Posts Tagged ‘Front Line Defenders’
October 5, 2013
14 September 2013 marked three years since renowned human rights defender David Ravelo Crespo, member of the director’s board of the Regional Corporation for the Defense of Human Rights (CREDHOS) based in the city of Barrancabermeja, was detained. Over NGOs reiterated on that occasion their concerns regarding a series of irregularities that were reported throughout the proceedings which resulted in his conviction and sentencing to 220 months in prison. Reiterating their respect for the independence of the judiciary in Colombia, the NGO statement lists a series of irregularities (see statement in full). The NGOs stress that David Ravelo Crespo is an internationally renowned human rights defender. He has won several awards such as the San Pedro Claver Award from the Diocese of Barrancabermeja in 2009; was one of the finalists for the 2013 Front Line Defenders Award fand has been nominated for the National Human Rights Defenders Awards in Colombia . His NGO was nominated for the 2013 Human Rights Award for the city of Weimar (Germany).
Two weeks later Front Line reports that human rights defender and campesina leader Adelinda Gómez Gaviria was killed in Almaguer, Cauca region. Adelinda Gómez Gaviria worked with the Comité de Integración del Macizo Colombiano – CIMA. She played an active role in the Mining and Environmental Forum in Almaguer, which has 1,500 indigenous and farming members. On 30 September as Adelinda Gómez Gaviria was returning home after a meeting, she and her 16 year-old son were approached and shot at by two unidentified men. Adelinda Gómez Gaviria suffered five bullet wounds and was killed, whilst her son is in a critical state in the Clínica La Estancia in Popayán city. One month prior to her killing Adelinda Gómez Gaviria had received a threatening telephone call from strangers who warned her to: “Stop messing around with this miners’ thing. It’s risky and it’ll get you killed.” The Red por la Vida y los Derechos Humanos del Cauca (Cauca Network for Life and Human Rights) has registered the murders of fourteen women human rights defenders in Cauca so far this year, primarily from rural areas of Cauca. Twelve death threats against human rights defenders have been reported, with five of those against women.
Colombia: On the third anniversary of the detention of renowned Colombian human rights defender David Ravelo Crespo, International organisations express concern / September 13, 2013 / Urgent Interventions / Human rights defenders / OMCT.
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Tags: Adelinda Gómez Gaviria, Barrancabermeja, campesinos, Civil society, Colombia, David Ravelo Crespo, due process, environmental issues, fair trial, Front Line Defenders, Germany, Human right, human rights awards, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, killing, Mining, Non-governmental organization, Ravelo Crespo, social and economic rights, World Organisation Against Torture
October 3, 2013
On the morning of 19 September 2013, a group of unidentified women threatened and harassed the organisers of human rights film festival “Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan” (One World Kyrgyzstan) demanding that the documentary about imprisoned human rights defender Azimjan Askarov – produced by Freedom House –should not be projected. The film festival opened in Bishkek on 18 September 2013. The annual film festival is organised by human rights group Bir-Duino Kyrzystan, led by human rights defender Ms Tolekan Ismailova, the director of Human Rights Centre ‘Citizens Against Corruption’.
Azimjan Askarov is a human rights defender who spent 25 years documenting human rights abuses in Kyrgyzstan until his arrest in 2010. He is currently serving a life sentence after an unfair trial during which he was beaten in detention and denied access to his lawyer. The film festival organisers do not share the opinion of some politicians that he film could provoke inter-ethnic clashes
[On 28 September 2012, at previous festival edition, the organisers were banned from screening a documentary on the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the Islamic world, after a complaint was lodged by the Prosecutor’s Office, which considered the film to be “extremist, inciting religious hatred and aimed at dishonouring Muslims”. Following this decision, Tolekan Ismailova was targeted with a defamation campaign in the media and the Human Rights Centre ‘Citizens Against Corruption’ received threats. Front Line Defenders issued an urgent appeal on this case on 19 October 2012 http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/20249, and an update on 4 December 2012 http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/21003%5D
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Tags: Azimjan Askarov, Azimzhan Askarov, Bishkek, documentary, films, Freedom House, freedom of expression, Front Line Defenders, Human right, Human Rights Centre 'Citizens Against Corruption, human rights def, Human rights defender, human rights film festival, human rights film festivals, Kyrgyzstan, LGBT, One World Kyrgyzstan, Tolekan Ismailova
October 1, 2013
On 27 September 2013, Karaganda’s regional court of Karaganda confirmed the decision of the Balkhash Court to approve the forced psychiatric confinement of human rights defender and lawyer Zinaida Mukhortova on which this blog reported earlier. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: forced psychiatric treatment, Front Line Defenders, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, Karaganda, Kazakhstan, lawyer, psychiatric confinement, Psychiatry, woman human rights defender, Zinaida Mukhortova
September 19, 2013
Further to my earlier blog post about Kyrgyzstan following the bad example of Russia in trying to create a ‘foreign agents’ obstacle for human rights defenders, I am happy to refer to Front Line latest update of 19 September 2013 which says that during a press interview on the outcomes of his working visit to Brussels on 17 September 2013, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev stated to journalists that Kyrgyzstan does not need a “foreign agent” law, a draft bill of which was opened for public discussion on 6 September 2013.
