The Film Festival and International Forum on Human Rights (better known under its French name ‘Le Festival du Film et Forum International sur les Droits Humains’ and acronym: FIFDH) made public on 4 March that the film maker Mohammad Malas was arrested at the Syrian-Lebanese border on his way to Geneva to present his film, Ladder to Damascus (La montée vers Damas – 2013). [Mohammad Malas, born in 1945, is the most famous Syrian film – his 1992 film The Night was considered to be among the top 10 Arab films according to The Guardian. This film was banned for 4 years in Syria.] for more information please contact: L Elisabeth Pfund e.pfund[at]fifdh.ch – Tel +41 (0) 022 809 69 03.
Posts Tagged ‘arbitrary arrest’
Car chase in Kuwait: Bedoun Human Rights Defender the target
February 27, 2014
reports that on 24 February 2014, human rights defender Abdulhakim Al Fadhli was chased by state security cars and then taken to state security headquarters, where he remains in detention. Earlier that day, human rights defenders Mr Nawaf Al Hendal and Ms Hadil Abo Qoreis were summonsed via news broadcasts to appear before state security investigations service. Abdulhakim Al Fadhli had also been unofficially informed of a summons against him. As in a B-film, state security cars, chasing Abdulhakim Al Fadhli, Read the rest of this entry »
China Update: human rights defenders suffer but Ukraine is not (yet) an example
February 26, 2014On the heels of my post yesterday on Cao Shunli‘s health (https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/02/25/serious-concern-for-health-of-detained-human-rights-defender-cao-shunli/), exiled, blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng laments that China is cracking down harder than ever on human rights defenders, but says (somewhat unrealistically I should add) that the leadership should brace for a Ukraine-style uprising. “It is possible for the Chinese to have a similar revolution to the one in Ukraine. It could happen any time,” Chen told Nina Larson of AFP on 25 February in Geneva. “There are many, so very man arrests“, mentioning just as an example the arrest late last month of the parents of human rights activist Xue Mingkai, who had spent four years in prison for joining a banned party. While in custody, the father, Xue Fushun, plunged to his death from a window several stories up, in what police said was a suicide.
Frontline Defenders informed us a bit earlier that on 29 January 2014, the verdicts were released in the trials of human rights defenders, Mr Yuan Dong and Ms Hou Xin, both of whom are affiliated with the New Citizens’ Movement and had been facing charges of “gathering a crowd to disrupt public order”. Yuan Dong was sentenced to 18 months in prison, whilst Hou Xin was found guilty but did not receive a sentence. Yuan Dong and Hou Xin were originally detained, along with Zhang Baocheng and Ma Xinli, on charges of “illegal assembly” on 31 March 2013 [http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/22993] after banners with slogans such as “require officials to publicly disclose public assets” were allegedly unfurled during a rally in Xidan Cultural Plaza in Beijing’s Xicheng district. Hou Xin had only been photographically documenting the rally.
Besides the recent sentencing to four years imprisonment of one of the founders of the New Citizens’ Movement, Mr Xu Zhiyong, many more human rights defenders affiliated with the movement remain in detention (https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/01/24/xu-zhiyongs-closing-statement-to-the-court-a-remarkable-document/)
On the other hand, on 25 February 2014 it was confirmed that Ilham Tohti (feared disappeared) has now been formally arrested on charges of “splitting the country” and is being held in a detention centre in Xinjiang province. (https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/has-uyghur-professor-ilham-tohti-disappeared-in-china/
For the full interview with Chen: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jLVlcgDJvTALGKEGE8kNJd3E43cA?docId=baf85933-271a-42b9-8e34-8210a195cbee
By the way China’s extraordinary sensitivity to ‘interference’ of any level into what it considers its domestic affairs is well-known. I touched upon this ‘hot’ topic’ in my own 2011 article “The international human rights movement: not perfect, but a lot better than many governments think” in the book ‘NGOs in China and Europe’ (exceptionally also published in Chinese!): Yuwen Li (ed), Ashgate, 2011, pp 287-304 (ISBN: 978-1-4094-1959-4).
Solidarity Foundation for Human Rights reports two human rights defenders kidnapped in Nablus
February 26, 2014On 25 February 2014 the International Middle East Media Centre [IMEMC] carries a report from the Palestinian Solidarity Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR) that Israeli soldiers kidnapped on Tuesday its lawyer and its researcher, after the army violently invaded their homes in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
The lawyer is Fares Riyad Abu al-Hasan and the researcher Ahmad Hamed al-Beetawy. The NGO said dozens of soldiers invaded the home of Abu al-Hasan, in the Rojeeb Housing Projects area, east of Nablus, and kidnapped him after violently searching his home causing property damage. The soldiers detonated the door of Abu al-Hasan’s home, invading the place and terrifying the family. They also interrogated Abu al-Hasan’s father for more than an hour, and confiscated documents and files. Abu al-Hasan was moved to the Petah Tikva interrogation facility. The soldiers also detonated the front door of the home of Ahmad al-Beetawy, and invaded the property in the Dahia area, south of Nablus, searched it for more than an hour and kidnapped him.
The foundation said that the soldiers also invaded its office in al-Isra’ building, in the center of Nablus city, and confiscated computers and files after violently searching the property.
via Two Palestinian Human Rights Defenders Kidnapped In Nablus – International Middle East Media Center.
