Archive for the 'Amnesty international' Category
March 13, 2012
Governments are becoming increasingly ‘sophisticated’ in their repression of human rights defenders. Probably as a result of the remarkable worldwide acceptance of human rights as a universal set of standards, Governments that want to continue to suppress criticism are resorting to more and more indirect methods of repression.
The basic universality of human rights is nowadays accepted by the quasi-totality of mankind. In the words of Normand and Zaidi, ‘the speed by which human rights has penetrated every corner of the globe is astounding. Compared to human rights, no other system of universal values spread so fast’. This has not stopped a small number of governments (e.g. Iran, Zimbabwe, North Korea) to continue to oppose the idea and depict human rights as a ‘western’ or ‘foreign’ product, alien to their culture. But the big majority seems to have accepted that there is a crucial distinction between the universality of human rights and its universalisation (or universal application). The first is the moral and legal principle that a core of human rights exists and applies to every person in the world irrespective of his or her culture, country, etc. The second is the process by which these universal standards become a reality. Here one cannot make the same optimistic observation about the speed by which human rights are spreading, but this is not only due to the ever-present gap between rhetoric and reality. The international system itself allows for differing interpretations by giving a margin of appreciation at the regional and national level and by permitting States to make reservations to international agreements. The big question is then, to what extent local cultural, legal and religious practices can be accommodated by the international system without losing its coherence.
In this context one sees increasingly that Governments use ‘tricks’ or at least more roundabout ways to tackle those they want to silence. Recent examples are the disbarment of lawyer Intigam Aliyev in Azerbijan (continuing legal work without license), financial fraud charges against Ales Bialiatski in Belarus (NGO refused recognition, therefore no bank account in Belarus, thus acceptance of grants in neighboring countries illegal), withdrawal of recognition of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. Now Amnesty International has come with a report on Ethiopia ‘Stifling human rights work: The impact of civil society legislation in Ethiopia’ (PDF). It describes in detail how the 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation imposes heavy restrictions on human rights groups operating in the east African country, and allows for excessive government interference. The result is that Ethiopians have less access to independent human rights assistance. Amnesty International’s Deputy Africa Director Michelle Kagari said: ‘Rather than creating an enabling environment for human rights defenders to work in, the government has implemented a law which has crippled human rights work in Ethiopia. The space to make legitimate criticism is more restricted than ever.’ Human rights defenders risk imprisonment if they violate vaguely defined provisions within the 2009 law, making them afraid to speak out, and often resort to self-censorship, in order to avoid repercussions.
There are surely many other examples and it goes to show that those of us who want to assist HRDs in their work have to become also more sophisticated and cut through the maze of legalistic and bureaucratic measures to unearth the truth about the situation of HRDs. We have our work cut out!
Posted in Amnesty international, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Ales Bialiatski, Amnesty International, Azerbaijian, Bahrain, Belarus, Ethiopia, freedom of association, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Non-governmental organization, repression
February 14, 2012
Amnesty International reports today that a Ugandan cabinet minister raided a workshop run by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activists in Entebbe.
The Minister for Ethics and Integrity, Simon Lokodo, who was accompanied by police, announced that the workshop was illegal and ordered the rights activists out of the hotel where it was being held. He told activists that if they did not leave immediately, he would use force against them.
“This is an outrageous attempt to prevent lawful and peaceful activities of human rights defenders in Uganda,” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
The Minister also attempted to order the arrest of Kasha Jacqueline Nabagasera, a prominent LGBT rights activist and winner of the 2011 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, who was forced to flee from the hotel. The reasons for the attempted arrest were not immediately clear, but were reported to be linked to Kasha Jacqueline’s attempt to challenge the Minister’s actions.
The move comes days after the Anti-Homosexuality Bill was re-tabled in the Ugandan Parliament. The Government of Uganda has sought to distance itself from the Bill, stating that the bill did not enjoy government support. However, “the Government’s claimed opposition to the Bill needs to be supported through their actions. The Ugandan government must allow legitimate, peaceful gatherings of human rights defenders, including those working on LGBT rights,” said Salil Shetty.
If the Anti-Homosexuality Bill becomes law, it would violate international human rights law and lead to further human rights violations.
via Uganda: Government raid on LGBT-rights workshop | Amnesty International.
Posted in Amnesty international, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 4 Comments »
Tags: Amnesty International, anti-homosexuality, Kasha, LGBT rights, Martin Ennals Award, MEA, Salil Shetty, Uganda
January 17, 2012
Norma Cruz is a human rights defender who received 47 death threats via text messages sent to her mobile phone. As the leader of women’s rights organization Survivors’ Foundation (Fundación Sobrevivientes) in Guatemala she receives repeated threats for simply doing her work to support victims of violence against women and for pursuing prosecutions against those responsible for committing the crimes.
