Archive for the 'organisations' Category
December 3, 2012
The second portrait in the series of 10 HRDs against Torture is: Igor Kalyapin, founder and chair of Russian NGO Committee Against Torture (CAT).
……………….
The main obstacle we have is the same to the reason of torture: lack of effective investigation and absolute lack of will to investigate. Every case is a challenge and we never know for how many years we have to commit ourselves to deal with each of them.
Do you feel threatened because of your activities? Do you face any interference in your work? If this is the case, can you kindly precise.
Recently, we have started to face threats: our lawyers are targeted, some of them are approached by state agents, some of them were arrested, some of them were insulted. I myself now am facing a real threat to be accused of a crime that I have never committed (speaking out of investigational secret).
………………………
Public campaigns (as illustrated in the picture), support of the victims of torture, write support letters, can play a very important role in the fight against torture.
http://www.omct.org/human-rights-defenders/events/2012/12/d22055/
Posted in Human Rights Defenders, OMCT | Leave a Comment »
Tags: human rights, Human rights defender, Igor Kalyapin, impuntiy, Non-governmental organization, Russia, russian ngo, torture, United Nations Convention Against Torture, victims of torture, World Organisation Against Torture
December 1, 2012
As Human Rights Defenders are the voice of those who are deprived of it because they are victims of torture, ill-treatment or summary execution, OMCT (one of the 10 NGOs on the Jury of the MEA) has started a series of portraits of those who excel in the fight against torture and impunity. From 1 to the 10 of December, the organisation will every day put a different HRD in the limelight. They tell about the challenges and the obstacles they face and the hopes and disappointments they encounter in their everyday life. It s`tarts today with Edeliza Hernandez from the Philippines:
I may not refer to each case in this blog but invite you to visit the OMCT website: http://www.omct.org/human-rights-defenders/events/2012/11/d22051/
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Tags: human rights, Human Rights Defenders, impunity, OMCT, Philippine, portraits, torture, World Organisation Against Torture
November 30, 2012
Today Front Line Defenders reports the case of arbitrary arrest of human rights defender Mr Sanjeewa Samarasinghe in Sri Lanka.
On 27 November 2012, human rights defender Mr Sanjeewa Samarasinghe was taken into custody by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and questioned for 13 hours without a reason given or a lawyer present, before being released. Sanjeewa Samarasinghe is a journalist and the chairman of the State Media Workers’ Association, which defends press freedom and the rights of media workers in Sri Lanka. The human rights defender was taken to the CID office in Colombo 1 with a friend present, although his friend was told to leave the interrogation after 15 minutes. The defender asked the police officers to wait for his lawyer to arrive before questioning him, but this request was ignored and the police proceeded to question him in the absence of his lawyer. The defender’s lawyer was not permitted to enter the CID premises for the entire duration of the interrogation. It is reported that Sanjeewa Samarasinghe was subsequently questioned throughout the night for a period of 13 hours until he was eventually released around 9.30am the following morning on 28 November. Although no reason was given for the arrest, he was reportedly asked during the questioning whether he had been supplying information on human rights violations in Sri Lanka to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Sanjeewa Samarasinghe works as a journalist and leads the State Media Workers’ Association, which works on issues related to media freedom, the right to freedom of expression, and which holds conferences, campaigns, and demonstrations on the rights of media workers.
It would seem another case of backlash against those HRDs who testify in the UN on which I reported previously and which has been condemned in the strongest terms by the United Nations.
Posted in Front Line, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Colombo, Criminal Investigation Department, Front Line, Geneva, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, ill treatment, illegal detention, Sri Lanka, United Nations Human Rights Council
November 30, 2012
Hans Thoolen talks about the excitement of founding HURIDOCS, why the human rights community nowadays resembles a church with too many priests (and too few believers) and what made Latin American human rights defenders embrace technology before everyone else. Looking back at decades of involvement in human rights work, he also sketches out his idea of a multimedia platform that gives human rights defenders the space to inspire others.
What was the most exciting idea about founding HURIDOCS?
It started for me and the others at this conference in 1979 near Paris. During this conference we sensed there was space for better cooperation among NGOs, especially with new technology. Mind you: this was 1979, well before the internet, and information technology was hardly used. Our idea was to somewhere, somehow seek some level of agreement among NGOs – or at least to create the tools with which working together would be possible in the future.
in 1982 Quito with Jose Antonio Viera de Gallo from Chile
Hans Thoolen (second from right) at the Quito conference in Spring 1982, the most important conference before HURIDOCS was officially founded a few months later.
