Archive for the 'human rights' Category
September 27, 2013
In five days from now, on 2 October 2013, the People’s Court in Hanoi, Viet Nam, will hear the case of human rights defender Le Quoc Quan, who has been held in detention since 27 December 2012 and whose trial was postponed on 8 July 2013. Le Quoc Quan is a prominent lawyer, blogger and human rights defender. He has a long history of being targeted by the Vietnamese authorities in retaliation for his work. As a lawyer, he represented many victims of human rights violations, but was disbarred in 2007 on suspicion of engaging in “activities to overthrow the regime”. Le Quoc Quan also runs a blog http://lequocquan.blogspot.ie/ where he writes about various issues including civil rights, political pluralism and religious freedom. On 27 December 2012, Le Quoc Quan was arrested on trumped up allegations of tax evasion, was held incommunicado for the first two months and spent fifteen days on hunger strike. Currently the human rights defender remains imprisoned awaiting trial.
More information, please see update from 12 July 2013 http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/23255
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: blogger, freedom of expression, Front Line (NGO), Hanoi, Human right, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, hungerstrike, illegal detention, Le Quoc Quan, People's Court, Quoc Quan, religion, Trial
September 27, 2013
On 26 September 2013 many countries attended the first ministerial meeting held at the United Nations on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals.
(UN Photo/Amanda Voisard)
Foreign ministers attending the meeting, held on the margins of the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate, adopted a declaration pledging not just to protect LGBT rights but also to counter homophobic and transphobic attitudes. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay commended
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: argentina, Brazil, Croatia, equality, European Union, France, homophobia, HRW, Human right, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, LGBT, LGBT rights, LGBTI, meeting, Navi Pillay, Netherlands, non-discrimination, Norway, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, sexual identity, United Nations, United States Secretary of State
September 26, 2013
The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, whose founder and director are both jailed, wins Norway’s Rafto Prize for rights defenders. The award hopes to “turn the spotlight on systematic violations of human rights in a region where abuse is too often met with silence from Western governments,” the Rafto Foundation said in a statement on 26 September. The founder of the centre, Abdul Hadi al-Khawaja, is serving a life sentence in jail after he and several other leading opposition figures were convicted of plotting to overthrow the monarchy. They were arrested in April 2011, in the wake of the Sunni-monarchy’s crackdown on a month of Shiite-led protests that demanded political reforms. Meanwhile the centre’s director, Nabeel Rajab, has been in jail for more than 14 months, serving a three-year jail term for taking part in unauthorised protests. The prize jury commended the rights group for its non-violent protests and documentation of human rights violations, despite government attempts to shut it down. The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights was, inter alia, also one the Final Nominees for the MEA of 2012 and received the Baldwin Medal
The annual Rafto award was founded in 1986 in memory of Norwegian economic history professor Thorolf Rafto, a longtime human rights activist. The 15,000 Euro prize will be presented on November 3 in Bergen.
via Bahrain rights group wins Norwegian award | GlobalPost.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, Bahrain, Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, GlobalPost, human rights activist, human rights awards, Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, judicial harassment, MEA, Middle East, Nabeel Rajab, Rafto award, Roger Baldwin Medal, Thorolf Rafto
September 26, 2013
In what could possibly put trafficking campaigners and human rights organisations on a collision course, the Uzbekistan authorities have recourse to trafficking and sexual harassment charges to put human rights defenders behind bars. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Bukhara, Central Asia, fabricated charges, Front Line (NGO), Hasan Choriyev, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, human rights group, Human Rights Watch, human trafficking, illegal detention, Mercy, prison, rape, Razzakov, Sergei Naumov, sexual harassment, sexual harassment charges, Steve Swerdlow, Uzbek, Uzbekistan
September 26, 2013
The Scholars at Risk Network invites submissions for the Winter 2013 edition of University Values: a global bulletin on academic freedom, and the first of its kind around the world. Previous editions of the bulletin can be viewed at: http://www.scholarsatrisk.nyu.edu/Workshop/bulletin.php
University Values is an electronic bulletin featuring articles, essays, opinion pieces and announcements promoting discussion and understanding of university values, including values of access, accountability, academic freedom, autonomy and social responsibility.
Submission Requirements
Length: short articles of 500-700 words maximum.
Topic: on an academic freedom related issue of your choice. The article could, alternatively, contain news on important events, situations emerging in your region or specific countries or urgent appeals for scholars or universities in distress.
Deadline: November 11, 2013.