On 16 September 2013, ahead of President Atambaev’s visit to Brussels, Front Line Defenders and Human Rights Watch published a joint letter to the European Union urging EU leaders to raise concerns about human rights abuses in Kyrgyzstan and getting specific commitments from President Atambaev to address them. The letter also contained an appeal to the EU to press the Kyrgyz President for the immediate release of the wrongfully imprisoned human rights defender Azimjan Askarov http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/09/15/kyrgyzstan-free-human-rights-defender-ensure-fair-retrial as well as on the draft bill http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/23774. 
Posted in Front Line, HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Almazbek Atambayev, Azimjan Askarov, Brussels, draft bill, European Union, Foreign agent, foreign funding, freedom of association, Front Line Defenders, funding restrictions, HRW, human rights, human rights abuses, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, Kyrgyzstan, President of Kyrgyzstan, Russia
June 11, 2013
On 6 June 2013 five unknown assailants wielding hammers forced entry into the Harare offices of human rights organisation Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ). GALZ is an association founded in 1990 that advocates social tolerance for sexual minorities and the repeal of homophobic legislation in Zimbabwe. On the morning of the raid, the assailants gained entry by disguising one of their group as a mentally challenged person and driving in whilst this member threatened the security personnel at the gate with a hammer. Upon entry, the assailants forced all staff present into the Guard Room and locked them there whilst they ransacked the offices, gathering laptops, mobile phones and bags which contain sensitive information about the work of the organisation and individual members. It is believed that the incident was not a normal robbery, but an attack carried out under orders, as the assailants frequently made contact over the phone with an unknown person called ‘Machacha‘ from an unknown ‘security wing’. In a statement, GALZ said “GALZ is not taking this incident as a random act of attempted robbery but that of deliberate attack by the youth militia, acting on the orders of someone superior.” [President Robert Mugabe has in the past made some extremely homophobic comments]
Perhaps surprisingly but mercifully, the police arrived swiftly and arrested the assailants, who have now been taken for further questioning at Harare Central Police Station. No members of staff were injured during the raid, and most of the equipment which the assailants had gathered has been returned to GALZ.
Front Line Defenders welcomes the swift action of the Zimbabwean police, but remains concerned about the motives behind the raid, which are possibly related to the peaceful and legitimate work that GALZ carries out in defence of human rights, particularly LGBTI rights, in Zimbabwe.
