Archive for the 'human rights' Category
August 30, 2013
For the fifth time the Dutch Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (NJCM) will issue the Thoolen NJCM-Scriptieprijs for the best master thesis. Any student who has followed university level education – at least partly – in the Netherlands is allowed to participate as long as the paper was written between 2011 and 2013. The winning paper will be published by the Foundation NJCM-Boekerij. The deadline is 1 november 2013. Four copies of the paper – in English or Dutch – have to be sent to: NJCM, Steenschuur 25, 2311 ES Leiden. Former winners of the award are:
– Laura Henderson, Tortured reality. How media framing of waterboarding affects judicial independence
– Erik van de Sandt, A child’s story for global peace and justice. Best practices for a child-friendly environment during the statement- and testimony-period in respect of the Rome Statute and the International Criminal Code
– Shekufeh Jalali Manesh, het recht van het kind op behoorlijke huisvesting en het BLOEM-model
– Janine de Vries, Sexual violence against women in Congo. Obstacles and remedies for judicial assistance .
via NJCM – Nederlands Juristen Comité voor de Mensenrechten.
Posted in books, human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Advocacy Organizations, awards, Dutch Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Human right, Human Rights and Liberties, lawyers committee for human rights, Leiden, master thesis, Netherlands, NJCM, research, Thesis, Thoolen NJCM prijs, university level education
August 30, 2013
On 25 August 2013, human rights defenders Ms María Enriqueta Matute, Mr Armando Fúnez Medina and Mr Ricardo Soto Fúnez were killed in an attack in Honduras. The three belonged to various tribes of the Tolupán indigenous people, from Locomapa, in the Yoro zone, and had been involved in a peaceful protest against a local mining operation and the construction of Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Armando Fúnez Medina, environmental issues, Front Line (NGO), Honduras, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, hydroelectric dam, indigenous groups, Indigenous People, Land issues, Locomapa, María Enriqueta Matute, peaceful protest, Ricardo Soto Fúnez, San Francisco, sit in protest, Yoro
August 29, 2013
The UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon gave the Annual Leiden Freedom Lecture, in the Netherlands, on 28 August 2013 and made a number of strong points relevant to human rights defenders: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Ban Ki-moon, Hague, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, lecture, Leiden, LGBT rights, Netherlands, reprisals, Secretary-General of the United Nations, UN Human Rights Council, United Nation
August 29, 2013
Clockwise: Hassan al-Amin, Consuelo Morales, Natalia Taubina, Jacqueline Moudeïna, Alina Diaz, and Abbé Benoît Kinalegu.
On 28 August Human Rights Watch announced the 2013 recipients of its Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Alina Diaz, Alison Des Forges, awards, Chad, Hassan al-Amin, human rights, human rights awards, Human Rights Watch, Jacqueline Moudeina, Kenneth Roth, Libya, MEA, Natalia Taubina, Russia, United States
August 28, 2013
(Golden Dawn election candidate Alekos Plomaratis)
The 37-minute film The Cleaners, exposing the racist views and politics of hatred shared by Golden Dawn members, has picked up the special jury prize for documentary films at the 19th Sarajevo Film Festival. The award comes with a €2,500 prize, sponsored by Al Jazeera Balkans. The Cleaners, an extract of which was shown in a news report in March on Britain’s Channel 4, follows Golden Dawn members in Athens during last year’s parliamentary elections. In the film, candidate Alekos Plomaratis says: “We are ready to turn on the ovens“, adding that immigrants will be turned into soap for washing cars. Last month, it was confirmed that Plomaratis will stand trial for his remarks under the 1979 antiracism law. Georgousis, a graduate of the UK’s National Film and Television School, filmed the documentary over the period of a month. He said: “It is a great honour for me to find myself in a city that has suffered so much from nationalism, and it is a double honour to win the prize considering that the [Thessaloniki Film Festival] did not want to screen it.“
Documentary exposing Golden Dawn racism awarded | Article Page | Home.
Posted in films, human rights | 1 Comment »
Tags: Al Jazeera Balkans, Athens, Cleaners, documentary, film festival, films, Golden Dawn, Greece, racism, Sarajevo, Sarajevo Film Festival
August 27, 2013
Via Front Line some good and bad news on Haiti, the country of one the finalists for the MEA 2013: 
On 22 August 2013, the criminal charges of arson and conspiracy against human rights lawyer Mr Patrice Florvilus were dropped when the original plaintiff stated he would withdraw his complaint. Patrice Florvilus is the Executive Director of Défense des Opprimées/Opprimés – DOP, an organisation which provides legal assistance, in particular to social movements and residents of displacement camps. For more information on this case, please see the urgent appeal issued by Front Line Defenders on 21 August 2013 http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/23580 .
