international humanitarian law and the principles of Islam. “Islam doesn’t allow the death penalty or the killing of anyone,” said Suleiman Awda, a lecturer in Islamic law at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University. “It is a religion of forgiveness.” This position has been defended rigorously by several scholars including MEA 2009 Laureate Emad Baghi.
UN experts warned it was “not possible to correct a mistake… There’s no going back once the death penalty has been carried out.”
Last week’s hanging was the first time since July 2012 that Hamas has carried out capital punishment for murder. But on June 22, the Islamist movement hanged two men accused of collaborating with Israel. Under Palestinian law, collaboration with Israel, murder and drug trafficking are all punishable by death. Hamas has executed 17 people since taking over Gaza in 2007, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
via Gaza protesters demand death penalty as anti-NGOs meet | Maan News Agency.
Related articles
- Supporters, opponents of death penalty wrangle in Gaza (timesofisrael.com)
Conclusions of Side Event on Reprisals against Human Rights Defenders
October 14, 2013To launch its new In-Brief on reprisals against human rights defenders, the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights organized a side event at the 24th Session of the Human Rights Council. The round table discussion was presided by Prof. Andrew Clapham The main Conclusions are: Read the rest of this entry »
Peace comes dropping slow says The Economist in relation to Malala being passed over for Nobel Prize
October 14, 2013
The Economist of this week (11 October) carries an interesting piece on peace under the title “Peace comes dropping slow”. It argues that MALALA YOUSAFZAI would have been an appropriate recipient of the Nobel peace prize, but that her admirers should be not be too disappointed that the award went instead to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. For the Western world, and indeed for many of her fellow Muslims, Malala is an extraordinary example of disinterested courage in the face of theocrats who practise tyranny by claiming a monopoly on religion and religious law. She was already famous at the age of 11 as the writer of a blog for the BBC Urdu service, giving an impression of life under the rule of the Taliban in her native Swat Valley.
She has been showered with accolades, as this blog has also shown including last week the European Union’s Sakharov prize. However, the Economist piece says that “people who really wish Malala and her cause well should be more relieved than let down. The Nobel Prize has not always brought blessings to its recipients. Mistakes made by Barack Obama as America’s commander-in-chief will be judged even more harshly because he was granted the award in 2009 as a kind of down-payment before his presidency had really got going. Mikhail Gorbachev will probably go down in history as a peace-maker, but the award (in 1990) did nothing to enhance his domestic standing which was in freefall at the time. And whatever history has to say about Henry Kissinger and North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho, garlanded in 1973, it will hardly describe them as doves of peace“[De Klerk and Arafat are not mentioned!]
In Northern Ireland, the article states the peace prize had in some respects a “kiss of death” [mentioning David Trimble, John Hume, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan Maguire] ….”Does 16-year-old Malala really need that? She too comes from a part of the world where international accolades can cause jealousy and cynicism as well as admiration. So she may be better off without the big prize. In any case, Malala will continue to pile up various honours and distinctions; and as with Ms Maguire, there is probably a good chance that she will use her fame to say things that disturb and provoke people, even those who are lining up to admire her.“
The Nobel peace prize: Peace comes dropping slow | The Economist.
Wife Of Imprisoned Iranian Lawyer Sentenced For Accepting Human Rights Award On His Behalf
October 14, 2013That there can be a risk in accepting (monetary) awards is demonstrated again by the case of Massoumeh Dehghan, retired teacher and wife of imprisoned human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani in Iran. She told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that her one-year prison sentence for accepting her husband’s human rights award has been upheld (suspended for five years, and five years’ ban on foreign travel). Read the rest of this entry »
ICC should continue its work in Africa, says Tutu in N.Y.Times
October 14, 2013While 130 NGOs in Africa and elsewhere call in a joint letter to the African Union not to abandon the International Criminal Court, Bishop Desmond Tutu publishes in the New York Times of 10 October an excellent piece explaining why it is a terrible mistake. Here is it is in full:
CAPE TOWN — MEMBERS of the African Union will meet in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, today to discuss recent calls by some African leaders to withdraw from the International Criminal Court. These calls must be resisted. The continent has suffered the consequences of unaccountable governance for too long to disown the protections offered by the I.C.C. Read the rest of this entry »
Join on-line Conversation on the power of narrative for HRDs as from today
October 14, 2013
You can Join the Center for Story-based Strategy CSS and the New Tactics community for an online conversation on Change the Story: Harnessing the power of narrative for social change from October 14 to 18.
People and communities use stories to understand the world and our place in it. These stories are embedded with power – the power to explain and justify the status quo as well as the power to make change imaginable and urgent. …This conversation is an opportunity for human rights defenders to learn more about story-based strategy and how to integrate it into campaign planning. This is also an opportunity for those practitioners using story-based strategy to share their experiences, questions, and ideas with each other. Practitioners to lead this conversation are:
Danielle Coates-Connor, Conversation Facilitator of the Center for Story-based Strategy
Nathan Schneider of Waging Nonviolence
Soriano of Lionswrite Communications
Kathleen Pequeño of the Progressive Communicators Network
Nadia Khastaqir of the Design Action Collective
Kristi Rendahl of the Center for Victims of Torture
Lama Sangye and Justin Von Bujdoss of the New York Tsurphu Goshir Dharma Center
Chris Cavanagh of the Catalyst Centre
Dr. Cara Lisa Berg Powers of Press Pass TV
Laura Revels, Digital Storytelling Trainer
Shreya Atrey, practitioner.
September’s Conversation on Media Tactics for Social Change now has a summary posted and in November there will be a Conversation on Visualizing Information for Advocacy, in partnership with Tactical Technology Collective.
via Join our conversation on the power of narrative, this week!.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 