How did you move on from there?
That idea survived the meeting and there was some money left over from the Ford Foundation and that was used to have informal consultations. So for a few years, Martin Ennals, who had just stepped down as secretary-general of Amnesty International, Friederike Knabe, Laurie Wiseberg, Bjorn Stormorken and myself (working for the International Commission of Jurists) were the people who worked on the follow-up. We had meetings in London, Brussels, Oslo and Geneva and we were asking NGOs what they thought of the potential of information technology and testing out ideas on information exchange.
That slowly lead to the first big conference, in Quito, Ecuador, in 1982, partly because the Latinos had taken to the use of technology well before the West – in the NGO world, not in the business world, of course. This maybe was surprising, but when you thought about it, not that strange.
Why not? And how did this lead to the founding of HURIDOCS?
…….
………
and the rest you have to read yourself on:
http://www.huridocs.org/2012/11/we-were-breaking-new-ground/
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, HURIDOCS | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Crete, documentation, embrace technology, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, human rights movement, HURIDOCS, information technology, International Commission of Jurists, Martin Ennals, Non-governmental organization, on-line, Quito, research
November 21, 2012
In various parts of the world human rights defenders brave legal harassment, arbitrary detention, ill treatment, torture and sometimes death, in seeking to secure freedom and dignity for all. In challenging serious abuses of State power, many such defenders find themselves behind bars;
FIDH works endlessly to secure the release of these (and other) human rights defenders, mainly through the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders – its joint programme with OMCT.A recent summing up by FIDH of their (local affiliate) in
Bahrain,
Belarus,
Iran,
Turkey and
Uzbekistan makes sobering reading:
Check out the steps that led to their detention:
The Bahrain Centre or Human Rights is one the 2012 nominees of the Martin Ennals Award.
- In BELARUS :Ales Bialiatski, President of the Viasna Human Rights Centre and FIDH Vice President
Since his election in 1994, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, has installed an authoritarian regime that represses freedom of expression, assembly and association. The human rights situation in Belarus markedly deteriorated on 19 December 2010 when riot police brutally dispersed demonstrators protesting against the unfair handling of the presidential election. This event marked the beginning of an unprecedented wave of repression, which continues to this day. Prominent human rights defender, Ales Bialiatski was arrested in Minsk on 4 August 2011 and sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison on trumped up tax evasion charges. He remains in prison to this day.
- In IRAN :Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, founding member of Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC) and human rights lawyer
Abdolfattah Soltani, founding member of DHRC and human rights lawyer
Mohammad Seifzadeh, member of the DHRC and human rights lawyer
Nasrin Sotoudeh, member of DHRC and prominent human rights lawyer known for defending juveniles facing death penalty, prisoners of conscience, human rights activists and child victims of abuse; she is lso a 2012 MEA nominee
- In TURKEY :Muharrem Erbey, IHD Vice Chairperson and former Chairperson of Diyarbakır branch
Arslan Özdemir, Executive, IHD Diyarbakır branch
Şerif Süren, Executive, IHD Aydın branch
Orhan Çiçek, Executive, IHD Aydın branch
Reşit Teymur, Executive, IHD Siirt branch
Abdulkadir Çurğatay, Executive, IHD Mardin branch
Veysi Parıltı, Executive, IHD Mardin branch
Şaziye Önder, representative IHD Doğubeyazıt (Ağrı)
Mensur Işık, former Chairperson, IHD Muş branch
Hikmet Tapancı, Executive, IHD Malatya branch
Ali Tanrıverdi, Chairperson IHD Mersin branch
Osman İşçi, IHD General Headquarters (Ankara) former worker and member of IHD
Hanim Koçygit, Executive, IHD Sakarya branch
Bekir Gürbüz, former Chairperson, IHD Adıyaman branch
FIDH notes in this respect: Despite Turkey’s considerable human rights progress since 2000, those expressing ideas on “sensitive” human rights related issues continue to be targeted and criminalised by the public authorities. So-called “sensitive” questions include the promotion of alternative identities to the Turkish mainstream (e.g. asserting the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, especially Kurds, as well as the rights of sexual minorities). It also encompasses any criticism of the State and its institutions, including institutional functioning, judicial independence, and impunity for human rights violations. Members of NGOs, lawyers, trade unionists, journalists, intellectuals, academics, conscientious objectors, the families of victims of serious human rights violations, and others have been targeted by State policies that consider their expression of their views to be a threat. Fourteen members of the Human Rights Association (IHD), a Turkish FIDH member organisation, are currently being held in preventive detention under an anti-terrorism law that criminalises legitimate expression of opinion.
