Posts Tagged ‘Claudia Samayoa’
December 10, 2019
At the occasion of international human rights day 2019, the Carter Center published “Human Rights Defenders: In Their Own Words“, a selection of participants at the 12th Human Rights Defenders Forum in Atlanta [see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2019/10/22/carter-centre-wants-to-preserve-the-stories-of-human-rights-defenders/]:
“The right to defend human rights is a right already recognized. We have to be mindful and careful and state clearly that no one should be defamed, persecuted, prosecuted, or killed because they exercise their right to defend rights, regardless of their political position.”
CLAUDIA SAMAYOA
Unidad de Protección a Defensoras y Defensores de Derechos Humanos
Guatemala
and
ALEJANDRA SERRANO PAVÓN
Environmental Law Alliance
Mexico
“We believe that if people understand the concept of human rights and are able to apply it to their lives, then there will be more peaceful coexistence. Then government can cut down on the bills for buying arms and ammunitions. Then development can take place because everybody’s living peacefully and they’re able to go about their normal businesses fully.”
HALIMAT JIBRIL
Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN)
Nigeria
“We have seen the rise of many youth-led movements around the world, and these young protesters are speaking out and standing up not just on the issue of environmental crisis, but also on land rights, on democracy. All of them are using the internet as a tool not just for communication but also for organizing and mobilizing these campaigns. One concrete way we can support youth-led movements is to make sure that these internet tools remain accessible, safe, and truly empowering.”
RAYMOND “MONG” PALATINO
Global Voices
The Philippines
“The Palestinian people, just like all people around the world, are seeking the preservation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And when that is undermined in one part of the world, it is undermined everywhere. I feel like the Palestinian situation is just a microcosm of global injustice. If we can solve one, we can solve the other. But big problems require collective minds.”
WESAM AHMAD
Al-Haq
Palestine
“Every time that we’ve had significant change in our country, religion has been at the heart of it. It’s been part of what motivates people. It speaks to our values. To neglect religion in thinking about human rights would be to neglect a huge part of the resources that we have in taking on the injustices we face.”
COLLEEN WESSEL-MCCOY
Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice
United States
“Solidarity is not about ‘me’; it’s about ‘we.’ It’s about just being there – not being ahead of somebody or behind somebody, but standing with them.”
STACEY HOPKINS
Activist
United States
“The relationship we build between people is the greatest wealth we can have. It is beyond money. It goes beyond what you have in your bank account. When you have a good relationship with the people – your friends, your family, your colleagues – that is a good foundation to build a country.”
HALIDOU NGAPNA
Carter Center Human Rights House
Democratic Republic of Congo
“In 1996, we embedded human rights into our three-year program. Immediately, we started seeing change. It was like a revolution. Community members started coming out and promoting their own rights, started talking about their responsibilities. This was possible because we talked about all the aspects of human rights – economic rights, cultural rights, political rights, and civil rights. After people understood human rights, we started seeing changes in deeply rooted cultural practices, including female genital cutting and child marriage. They started having dialogues around gender-based violence against women and girls. Women started taking political positions, because they now understood they have the right to vote, and the right to be elected. Things started changing.”
GODFREY OCHIENG OKUMU
Tostan International
Senegal
“If you’re not indifferent, the world will be different. Challenging our own indifferences is extremely important.”
RAMESH SHARMA
Ekta Parishad
India
“In 2015, our lives began to change completely. We lost our jobs; we lost our homes; we lost our country; we lost our dignity. But we did not lose hope, and we will never lose hope.”
MUNA LUQMAN
Food4Humanity
Yemen
“The motto of our organization is taken from John 17:21, which says, ‘That all of them may be one.’ If all should be one, there should be no violence, there should be no quarrel, there should be no killing. For all of us to be one, there must be love. There must be peace. There must be unity. And there must be togetherness.”
VICTORIA BOLANLE IHESIULOR
Christian Association of Nigeria, Women’s Wing
Nigeria
https://www.cartercenter.org/news/features/p/human_rights/hrdf-in-their-own-words.html
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Tags: 10 december 2019, Claudia Samayoa, Democratic Republic Congo, Guatemala, Halidou Ngapna, Halimat Jibril, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights Defenders Forum (Carter), international human rights day, Muna Luqman, Nigeria, Palestine, photos, USA, Wesam Ahmad, Yemen
September 19, 2017
organizes on 21 September 2017 an important side event: “Ending Reprisals: Discussion with Human Rights Defenders and Experts”. The purpose of this discussion is to contribute to the critical debate on developing and strengthening procedures to prevent and address reprisals at the UN, ensuring that the voices of defenders are at the front and centre of the discussion.
