Archive for the 'UN' Category
April 3, 2012
On 30 March
Human Rights Watch (HRW) together with the
International Partnership for Human Rights, and Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights made public a report that on the result of the Turkmen government’s hearing at the UN Human Rights Committee. Both the hearing and the original NGO submission show its abysmal human rights record. “The UN review leaves no doubt about the urgent need for human rights reform in Turkmenistan. What’s key now is to make sure the Turkmen government does what it takes to rectify abuses” stated
Veronika Szente Goldston, Europe and Central Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. Given Turkmenistan’s exceptionally poor record of cooperation with the UN’s human rights bodies, sustained external pressure is essential to enforce compliance, the organizations said.
The Turkmen government’s clampdown on freedom of expression and repression of civil society activism, torture and ill-treatment in places of detention, and the lack of an independent judiciary topped the committee’s concerns. It directed the Turkmen government to report back within one year on measures taken to address them. The committee also highlighted other important areas of concern, such as: Incommunicado detention and imprisonment and restrictions on “the exit and entry into [the country] by certain individuals. Other concerns raised by the committee include: The Law on Public Associations, which “severely restricts freedom of association; reports of the use of child labor in cotton harvesting; criminalization of homosexuality; and the “alleged use of a forced assimilation policy of ‘Turkmenisation,’ for ethnic minorities.
For the full report go to: http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/03/30/turkmenistan-damning-un-report-shows-need-urgent-action
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Tags: Central Asia, human rights, Human Rights Watch, International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR), Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, Turkmenistan, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Committee
March 23, 2012
The man pictured here is Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who has tremendous helped the OHCHR during the last years to have a more penetrating presence in the media. On this occasion on 23 March 2012, it was to warn that there must be no reprisals against Sri Lankan human rights defenders in the wake of a resolution calling on its Government to probe alleged abuses during the country’s civil war. The warning from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Navi Pillay, follows the adoption of a resolution yesterday by the
UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, calling on Sri Lanka to take “credible” steps to ensure accountability for alleged serious violations committed in 2009 during the final stages of the conflict between the Government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and to ensure accountability.
“During this Human Rights Council session, there has been an unprecedented and totally unacceptable level of threats, harassment and intimidation directed at Sri Lankan activists who had travelled to Geneva to engage in the debate, including by members of the 71-member official Sri Lankan government delegation,” said Rupert Colville, at a press briefing in Geneva. Mr. Colville said that intimidation and harassment of Sri Lankan civil society activists have also been reported in other locations around Geneva. Also, the Sri Lankan ambassador in Geneva received an anonymous threatening letter which is being followed up by the police and UN security.
At the same time, newspapers, news websites and TV and radio stations in Sri Lanka have been running, since January, a “continuous campaign of vilification,” including naming and in many cases showing images of activists, describing them as an ‘NGO gang’ and repeatedly accusing them of treason, mercenary activities and association with terrorism. “Some of these reports have contained barely veiled incitement and threats of retaliation,” Mr. Colville said. “At least two comments posted by readers of articles of this type have called for burning down of the houses of the civil society activists named in the articles, and at least one such comment called openly for them to be killed.”
The spokesperson said the High Commissioner had noted that some of the attacks on human rights defenders were carried in Sri Lankan state media and Government websites or were filed by journalists who had been officially accredited to the Council session by the Sri Lankan permanent mission. “She is calling on the Government to ensure the protection of human rights defenders, to publicly disassociate itself from such statements, and to clearly uphold the right of Sri Lankan citizens to freely engage in international debate of this kind,” Mr. Colville said.
from: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=41617&Cr=Sri%20Lanka&Cr1=
Posted in human rights, UN | 2 Comments »
Tags: Geneva, harassment, High Commissioner, Human rights defender, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Rupert Colville, Sri Lanka, United Nations Human Rights Council
March 23, 2012
This is just one good example of how students can get practically involved in work as human rights defenders. Four law students from the Indiana Purdue University Indianapolis will go to New York this week to participate in the United Nations Human Rights Committee hearing on allegations of the corporal punishment and sexual abuse of elementary school children in Cape Verde.
The four are part of a group of Robert H. McKinney School of Law students who, in partnership with Delta Cultura Cabo Verde, a Cape Verdean nongovernmental organization, researched and wrote a shadow report to a United Nations committee discussing how the government of Cape Verde has failed to combat corporal punishment and sexual abuse of school children (Articles 2, 7 & 24 of the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights).
“Writing the shadow report has been a rewarding experience. Not only do we get the practical experience of legal writing, but we learn a little more about the world and help prevent human rights violations globally,” said one of the students. Unlike periodic reports submitted by states parties, a shadow report provides U.N. human rights treaty bodies with various forms of information — including victims’ personal accounts, data and statistics —independently prepared by NGOs and details violations by states parties of a specific treaty. “Shadow reporting enables grass-roots human rights defenders to engage in United Nations human rights monitoring and enforcement mechanisms,” Program in Human Rights Law manager Perfecto Caparas said.
for more information: Diane Brown IU Communications habrown@iupui.edu
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Tags: Cape Verde, children's rights, corporal punishment, human rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, New York, sexual abuse, shadow report, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Committee
March 20, 2012
| A group of three international experts on the situation of human rights defenders has urged world governments to halt reprisals against HRDs seeking to cooperate with the United Nations and regional human rights systems. They also called on States to ease, rather than hinder, civil society’s access to the UN and regional human rights institutions.