Contact: submit articles by email to scholarsatrisk@nyu.edu. Enter “University Values Submission” in the subject line of your email.
The University Values Editing Committee will select up to six articles for publication in the bulletin. For more information about Scholars at Risk visit http://scholarsatrisk.nyu.edu.
Posted in human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Academic freedom, American Association of University Professors, Colleges and Universities, Education, electronic bulletin, Higher education, opinion pieces, politics, research, Scholars at Risk, science, Social Sciences, submission requirements, University Values
September 26, 2013
Today were announced as the 2013 Right Livelihood Laureates:
Denis Mukwege (Democratic Republic of Congo) and
for more information see: http://www.rightlivelihood.org/
Posted in human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: awards, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denis Mukwege, Hans Herren, human rights awards, Human Rights Defenders, media, Palestine, Paul Walker, Raji Sourani, Right Livelihood Award, Switzerland, United States
September 25, 2013
On 23 September Amy Bergquist of the Advocates for Human Rights writes in her blog: The International Justice Program doesn’t get to travel to Geneva very often, but thanks to the United Nations’ live webcasts, we can usually see and hear all the U.N.’s human rights action as it happens. On Friday morning, I was eager to watch the U.N. Human Rights Council’s consideration of the Universal Periodic Review of Cameroon. I was especially moved when one of our colleagues from the Cameroonian Foundation for AIDS (CAMFAIDS) took the floor to speak on behalf of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association and recounted his July 15 discovery of his tortured and murdered colleague, Eric Ohena Lembembe, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Advocates for Human Rights, allafrica com, Cameroon, CAMFAIDS, Eric Ohena Lembembe, gay rights, Geneva, homophobia, HRW, Human right, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, investigation, IRIN, LGBT, LGBT rights, Neela Ghoshal, NGOs, persecution, reprisals, Roger Jean Claude Mbede, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review, UPR
September 25, 2013
Posted in AI, HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: AI, Amnesty International, Cambodia, cambodian authorities, Cambodian Center for Human Rights, freedom of assembly, HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights Watch, LICADHO, Phnom Penh, Police, United Nations, United Nations Special Rapporteur
September 24, 2013
The Global Post reported on 19 September that Cuba will accept the majority of the 292 recommendations prepared in May during the U.N. Human Rights Council’s UPR review of the situation on island. “Many of them the recommendations have already been fulfilled, they are in the process of implementation or form part of the country’s future priorities,” said the daily Juventud Rebelde. “Just a minority group of these recommendations will not be admitted, which are politically biased, constructed on false bases and are incompatible with constitutional principles and the internal juridical order,” the same newspaper said. Among the recommendations presented by several governments to Havana was the extension of an open and ongoing invitation to U.N. human rights experts, a request that the island accepted provided that the visit of those independent rapporteurs be “on a non-discriminatory basis. “Numerous countries also asked Cuba to eliminate restrictions on the rights of expression and association and to guarantee that human rights defenders and independent journalists may engage in their activities. Cuba will present its formal response to the recommendations during the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
via Cuba to accept majority of recommendations from U.N. rights council | GlobalPost.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Cuba, Havana, human rights, Juventud Rebelde, Special Rapporteur, UN Human Rights Council, United Nations Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review, UPR
September 24, 2013
On 18 September the Ford Foundation announced $6.25 million in grants to seven leading human rights organizations that will strengthen and diversify the global human rights movement. The 7 grants focus on human rights organizations that operate in numerous countries and international forums, underscoring the foundation’s long commitment to supporting collaboration. Combined with a five-year, $50 million initiative announced last year to support human rights organizations based outside Europe and the United States, Ford is spurring innovative thinking about the way the global human rights system functions and its capacity to address 21st century issues such as economic and social inequality.
“The human rights movement has arguably been the most effective and wide-reaching social movement of our time,” said Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation. “But the movement faces a notably different set of challenges today than it did even 15 years ago, along with a new set of opportunities for advancing human rights in today’s world. The grants we make today will enable these institutions to more actively adapt, diversify and retool the way the movement works for all of us.”
The seven grants announced today will support: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Africa, Amnesty International, Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, Civil society, Crisis Action, economic and social rights, equality, FIDH, Ford Foundation, funding, Global Witness, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, human rights organizations, Human Rights Watch, International Federation for Human Rights, International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations, media, non-governmental, Non-governmental organization, Social and Cultural Rights, strategy, the Association for Women's Rights in Development, The International Network for Economic, United States, Witness (human rights group)
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 