Archive for the 'organisations' Category

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Crime pays series: Thai Human Rights Defender still missing after 7 years

April 6, 2011

 

Seven years after Thai human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaijipit went missing, there is still no prospect of justice. Somchai disappeared on 12 March 2004, one day after he had publicly accused the police of torturing his clients, who were in detention. Since then, nothing has been heard of him. Despite pressure from his family and on the national and international level, those responsible have not yet been held accountable. Shortly after the disappearance of Somchai, five police officers were arrested and prosecuted for their alleged involvement in the disappearance. Although there were severe suspicions against all five suspects, the lower court convicted only one officer to a three year prison sentence in January 2006, but acquitted the other four. National and international human rights organizations (such as Human Rights First, Lawyers for Lawyers) observed the trial and believed that this verdict was the result of a failure of the judicial apparatus. The  Appeals Court on 11 March 2011  acquitted all of the five suspects. Furthermore, the court ruled that Somchai’s wife and children are not eligible to exercise his rights as a damaged party, thereby shutting the door for Somchai’s family to uncover the truth and to seek justice in court.

 

Posted in HRF, human rights, L4L | 1 Comment »
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23 NGOs denounce over 2000 violations re Human Rights Defenders in the Americas

April 5, 2011

Most of us think that the situation of human rights defenders in the Americas has at least slightly improved over the last years. NGO reports seem to debunk this. The 2010 report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur points out that between 2004 and 2009, over 146 complaints of threats against human rights defenders were filed in the Americas (mostly Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, and Peru). Now, on 29 March 2011, a group of 23 NGOs from 11 countries has concluded that the situation is even worse with over 2000 cases since 2002. According to their research, in Colombia more than 1000 human rights defenders were victims of aggression including murder, threats, arbitrary detention, and torture; in Guatemala, 1072 acts of aggression were recorded, and at least 50 human rights defenders have been murdered in Honduras since the coup d’état. At the meeting of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (IACHR), where this information was made public, NGOs placed special emphasis on the increase in illegitimate state intelligence activities against human rights defenders.

The organizations called on the IACHR to create a specific office or rapporteurship for the protection of human rights defenders.  They also asked the IACHR to demand that states adopt effective protection measures and improve public policies that guarantee the work of defenders. States were also urged to investigate the acts of violence and threats carried out against people who put their lives at risk to denounce situations of social injustice.

For further information contact: Milli Legrain of CEJIL, Tel +1.202 319 3000, mlegrain@cejil.org

Posted in human rights, IACHR | 1 Comment »
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Front Line expresses grave concern about disappearance of human rights lawyers in Syria

March 31, 2011

Yesterday, Wednesday  30 March, Front Line – one of the 10 NGOs in the Jury of the MEA –  issued an urgent appeal concerning a number of human rights lawyers that have been disappeared amid the upheaval of the last weeks. Between 5 and 27 March 2011, a number of human rights lawyers may have been arrested and remain detained in undisclosed locations in Syria, including Messrs Hussain ‘Issa and Tamer Al-Jahmani, Sulayman Nahili, Nidal Al-Shaykh Hammoud and Muhammad Ibrahim ‘Issa. It is believed that they are at risk of torture and ill treatment.

Front Line notes that “these arrests reflect an ongoing and widescale crackdown by the Syrian authorities against human rights defenders, pro-democracy and political activists across Syria in response to ongoing protests calling for democratic reforms and improved observance of civil and political rights. As part of this crackdown, which has also involved violent attacks on protesters including through the use of live ammunition by security forces, a large number of human rights defenders have been subjected to arrests, detentions and charges solely as a result of exercising their fundamental rights to free assembly and expression”. For more detail see: www.frontlinedefenders.org/

Posted in Front Line, human rights, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
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Chinese Human Rights Defender Liu Xianbin heavily punished

