Posts Tagged ‘FIDH’
June 6, 2016
On 30th May 2016, the Extraordinary African Chambers declared Hissène Habré guilty of torture, crimes against humanity, war crimes and sexual crimes, perpetrated during his presidency of Tchad (Chad) between 1982 and 1990. The former Tchadian dictator has been sentenced to life in prison. Human rights organizations have hailed this verdict as “historical” and a victory for the thousands of victims who have fought for twenty years to make their voices heard and obtain justice before an impartial judiciary. They hope that it sends a strong signal to all perpetrators of international crimes. There are many sources but the two most active NGOs are probably: FIDH and its member organizations in Tchad and Senegal and Human Rights Watch (HRW). For more info on their views see the links below.
Explosion of happiness at the announcement of the verdict (source FIDH Facebook)
A summary of the decision was read out in court by chief judge Gberdao Gustave Kam of Burkina Faso, who shared the bench with two senior Senegalese judges. The written decision will be distributed at a later date, but on the Human Rights Watch site there is an unofficial summary from notes taken in court.
On 30 May 2016 the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights added its agreement: “After years of struggle and many setbacks on the way to justice, this verdict is as historic as it was hard-won. I sincerely hope that today, at last, Habré’s victims will experience some sense of relief,” Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said. “Following earlier convictions by other courts of former president Charles Taylor and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, the conviction and sentencing of Hissène Habré shows that even heads of State and other leaders who commit terrible crimes will ultimately be held to account”.
HOWEVER, it is not over yet. The judges have until 31 July 31 2016 to approve measures of reparation for the victims.
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https://www.fidh.org/en/region/Africa/chad/hissene-habre-case-a-historic-and-long-awaited-verdict-19999#
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/05/30/chads-ex-dictator-convicted-atrocities
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=54088#.V1UbSYRptgc
http://www.martinennalsaward.org/?option=com_content&view=article&id=120&Itemid=135
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Chad, Extraordinary African Chambers, FIDH, Hissene Habre, HRW, impunity, international crimes, international justice, Jacqueline Moudeina, reparation, Tchad, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein
April 4, 2016
For the second consecutive year, the FIDH has put some of its key actions and impacts in a comic strip. These cartoons have been created in partnership with the association Cartooning for Peace, founded by Plantu. [for more posts on Cartooning for Peace see: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/cartooning-for-peace/]
Source: FIDH looks back at 2015 in our traditional comic strip
see also: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/fidh-tells-its-2013-story-in-cartoons-and-there-is-also-cartooning-for-peace/
Posted in FIDH, films, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 3 Comments »
Tags: annual report, Cartooning for Peace, cartoons, comics, FIDH, impact, Plantu
March 4, 2016
Severe time restraints made that several NGOs could not make their oral statement on 4 March 2016 during the Interactive Dialogue with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in the UN Human Rights Council [see: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2016/02/25/preview-of-the-upcoming-session-of-the-un-human-rights-council/].
Here follows the text of the statement that the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and FIDH, within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, would have delivered:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in FIDH, human rights, Human Rights Council, Human Rights Defenders, Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, OMCT | Leave a Comment »
Tags: FIDH, Human Rights Defenders, intervention, Michel Forst, Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, OMCT, oral statement, Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, stigmatization, UN Human Rights Council
February 27, 2016
The criminalization of human rights defenders in the context of the extraction of natural resources and megaprojects is becoming a very worrisome phenomenon in Latin America, denounces the Observatory in a report published today in Mexico. Entitled “The criminalization of human rights defenders in the context of industrial projects: a regional phenomenon in Latin America”, this document points to the role of businesses, civil servants, public prosecutors, judges, and the State. The report issued by OMCT and FIDH (in the context of their Observatory for Human Rights Defenders) on 25 February 2016 describes the specific cases of human rights defenders criminalized in eight Latin American countries (Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru).
