Archive for the 'organisations' Category
April 24, 2013
The Martin Ennals Jury just announced today (at 11h00 local time) the three Final Nominees for the Martin Ennals Award 2013. The MEA is the main award of the whole human rights movement thanks to its international Jury composed of 10 well-known human rights organisations (see below). The aim of the award is to provide protective publicity. The Final Nominees are:
Mona Seif, Egypt – Final Nominee MEA 2013
Mona Seif, Egypt: Core founder of the ”No To Military Trials for Civilians”, a grassroots initiative which is trying to stop military trials for civilians. Since February 2011, Mona has brought together activists, lawyers, victims’ families,local stakeholders and started a nationwide movement against military trials. As part of the recent crackdown on the freedom of speech in Egypt she has been charged along with other Human Rights activists. She noted that “International solidarity, and I mean people’s support not governments’, empowers us to continue our battle and stop military trials for civilians“.
Posted in Human Rights Defenders, MEA | 2 Comments »
Tags: Arab spring, Chechnya, Egypt, final nominees 2013, Final Nominees for the Martin Ennals Award 2013, Haiti, Human right, human rights awards, Human Rights Defenders, human rights lawyer, Igor Kalyapin, impunity, Jean-Claude Duvalier, Joint Mobile Group, Mario Joseph, Martin Ennals, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, MEA, military trials, Mona Seif, news, No To Military Trials for Civilians, Russia, torture, woman human rights defender
April 24, 2013
reports that on 18 April 2013, on his second day in custody at Kashimpur Central Jail, human rights defender Mahmudur Rahman was moved from judicial custody to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University due to severe torture which reportedly included the hammering of nails into his flesh and bone as well as electric shock treatment. Mahmudur Rahman is an editor of the newspaper Daily Amardesh, which was closed by police without a court order on 11 April 2013, the same day the human rights defender was arrested. As an editor of the Daily Amardesh, Mahmudur Rahman has published articles exposing corruption scandals of high profile ruling party politicians including the Prime Minister and her family members. He also denounced the killing of 172 civilians by police during government clashes with the opposition last February. Despite the closure of the Daily Amardesh, the Interim Chairperson, Mrs Mahmuda Begum, made arrangements to print at an alternative press, however this was forbidden by the District Magistrate and 19 people were arrested at the press on 14 April 2013.
The torture reportedly took place whilst Mahmudur Rahman was in custody at the Detective Branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police. He was detained under police remand for six days before being handed over to judicial remand on 17 April 2013. The human rights defender had been on hunger strike in custody to protest his illegal detention, torture, and the arrest of his colleagues following the closure of the Daily Amardesh. A petition was filed to the High Court Division Bench on 18 April 2013 challenging the decision to send Mahmudur Rahman to police remand. The human rights defender’s lawyers argued that placing him in police remand without adequate measures in place to ensure his physical health violates the High Court’s directives concerning pre-trial detention. Mahmudur Rahman suffers from a heart condition which can be fatal if untreated. When the human rights defender was escorted into court to hear the petition, eye witnesses said that he had fresh wounds on his legs, blood stains on his clothes and that he found it difficult to sit down.
Front Line Defenders believes that the arrest and reported torture in detention of Mahmudur Rahman are related to his work in defence of human rights and denouncing government corruption in Bangladesh (see earlier appeal http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/2561 of 10 November 2010.
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Tags: Amardesh, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Bangladesh, Dhaka, Dhaka Metropolitan Police, freedom of expression, Front Line Defenders, human rights, illegal detention, illtreatment, Journalist, Mahmudur Rahman, torture
April 23, 2013
I have on earlier occasions tried to point out that there is a (big) difference between peace awards and human rights awards. This time it is Dan Murphy in the Christian Science Monitor, who points to another example. While it could be argued that Myanmar President U Thein Sein deserves to be praised for having made bold steps to move his country away from repression and conflict, he human rights record in the past and [as Human Rights Watch argues in a recent report) in the present would not be considered by many as a likely candidate for a human rights award.