March 31, 2011
On Friday 25 March, a court in Sichuan province sentenced Liu Xianbin to ten years in prison for writing articles calling on human rights and democracy, which is considered inciting ‘subversion’. His wife, Chen Mingxian, said the court did not allow Liu to defend himself. His lawyer, Chen Wei, was also charged on Monday with inciting subversion (as were two other persons  from Sichuan: Yunfei and Ding Mao).
Many human rights organisations from around the world  – including Hong Kong – have criticised the trial and are calling on the Chinese authorities to immediately release Liu (e.g. Amnesty International’s Catherine Baber says the ten-year sentence is “appalling” and a travesty of justice). Liu is a veteran of the human rights movement and has been imprisoned several times for his work. He served 2 years for taking part in the 1989 democracy movement and in 1999 he was sentenced to 13 years after helping to establish the China Democratic Party. He was released early in 2008, but arrested again in June 2010.
This tenacious and courageous HRD deserves admiration and support.

Posted in AI, human rights, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
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Syria: will al-Hassani finally be freed?

March 26, 2011

As you will know, on Wednesday 16 March a group of about 150 protestors – including relatives of the 21 political prisoners whose release the protest was designed to secure – gathered outside the Interior Ministry in Damascus to present a petition calling for the prisoners’ release. The 21 include MEA 2010 Laureate Muhannad al-Hassani, the president of the Syrian Human Rights Organization.

Forty of the protestors were seized and interrogated by the security services; several were detained on the usual charges of bringing the State is disrepute. Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a news release, “Like many of the political prisoners whose release they were calling for, protestors appear to have been arrested simply for the peaceful expression of their views. The Syrian authorities must immediately release all those arrested in the last two days for merely attending peaceful protests, and stop these attacks on freedom of expression and assembly.”

Today- Saturday 26 March – it was reported that under pressure from the various on-going demonstrations, the Government would have decided to release 200 political prisoners. Is this true? Will al-Hassani finally be allowed to return to his family and his human rights work?

Posted in AI, Al-Hassani, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
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Belarus refuses access to human rights monitors

March 20, 2011

And to add immediately a second instance in the series ‘response to non-response” here is the case of Belarus as reported by HRW:

On March 17, 2011, Belarusian authorities ordered Andrei Yurov, a leading Russian human rights defender visiting Belarus, to leave the country within 24 hours. He is the second human rights activist the government has banned from the country this month as on March 9, another member of the International Observation Mission, Maxim Kitsyuk, a Ukrainian national, was refused entry at the border while entering Belarus via train from Kyiv.

Both Russia and Ukraine have a no-visa regime with Belarus. Belarusian authorities did not charge Yurov or Kitsyuk with a crime or other offense, nor did they explain the grounds on which they effectively being expelled or would be denied entry to Belarus in the future. For more information see the website of HRW.

 

Posted in HRW, human rights, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
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Human Rights Watch office in Uzbekistan closed: HRDs made more vulnerable

March 20, 2011

As a first contribution in the series “response to non-response“, here  is what happened to Human Rights Watch office in Uzbekistan, the home of the 2008 MEA Laureate Mutabar Tadjibaeva:

On 17 March 2011 Human Rights Watch reported that the Uzbek government has forced it to close its Uzbekistan office. For years the government has obstructed the organization’s work by denying visas and work accreditation to staff, but has now officially ended the presence in Tashkent after 15 years. “With the expulsion of Human Rights Watch, the Uzbek government sends a clear message that it isn’t willing to tolerate critical scrutiny of its human rights record,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “but let me be clear, too: we aren’t going to be silenced by this. We are as committed as ever to report on abuses in Uzbekistan.”

HRW added that the Uzbekistan authorities’ move is the culmination of years of harassment and an attack not just on the organisation but on all human rights defenders in the country.  It is urging the West to finally stand up to Uzbekistan’s president Islam Karimov and condemn the closure or risk making the same mistakes it did in backing autocratic regimes in the Middle East.  Steve Swerdlow, a researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW) who spent two months in Uzbekistan at the end of last year before being forced out of the country, told IPS: “The West needs to stand up and give its support for human rights and show Uzbekistanis that it is on the right side of history.”  He added: “Our closure just leaves what human rights defenders there are in Uzbekistan even more isolated and under threat”.  According to IPS the only registered local human rights monitoring group in Uzbekistan, Ezgulik, has said the regime’s move to shut down HRW would “isolate” Uzbekistan, while Uzbek human rights activist Abdurahmon Tashanov told local media that with HRW no longer in the country local rights defenders had lost their “moral support”.

