Archive for the 'human rights' Category
September 4, 2013
The Business Standard reports on 4 September that Human Rights Watch urged the Fiji government to amend articles that undermine human rights in a draft constitution scheduled to be promulgated Friday. Under the current draft, significant restrictions in articles 17, 18 and 19 would allow the government to interfere with key rights of freedom of expression, assembly and association. The draft constitution sets out broad limitations to these rights “in the interests of national security, public safety, public order, public morality, public health, or the orderly conduct of elections”. In January, the government scrapped a draft of the constitution developed by a committee headed by a noted constitutional and human rights lawyer, Yash Ghai, and handed duties to draw up the constitution to government legal officers in the attorney generals chambers.”This draft constitution represents a major step backwards for human rights from the constitution thrown out by Fiji’s military in April 2009,” said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch.”Unless the government revises this draft constitution to guarantee freedom of association, assembly and expression, its hard to see how Fiji could become a rights-respecting democracy.” Since Commodore Frank Bainimarama took power in a military coup 5 December 2006, his government has consistently attacked critics, including arbitrarily detaining them, and instituted heavy censorship. The military and police have indiscriminately arrested and detained human rights defenders, journalists and labour leaders.
via Fiji urged to revise draft constitution | Business Standard.
Posted in HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Constitution, controversial restrictions, Fiji, Frank Bainimarama, freedom of association, freedom of expression, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Watch, National security, Politics of Fiji, Yash Ghai
September 3, 2013
A recent 100-page report by Human Rights Watch, “Tightening the Screws: Azerbaijan’s Crackdown on Civil Society and Dissent,” documents the dramatic deterioration of the government’s record on freedom of expression, assembly, and association in the past 18 months. The authorities have arrested dozens of political activists on bogus charges, imprisoned critical journalists, broken up peaceful public demonstrations, and adopted legislation imposing new restrictions on fundamental freedoms.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: activism, Azerbaijan, Civil society, critical journalists, Election, facebook, freedom of expression, Giorgi Gogia, HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights Watch, illegal detention, imprisonment, judicial harasment, protest, twitter
September 3, 2013
(Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of peacful assembly and of association Maina Kiai. UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré)
On 9 August 2013 three independent
United Nations Rapporteurs jointly called on the Government of
Uganda to repeal a new bill that places restrictions on the freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, and to prepare a new version that complies with the country’s international human rights obligations.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Frank William La Rue, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, human rights obligations, kiai, legal restrictions, Maina Kiai, Margaret Sekaggya, peaceful assembly, police intimidation, Politics of Uganda, Special Rapporteur, Uganda, United Nations, United Nations Special Rapporteur
September 2, 2013
JULIA HANN wrote for allAfrica.com on 28 August that the torture and murder of Cameroonian gay rights activist Eric Lembembe on July 11 has shattered the hopes of those who were quick to herald a “global momentum” in the international gay rights movement. Just two weeks before his death, Lembembe, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Alice Nkom, allafrica com, Cameroon, death threats, Eric Lembembe, harassment, Julia Hann, killing, Lembembe, LGBT, LGBT rights, LGBT social movements, Michel Togué, Nkom
September 2, 2013
On 28 August 2013, 50 years after Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” speech, Corinne Duffy of Human Rights First (HRF) gives an interesting palette of stories how his words and action continue to inspire HRDs everywhere: 
Posted in HRF, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Africa, dr martin luther, freedom of religion, HRF, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights First, Immigration, King, LGBT, LGBT rights, Martin Luther King, racial discrimination, South Africa, United States, Zainab Al-Khawaja
September 2, 2013
On Saturday 31 August 2013 United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said at the end of her long awaited one-week-long fact-finding mission that the Sri Lankan state is becoming more authoritarian. “The war between government troops and Tamil rebels may have ended, but in the meantime democracy has been undermined and the rule of law eroded,” the U.N. commissioner for human rights told a news conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She visited the former Tamil rebel-held areas in northern Sri Lanka, and met civil society groups, politicians and aid workers before meeting President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brothers, Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Economic Affairs Minister Basil Rajapaksa.” I am deeply concerned that Sri Lanka, despite the opportunity provided by the end of the war to construct a new vibrant, all-embracing state, is showing signs of heading in an increasingly authoritarian direction,” Pillay said. The U.N. envoy said that some people she visited in the northeastern part of the country previously held by the rebels had been later visited by military and police officers and questioned again. “This type of surveillance and harassment appears to be getting worse in Sri Lanka, which is a country where critical voices are quite often attacked or even permanently silenced,” she said. Pillay visited Sri Lanka on the invitation of the Sri Lankan government, but some of the members of the government have criticized her and openly ridiculed her, with one of the Cabinet ministers saying he was willing to marry her.Pillay also expressed concern about media freedom, incomplete investigations into disappearances and abductions, attacks on civil protests, issues of sexual harassment of women and harassment of human rights defenders. She is due to submit a report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next month. Cabinet Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said that the government had invited her to the country genuinely and would await the report to be submitted next month.
via U.N. human rights chief says Sri Lanka increasingly authoritarian – Wire Lifestyle – The Sacramento Bee.
the full version of her very substantive speech can be found at:
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/full-speech-un-high-commissioner-for-human-rights-navi-pillay-at-the-press-conference-on-her-mission-to-sri-lanka/
- Sri Lanka ready to probe Pillay’s claims (oneislandtwonationsblogspotcom.typepad.com)
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | 2 Comments »
Tags: Colombo, colombo sri lanka, fact-finding mission, harassment, human rights, Keheliya Rambukwella, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Navi Pillay, president mahinda rajapaksa, Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan government, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nation, united nations high commissioner
August 30, 2013
Via the Thomson Reuters Foundation Katherine Ronderos published on 23 August 2013 a detailed study on women human rights defenders [WHRDs] in Nepal. She writes that a decade-long conflict, sluggish peace and reconciliation process and delays in developing a new constitution, leave women human rights defenders in Nepal at great risk. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights | 1 Comment »
Tags: Advocacy Organizations, Domestic violence, human rights, human rights abuses, Human Rights and Liberties, human rights commitments, human rights of women, Katherine Ronderos, Nepal, Non-governmental organization, peace and reconciliation, reuters foundation, thomson reuters foundation, threats, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, UN, violence rape, women human rights defenders, Women's rights
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
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 