- In UZBEKISTAN :Zafar Rakhimov, member of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan (HRSU) Kashkadarya regional branch
Nasim Isakov, member of the HRSU Djizak regional branch
Yuldosh Rasulov, member of the HRSU Kashkadarya regional branch
Azam Formonov, Head of the Sirdarya regional branch of the HRSU
Gaybullo Jalilov, member of the HRSU Karshi regional branch
Uzbekistan has the highest number of human rights defenders serving lengthy prison sentences in Eastern Europe/Central Asia. These sentences are usually served in penal colonies where the regime is extremely strict. Harsh conditions and ill treatment have caused the health of incarcerated defenders to deteriorate quickly. These inhumane and degrading conditions are currently the reality of several members of FIDH member organisation, the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan.
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Tags: Bahrain, Belarus, detention, FIDH, harassment, human rights, Human rights defender, International Federation for Human Rights, Iran, MEA, Observatory for the Protection of HRDs, OMCT, Turkey, Uzbekistan
November 15, 2012
On November 14, 2012 The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), announced and welcomed the vindication of two women human rights defenders in The Gambia following two years of judicial harassment.
On November 12, the Banjul Magistrates’ Court decided to drop all charges against Dr. Isatou Touray and Ms. Amie Bojang-Sissoho, respectively Executive Director and Programme Coordinator of The Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (GAMCOTRAP), an organisation working on sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and children. The two women human rights defenders had been prosecuted since October 2010 on charges of “theft” for the alleged embezzlement of 30,000 Euros received in 2009 from “Yolocamba Solidaridad”, a Spanish development NGO.
This landmark decision puts an end to an uninterrupted judicial harassment that had been going on for more than two years, since the police started interrogations of GAMCOTRAP staff in May 2010. Since the opening of their trial, Dr. Isatou Touray and Amie Bojang-Sissoho had been summoned to 66 hearings, which took place in a hostile atmosphere and on completely unlawful grounds. Indeed, the alleged victims had never filed a complaint and the Prosecution failed to present sufficient evidence that they had indeed committed a criminal offence. Furthermore, on January 31, 2011, Ms. Begoña Ballestros Sanchez, Director of Yolocamba Solidaridad, denied accusing anyone associated with GAMCOTRAP of theft and submitting a complaint in relation thereof during a hearing at Banjul Magistrate’s Court. During interrogation, Ms. Isatou Touray had to respond to very precise questions by the Prosecutor covering all aspects of GAMCOTRAP’s activities, staff and resources that are unrelated to the charges. In addition, the Prosecutor also repeatedly made depreciating comments about the work of GAMCOTRAP’s programme to eradicate female genital mutilation.
One can only hope that their acquittal marks a step forward in the respect of the rights of human rights defenders in the Gambia.
Posted in FIDH, OMCT | Leave a Comment »
Tags: development ngo, FIDH, Gambia, human rights, Human rights defender, Isatou Touray, judicial harassment, Non-governmental organization, Observatory, OMCT, reproductive rights, sexual and reproductive health
November 13, 2012
Front Line Defenders reports on 13 November that since 14 October 2012, the Indian human rights defender Mr. Azimuddin Sarkar and his family have been targeted with threats and intimidation on several occasions, which has been exacerbated by unwillingness on the part of the police to investigate the matter. Azimuddin Sarkar is the District Human Rights Monitor of MASUM, a non-governmental human rights organisation based in Howrah, Kolkata, West Bengal.
On 14 October 2012, a group of 20-25 people, of whom four were identified as locally known thugs, raided the house of Azimuddin Sarkar’s older brother, who was home with his family at the time, in Bardhanpur village, West Bengal state. The thugs reportedly issued threats to Azimuddin Sarkar, saying they would “teach him a lesson” as they threatened the family with weapons and looted the house. An hour after the incident, police appeared on the scene and advised the victims to make a complaint. When the human rights defender’s brother went to the local police station at Raninagar the next day, it is reported that the officer on duty refused to file the complaint, insisting instead to register it only as ‘information received’. A written complaint was sent to the Superintendent of Police at Murshidabad.