UN Working Group concludes that detention of human rights defenders in Iran is arbitrary
February 6, 2014In an opinion adopted on 20 November 2013, the United Nations UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention [WGAD] requested the release of Iranian human rights defenders Khosro Kordpour and Massoud Kordpour from arbitrary detention. The WGAD carried out its investigation pursuant to an appeal by the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and informed the Observatory (an FIDH-OMCT joint program me) of its decision on 4 February, 2014.
Read the rest of this entry »
Justice maybe on its way for some Human Rights Defenders in Honduras
January 17, 2014As reported by Front Line Defenders, on 9 January 2014, the Appeals Court of Comayagua provisionally suspended the case against Honduran human rights defenders Ms Berta Cáceres and Messrs Tomás Gómez and Aureliano Molina. They had been facing charges of usurpation of land, coercion, and causing more than $3 million in damages to DESA, a hydroelectric dam company. The Court further reversed a decision to displace the indigenous Lenca community from their ancestral lands, and revoked the arrest warrant which had been in place against the human rights defenders. No court date has been set for the final decision in the case. Berta Cáceres is the general co-ordinator of Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Indígenas Populares – COPINH (Civic Council of Popular Indigenous Organisations). Tomás Gómez Membreño and Aureliano Molina are also members of COPINH which is working on land, environmental and indigenous rights, particularly in relation to large-scale development projects.
Front Line Defenders welcomes the provisional suspension but remains concerned that the case has not been permanently suspended. It notes that the case comes in the context large-scale development projects impinging on environmental rights and the rights of indigenous people, and that the principle of free, prior and informed consent is not being fully respected. [for earlier info: http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/22872]
Political arrests in Cuba in 2013 numbered again over 5,000
January 9, 2014Camilo Ganga – pseudonym of a journalist living in Havana – reported that independent Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation [CCDHRN] recorded 5,301 politically-motivated arrests in [the first 11 months of] 2013 in Cuba. A slight fall on 2012 !!! Read the rest of this entry »
Week of Action against crackdown on Cambodian garment workers: 10 January
January 8, 2014
While we were celebrating the New Year, Cambodian garment workers protesting for a rise in wages faced a violent police crackdown on 2 January 2014. Freedom Park in Phnom Penh was forcibly cleared by police and mass actions are now banned from the site. Violent crackdowns were instigated by Cambodian military when workers of the Yak Jin factory held a protest asking for a salary increase. Soldiers threatened protesters with “metal pipes, knives, AK47 rifles, slingshots and batons” and arrested 10 people, including monks and human rights defenders. On 3 January, protesters rallied at the Canadia industrial park and were met with live ammunition, teargas and grenades, leading to a violent clash that ended in 4 dead and 21 wounded. In all, 23 people have been arrested, their location unknown.
[Cambodia’s garment industry comprises 500,000 workers, a majority of whom are women from the rural areas. It provides products for western brands such as H&M, Adidas, GAP, and Walmart. Some of the factories are Korean-owned.]
A group of NGOs is organizing a Week of Action at international level. For more info write to apwld[at]apwld.org – a campaign kit will be available at apwld.org
For more information:
- https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Prime_Minister_Hun_Sen_Protect_right_to_peaceful_protest_and_end_military_crackdown_in_Cambodia/?copy
- http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/veng-sreng%E2%80%99s-voices
- http://www.licadho-cambodia.org/
- http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/mr-hun-sen-stop-the-brutal-suppression-of-workers-and-trade-unions-in-cambodia-3?share_id=fWYMRTjTIn&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition
Global Week of Action against Gov’t Crackdown on Cambodian Protesters.
Chehem Gadito: a case of arbitrary detention in Djibouti
December 22, 2013
Djibouti is not the best covered part of the world. Therefore I forward this case of Mohamed Chehem Gadito, brought to my attention by the Djibouti Observatory for the Promotion of Democracy and Human Rights [ODDH in its French abbreviation]. According to the ODDH this is a glaring example of the situation of human rights in Djibouti. The young activist was arrested at a meeting of the opposition on Friday 6 December 2013 and officially released 12 December by the Chamber of flagrante delicto, the court of first instance in Djibouti. Unfortunately, he was again arrested by the police at the threshold of the Gabode prison. Placed in illegal detention he was again presented to the court on 17 December which again ruled in favor of an immediate release. Unfortunately, Chehem Gadito was once again placed back into custody. Several members of his family who were waiting outside the Gabode prison were also arrested and forcibly shipped to Nagad, an administrative detention center intended for illegal aliens. Faced with this denial of justice, Chehem Gadito began a hunger strike. This case highlights the failure of the judiciary in its role as guardian of individual freedom and for ensuring compliance with this principle as provided by law.
Countries in the Horn of Africa: Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia
Mona Seif reports on crackdown in Egypt including her brother’s case
December 6, 2013By Mona Seif, founder of ‘No to Military Trials for Civilians’ and Final Nominee 2013 of the MEA reports in some detail the following:
“Egyptian Activists Arrested in Growing Crackdown – Activist Alaa Abd El Fattah one of at least 27 people currently charged under Egypt’s new anti-protest law
Mona Seif, Egypt – Final Nominee MEA 2013
Egypt is facing a growing crackdown on political protest and dissent. This week has seen the arrest of 27 political activists under the cover of a new law designed to effectively ban protest in Egypt. On November 26th the well-known and internationally respected activist group, No to Military Trials for Civilians, called for a demonstration in front of the Shoura Council (the Upper House of the Egyptian parliament) to protest the failure of the current draft constitution to legislate against the military court martials of civilians. The entirely peaceful protest was met with serious force by the police, who attacked demonstrators with a water cannon and tear gas while arresting as many people as they could. At least 51 people were arrested that day. Read the rest of this entry »
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 