Posted in HRW, human rights, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
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taking on non-response: this blogger’s lone response

March 20, 2011

One of my first posts – almost a year ago (28 April 2010) – dealt with the weakness of enforcement of internationally recognized human rights. It stated, only half-jokingly, that “the best advice one can give a tyrannical regime is to simply ignore all international condemnations, refuse to answer any queries, do not let any UN Rapporteurs or NGOs in, and after a while – usually quite quickly – the furor, if any, will dampen and the media will shine their light elsewhere, most likely where there is some degree of cooperation and access”.  It concluded with some ideas on how to counter trend:

  • Every year on 10 December, Human Rights Day, the human rights movement – through a coalition of major and representative NGOs – makes public a list of the top 10 ‘refusniks’ (countries that stand out in ‘non-cooperation’)
  • Non-enforcement of decisions by any of the UN treaty bodies will have to be strengthened (report to the General Assembly is not enough). The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights could be asked to compile annually a list of non-enforced decisions and give it the widest possible dissemination, including to the meetings of the States Parties. Persistent non-compliance should be routinely followed by inter-state complaints.
  • A business company struck of the list of the Global Compact MUST make this known in the same media and publications in which its joining was announced and with same emphasis (this should be made this part of the code). Non-compliance with this requirement should lead to an active campaign by the UN to explain why the company was struck off the list.

On the LinkedIn platform there were some encouraging reactions, but the truth is that most of the the ideas proposed could only be carried out by large groups of individuals or NGOs. However, there is one thing I can do as a lone small-time blogger, which is to highlight incidents of ‘non-response’ by States to actions concerning HRDs, such as refusing to receive missions, answer specific queries, closing offices, forbid showing of films or publications etc.; all things that tend to get less media attention than they deserve. To keep it manageable, I will limit myself – for the time being – to survey Laureates of the MEA, products of the True Heroes Foundations or actions by the 10 international NGOs on the Jury of the MEA. It may not help a lot but it is within my means to draw attention to the more hidden attacks on human rights and perhaps make that crime pay less.

Any cases you come across are most welcome.

 

Posted in human rights, MEA, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
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Nominees for the Martin Ennals Award 2011 announced today

March 12, 2011

Today Michel Veuthey. Board member of the Martin Ennals Foundation, announced the Nominees for the Martin Ennals Award 2011 during the closing ceremony of the Human Rights Film Festival in Geneva.

The five nominees are: Ms Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera (Uganda), Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerra (Mexico), Mr. Azimjon Askarov (Kyrgyzstan), Mr. Pacifique Nininahazwe (Burundi), and Ms Vilma Nuñez de Escorcia (Nicaragua).

The Martin Ennals Award is a unique collaboration of ten international human rights organisations which constitute the Jury: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, International Federation for Human Rights, World Organisation Against Torture, Front Line, International Commission of Jurists, German Diakonie, International Service for Human Rights and HURIDOCS.

For more information (English, French and Spanish) and portraits of the nominees please go to http://www.martinennalsaward.org

Posted in MEA, nominees, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
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Haitham Maleh, the lawyer of MEA Laureate Al-Hassani, amnestied in Syria

March 8, 2011

Finally some good news on the Syrian human rights front: Haitham Maleh, the lawyer of MEA Laureate 2010 Muhannad Al-Hassani and an outstanding human rights defender in his own right, has just been ‘freed’ under a Presidential Amnesty. It may take a few days before he is home. Also he is still not free to leave the country. Still, it shows there is hope for the other human rights defenders in detention in Syria.

Posted in Al-Hassani, MEA, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
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