share information on human rights defenders, with special focus on human rights awards and laureates
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Amnesty International’s Human Rights Concert series will be returning on 5 February 2014. The “Bringing Human Rights Home” concert takes place at the Barclays Center. Among the performers will be The Flaming Lips, Imagine Dragons, Lauryn Hill, Tegan and Sara, The Fray, Cold War Kids, Colbie Caillat, and Cake. These artists – unlike Mariah Carey – want to show a new generation of activists how to stand up for justice at home and abroad.
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“Defenders issued Card to local HRA” was the proud headline when Abdul Qadeer Dar, Executive Director of Voice of Victims and Chairman of the Peoples Rights Movement in Srinagar, Kashmir, received his card labeling him as a human rights defender. This announcement, dating back to April 2013, is just to illustrate how certain tools for human rights defenders work in practice. The Dublin-based NGO Frontline Defenders has been issuing ‘identity cards’ to local human rights defenders for years. The cards do not have legal status and do not empower the holders to represent Front Line defenders. The card is intended to demonstrate that its holder is human rights defender with whom front Line Defenders has a working relationship. 
Defenders issued I Card to local HRA | Authint Mail Archive.
Only yesterday I referred to the action campaign in favor of garment workers in Cambodia, which mentions H&M as one of chains getting its clothes manufactured there, and today I see that Stockholm-based Civil Rights Defenders announces that it will receive SEK 4 million (appr. 450.000 Euro) from H&M to fund its ongoing human rights work and in particular to ensure assistance for vulnerable human rights defenders. No relation perhaps?
via Civil Rights Defenders – Civil Rights Defenders supported by H&M.
Samir Goswami, managing director of AI USA’s Individuals and Communities at Risk Program, and Mark Cooke, chief innovation officer at Tax Management Associates, wrote a piece about how ‘big data’ can help human rights rather than just violate them. The piece is worth reading but falls short of being convincing. The better prediction of human rights violations which may [!] result from the analysis of a huge amount of data would of course be welcome but I remain unconvinced that it would therefore lead to a reduction of actual violations. Too many of these are planned and willful, while the mobilization of shame and international solidarity would be less forthcoming for violations that MAY occur. The authors are not the first to state that prevention is better than cure but the current problem is no so much a lack of predictive knowledge as a weakness of curing intervention. Still, the article is worth reading as it describes developments that are likely to come about anyway. Read the rest of this entry »
Dan Beeton of the Center for Economic and Policy Research reported on 3 January 2014 that Colonel German Alfaro, the commander of Operation Xatruch III in Honduras’ Aguan Valley, personally denounced Annie Bird, co-director of the U.S. and Canada-based human rights NGO Rights Action, on TV and radio, alleging among other things that she is engaging in “destabilization work” in the Aguan. The accusations came just after Bird accompanied campesinos in the Aguan to the Attorney General’s office to file human rights complaints, including some against Honduran soldiers. Alfaro also said he was opening an investigation into Bird’s activities. In response, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and another 33 human rights, labor and religious organizations called on the US State Department to denounce Alfaro’s comments. Read the rest of this entry »
A bit of transparency to start the New Year: My blog on Human Rights Defenders was viewed about 19,000 times in 2013. In 2013, I created 644 new posts, bringing the total archive of this blog to 1,056 posts. The busiest day of the year was December 20th with 929 views [most popular post: Mariah Carey needs better-informed staff and donate her 1 million fee to Human Rights Defenders in Angola].
For those interested in more details: Click here to see the complete report.
We start the year with a little survey of what New Tactics in Human Rights accomplished in 2013: they trained 114 human rights defenders from the Middle East and North Africa [MENA region] on Strategic Effectiveness method and expanded their capacity in the MENA region for training and mentorship for human rights defenders. New material, including 20 new human rights tactics, were added to the website and there is now a French-language landing page. New Tactics also launched an Arabic version of its website and online community. In the Arabic-language community, it hosted 6 online conversations that engaged 60 human rights defenders from around the MENA region. In its English-language community, it hosted 10 online conversation that engaged 153 human rights defenders. Summaries of all of these conversations can be found on its website. In 2014 it will launch its New Tactics Strategy Toolkit, an online collection of tools to help defenders create effective strategies.