The International Crisis Group’s plan to give its “In Pursuit of Peace” award to Myanmar President U Thein Sein later today and a new Human Rights Watch report on ethnic cleansing against ethnic Rohingya form such striking contrast, that Murphy wonders if Human Rights Watch timed the report to coincide with the gala party that the International Crisis Group (ICG) is planning to host for President Thein Sein later today at the swanky Pierre Hotel in New York City, and with a scheduled lifting of all but arms sanctions against Myanmar (also known as Burma) from the European Union.
Myanmars ruler to get peace prize, despite ethnic cleansing charge – CSMonitor.com.
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Tags: awards, Burma, Christian Science Monitor, Dan Murphy, ethnic cleansing, human rights, Human Rights Watch, In Pursuit of Peace, International Crisis Group, international crisis group icg, Myanmar, New York City, Rohingya, Thein Sein
April 23, 2013
Tomorrow, 24 April, at 11hoo Geneva time, the three Final Nominees of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders 2013 will be announced. You can find the result here on this blog, of course, or on the site of the Martin Ennals Award: http://www.martinennalsaward.org. The following 10 NGOs on the Jury will also carry the news:
Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders
– Amnesty International,
– Human Rights Watch,
– Human Rights First,
– Int’l Federation for Human Rights,
– World Organisation Against Torture,
– Front Line Defenders
– International Commission of Jurists,
– German Diakonie,
– International Service for Human Rights
– HURIDOCS.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, MEA | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Amnesty International, Diakonie, FIDH, Final Nominees for the Martin Ennals Award 2013, Frontline Defenders, Geneva, human rights, human rights awards, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, HURIDOCS, International Commission of Jurists, International Service for Human Rights, Martin Ennals Award, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, MEA, Non-governmental organization, OMCT, World Organisation Against Torture
April 22, 2013
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan’s highly repressive policies are coming up for rare international scrutiny as from today (22 and 24 April 2013), Human Rights Watch said today. United Nations member countries gathering at the Human Rights Council in Geneva under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) procedure should seize the opportunity to expose and denounce the ongoing repression in both countries and press for concrete steps to end abuses.
The governments of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan stand out as among the most repressive in the world, Human Rights Watch said. Both also stand out for their failure to heed recommendations made during their previous Human Rights Council reviews, in December 2008. “The extraordinarily high levels of repression in both Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, coupled with their governments’ refusal to acknowledge problems, let alone to address them, underscores the need for a strong, unified message,” said Veronika Szente Goldston, Europe and Central Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.
In submissions on Turkmenistan and on Uzbekistan Human Rights Watch highlighted key concerns with respect to both countries, and the steps needed to address them. One immediate step – and crucial if crime should not pay ! – is that both governments should be urged to end their longstanding denial of access for the UN’s own rights monitors. Ten UN rapporteurs have requested such access to Turkmenistan, while the number of UN rapporteurs barred from Uzbekistan has reached 11! Cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC is another pressing issue [On April 12, the ICRC took the unusual step of announcing publicly its decision to end prison visits to detainees in Uzbekistan].
Other key concerns in Turkmenistan include: The government’s longstanding use of imprisonment as a tool for political retaliation and draconian restrictions on freedom of expression and association, which authorities enforce by threatening, harassing, or imprisoning those who dare to question its policies, however modestly. The severe repression of civil society activism makes it impossible for independent human rights defenders and journalists to work openly.
via Turkmenistan/Uzbekistan: Abuses in International Spotlight | Human Rights Watch.
