Posts Tagged ‘FIDH’

Belarus Ales Byalyatski wins Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize of Council of Europe

September 30, 2013

 

Ales Byalyatski wins Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize

Imprisoned Belarus human rights defender Ales Byalyatski has been awarded the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize of the  Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly.  Read the rest of this entry »

Ford Foundation Grants $6 Million to Seven Organizations to Reshape the Global Human Rights Movement

September 24, 2013

On 18 September the Ford Foundation announced $6.25 million in grants to seven leading human rights organizations that will strengthen and diversify the global human rights movement. The 7 grants focus on human rights organizations that operate in numerous countries and international forums, underscoring the foundation’s long commitment to supporting collaboration. Combined with a five-year, $50 million initiative announced last year to support human rights organizations based outside Europe and the United States, Ford is spurring innovative thinking about the way the global human rights system functions and its capacity to address 21st century issues such as economic and social inequality.

The human rights movement has arguably been the most effective and wide-reaching social movement of our time,” said Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation. “But the movement faces a notably different set of challenges today than it did even 15 years ago, along with a new set of opportunities for advancing human rights in today’s world. The grants we make today will enable these institutions to more actively adapt, diversify and retool the way the movement works for all of us.

The seven grants announced today will support: Read the rest of this entry »

Southeast Asian Voices of HRDs being stifled

September 12, 2013

As concerns grow in Southeast Asia over the use of national security, anti-terrorist and defamation laws to limit freedom of expression on the Internet, a coalition of international and local NGOs and activists from Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia urged governments to stop using vague legislation based on ill-defined concepts such as “national security”, “sovereignty” or “lèse-majesté” to intimidate, harass and imprison independent voices. Speaking at an event in Geneva, which coincides with the 24th session of the UN Human Rights Council, FIDH, IFEX, Article 19 and PEN International united to call for the urgent revision of these laws to bring them into line with international human rights standards. Independent and dissenting voices, including bloggers and netizens, journalists, activists and human rights defenders, have increasingly been subjected to repression in Southeast Asia.

A lot more detail in  Human Rights Council : Stifled Southeast Asian Voices: NGOs Unite … – FIDH.

NGOs jointly call on world to focus on Bahrain on 14 August

August 13, 2013

13 NGOs have signed an open letter concerning the situation in Bahrain in the light of the upcoming mass demonstration on 14 August. As it is short and to the point here is the full text copied from the FIDH website:  Read the rest of this entry »

UN Rapporteur joins chorus to urge freedom for Bialiatski in Belarus

August 2, 2013

Special Rapporteur on Belarus Miklós Haraszti. – Photo: OSCE/Susanna Lööf

2 August 2013 the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Republic of Belarus, Miklós Haraszti, said that the detention of Bialiatski is “a symbol of the repression against human rights defenders.” Read the rest of this entry »

Transgender activist harassed by Greek police

June 14, 2013

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (a joint programme of two reputed international NGOs: the FIDH andOMCT) has been informed by the Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) about the police harassment of Ms. Electra Koutra,  GHM legal counsel, in the framework of police profiling operation against transgender persons in Thessaloniki.logo FIDH_seul
OMCT-LOGO
Read the rest of this entry »

Group of NGOs submits 10 Recommendations to European Parliament on Repression in Turkey

June 10, 2013

During the last week, Turkish citizens, human rights defenders, trade unions and civil society organisations have come under attack by the Turkish government. What started as a peaceful demonstration has turned into a violent clash with the Turkish police and security services. In the protests, at least 3 people died and more than 2800 people were injured in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Reports indicate that about 3000 people were taken into custody and Read the rest of this entry »

Side event focusing on Russia and Belarus on 5 June in Geneva

June 3, 2013

logo FIDH_seulThe FIDH Representative to the UN in Geneva (http://www.fidh.org) invites people to a side event entitled:  RUSSIA & BELARUS:  JOINT OFFENSIVE AGAINST THE HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM, which will be held on 5 June 2013, in room VIII of the Palais des Nations, from 2pm – 4pm.

Participants: 

Mr. Miklos Haraszti, Special Rapporteur on Belarus (TBC)

Olga Abramenko, Director of ADC Memorial (Russia) who was recently charged for publishing a report entitled “Roma, Migrants, Activists: Victims of Police Abuse” and submitting it to the UN Committee Against Torture.

Valentin Stefanovitch, Deputy Head of Human Rights Center VIASNA (Belarus) who will provide context on the Belarusian situation and draw comparisons with the harassment of Russian NGOs.

Dimitry Kolbasin, Head of the Information Department of AGORA (Russia) who will focus on the increasing repression of Russian human rights NGOs.

Valery Sozaev, Advocacy Manager, LGBT Network (Russia) who will specifically tackle issues facing LGBT people

Respected Iranian lawyer in exile, Karim Lahidji, elected President of the FIDH

May 28, 2013
Iranians are 'against' a conflict with the West
(Karim Lahidji, President of the International Federation of Human Rights(c) FRANCE 24)
Today Karim Lahidji was elected as new President of FIDH. He succeeds to Souhayr Belhassen who headed the Federation for six years. The vote was held during the 38th FIDH Congress in Istanbul where the FIDH member organisations were meeting to elect the new International Board and define the main FIDH orientations for the next three years. “It is an immense honour Read the rest of this entry »

“Free Bialatski!”, “Free Nabil” shouted by FIDH in the streets of Istanbul

May 27, 2013

Freedom to Bialatski! in streets of Istanbul

The participants of the 38th Congress of the International Human Rights Federation (FIDH), which has started on 23 May in Istanbul, organized a procession with the demand to release their colleagues political prisoners Read the rest of this entry »