‘Reprisals have to cease immediately and credible investigations into pending cases of reprisals have to be carried out,’ said the Rapporteurs on Human Rights Defenders from the United Nations (UN), Ms Margaret Sekaggya; the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), Ms Reine Alapini-Gansou; and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Mr José de Jesús Orozco.
‘These reprisals against individuals and/or groups engaging directly with the UN, the ACHPR and the IACHR, or otherwise providing information on particular countries’ human rights situations, take the form of smear campaigns, harassment, intimidation, direct threats, physical attacks and killings,’ they said. In an effort to safeguard the vital collaboration between civil society and the UN and regional human rights mechanisms, the three Rapporteurs appealed for enhanced monitoring of the normative agreements and rules of procedure explicitly prohibiting acts of reprisals by States and non-State actors.
‘Such steps towards full accountability for reprisals are an important preventive measure that should be combined with those that facilitate, rather than deter, civil society’s safe and unimpeded access to the UN and the regional human rights institutions,’ stressed Ms Sekaggya, Ms Alapini-Gansou and Mr Orozco.
The three international Rapporteurs also supported the recent initiative by the President of the UN Human Rights Council, Ms Laura Dupuy Lasserre, calling on Governments to immediately put an end to harassment and intimidation of individuals and groups attending the on-going session of the Human Rights Council, taking place in Geneva, Switzerland. Ms Dupuy Lasserre expressed her concern about reports of State and other representatives using aggressive and/or insulting language against civil society representatives, and photographing and filming them without their consent on UN premisses, including in the main Council’s chamber, with a view to intimidate and harass them. She announced that those accusations will be investigated.
The International Service for Human Rights in Geneva (ISHR) facilitated the process and ISHR made its own statement to the Human Rights Council today on reprisals against those that cooperate with the UN, its representatives, and mechanisms in the field of human rights.
Check the official joint statement, available in English (original), French and Spanish. |
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Tags: African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, Geneva, Human Rights Defenders, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, International Service for Human Rights, Laura Dupuy Lasserre, Margaret Sekaggya, Rapporteur, reprisals, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council
March 15, 2012
On March 8 and 9, 2012, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), organised the fourth “inter-mechanisms” meeting, which was hosted by the Office of the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva, Switzerland. This is a unique informal platform where under Chatham House Rules key actors meet to fine tune standards and mechanisms for Human Rights Defenders.
On this occasion, international and regional mechanisms and programmes for the protection of human rights defenders – operating within the United Nations, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), the Council of Europe, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights(IACHR) and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights – joined by representatives of the European Union, the International Organisation of the Francophonie and various NGOs, discussed the drafting of a joint report on existing standards and recommendations related to the protection of human rights defenders at the international and regional levels. IACHR offered to take a coordinating role in drafting the report, with the back up of the Observatory. This report would be inspired by the 2011 Commentary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and the IACHR Second Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders. Such a document, the first of its kind, will not only be a useful tool to human rights defenders, States and other relevant stakeholders, but will also demonstrate a unity of approaches among mechanisms.
Participants also shared their experiences and lessons learnt in order to identify possible ways tostrengthen the coordination and cooperation among existing mandates on the protection of human rights defenders. In particular, action-oriented discussions focused on how to ensure accountability for human rights violations against human rights defenders, which is a central issue for all mechanisms and programmes in order to combat impunity.
Participants also discussed core policy challenges affecting the protection of human rights defenders in relation to freedom of association, as well as possibilities of cooperation with the newly appointed UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. A specific focus on the right to receive and access funding, including foreign funding was discussed, reflecting renewed preoccupations by mechanisms on restrictions by States in this regard. These issues should be further discussed during a future inter-mechanisms meeting, to be organised by the Observatory.
For more information, please contact :
• OMCT : Delphine Reculeau : + 41 22 809 49 39
• FIDH : Karine Appy / Arthur Manet : + 33 1 43 55 25 18
Concrete steps towards better protection of human rights defenders / March 15, 2012 / Urgent Interventions / Human rights defenders / OMCT.
Posted in FIDH, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, OMCT, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Council of Europe, FIDH, Human Rights Defenders, IACHR, international community, NGOs, Observatory for the Protection of HRDs, OIF, OMCT, OSCE, Special Rapporteur, UN
March 13, 2012
If it was not so serious a subject, the Iranian government’s response to the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran could be considered comical. On June 17, 2011, the UN Human Rights Council named former Maldivian Foreign Minister Ahmed Shaheed as its human rights investigator on Iran. Numerous reports including this blog reported last year that Iran was not willing to cooperate with this rapporteur. So it is a bit much to hear now the official complaint that the Rapporteur has relied on “political motivations based on news provided by terrorist groups”. On Monday 12 March, a senior Iranian official censured Shaheed for his biased report against the Islamic Republic with the following words: “The documents presented by Ahmed Shaheed in this report were extracted from the resources and groups which are terrorist and are known as undesirable elements all over the world,” (Director-General of the Iranian Presidential Office for International Affairs Mohammad Reza Forqani speaking to FNA).
