The Human Rights Funders Network announces a WEBINAR: “Uncalculated Risks: How funders can address threats to human rights defenders in development” to be held on 14 January 2020.
Posts Tagged ‘announcement’
Save the date: 14 January 2020 Webinar on protection of human rights defenders in development
December 1, 2019International Commission of Jurists tries fundraising Gala in Geneva
September 25, 2019
The ICJ is organizing its first fundraising Gala concert on Monday 14 October at 7:30pm in the Palais Eynard, 4 rue de la Croix Rouge, Geneva. The event will support the ICJ and its fight for the defense of the Rule of Law in the world and marks the end of the series of events we organized for our 60th anniversary in the city of human rights. The theme of our Gala will be: “Geneva, the Defense of the Rule of Law: What can I do?”
After a welcome from the Mayor of Geneva and an introduction from Me Pierre de Preux, former Bâtonnier of the Geneva Bar, ICJ Commissioners including Sir Nicolas Bratza (former President of the European Court of Human Rights), Dame Silvia Cartwright (former Judge and Governor General of New Zealand), Professor Bob Goldman (ICJ President and former President of the Inter-american Commission on Human Rights) and Ms Roberta Clarke (ICJ Executive Chair, UN Women’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific) will give concrete answers to this question. The evening is also to enjoy a Concert of the ‘Soloists of the Menuhin Academy’ and the cocktail after that.
Rafto Prize 2019 announcement live streamed on 26 September
September 16, 2019
You can watch the Rafto Prize 2019 announcement live stream on 26 September at 10:00 AM (cest) on their site and on Facebook. Follow social media for news and updates: @RaftoFoundation #rafto2019. For more on this and other awards for human rights defenders see: http://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/rafto-prize. for lats year’s award: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2018/09/27/polish-ombudsman-adam-bodnar-winner-of-2018-rafto-award/
The Rafto Conference with a keynote address by the Rafto Laureate will take place 2 November at 11:00-14:00 at Universitetsaulaen, Bergen and the award ceremony the next day 3 November at 18:00 also in Bergen.
SAVE THE DATE: Martin Ennals Award 2019 – Wednesday 13 February
December 5, 2018
On Wednesday 13 February 2019, at 18:00 the Ceremony of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders will take place at the Salle communale de Plainpalais, Geneva. The City of Geneva and the Martin Ennals Foundation invite you to attend and register now on the Martin Ennals Award’s website. The ceremony is organized with the support of the Republic and Canton of Geneva.
The 2019 finalists [for more information see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2018/10/24/breaking-news-ennals-award-announces-its-3-finalists-for-2019/]
Eren Keskin (Turkey) is a lawyer who has been fighting for the rights of women, Kurds and the LGBTI community for over thirty years. She has been sentenced to 12 years in prison in March 2018, but is free while her case is under appeal.
Abdul Aziz Muhamat (Sudan) has been detained by Australia for 5 years in a detention centre for asylum seekers on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. He is a strong advocate for the rights of asylum seekers. [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2018/12/04/mea-nominee-aziz-abdul-muhamat-suffers-under-australias-endless-detention-policy/]
Marino Cordoba (Colombia) is an activist fighting for the political recognition and rights of the Afro-Colombian community, many of whom have been dispossessed of their land for the benefit of mining and forestry companies.
The laureate will be selected from among these three 2019 finalists:
The jury: The finalists and laureate are selected by the Jury of the Martin Ennals Award, made up of ten of the world’s leading human rights organizations: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, FIDH, World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), Front Line Defenders, the International Commission of Jurists, Brot für die Welt, the International Service for Human Rights and HURIDOCS.
Screening of documentaries on the finalists and reception
Short documentaries on the life of these finalists will be screened for the first time, giving a glimpse of their fight and the particularly difficult conditions in which they work. The evening will conclude with a reception hosted by the City of Geneva, allowing the 2019 finalists, the Geneva community of human rights and the public to exchange in an informal setting. Last year’s film portrait of the laureate can be seen here.
The 2019 Martin Ennals Award on social media:
– its Facebook event
– on Twitter: @martinennals #Ennals2019
Laureates of the 2018 Right Livelihood Award announced
September 24, 2018
The Laureates of this year’s Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’, have been announced this morning at the International Press Centre at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm, Sweden. This years’ Honorary Award goes to anti-corruption champions Thelma Aldana (Guatemala) & Iván Velásquez (Colombia). The three cash awards go to civil and human rights defenders Abdullah al-Hamid, Mohammad Fahad al-Qahtani and Waleed Abu al-Khair (Saudi Arabia), the farmer Yacouba Sawadogo (Burkina Faso), known as “the man who stopped the desert”, and the agronomist Tony Rinaudo (Australia). See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2017/02/28/saudi-arabia-imprisoned-waleed-abu-al-khair-receives-another-human-rights-award/; https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/mohammad-fahd-al-qahtani; https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/abdullah-al-hamid/
“The Laureates’ trailblazing work for accountability, democracy and the regeneration of degraded land gives tremendous hope and deserves the world’s highest attention. At a time of alarming environmental decline and failing political leadership, they show the way forward into a very different future,” comments Ole von Uexkull, Executive Director of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation. For more on the award see: http://trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/right-livelihood-award
The Award presentation will take place on 23 November at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, followed by public events and high-level meetings in Geneva, Zurich and Berlin.