But…on 23 August 2013, the home of human rights defender Ms Malya Villard Apollon was attacked by a group of armed men, who fired gunshots at the gate. Malya Villard Apollon is the co-director of the Commission of Women Victims for Victims (KOFAVIV), a grassroots women’s organisation working in the poorest areas of Port-au-Prince to prevent and redress sexual assault, care for survivors and build a movement for human rights in Haiti. The attack took place in the early hours of 23 August 2013, at 1.30 am. The armed men fired gunshots at the gate of Malya Villard Apollon’s home, damaging the gate and the doorbell. The human rights defender called the police who rushed to her home, but by the time they arrived the group had fled the scene. However, the armed men returned shortly thereafter, and upon seeing the police they fired at them. Despite chasing the attackers, the police was unable to apprehend them. This attack is the latest in a series of escalating threats and acts of intimidation against Malya Villard Apollon and other members of KOFAVIV. While they have received threats for a number of years, threats and acts of intimidation have intensified since Malya Villard Apollon was nominated as one of the CNN Heroes in 2012. Her dog has been poisoned, unknown individuals have visited her home and office inquiring about her whereabouts, and both Malya Villard Apollon’s as well as KOFAVIV co-director Marie Eramithe Delva’s children have been followed and have been the subject of attempted kidnappings.
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: death threats, Duvalier, Frontline, Haiti, harassment, human rights, Human rights defender, lawyers, legal aid, Malya Villard Apollon, MEA, Patrice Florvilus, Port-au-Prince, woman human rights defender
August 27, 2013
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in collaboration with DIGNITY, has made the practice of custodial torture and ill-treatment a core area of engagement. With a view to counteract the widespread practice of torture, the AHRC and DIGNITY have formed an Asian Alliance against Torture and Ill-treatment (AAATI) in 2012. The first conference of Asian Parliamentarians and Human Rights Defenders was held in Hong Kong in 2012 [ see report Torture – Asian and Global Perspectives Vol. 1, No. 3 ].
The focus for the second meeting [scheduled for 11-13 November 2013] will be to identify the reluctance of governments to achieve a substantial change in the nature of policing in their countries to bring these institutions at par with the policing systems of advanced democracies.
The link below refers to the announcement which in fact is a CONCEPT PAPER:
ASIA: Second Regional Conference of Asian Parliamentarians & Human Rights Defenders on Elimination of Custodial Torture and Ill-treatment in Asia November 2013, Hong Kong — Asian Human Rights Commission
For details please contact: Bijo Francis, Executive Director, Email: ahrc at ahrc.asia
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: AHRC, Asia, asian human rights, Asian Human Rights Commission, DIGNITY, Hong Kong, Human right, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, ill treatment, meeting, Non-governmental organization, parliamentarians, Police, torture, United Nations
August 25, 2013
(Commissioners of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights – Photo: OAS)
By letter of 23 August 2013, addressed to Dr. Emilio Álvarez Icaza, executive secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a group of human rights NGOs [National Religious Campaign Against Torture, California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement, California Prison Focus, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, The Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights, Disability Rights Legal Center, Stanford International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic, American Friends Service Committee (Western Region), ACLU National Prison Project, Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes, Fair Chance Project, Center for Constitutional Rights, Justice Now, National Lawyers Guild, San Diego Committee for Prisoners Rights, The Real Cost of Prisons Project and the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law] requested a thematic hearing with a focus on people incarcerated in California prisons. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: American Friends Service Committee, California, california coalition for women prisoners, Centre for Constitutional Rights, detention, Emilio Álvarez Icaza, Human right, Human Rights Defenders, IACHR, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, mandatory minimum sentences, national prison project, National Religious Campaign Against Torture, Organization of American States, prison conditions, racial discrimination, solitary confinement, thematic hearing, USA
August 23, 2013
On 23 August 2013, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of FIDH and OMCT, expresses its deep concern about the Iranian blogger and human rights activist Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki, whose health status has been deteriorating. On August 9, 2013, Mr. Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki started a hunger strike to protest the authorities’ ongoing refusal to allow him to continue his medical treatment out of Evin prison in Tehran. His mother, Ms. Zolaykha Mousavi, also started a hunger strike on August 20, 2013 to draw attention to his plight. Ronaghi-Maleki has been suffering from kidney and heart problems and bladder inflammation. Since the beginning of his hunger strike, he has suffered kidney bleeding, blood pressure oscillations and arrhythmic heart beats. He has already undergone several operations on his kidneys that were damaged after being repeatedly tortured during his detention, including 13 months in solitary confinement. He has been serving a 15-year prison sentence after being arrested on December 13, 2009 and convicted on charges of “membership of Iran-Proxy Internet Group”, “spreading propaganda against the system”, “insulting the Iranian Supreme Leader and the President”. 
via Iran : IRAN: Grave concern over health status of human … – FIDH.
Posted in FIDH, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, OMCT | 2 Comments »
Tags: blogger, detention, Evin Prison, Hossein Ronaghi, Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki, human rights, Hunger strike, illtreatment, Iran, Observatory for the Protection of HRDs, Tehran, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
August 22, 2013
Repressive governments are using different and increasingly ‘indirect’ means to silence human rights defenders. Intimidation, administrative restrictions, fiscal regulations aimed at reducing funding, terminating rental agreements, judicial harassment, etc. According to a report by Human Rights Watch of 14 August 2013, Rwanda is practicing a slightly different tactic: wholesale infiltration and ‘take over’ of independent NGOs.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Africa, freedom of association, HRW, human rights, human rights abuses, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, human rights group, human rights groups, Human Rights Watch, infiltration, LIPRODHOR, Non-governmental organization, Rwanda
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 