(Pussy Riot’s members with their distinctive coloured balaclavas)
The two remaining members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot, whose incarceration sparked a global outcry, have been released under an amnesty law, but Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina dismissed the amnesty as a publicity stunt before the Sochi Winter Olympics in February.They both promised to continue their vocal opposition to the government. The women were jailed in August 2012 after performing a protest song in Moscow’s main cathedral. Alyokhina’s first words and actions after being freed serve as a sign that this fight is likely to go on. The case divided Russia with many feeling the women were being too harshly treated and made examples of as part of attempts to clamp down on opposition to the government. But others felt their actions were a gross offence to the Orthodox faith. The act was seen as blasphemous by many others e.g. in Greece here and was condemned by several Orthodox Churches. However, their conviction for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” was criticised by rights groups [AI declared them prisoners of conscience], celebrities [such as Sting, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Madonna and Yoko Ono ], anti-Putin activists and foreign governments.
This should make us look again a the issue of blasphemy in general. The crime of criticizing a religion is not always called blasphemy; sometimes it is categorized as hate speech (even when it falls well below any sensible standard of actually inciting hatred or violence) because it supposedly insults the followers of a religion. These crimes—of expressing ‘blasphemy’ or offending religious feelings—are still a crime in 55 countries, can mean prison in 39 of those countries, and are punishable by death in six countries.
Recently, Ireland and the Netherlands started the process of removing some or part of their blasphemy laws. The arguments in these debates have universal validity.
Human Rights First and other NGOs have reported on human rights abuses caused by the use of blasphemy laws around the world. These laws are often vague and can be subject to abuse, either by the authorities or citizens who can accuse a fellow citizen of blasphemy with a personal complaint to the prosecutor. The concept is inconsistent with universal human rights standards, which protect the rights of individuals rather than abstract ideas or religions. Those accused of blasphemy are frequently threatened or attacked even before any investigation. People take to the streets and violence stoked by religious extremists ensues. Blasphemy laws have been used to justify violence and oppression against minorities. Blasphemy laws enable governments to restrict freedom of expression, thought, and religion. Application of the laws can result in devastating consequences for religious minorities. This has been the case for Christians in Pakistan and Egypt, Ahmadi followers in Indonesia, and non-believers in Turkey and Saudi Arabia. In many instances, officials fail to condemn abuses or to hold the perpetrators of violence accountable. And the police often fail to stop violence against religious minorities or to protect those endangered on account of such laws.
In the past few years, several bodies of the United Nations have examined the relationship between freedom of expression and hate speech, especially in relation to religious issues. After extensive consultation with governments and civil society, the Rabat Plan of Action was published by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in October 2012. This document outlines how blasphemy laws are problematic. Since 2011, a new process dubbed the Istanbul Process was launched as a result of resolutions adopted at the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly. The idea is to combat religious intolerance without restricting freedom of speech but whether that is possible is a big question.
Lessons of the Debate Over Ireland’s Blasphemy Law | Human Rights First
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/Blasphemy_Cases.pdf.
BBC News – Pussy Riot: Russia frees jailed punk band members.
On 18 December 2013, human rights defenders, Mr Alan Morrison and Ms Chutima Sidasathian, appeared at the police station in Phuket province. The two human rights defenders are accused of libel and violating the Computer Crime Act for publishing an article entitled “Thai Military Profiting from Trade and Boat people, Says Special Report”, which was published on Phuketwan website on 17 July 2013. The human rights defenders are due to appear at the police station again on 24 December 2013. Read the rest of this entry »