Sauro Scarpelli, Campaign Manager of the Individuals at Risk team, Amnesty International explains “At Amnesty International we are celebrating our 50th birthday and since our inception, we have been fighting for freedom of expression. It was our first campaign and unfortunately 50 years later, despite a very different world, those defending human rights continue to be silenced, imprisoned and threatened with violence in new and different forms.”
Thousands letters to the Attorney General in Guatemala asking for the start of a full and impartial investigation on the threats Norma received had an impact and in September 2011 one of the people who made death threats against Norma Cruz was convicted. The global pressure is working locally! That’s why Amnesty International is kicking off the year with a new action for freedom of expression on 23 January 2012.
picture: Guatemalan human rights defender Norma Cruz (c) Amnesty International
Go to: http://livewire.amnesty.org/2012/01/17/stop-the-death-threats-join-our-campaign-for-freedom-of-expression/
Posted in AI, Amnesty international, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Amnesty International, death threats, freedom of expression, Guatemala, HRDs, Human rights defender, Norma Cruz, Survivors’ Foundation
December 6, 2011
Ahmed Khaleel, an Iraqi citizen who is taking a PhD at York University, gave a talk about Arab poets as human-rights defenders for the Scarborough group of Amnesty International. Dr Jay Prosser, reader in humanities at Leeds University, spoke about his recent co-authored book, Picturing Atrocity: Photography in Crisis. Royalties from his book sales are being donated to Amnesty.
The seminar, at Hull University’s Scarborough campus, was attended by more than 40 people including the deputy mayor, Helen Mallory, who said: “The work Amnesty is doing now is as valuable as it’s always been but possibly more so because there are more human-rights violations taking place around the world. Their work will be neverending because, sadly, atrocities will always be committed. I’m quite humbled by the work they do.”
Not world-shocking news perhaps but a fine example of the day to day work for HRDs that local groups can do…
source: Amnesty seminar on human rights – News – Scarborough Evening News.
Posted in AI, Amnesty international, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: Ahmed Khaleel, AI, HRD, Hull university, Iraq, Jay Prosser, Scarborough
November 6, 2011
Back in 1983 the Yugoslav-born filmmaker Stacha Stanojevic made a human rights film under the title ‘Illustres Inconnus’ (Notorious Nobodies as the English language version would be called much later). One of the personalities in this multi-story film is a human rights activist, the inspiration for whom came from Martin Ennals who had then just left his post as Secretary General of Amnesty International and met Stacha several times. Now the filmmaker has drawn from his full-length film a short version focusing on the international human rights defender for whom, unknowingly, Martin Ennals stood as model. The scenes are mostly shot in Geneva and have the feel of this diplomatic city in the early 80s. The end is a bit of a surprise but highlights the essential human element in the unending quest for human rights. Unfortunately only in French for now, but english-speakers can still get the gist of it. See http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xlt5bv_indignation-revolte-1983_shortfilms?start=0#from=embed
Posted in Amnesty international, films, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Geneva, Illustres Inconnus, Martin Ennals, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, Stanojevic
September 30, 2011
Narges Mohammadi, who became ill after being detained by security officials, was convicted by a court in Tehran to 11 years in jail. Narges Mohammadi, 39, the deputy head of Iran’s Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC), a rights organisation presided over by the Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, was picked up last year by security officials who raided her house without a warrant for her arrest. She was taken to Tehran’s Evin prison where she was kept in solitary confinement but was released after a month and taken to hospital. It emerged on Tuesday that a court in Tehran has now convicted her on three charges: acting against the national security, membership of the DHRC and propaganda against the regime.
“I’m not involved in politics, I’m only a human rights activist,” Mohammadi said by phone from Tehran. “I was informed of the 11-year sentence through my lawyers, who were given an unprecedented 23-page judgment issued by the court in which they repeatedly likened my human rights activities to attempts to topple the regime.” In March the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, a US-based non-governmental organisation, reported that security forces had stolen Mohammadi’s medical records from the hospital. Her husband, Taghi Rahmani, a political activist, has spent a third of his life in jail.
Amnesty International reacted with outrage to Mohammadi’s conviction. “The verdict claims that Narges Mohammadi is a liar and has tarnished the image of Iran,” said Drewery Dyke, Amnesty’s researcher on Iran. “However, this latest verdict regrettably does exactly that by showing what Iran’s judiciary thinks of the government’s so-called commitment to uphold human rights in the country, and indeed exactly how it deals with those advocating international human rights standards.”
for more info see inter alia:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/28/iranian-activist-narges-mohammadi-jailed?newsfeed=true
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/leading-iran-rights-activist-sentenced-11-years-2011-09-28
Posted in Amnesty international, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Amnesty International, Human rights defender, International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Iran, Narges Mohammadi, Shirin Ebadi
August 24, 2011
As an illustration of how ill-conceived or ill-executed immigration policies can affect Human Rights Defenders, the following:
Last week Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera – who is the Laureate of the 2011 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, – was denied entry to the UK where she was invited to attend as a special guest the Northern Ireland Pride festival in Derry this weekend. The visa denial was apparently based concerns over her financial status. Foyle Pride chairwoman Shay Gillespie said at the time: “I can’t understand why the UK is the only country to deny her entry and deny the opportunity for the people of Derry and Northern Ireland as a whole the chance to hear this inspirational woman speak.”