Government spokesman Mehman-Parast’s statement that “Iran is ready to cooperate with human rights bodies like the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights” now sounds utterly unbelievable.
Fars News Agency :: Spokesman Criticizes UNs Biased Report on Irans Human Rights.
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Tags: Ahmed Shaheed, Human Rights Council, Iran, UN, United Nations Special Rapporteur
February 19, 2012
On 6 March 2012, the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) will organise a side-event to United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, where UN and Latin American experts will come together to study and publicize the conditions of human rights defenders working in the Americas.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ (IACHR) has it own Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, Mr José de Jesús Orozco. His report will highlights an increase in assassinations, extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances of human rights defenders in the region since 2006, particularly in those countries where democratic rule is interrupted, where there is internal armed conflict, or where clashes occur between defenders and organised crime groups or powerful economic actors. In response, the IACHR has ordered many American States to take specific action to protect defenders. These protection measures have been issued primarily to Colombia (27 percent), Guatemala (24 percent), and Honduras (9 percent).
At the same event, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, Ms Margaret Sekaggya will present ISHR’s report on the situation of defenders in Colombia. The findings are the result of research into whether recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur have been effectively implemented in Colombia, following her visit to the country in 2009. The report portrays a Colombian Government showing a more constructive attitude in its dealings with human rights defenders. However, it also identifies a failure to mainstream this attitude among local authorities, a worrying increase in attacks on human rights defenders in the past year, and the limited success of State authorities in investigating and addressing such attacks. Executive Director of the Colombian Commission of Jurists, Mr Gustavo Gallón will go on to provide a civil society view on the ISHR report and the situation of defenders in Colombia.
Further information about the event can be downloaded here.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | 1 Comment »
Tags: Colombia, Geneva, Guatemala, Honduras, Human Rights Defenders, ISHR, José de Jesús Orozco, Latin America, Margaret Sekaggya, United Nations Special Rapporteur
February 16, 2012
While many of us are in despair over the inaction by the Security Council due to the exercise of a veto on geopolitical grounds, one high level official, Mrs Pillay, at least speaks out relentlessly, recently at the General Assembly of the UN in New York. The short video here embedded was uploaded by the UN:
States must “act now” to protect Syrian people, UN human rights chief tells General Assembly – YouTube.
Posted in films, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: arrests, civil war, General Assembly, human rights violations, humanitarian law, mass killings, Pillay, sexual violence, Syria, torture, UN, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
February 15, 2012
Gulfnews reports that Iraq’s first human rights film festival,
Baghdad Eye, will be launched on February 25. The films selected for the inaugural festival are documentaries and feature films, addressing human rights issues in three major areas: violence and discrimination against women, children’s rights and freedom of thought and expression. Screenings will be followed by discussions involving academics, researchers and people specialising in Iraq ‘s human-rights issues. Organisers hope it will help Iraqis understand and claim their rights. Some of festival events will be taken to the cities of Basra, Najaf and Salahuddin. Baghdad Eye was launched with the support from the Czech non-government organisation, People In Need, as well as the
United Nations Development Programme,
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The Iraqi Association for the Support of Culture, an independent, non-profit organisation that supports cultural activity and production in the country, was founded in 2005 by a group of Iraqi intellectuals, including the late artists Mohammad Ghani Hikmet and Muayid Ni’meh. The Independent Film & Television College was founded in 2004 by Iraqi filmmakers Kasim Abid and Maysoon Pachachi, as a free-of-charge TV and film training and development centre that supports students, provides them with equipment to make their own films and informs them of training courses inside the country and abroad. source: http://gulfnews.com/news/region/iraq/iraq-to-hold-first-human-rights-film-festival-1.981075
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Tags: Baghdad Eye, film festival, human rights, Iraq, People in Need, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Unesco, United Nations Development Programme
January 16, 2012
Image via Wikipedia
Alex Fitzpatrick sat down with Nancy Groves, social media manager at UN headquarters in New York. Groves is part of the Secretariat, the UN body charged with carrying out the day-to-day work of the organization. She maintains an active presence on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, Tumblr and other networks.
Interesting enough she mentions in the interview that the ‘Be a Human Rights Defender’ campaign was in fact the UN’s most successful social effort to date. Under the “Be a Human Rights Defender” campaign, created to celebrate Human Rights Day, Groves’s team pushed out 30 different articles on human rights, each centered around one article in the Declaration of Human Rights. People that shared the articles were titled “Human Rights Defenders.” Groves said it was an excellent way to spread knowledge about rights that a lot of people aren’t aware they have.
from: http://mashable.com/2012/01/14/united-nations/
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Tags: google, Human Rights Day, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, nancy groves
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 