The Assam Tribune Online of 9 November provides us with an interesting illustration of how a combination of: (a) local activism, (b) introduction by an international NGO, and (c) invitation to an EU meeting can have result: Read the rest of this entry »
Archive for the 'organisations' Category
Example of how local and international pressure interact (Assam, India)
November 10, 2013BANGLADESH: Human Rights Defender Elan of Odhikar now also arrested
November 7, 2013
The Asian Human Rights Commission condemns the detention of ASM Nasiruddin Elan and demands his immediate release. Mr. ASM Nasiruddin Elan, Director of Bangladeshi human rights organization, Odhikar, has been detained in prison by the Cyber Crimes Tribunal of Dhaka, today, November 6, 2013. This detention is part of the continued repression against the whistle-blowers exposing the ongoing State-sponsored gross violations of human rights in Bangladesh. Elan has been charged by the country’s police under the Information and Communications Technology (Amendment) Act, 2013, a draconian law, for publishing fact-finding report on governmental crackdown on the pro-Islamist demonstrators in the early morning of 6 May 2013 in Dhaka. Read the rest of this entry »
Situation of human rights defenders in Africa – overview by Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
November 6, 2013The OMCT and the FIDH, in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, made an intervention under agenda item 9: “Situation of human rights defenders” at the at the 54th session of African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights [ACHPR] on 5 November.
Human rights defenders were attacked, received threats or were slandered in the DRC, Senegal and Tunisia. In some cases they were even killed, as in the DRC and in Cameroon, in a climate of impunity. Defenders, and in particular defenders of economic, social and cultural rights, also continued to be subjected to arbitrary arrests and judicial harassment in Angola, Cameroon, the DRC, Egypt, Mauritania and Tunisia. Obstacles to freedom of association were also recorded, as for instance in Angola, Egypt and Rwanda. A summary is as follows: Read the rest of this entry »
India should end funding restraints on Human Rights Defenders, Says HRW
November 5, 2013The Indian government should vigorously investigate allegations that officials are using the law on foreign contributions to repress groups critical of the government, Human Rights Watch said on 31 October 2013.
The government should amend the 2010 Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act to protect the right to freedom of association and expression. Read the rest of this entry »
Imam Baba Leigh writes impressively how opposing the death penalty in Gambia forced him into exile
November 5, 2013
A huge social media campaign was mounted on behalf of Imam Baba Leigh during his incarceration [Twitter].
“Just a few days ago, on 22 October, I was given an award from the Pan-African Human Rights Defenders Network. I was not expecting it, which makes me all the more happy and appreciative. Sadly, I was not allowed to go and receive it in my home country, The Gambia, because there was a chance I could be arrested there. My responsibility, as a Muslim and as a scholar, is to ensure people enjoy their human rights, regardless of colour, race, gender, religion, tradition, economic status or anything else. We are all human beings at the end of the day. As a human rights activist receiving such a prestigious award is wonderful. You feel your work is recognised and encouraged.
Problems for me started when, in August 2012, our head of state President Jammeh promised to execute several inmates. So I went to talk to The Standard newspaper and urged the President to forgive them. “Forgiveness is part of faith and they are no longer a threat to the security of the nation,” I said quoting the holy Qur’an. A week after the executions, the Islamic Council of The Gambia made a declaration that the executions were Islamic. I gave a Friday sermon at the mosque and replied the executions had nothing to do with Islam. They were un-Islamic. Even though the holy Qur’an mentions executions, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) valued forgiveness. My comments caused a lot of commotion. The newspaper was shut down. I started receiving intimidating calls…
On 3 December, I was arriving home after a funeral when I found two men from the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) there waiting for me. “You are wanted [at the NIA offices] to answer some questions,” they said…I was then put in a jail until around 1.00am. Then they started beating, hitting and kicking me. For nine days I suffered a lot. You never know how important and valuable freedom is until it is taken from you. I used to struggle trying to get people out of jail. Trying to bring peace. Trying to bring peaceful coexistence. I didn’t know this is the way things are until the day I was detained. You can understand ending up in prison if you commit a crime, if you are taken to a judge and sentenced. At least then you would know why you are being held, and for how long. I was abducted and then held incommunicado – I couldn’t see anybody, I couldn’t hear anybody.