A petition was set up to challenge the decision while Amnesty UK invited her to give a speech on Thursday. Then on Monday – within minutes of filing a second application- Kasha was granted permission to attend
Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland Programme Director of Amnesty International said: “In the face of ongoing threats and attacks for her work, she has continued to speak out on behalf of Uganda’s LGBT community. She constantly has to shift from house to house, never staying too long in the same place, yet her voice for human rights in Uganda has never been dimmed…..Kasha is here to tell people in Northern Ireland the real stories behind our reports and to explain how people here can support gay people in Uganda.”
Other Human Rights Defenders or other travelers with a legitimate purpose to come to Europe may not have the public status or international support needed to overturn such decisions.
Posted in Amnesty international, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, MEA | 4 Comments »
Tags: freedom to move, LGBT, Northern Ireland, UK, visa
August 16, 2011
On Sunday 14 August Amnesty International started its big meeting (ICM) in Noordwijkerhout in the Netherlands. AI is ‘celebrating’ its 50th anniversary and the list of interveners on the first day illustrates the continued importance of this unique, large, membership-based human rights movement. In addition to the new Secretarty-General Salil Shetty, there were messages from Aung San Suu Kyi (by video), Shirin Ebadi, and Kasha Nabagesera, the 2011 Laureate of the Martin Ennals Award. For a short video summary of the first day go to: http://amnestyicm.wordpress.com/2011/08/14/highlights-from-day-one/
Posted in AI, Amnesty international, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: AI, Aung San Suu Kyi, Kasha, MEA, Shirin Ebadi
July 18, 2011
Today, Monday 18 July, the trial against five pro-democratic activists re-opens in Abu Dhabi’s Federal Supreme Court. The five activists are Ahmed Mansoor, an engineer, blogger and member of Human Rights Watch Middle East advisory committee and ANHRI’s (Arab Network for Human Rights Information); Nasser bin Ghaith, an economist, university lecturer and advocate of political reform; and three online activists Fahad Salim Dalk, Ahmed Abdul Khaleq and Hassan Ali al-Khamis. They are all accused of “publicly insulting” the UAE president and other top officials (as Article 176 of the UAE Penal Code makes it a crime to publicly insult the country’s top officials, its flag or national emblem; offenders can be sentenced to five years imprisonment). The UAE government is obviously using defamation as a pretext to prosecute activists for peacefully expressing their opinions.
The four NGOs are: Amnesty International, ANHRI, Front Line and Human Rights Watch. They have called jointly on UAE authorities to release immediately the five activists and drop all charges against them.
Posted in AI, Amnesty international, Front Line, HRW, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: Abu Dhabi, ANRI, defamation, Emirates, UAE
June 20, 2011
According to a press release issued by Amnesty International on 19 June 2011 Papuan human rights activist Yones Douw, in the Indonesian province of Papua, was beaten by military officers on 15 June and has been denied medical treatment. He fears for his health and safety, as he has previously been detained and assaulted as a result of his human rights activities. A protest took place at the 1705 District Military Command (Kodim) base in Nabire, Papua province, on the morning of 15 June, to call for accountability for the stabbing and killing of Papuan Derek Adii on 14 May 2011, reportedly by military officers from the 1705 District Military Command. At about 9am on 15 June, Yones Douw , a 42-year-old human rights activist, heard that a protest, which included family members of Derek Adii, was about to take place, and he went to the base to monitor it. Thirty minutes after he arrived, a group of protesters turned up in three trucks, broke into the front entrance of the base and started to shatter the windows and throw objects. Yones Douw immediately rushed into the base to calm the protesters. In response, the military fired shots into the air and started hitting the protesters. Yones Douw was struck on the head with pieces of wood many times. He also sustained injuries on his shoulder and wrists from the beatings. As he was beaten he heard the military threaten to shoot the protesters saying “these animals should be taught a lesson”. A military officer also hit the father of Derek Adii, Damas Adii, with a piece of wood. After the beatings, Yones Douw travelled to the Siriwini hospital for treatment and to obtain a medical report, but was told by medical staff that he required a letter from the police before they could treat him. He then decided to go home and is still suffering from the injuries. He fears for his health and safety. Yones Douw is a respected human rights activist in Papua and has been documenting human rights violations by the police and military over the last decade. For the more information and suggestions on whom to write to please go to: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1106/S00429/papuan-activist-at-risk-following-beating.htm
Posted in Amnesty international, human rights | 3 Comments »
Tags: Human rights defender, Indonesia, Papua
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 