The report especially stresses two core issues common to all the countries studied: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in books, FIDH, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, OMCT | 4 Comments »
Tags: Brazil, Colombia, criminalisation, criminalization, Ecuador, environmental issues, FIDH, Honduras, Human Rights Defenders, independence of the judiciary, Latin America, Mexico, Nicaragua, Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, OMCT, Peru, regional NGOs, resource extraction
January 28, 2016
Five years ago, human rights defender Ahmed Abdullah was among thousands of Egyptians who took to the streets for 18 days of mass protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, eventually forcing then-President Hosni Mubarak to step down and the security forces to retreat. Today, Ahmed is on the run. He dodged arrest by the thinnest of margins on January 9, after plainclothes police in Cairo raided his regular coffee shop. The NGO which he chairs, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, had recently exposed a surge in enforced disappearances, which has seen hundreds vanish at the hands of state security forces over the last year alone. He is not the only one whose activism has put him at risk. In recent weeks, security forces have been rounding up activists linked to protests and journalists critical of the government’s record. This how Amnesty International starts its assessment of the fifth anniversary and it concludes: “Five years since the uprising that ousted Mubarak, Egypt is once more a police state. The country’s ubiquitous state security body, the National Security Agency, is firmly in charge.”
The same sentiment is echoed in the long piece in the Huffington Post of 25 January 2016 by Karim Lahidji, President of FIDH and Bahey eldin Hassan, Director of Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Amnesty international, CIHRS, FIDH, Front Line, HRF, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Ahmed Abdullah, Ahmed Malik, Amnesty International, Arab spring, Bahey eldin Hassan, condoms video, Egypt, FIDH, Foreign Policy of the USA, Front Line, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights First, Karim Lahidji, Malek Adly, Sanaa Seif, Shady Hussein Abu Zaid, Tahrir Square
November 10, 2015
Pierre Claver Mbonimpa is President of the Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detained Persons (APRODH) in Burundi. He was the Laureate of the MEA 2007 and on 27 October 2015 he received the Pan African Human Rights Defenders Network’s East Africa Shield Award. What happened to him in the last months is telling (for earlier items see: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/pierre-claver-mbonimpa/):
MEA Laureate Mbonimpa, Burundi
- On 3 August 2015, prominent human rights defender Pierre Claver Mbonimpa – laureate of the MEA 2007 – was shot in the face and neck. He was forced to seek medical treatment abroad.
- His son-in-law, Pascal Nshimirimana, was shot dead outside his home in Bujumbura on 9 October.
- On 6 November, the body of Welly Nzitonda, the son of Mbonimpa, was found dead a few hours after he was arrested in the Mutakura neighborhood of Bujumbura where protests have taken place.
- Just before that – on 3 November – Mbonimpa spoke out on a video message from the place where is recovering: https://www.defenddefenders.org/2015/11/voices-that-cannot-be-silenced-pierre-claver-mbonimpa-speaks-out-on-burundi/
On 9 November 2015 eleven leading human rights NGOs addressed an Open Letter to the UN Human Rights Council urging them to organize a special session to prevent (further) atrocities in Burundi.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in awards, FIDH, Human Rights Council, Human Rights Defenders, MEA, OHCHR, UN | 4 Comments »
Tags: attack, Burundi, east africa, Extrajudicial killing, FIDH, Human Rights Defenders, MEA 2007, NGOs, Pascal Nshimirimana, Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, special session, UN Human Rights Council, Welly Nzitonda
October 9, 2015
The Tunisian national dialogue quartet, a coalition of civil society organisations, has won the 2015 Nobel peace prize. The quartet is comprised of four NGOs in Tunisian civil society: the Tunisian General Labour Union, the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, the Tunisian Human Rights League [the national affiliate of the FIDH – see press link below] and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers.
Source: Tunisian national dialogue quartet wins 2015 Nobel peace prize | World news | The Guardian
Posted in awards, FIDH, HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Arab spring, civil society organisations, Democracy, FIDH, human rights awards, Human Rights Defenders, jasmine revolution, Kaci Kullmann Five, Nobel Peace Prize, the Guardian, trade unionists, Tunisia, Tunisian Human Rights League, Tunisian national dialogue quartet
October 8, 2015
Mutabar Tadjibayeva is remarkable, even among human rights defenders. Her story is well-known in human rights circles: arrested, detained and tortured in Uzbekistan’s prisons, she was released on medical grounds and allowed to leave the country in 2008. That year she came to Geneva to receive in person the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders [see: http://www.martinennalsaward.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=73&Itemid=116&lang=en and https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/mutabar-tadjibayeva/].