On 16 October, Azimuddin Sarkar asked a friend from a non-governmental organisation to make a request to the police to arrest the culprits. The Officer in Charge (OC) at Raninagar station responded that they should leave the matter be, as it was related to MASUM. The OC added that MASUM was not the State Human Rights Commission, and as such “had no right to pressurise the police”. The next day, around 11pm on 17 October, four of the same thugs assembled outside Azimuddin Sarkar’s family home armed with lethal weapons and went on to publicly threaten to kill the human rights defender and his family.
On 19 October, the human rights defender filed a written complaint on the incident with the OC and the Superintendent of police at Murshidabad, supported by multiple eye witnesses. On 5 November, after repeated attempts to call the OC at Raninagar police station, a call from a fellow District Human Rights Monitor at MASUM was returned. All the OC offered regarding police actions on the issue was that he could give no detail of whether any case had been initiated or not. The police have reportedly sent a number of messages to the complainants urging them to withdraw their complaints against the assailants.
Azimuddin Sarkar has been involved in campaigns against the use of torture by the police and Border Security Forces in the area. Currently he is unable to move freely and carry out his work due to the threats. It is believed he is being targeted solely for his legitimate and peaceful human rights activities.
Posted in Front Line | 1 Comment »
Tags: Azimuddin Sarkar, death threats, human rights, Human rights defender, India, Kolkata, Non-governmental organization, Police, West Bengal
November 10, 2012
On 7 November the activist monk Luon Sovath, MEA Laureate of 2012, spoke to Radio Free Asia about his work.
As the interview is quite interesting I copied here in in full:
Fresh from receiving the “Nobel Prize for Human Rights,” Cambodia’s technology-savvy activist monk Loun Sovath has called on authorities in his country to end the use of violence in land eviction cases, vowing to continue his struggle to protect victims of land grabs. He also said he would not be cowed by government harassment and called on his fellow monks, often respected as figures of moral authority in Cambodia, to join in the struggle to defend villagers who have become victims of forced evictions. Loun Sovath was the first Southeast Asian to be presented with the 2012
Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders as he was selected for documenting the struggle of land rights activists and ordinary citizens evicted from their homes in his impoverished country. The monk collected the award—viewed by many as the Nobel Prize for Human Rights—in Geneva last month.
“The Buddha advised people to do good deeds both physically and mentally,” he told RFA’s Khmer service during an interview in Washington on Wednesday. “Respecting human rights is a good deed which will lead to peace and prosperity for this world and in the next. So for monks to become rights defenders is nothing against Buddhism, but can lead to enlightenment and peace.” “Monks play a vital role in society. I appeal to monks to rise up to follow in the Buddha’s footsteps,” he said. Loun Sovath said the Cambodian people must also rise up to demand their rights, highlighting land disputes as the one of the biggest issues facing the public in the country.
“The authorities must stop using violence against innocent villagers who are the victims of land grabbing,” he said. Research by Cambodian rights group LICADHO shows that some 2.1 million hectares of land has been given to private companies in the form of land concessions over the last two decades. The massive transfer has led to countless forced evictions and affected over 400,000 people in the 12 provinces that LICADHO monitors since 2003 alone, the group said.
Sovath is currently touring the U.S., meeting with the Cambodian community and addressing various nongovernmental organizations on the human rights situation in his country. He began his nearly two-month visit last week in New York, traveled to Washington, and arrived in Chicago Thursday. Sovath said he was honored to receive the Martin Ennals Award.
“I was given the award because I have worked as a rights defender and a protector of social justice involved with land issues, forced evictions, and the protection of natural resources and wildlife,” he said. In June 2011, the New York-based Human Rights Watch awarded Loun Sovath with the Hellman/Hammett grant for his work supporting communities facing forced evictions and land-grabbing in Cambodia.