Right Livelihood Award 2018 to be announced on 24 September
September 21, 2018The Laureates of this year’s Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’, will be announced on Monday, 24 September. The announcement will take place in Stockholm at 09:00 (CEST) at the International Press Centre at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Fredsgatan 6, and streamed live via rightlivelihoodaward.org.
For more information and registration please read the full press release.
for more on the award see: http://trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/right-livelihood-award
Oslo Freedom Forum now also in Johannesburg (26 March 2018)
February 3, 2018
HRF and Nelson Mandela Foundation Will Produce OFF in Johannesburg this March
On 26 March, 2018, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) will bring the Oslo Freedom Forum experience and community together for the first-ever Oslo Freedom Forum in Johannesburg (OFFinJoburg). In 2017, HRF established a collaboration with the Nelson Mandela Foundation to bring the Oslo Freedom Forum to South Africa in 2018, the 100th anniversary of Mandela’s birth. OFFinJoburg will be held in Bryanston, Johannesburg, and live-streamed. You can register for the event here.
Speakers at OFFinJoburg will include Zimbabwean civil rights activist and #ThisFlag movement leader Evan Mawarire, former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed, Moroccan-born French free expression advocate and journalist Zineb El Rhazoui, Arab Spring writer and journalist Iyad el-Baghdadi, Chinese-Canadian actress and human rights activist Anastasia Lin, Angolan investigative journalist Rafael Marques de Morais, and Eritrean information activist and refugee rescuer Meron Estefanos, among others.
10th OSLO FREEDOM FORUM takes place from 28-30 May 2018
January 21, 2018The 2018 Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) marks the 10th anniversary of the annual gathering of human rights defenders with creative entrepreneurs, courageous reporters, technologists, and artists, united by their commitment to making today’s world more peaceful, prosperous, and free.
The 2018 Oslo Freedom Forum will feature powerful stories of courage, struggle, perseverance, and resilience in the face of tyranny. It celebrates the real-life heroes who have become an essential global human rights community that has broken barriers between nations and united activists in the struggle for freedom.
The Oslo Freedom Forum is open only to registered participants. Events will be live-streamed at oslofreedomforum.com and you can follow along on social media for on-the-ground coverage.
Contact info@oslofreedomforum.com with any questions.
………
Protection International’s next e-learning course on Security starts 19 February
January 17, 2018Protection International announced its next e-learning course starting on 19 February 2018. There are limited places available and the deadline for registration is 26 January 2018(contact: e-learning@protectioninternational.org). 
The topic is: SECURITY AND PROTECTION MANAGEMENT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS AND SOCIAL ORGANISATIONS
The course will help human rights defenders to:
- Acquire tools and skills to assess risks and improve their security and protection
- Contribute to the security and protection of those whose rights HRDs are defending
- To improve HRDs security and protection strategies when protecting human rights defenders
The training is done by human rights protection experts with extensive experience. 3. 5 hours per week (60 hours over 12 weeks). Tailored feedback on assignments given as well as direct tutorship.
For last year’s: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2016/04/09/on-line-training-course-for-better-protection-of-human-rights-defenders/
breaking news: Egyptian defender Mohammed Zaree laureate of the Martin Ennals Award 2017
October 10, 2017
Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders
The Jury of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, the highest accolade in the international human rights moment, has just announced that Mohamed Zaree, a human rights lawyer from Egypt, has been selected as the 2017 Laureate. The announcement was made on 10 October at 18h30, during the annual ceremony in Geneva. You can still follow it through live streaming at this very moment: via: https://www.facebook.com/villegeneve.ch/.
Mohamed Zaree is a human rights activist and legal scholar whose work focuses on human rights advocacy around freedom of expression and association. He is also known for his role as the Egypt Country Director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), which works throughout the Arabic speaking world. He assumed this role after government pressure on CIHRS prompted them to relocate their headquarters to Tunis in 2014.
The Egyptian government has been escalating its pressure on the human rights movement. Human rights NGOs and defenders are confronted with a growing wave of threats, harassment, and intimidation, legal and otherwise. Despite this, Zaree continues to lead CIHRS’ research, human rights education, and national advocacy initiatives in Egypt and is shaping the media debate on human rights issues. During this critical period for civil society, he is also leading the Forum of Independent Egyptian Human Rights NGOs, a network aiming to unify human rights groups in advocacy. Zaree’s initiatives have helped NGOs to develop common approaches to human rights issues in Egypt. Within the context of the renewed crackdown on Egyptian human rights organizations, he has become a leading figure in Egypt’s human rights movement. Zaree is currently facing investigation under the “Foreign Funding Case” and is at high risk of prosecution and life imprisonment. The “Foreign Funding Case” highly restricts NGO activities. Despite this, Zaree continues to engage the authorities in dialogue wherever possible, arguing that respect for human rights will increase stability in Egypt. Zaree has been under a travel ban since May 2016.
Martin Ennals Foundation Chair Dick Oosting stated: “Severe restriction of civil society’s space to express itself is what led Mohamed Zaree to advocate for human rights and fight for the freedom of association. He is still paying the price for his courageous acts, and we urge his government to lift the travel ban.”
The unique composition of the Jury of the MEA [a coöperation by 10 global human rights organizations, see www.martinennalsaward.org for more detail] makes this award the most important prize in the human rights world. It is supported by the City of Geneva.
The two other finalists also received Martin Ennals prizes:
Karla Avelar (El Salvador)
FreeThe5KH (Cambodia)
For more on the award see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2017/09/18/ceremony-of-the-24th-martin-ennals-award-coming-up-on-10-october. and
http://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/martin-ennals-award-for-human-rights-defenders
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 