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Tags: attacks, Front Line Defenders, GALZ, gay, Harare, Human right, Human Rights Defenders, LGBT rights, LGBT social movements, LGBTI, Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe
June 6, 2013
In a recent post I discussed problems surrounding the new law on NGOs in Egypt. In case there was any doubt on the need for a new and IMPROVED legal regime, see here what Front Line Defenders reported yesterday, 5 June:
43 NGO staff members were condemned to prison terms
Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: civil society organizations, closure, Defendant, draft law, Egypt, foreign funding, freedom of association, Front Line Defenders, Germany, jail, Law, law on NGOs, legal regime, Mohamed Morsi, Mubarak era, ngo staff, NGOs, ngos in egypt, Non-governmental organization, regulation, United States
May 31, 2013
A peaceful demonstration in Tbilisi, Georgia, on 17 May 2013, to celebrate International Day Against Homophobia was attacked by thousands of counter-protesters and human rights defenders were injured as you will have seen from the widely disseminated television images. The LGBTI rights rally had been scheduled to begin at 1pm on 17 May 2013, outside the former Parliament building on Rustaveli Avenue. However, an hour earlier, counter-protesters Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: equality, facebook, freedom of assembly, freedom of demonstration, Freedom Square, Front Line Defenders, gay rights, Georgia, homophobia, Human rights defender, Identoba, International Day Against Homophobia, LGBT, LGBTI, orthodox priests, Tbilisi, tbilisi georgia, threats
May 28, 2013
On 18 May 2013, a meeting of the Komi Human Rights Commission Memorial (KHRC Memorial) was aggressively interrupted by members of the radical nationalist group “Rubezh Severa” (Northern Border). Members of KHRC Memorial had gathered in a local cafeteria in Syktyvkar, the capital of the Komi Republic, Russia, to report on their work and financial situation for the period 2011-13. The meeting was public, and several journalists had been invited. As soon as the meeting began, members of the radical right group entered the room, calling the group foreign agents and waving banners, one of which read “Motherland for Sale, Reasonable Price”. Members of the human rights group managed to force the intruders out of the café and called the police, but not before two leaders, Igor Sazhin and Pavel Andreyev had ketchup thrown at their heads. The police detained the intruders and released them after administrative protocol had been completed. The incident comes just a few weeks after the KHRC Memorial received a warning from the Prosecutor’s Office on 27 April 2013, stating that some of its activities, such as its participation in protest actions were ‘political activity’. As such, the organisation is required to register as a ‘foreign agent‘ under the controversial ‘Foreign Agents’ Law, as it also receives funds from abroad. Front Line Defenders believes the attack is a possible effect of the new ‘Foreign Agents’ Law.
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Tags: attack, Foreign agent, Front Line Defenders, funding, Human right, human rights group, intimidation, Komi Republic, legal restrictions, nationalist group, NGO, Non-governmental organization, Prosecutor, Russia, Syktyvkar
May 24, 2013
On 22 May 2013 human rights defender George Reginald Freeman was driving to a guest house when he was intercepted by two unknown assailants on motorbikes. One of the men threw a stone through his car window and Freeman was badly beaten as he attempted to escape. The assailants also robbed valuables from his car after he escaped. George Reginald Freeman is the director of Pride Equality, an organisation which works on LGBTI rights in Sierra Leone. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Africa, assailants, Criminal Investigation Department, Front Line Defenders, gay rights, George Reginald Freeman, homophobia, homophobic comments, Human rights defender, LGBT rights, LGBTI, media, Pride Equality, Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone Police
May 23, 2013
Bahrain‘s Human Rights Minister during a visit to Morocco on 22 May stated: “Bahrain Has Presented Itself as a Model in Implementing BICI’s Recommendations”
He said that despite the regretful incidents that happened in 2011, the kingdom of Bahrain has presented itself as a model in its wise dealing with those events, highlighting Bahrain’s bold steps in this regard, including the establishment of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), led by international eminent judges, the acceptance of the recommendations featuring in BICI’s final report and the political leadership’s commitment to implementing them, out of its belief in the importance of protecting human rights. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Bahrain, Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, blogger, freedom of expression, Front Line Defenders, Gulf Centre for Human Rights, Human right, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, Minister for Human Rights, Nabeel Rajab, Naji Fateel, Zainab Al-Khawaja
HRD George Reginald Freeman attacked and threatened in Sierra Leone
May 24, 2013On 22 May 2013 human rights defender George Reginald Freeman was driving to a guest house when he was intercepted by two unknown assailants on motorbikes. One of the men threw a stone through his car window and Freeman was badly beaten as he attempted to escape. The assailants also robbed valuables from his car after he escaped. George Reginald Freeman is the director of Pride Equality, an organisation which works on LGBTI rights in Sierra Leone.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Africa, assailants, Criminal Investigation Department, Front Line Defenders, gay rights, George Reginald Freeman, homophobia, homophobic comments, Human rights defender, LGBT rights, LGBTI, media, Pride Equality, Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone Police