Luon Sovath by Dovana
Years of activism Sovath first became involved in human rights work in 2009, when members of his family were injured during a police shootout at unarmed villagers in a land eviction case. The monk’s brother and nephew were wounded in the standoff, which he documented in a video. He is known for his extensive use of video to inform the world about his confrontations with authorities, earning him the nickname “multimedia monk.” The monk is rarely seen without a mobile phone or tablet. He also uses songs and art to spread his non-violent message of defending human rights. Loun Sovath said he strove to protect human rights in the interest of his country. “I have a desire to help build Cambodia,” he said. In June, Loun Sovath was briefly detained by Cambodian authorities and accused of “causing instability” after he joined protests against the jailing of 13 women over a long-running forced land eviction case in the capital Phnom Penh. Municipal monk officials threatened to have him defrocked as a monk, but released him after he put his thumbprint on a statement assuring that he will not join future protests. Loun Sovath had been banned in April from entering pagodas in Phnom Penh after he participated in land protests.
Sovath, who has since participated in various protests, said he would not stop his activism even though he was concerned about his personal safety. “The authorities have tried to prevent me from doing good things and from helping the country and [the Buddhist] religion,” Sovath said. “I can’t accept this because I have done nothing wrong,” he said. “As long as human rights violations continue to exist in Cambodia, I will continue to do my work.”
Reported by Samean Yun for RFA’s Khmer service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Copyright © 1998-2011 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, MEA | 1 Comment »
Tags: award, Buddhism, Cambodia, Eviction, Human Rights Defenders, Land issues, Loun Sovath, Luon Sovath, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, MEA, multimedia, Non-governmental organization, Phnom Penh, Radio Free Asia
October 23, 2012
In June 2012, the NGO Protection International met with Ms Claire Hubert, First Secretary of the Permanent Mission of Norway in Geneva, during the round table on National Policies for the Protection on HRDs.
The event was organized by PI in cooperation with the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Margareth Sekaggya.
Photo credit: Wikipedia
In a short video message on VIMEO (http://vimeo.com/51596610) Claire Hubert, explains how protecting human rights defenders is a priority in Norway’s human rights policy.
She encourages defenders to reach out to diplomats, so that the latter know the defenders and adequately assist them whenever they need protection. The English version of Norway policy paper can be found on:
regjeringen.no/upload/UD/Vedlegg/Menneskerettigheter/Menneskerettighetsforkjaempere/VeiledningMRforkjengelskFIN.pdf
Posted in films, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Protection International | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Claire Hubert, Foreign Policy, Geneva, Human Rights Defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, Norway, Protection International, video, Vimeo
October 18, 2012
The situation in Bahrain continues to deteriorate and judicial harassment goes on unabated:
On 16 October 2012, human rights defender and president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights Mohamed Al-Masktai has been summoned for interrogation at Al-Naem police station. On 17 Oct 2012 he was released. Human rights defender Mohamed Al-Masktai has been active in documenting and reporting the violations committed by the Bahraini authorities in recent months. In September 2012 he has been subjected to intimidation campaign as he received more than a dozen anonymous phone calls threatening his life and the safety of his family, which followed an oral intervention he delivered at the Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, during a panel discussion focused on intimidations and reprisals, where he informed the (HRC) about the massive intimidation campaign against him.
On 16 October 2012, human rights defender Nader Abdulemam was summoned for interrogation at the public prosecution office. At the time of writing this appeal (17 Oct) Nader Abdulemam has not appeared at the public prosecution office as yet.
In addition to her previous 13 plus lawsuits, activist and human rights defender Zainab Al-Khawaja was summoned again for a new case that includes the charge of “insulting a police officer”. The case goes back to 6 May 2012, however it has been activated just now and a trial was scheduled on 17 October 2012, but postponed to 2 November 2012 in order to summon Al-Khawaja. Al-Khawaja was recently released on 3 October 2012 after she spent two months imprisonment sentence on the charge of “ripping photo of king of Bahrain”. She is expecting verdicts on several cases in the coming weeks.
On 16 October 2012, the court refused to release leading human rights defender Nabeel Rajab; during a session of his appeal trial against 3 year imprisonment sentence which has he received on charges of “participating in illegal gatherings” and “calling for gatherings over social media”.
In addition, the court refused to provide assistance to allow foreigner witnesses to enter Bahrain and testify on behalf of Rajab. On 15 October 2012, Stephanie David, a representative from FIDH has been denied entry to Bahrain to testify for Rajab, as she was required to provide an authorization from the court.
Bahrain: Judicial crackdown continues on human rights defenders and activists.
Posted in FIDH, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Bahrain, Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, FIDH, harassment, Human Rights Defenders, human rights violations, independence, Nabeel Rajab
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 