This panel coincides with the presentation of the Secretary-General’s annual report on Cooperation with the United Nations, its representatives and mechanisms in the field of human rights (‘the reprisals report’) at the Council’s current session. [for some of my earlier posts on this crucial topic see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/reprisals/]
Panelists:
- Michel Forst, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
- Peggy Hicks, Director of Thematic Engagement, Special Procedures and Right to Development Division, OHCHR
- Claudia Samayoa (UDEFEGUA), Human Rights Defender from Guatemala
- Ellecer Carlos (iDEFEND & PAHRA), Human Rights Defender from the Philippines
- Women human rights defender from Burundi, member of the MFFPS
Moderator: Tess McEvoy, Legal Counsel, ISHR
(Attendance with UNOG pass only.)
Source: Invitation: Thursday 21 September, 3.00pm – Ending Reprisals: Discussion with Human Rights Defenders and Experts
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Council, Human Rights Defenders, ISHR | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Claudia Samayoa, Ellecer Carlos, Geneva, Guatemala, Human Rights Defenders, ISHR, Michel Forst, Peggy Hicks, Philippines, reprisals, side event, UN Human Rights Council
December 5, 2013
The Alice Zachmann Human Rights Defenders Award recognizes an individual, organization or community from Guatemala who has demonstrated a commitment to the defense of human rights through non-violent methods, and for which he/she has been exposed to threats, violence and/or other attacks. The award serves as a means to highlight the struggle of the recipient on an international level and represents a commitment by GHRC to provide ongoing support.
The award giver, the Guatemala Human Rights Commission [GHRC] presented the 2013 Award to the Guatemalan Human Rights Defenders Unit (UDEFEGUA) Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Advocacy Organizations, Alice Zachmann Human Rights Defenders Award, awards, Claudia Samayoa, Guatemala, Guatemala Human Rights Commission, Guatemalan Human Rights Defenders Unit, Human right, Human Rights and Liberties, human rights award, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Non-governmental organization, UDEFEGUA, woman human rights defender
May 2, 2013
A coalition of seven female Nobel Prize winners, including Dr. Rigoberta Menchú Tum of Guatemala, called April 25 for the trial of former dictator Efraín Rios Montt to proceed. Montt was indicted in January for genocide and crimes against humanity, including widespread rape. The trial in Guatemala City was suspended last week mere days before observers expected it to conclude when a lower court judge on April 18 unexpectedly issued a ruling on a legal technicality. Guatemala’s attorney general has called the ruling illegal. The trial marks the first time a head of state has been tried for genocide by his own country’s justice system. Rios Montt is accused of ordering the killings of over 1,700 Ixil Maya people in 1982 and 1983, when he was army general and de-facto president of Guatemala. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, THF | 1 Comment »
Tags: Claudia Samayoa, crimes against humanity, Efraín Ríos Montt, genocide, Guatemala, Guatemala City, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, impunity, Ixil people, Nobel Prize, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Rios Montt, Trial, Truthout, UNDEFEGUA
November 21, 2012
From Front Line Defenders comes the following case: During the week of 12 November 2012, human rights defender Ms Claudia Virginia Samayoa received warnings of an attack being prepared against her, in the latest incident in an ongoing series of threats and defamatory statements targeting her and several other human rights defenders. Claudia Samayoa is the coordinator of the
Unidad de Protección de Defensoras y Defensores de Derechos Humanos Guatemala – UDEFEGUA (Human Rights Defenders Protection Unit in Guatemala), who supports the work of human rights defenders in preventing and responding to security risks, through monitoring, verification and advocacy work.On 5 November 2012, she filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights denouncing a statement, then in circulation, in which she and several others were threatened and accused of involvement in terrorist activities and fuelling anti-business hostility. The statement, which is believed to have been delivered at a press conference on 15 October 2012, had reportedly been circulated and forwarded for several days before it came to Claudia Samayoa’s attention on 19 October 2012. The statement originates from the
Fundación Contra el Terrorismo (Foundation Against Terrorism), and mentions Claudia Samayoa by name as someone with anti-business and terrorist sympathies. It claims she expressed this by financing “destabilizing organisations” and partaking in a conspiracy with two other civil society figures, who are accused of being ex-guerrillas who took part in the torture and kidnapping of the Foundation Against Terrorism’s director in 1982.
The document goes on to link the human rights defender to a number of recent violent clashes between the military and local populations in which members of the military were injured, and implies that Claudia Samayoa and others were responsible for these events through “incitement”. The last part of the document is a direct call on state authorities and the armed forces alike to ensure that all those it deems complicit in “political trials” against the military be held responsible and forced to pay for having attempted to change history. During the week of 12 November 2012, both Claudia Samayoa and a member of the Human Rights office of the Archbishop of Guatemala received warnings of an attack being prepared on their lives. Threats have been issued against UDEFEGUA in the past and on one occasion in February 2010, Claudia Samayoa’s car was tampered with in an attempt to cause an accident. Front Line Defenders issued an urgent appeal on the threats against the organisation on 10 March 2010 . As a result of the threats, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights considered it necessary to provide Claudia Samayoa and other members of UDEFEGUA with protection measures.
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Tags: Claudia Samayoa, Front Line, Guatemala, human rights, Human rights defender, terrorism, UDEFEGUA, woman human rights defender
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 