Posted in HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Central Asia, Freedom of speech, Geneva, Human right, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights Watch, political prisoners, political retaliation, Turkmenistan, UN, UN Rapporteurs, United Nations, Universal Periodic Review, Uzbekistan
April 19, 2013
(Cambodian human rights defender and journalist Mam Sonando a prisoner of conscience © TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP/Getty Images)
On 12 April 2013 Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International’s Researcher on Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam posted on Amnesty‘s Livewire an interesting account of his meeting with the just liberated Cambodian Human Rights Defender Mam Sonando. It is a impressive testimony to the resilience of human rights defenders and how campaigning can help them and therefore I reproduce it below:
It was hot – very hot – as I arrived last week at Mam Sonando’s home and radio station on a dusty street in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh. He welcomed me at the front door. “Thank you,” he said. With a broad smile, he flashed his signature ‘V for victory’ sign with his right hand. After over eight months in prison, he was free and no longer facing 20 years behind bars.
Mam Sonando, 72, is a well-known and popular journalist. He owns Beehive Radio, one of Cambodia’s few independent radio stations. And he heads the Association of Democrats, which promotes human rights and democracy and helps poor communities. On 11 September 2012, his trial began at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. He had been arrested two months earlier after Cambodia’s Prime Minister accused him publicly of being behind a plot for a village in eastern Cambodia to secede – to break away from the country. In fact, the villagers there had been involved in a long-running land conflict with a powerful company, and the so-called secession plot was used as a pretext to forcibly evict them. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: AI, Amnesty International, Amnesty Livewire, Beehive Radio, Born Samnang, Cambodia, campaign, Chea Vichea, Civil society, Democracy, diplomatic pressure, freedom of expression, human rights, Journalist, judicial harassment, land disputes, Mam Sonando, Phnom Penh, radio, Rupert Abbott, Sok Sam Oeun, testimony, Yorm Bopha
April 19, 2013
Intervening at the 53rd ordinary session of African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, on 18 April 2013, the FIDH and the OMCT, in the framework of their Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, expressed their grave concern about the situation of human rights defenders in Africa, which they stated had not observed an improvement. Violations of human rights targeting defenders have continued, notably in Algeria, Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo DRC, Djibouti, Egypt, Gambia, Sudan and Zimbabwe. Judicial harassment based on false accusations, accompanied by arbitrary arrests and detentions, remains the most common harassment technique, especially in Algeria and Zimbabwe, but also in Cameroon, Djibouti, Egypt, The Gambia and Sudan. In several countries, including The Gambia and DRC, defenders have also been subjected to threats and smear campaigns. In late December 2012 / early January 2013, the presence in Goma in the Kivu region of non-State armed groups notably led to increased threats against local defenders, forcing many of them to hide or flee into exile. The targeted defenders are, inter alia, members of NGOs and lawyers in Chad, DRC, Zimbabwe, journalists in Djibouti, trade unionists fighting against impunity in Algeria, Djibouti, DRC, Zimbabwe or defending land rights and the right to a healthy environment in Cameroon; defenders of the right to work in Algeria and the right to health care in Sudan; advocates for the abolition of the death penalty in The Gambia, women’s rights in DRC, The Gambia, and free and fair elections in Zimbabwe; and activists campaigning against arbitrary detention in Egypt. Some excerpts follow but the reference to the full report is below:
Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Africa, African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, Algeria, Arab region, Arab spring, Burundi, congo drc, Djibouti, DRC, Ethiopia, FIDH, funding, Gambia, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, impunity, International Federation for Human Rights, judicial harassment, Non-governmental organization, Observatory for the Protection of HRDs, OMCT, regulation, Sudan, threats, World Organisation Against Torture, Zimbabwe
April 18, 2013
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the detention of two activists by the Sausapor Sub-District Police in Papua, Indonesia. The activists were taken from their house to the police station and were being interrogated in relation to an investigation they conducted regarding the death of villagers in Tambrauw Regency due to the lack of medical treatment. It was reported that the two activists as well as others who were engaged in the investigation were previously followed by police officers.