I had not committed any crime and my conscience was clean. After nine days, they told me I was going home and they put me in another car. The man taking me said “we are taking you home”, but they drove to a hidden place called Bambadinka, which means “hole of dragons”. There I was put in a very small, very filthy, dirty room. I spent five months there. I was kept in a dark, small room where I couldn’t see or hear anything, only rats and spiders. After five months and 17 days, I was released. Some people say that I am now free. But this is not freedom. Freedom is to be able to go home when you want to. I’m just in a bigger jail.
My ambition is to speak for those who have no pulpit, no opportunity for themselves. And to pass the peaceful message of Islam and other religions. I’m urging people in position of authority, presidents and kings alike, to embrace the freedom of their people and to protect it. You can be a president today, you can be a leader today, you can be an authority today, but things change very quickly. You can find yourself fall from the presidency into prison. Then you will need the work of Amnesty International.”
[Imam Baba Leigh is currently in the USA where he has been receiving medical treatment]
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Kazakhstan: Human rights defender Zinaida Mukhortova released from psychiatric confinement
November 4, 2013On 1 November 2013, human rights defender, Zinaida Mukhortova, was released from Astana Medical Centre for Psychological Health in Kazakhstan. As reported in this blog earlier she had been detained in psychiatric confinement since 9 August 2013 in Balkhash and was transferred to Astana on 30 September 2013 for psychological testing. Since her detention, Zinaida Mukhortova has been subjected to forced psychiatric confinement and treated against her will. Zinaida Mukhortova is a human rights lawyer with more than 10 years’ legal practice. Through her work, she has denounced cases of corruption and interference of political interests in the judiciary.
To find out more about the legal proceedings taken against Zinaida Mukhortova, please see update of 9 October 2013, http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/23924 by
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Terrorist charges against journalists and human rights defenders in Morocco
October 31, 2013In the last three days Morocco has been seen using Anti-Terrorism laws against human rights defenders and journalists exercising their freedom of expression. The following two cases come from Frontline: Read the rest of this entry »
Chinese HRD Cao Shunli finally seen by lawyer
October 31, 2013reports that on 30 October human rights lawyer, Ms Wang Yu, was finally permitted access to Chaoyang Detention Centre in Beijing in order to see Cao Shunli, who had reportedly been detained since 14 September 2013.
Wang Yu reported that Cao Shunli is extremely thin and has not received any medical attention in the detention centre. According to Wang Yu, Cao Shunli has been detained on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.
[On 14 September 2013, two security agents prevented Cao Shunli from boarding a flight from Beijing Capital Airport to Geneva. She was flying to take part in a training on UN mechanisms]
[In the months leading up to China’s Univeral Period Review (UPR) on 22 October 2013, Cao Shunli had been campaigning for greater civil society involvement in the UPR process]
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Belarusian human rights defenders urge UN to establish office in Minsk and be firm on the question of Bialiatski
October 29, 2013The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) should esta
blish a mission in Belarus, the delegates to the Third Belarusian Human Rights Forum, which took place in Vilnius on Saturday and Sunday, say in a statement on 27 October. The delegates also urge the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to take measures to encourage Belarusian authorities to respect human rights. It is necessary for the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly to preserve its Ad Hoc Working Group on Belarus and for all OSCE institutions and bodies, including the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, to step up cooperation with Belarus’ civil society. The delegates condemn violations of human rights by Belarusian authorities and urge them to abide by international commitments and implement recommendations within the framework of the UN Universal Periodic Review. Authorities should invite all UN special rapporteurs to visit Belarus, above all, the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on Belarus.
At the same meeting, Ales Bialiatski‘s wife called on the West to be consistent in relation to Belarus. Natallia Pinchuk calls not to close the question of rehabilitation, not to reduce pressure on the Belarusian authorities and not to make concessions until all political prisoners are released, Radio Svaboda reports. “Some human rights defenders began to propose in their articles and speeches to lift demands for the full rehabilitation of political prisoners. They say the regime will never agree on it. But I think we must be consistent first of all. If we began to demand the rehabilitation, we must keep to this position. Secondly, people’s rights remain restricted without rehabilitation. They have only half-freedom,” she said. “We, relatives of the political prisoners, expect firmness and applying all instruments from the European Union and the US. It’s very important that the US and Europe have a concerted approach,” she said. Natallia Pinchuk is sure that her husband, who serves his term in a correctional colony shares her opinion.
http://www.charter97.org/en/news/2013/10/28/78577/
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