Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards

Last Friday – 15 October 2010 – I had the honour to introduce MUHANNAD AL-HASSANI, the 2010 Laureate of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. The ceremony took place at the beautiful Victoria Hall in Geneva in front of an audience of five hundred people and with more watching it on the internet because the event was being streamed in English as well as Arabic.

I first briefed the audience on what happened to Emad Baghi, last year’s Laureate from Iran. He was arrested at his home on December 28, 2009 and detained without charge. After elaborate campaigns NGOs on the Jury and many others, he was released on bail in June this year.  However, immediately the regime revived the pending charges against him and in July and September Baghi was sentenced to respectively one and six years in prison and banned from media and political activities for five years. He remains free from imprisonment for now, pending an appeal, but he and other human rights defenders in Iran should not be forgotten.

al hassani in court

Al-Hassani was unanimously selected as Laureate 2010 by the MEA Jury which is composed of 10 leading human rights NGOs. If Al-Hassani looked sad on the huge posters that were placed throughout Geneva there are good reasons. He was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment for – pay attention to the dangerously vague wording – “weakening national sentiments” and “spreading false news” and…, on top of it, he had to prove his own innocence against these ludicrous charges. Muhannad Al-Hassani, as a well-established lawyer, has challenged the oppressive legal framework imposed by the Syrian government. He decided to report on legal proceedings before the State Security Court (which are supposed to be public). His NGO Swasiya has been denied registration for the past six years. He has been subjected to a travel ban and his office and communications have been under constant surveillance by Syrian security. I think that the Government of Syria should understand that its efforts to gain respect in the international community will lack credibility as long as it keeps imprisoning those defending human rights. In addition, in an appalling demonstration of servility to the Government, the Syrian Bar Association in 2009 prohibited Mr Al-Hassani from practicing law for the rest of his life… It should be the Bar Association itself that is debarred and I hope that the International Bar Association will soon address this shocking issue. The single most important goal of the Martin Ennals Award is to increase the visibility of Mr Al-Hassani’s situation and that of the many other Human Rights Defenders in Syria. The ceremony in Geneva was a show of solidarity with Al-Hassani and his family, who were not allowed to travel to Geneva and receive the award.