According to the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Desk of Protestant Church in Tanah Papua GKI-TP, Yohanis Mambrasar and his father, Hans Mambrasar, were taken from their house at Werur Village on 8 April 2013 at 12.20pm by two police officers wearing civilian clothes. The two officers who were identified as Darius Burdam and Sucipto from Sausapor Sub-District Police took the two activists on a black pickup truck to Sausapor Sub-District police where they were interrogated in two separate rooms. He was questioned on the investigation he conducted with his father and other activists regarding the death of Papuans in Tambrauw regency during November 2012 to March 2013, due to the lack of medical treatment. According to Yohanis and information gathered by other activists, the villagers were suffering from various sicknesses including diarrhoea and malnutrition and the lack of medical treatment resulted in the death of the villagers. The two police officers asked Yohanis regarding organisations in Papua which are against the Indonesian government as well as the name of organisations he is working with. Yohanis was later released without any charge on the same day.
Yohanis’ father, Hans Mambrasar, was interrogated separately by four officers wearing civilian clothes, along the same lines as his son. Hans, who is also a priest, was further asked by the police on the source of the funding. Hans was also released by the police without any charge on the same day.
via INDONESIA: Activists are detained by the police for reporting deaths due to lack of medical treatment in Tambrauw, Papua — Asian Human Rights Commission.
Posted in AHRC, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: AHRC, arrest, Asian Human Rights Commission, Civil society, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Indonesia, intimidation, NGOs, Papua, Papuan people, Police officer, Police station, right to health, Tambrauw Regency
April 17, 2013
Last week I reported on the Natalia bracelet and yesterday my eye fell on a lengthy piece posted on Amnesty International‘s Livewire by Technology and Human Rights Project Officer Tanya O’Carroll. It describes how emerging digital tools will help activists and human rights defenders. http://livewire.amnesty.org/2013/04/15/how-to-turn-a-mobile-phone-into-an-alert-system-for-activists/.
As a student activist speaking out against the government, Hassan is at constant threat of being arrested. The Sudanese government tracks and harasses members of the student movement he belongs to. Reports of his friends and contacts being detained, tortured and even killed by the authorities are frighteningly regular. But Hassan’s network is also well organized. His phone is always on him and he uses it to help organize demonstrations, to record and disseminate video of violent crackdowns against the students and to keep his network updated every minute – a network that stretches from Khartoum to the rest of the globe in the time it takes to send a tweet. If he is able to get word out that he’s been arrested, Hassan knows that his network’s response will be swift and structured. The problem is that he knows the first thing the authorities will seize is his mobile phone. And here’s the double danger of not getting word out: the authorities will use the phone book, call log, messages and any open apps – such as G-Mail or Facebook – to identify and track others. Without knowledge of the arrest, the whole network will be easily compromised. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in AI, Amnesty international, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: activists, AI, Amnesty International, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, information technology, Livewire, mobile phones, Natalia project, Panic Button, protection, Security-in-a-box, technology, ThoughtWorks, tool
April 15, 2013
Front Line Defenders hosted human rights defender Galym Ageleuov from Kazakhstan on its Fellowship Programme in Dublin between January and March 2013. Galym is the founder and head of human rights NGO Liberty – based in Almaty and established in 2011 to monitor and document human rights abuses and promote freedom of the internet in Kazakhstan, including through the You Tube project “Open Your Eyes” which broadcasts videos highlighting socio-political life in the country.
Liberty was one of the few organisations that succeeded in reporting from Zhanaozen and disseminating video footage following the massacre in 2011 when a demonstration by striking oil workers was violently suppressed by police, resulting in at least 14 deaths. Efforts to spread the awful truth of what happened there led to a serious defamation campaign against the organisation which included accusations of inciting violence and attempting to overthrow the government.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Almaty, Dublin, fellowship, Frontline Defenders, Galym Ageleuov, Human right, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, internet, Kazakhstan, Non-governmental organization, You Tube, Zhanaozen
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 