But she does not just live quietly in exile in Paris. She continues fight for her rights, lodged a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee in 2012 and this body found on 6 October 2015 that there had been “multiple violations” of her rights, according to a press release issued by three human rights NGOs on 8 October (the Fiery Hearts Club, Redress and FIDH). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in awards, FIDH, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | 2 Comments »
Tags: FIDH, Fiery Hearts Club, Human Rights Committee, Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, individual complaint, MEA 2008, Mutabar Tadjibayeva, REDRESS, torture, UN, Uzbekistan, woman human rights defender
August 12, 2015
Yesterday I reported on Human Rights Watch honoring Yara Bader as the representative of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression. Now I am catching up on the release of her husband and the founder of the Centre, Mazen Darwish, after more than three years in jail. A verdict in his case is expected later this month. Darwish was arrested, along with two colleagues, in February 2012 during a raid. Hussein Ghreir and Hani al-Zaitani were freed last month (17 July and 18 July 2015, respectively) as part of an amnesty that was to have included Darwish, but his release was delayed.
Many NGOs (i.a. Frontline, the Observatory, AI and HRW) and Governments have welcomed the release but warn that Mazen Darwish, and his colleagues Hussein Ghrer and Hani al-Zaitani, have been charged with “publicising terrorist acts” and are still to be tried before the Syrian Anti-Terrorism Court. They invariably call for all charges against them to be dropped. “Mazen, Hussein and Hani are not terrorists, they are human rights defenders,” FIDH President Karim Lahidji said “All charges against them must be dropped immediately”. “We urge the Syrian Anti-Terrorism Court to acquit them during the verdict hearing on August 31, as their judicial harassment has only been aimed at sanctioning their human rights activities”, OMCT Secretary General Gerald Staberock concluded.
See also: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2015/04/08/syrian-journalist-mazen-darwish-deserved-winner-of-unescoguillermo-cano-award/
[On May 15, 2013, in its Resolution 67/262, the UN General Assembly called for the release of the three defenders. In January 2014, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention also found that the three defenders had been arbitrarily deprived of their liberty due to their human rights activities and called for their immediate release. Finally, UN Security Council Resolution 2139, adopted on February 22, 2014, also demanded the release of all arbitrarily detained people in Syria.]
Syria: Finally free, Mazen Darwish must now be acquitted.
https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/mazendarwish
http://tvnewsroom.org/newslines/world/syria-releases-award-winning-activist-mazen-darwish-79643/
Posted in AI, awards, Front Line, HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: acquittal, al-Zaitani, detention, FIDH, Front Line (NGO), Ghreir, Human Rights Defenders, intimidation, Mazen Darwish, Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, OMCT, Syria, Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, UN General Assembly, UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, worldwide campaign, Yara Bader, Zaitani
July 8, 2015
Further to my post today on Nabeel Rajab [https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2015/07/08/bahrain-freenabeel-campaign-more-urgent-than-ever-in-view-of-resumption-usa-security-assistance/], I draw attention to the recent report by the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (FIDH/OMCT) “Bahrain: Publication of an International Mission Report: Imprisonment, torture and statelessness: The darkening reality of human rights defenders in Bahrain”.
Human rights defenders in Bahrain are operating in a shrinking space, says the Observatory in a report published on 25 June 2015. The report documents the judicial harassment of 11 human rights defenders including lawyers, teachers, doctors or bloggers. All have suffered or been threatened with imprisonment, torture or statelessness as a consequence of their activities in defense of human rights. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in books, FIDH, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, OMCT | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Bahrain, FIDH, Ghada Jamsheer, Human Rights Defenders, human rights documentation, Maryam Alkhawaja, mission report, Mohammad al-Maskati, Nabeel Rajab, Naji Fateel, Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, OMCT, Safya Akorri, Taimoor Karimi, Zainab Al-Khawaja
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 