Posts Tagged ‘Front Line’
February 21, 2013
It is clearly election time in Zimbabwe! This blog has reported previously on a number of intimidations and threats against human rights defenders. Now Front Line Defenders informs us that on 21 February 2013, the offices of Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) in Masvingo were raided for the second time this week and several items were stolen. The incident follows a raid on ZESN’s offices in Masvingo and Harare on 18 and 19 February respectively, during which confidential material was stolen. Established in 2000, ZESN is a coalition of 31 non-governmental organisations promoting democratic processes, in particular free and fair general elections. 
For graphic detail see: http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/21750
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Tags: election monitoring, elections, Front Line, Harare, harassment, Human rights defender, intimidation, Masvingo, Non-governmental organization, Police, raids, Robert Mugabe, ZESN, Zimbabwe
February 19, 2013
Human rights defenders Messrs
He Jun Ling, Gao Yue Qiang, Liu Xiangying, and
Wang Xian Jie will go on a joint trial from 4 to 8 March 2013, reports Front Line Defenders.He Jun Ling, Gao Yue Qiang Liu Xiangying, and Wang Xian Jie are human rights defenders who were employed by the state controlled public transport operator SMRT Ltd. More than 100 mainland Chinese bus drivers refused to report for duty on the 26
th of November 2012. It took some time for authorities to label the stoppage an ‘illegal strike’. Once that happened, things moved quickly. 29 drivers accused of participating in the action were swiftly rounded up and deported. Five men were also arrested. One has already been tried, jailed and sent back home. The others – He Jun Ling, Gao Yue Qiang, Liu Xiang Ying and Wang Xian Jie – are waiting for their cases to be heard. They are currently facing charges of inciting an illegal strike among bus drivers, and could be sentenced to a fine of 2,000 Singapore dollars (approx €1,250), a 12-month prison sentence or both.
He Jun Ling and
Liu Xiangying revealed last week that were assaulted by police officials while they were held in custody in December 2012. According to the information received, He Jun Ling was interrogated from 5am to 1pm, during which time he was locked in a small room, handcuffed, and beaten in the stomach. Liu Xiangying reported that an official threatened him, stating that “they can dig a hole and bury him. No one will be able to find him.” He was also handcuffed to a chair and beaten in his neck and the left side of his body.
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Tags: Chinese, detention, Front Line, Human Rights and Liberties, Human Rights Defenders, ill treatment, industrial action, police beatings, right to strike, Singapore, strike, torture, Trade union, transport, transportation, Vimeo
February 15, 2013
The recent killing of Dalit human rights defender Mr Chandra Kant Gaikwad shows that a democratic system is not enough to guarantee a peaceful progressive development. If the leaders of the victims are not protected and the powerful feel free to kill with impunity, this is what happens according to a report by Front Line
…….
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Tags: assassination, Chandra Kant Gaikwad, Dada Shivaji Jadhav, Dalit, dalit human rights, dalit movement, Front Line, Front Line (NGO), Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, impunity, Indapur, killings, Pune, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Vaibhav Gite
February 14, 2013
reported that on 13 February 2013, three pellets were fired at the vehicle of Father Alberto Franco, a prominent human rights defender and Executive Secretary of the Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz – CIJP (Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace). The CIJP is a church-based human rights organisation working to expose human rights violations committed by state security forces and paramilitary groups in conflict regions in Colombia. The attack follows acts of surveillance and intimidation of Father Alberto Franco during recent weeks and coincides with the hearing of the case “Operation Genesis”, a joint military and paramilitary operation which resulted in the killing and forced disappearance of many civilians; a case which the CIJP has provided key evidence for. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Alberto Franco, Álvaro Uribe, CIJP, Colombia, death threats, Forced disappearance, Front Line, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace
February 14, 2013
reports that a new hearing on the case of human rights defender Bahtyar Mamedov is scheduled to start on 14 February 2013 at the Court of Grave Crimes in Baku. The human rights defender has been detained since 30 December 2011 on charges of “swindle” and “extortion accompanied by violence”. The trial under the charges of swindle has been ongoing since April 2012, despite a reported lack of evidence to support the case.
Bahtyar Mamedov is a defender of property rights and the legal representative of Baku inhabitants whose houses have been demolished. Bahtyar Mamedov subsequently discovered fraud with money due to be paid as compensation, allegedly involving a military unit commander, Shahin Sultanov. Bahtyar Mamedov was then accused himself of an alleged attempt on his part to extort money from Shahin Sultanov, which he strongly denies. During the initial three-month period ordered by the Court of Grave Crimes to investigate the charges of “extortion accompanied by violence”, no evidence was found to support the charges, yet the case was not closed. The prosecution subsequently opened a second case against Bahtyar Mamedov on charges of fraud. Until 5 November 2012, Shahin Sultanov, the alleged victim of the fraud, had not been questioned by the investigative team and did not respond to the summons to appear before the court. On 15 October 2012, he sent a declaration stating that he did not know Bahtyar Mamedov and that he had lodged a complaint against him according to information received from third persons, and that he has nothing against Bahtyar Mamedov.
Front Line Defenders issued an urgent appeal and an update on the continued judicial harassment faced by Bahtyar Mamedov on 26 October 2012 <http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/20381> and 12 November 2012 <https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/20745> respectively.
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Tags: Azerbaijan, Bahtyar Mamedov, Baku, Extortion, Front Line, Human right, Human rights defender, Independence of Lawyers, judicial harasment, judicial harassment, legal profession, Property, Shahin Sultanov
February 3, 2013
Human rights defenders from Iran, Cambodia, Kenya, Uzbekistan, Colombia and Mauritania are finalists for the 2013 Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk. The jury is made up of members of the Irish and the European Parliament as well as Front Line Defenders board member Noeline Blackwell.
The winner of the 2013 Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders will be announced at a ceremony in Dublin later in the year.
Finalists for Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk 2013 are:
Mam Sonando – Cambodia – has devoted his life to helping the poor and disenfranchised of Cambodia, fighting for their rights while also following the non-violent precepts of his Buddhist faith. He is a journalist and the Director of one of only three independent radio stations in Cambodia where the state has almost complete monopoly over the media, and crackdowns on free speech have led to widespread self-censorship. He is also founder and president of a national organisation called the Association of Democrats, which actively promotes democracy and human rights. He was arrested In early July 2012 and despite there being absolutely no evidence to link him with the so-called secessionist movement, he was found guilty on 1 October 2012 of instigating insurrection and incitement to take up arms against the state and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.
Mansoureh Behkish – Iran – is a women’s rights activist and co-founder of Mothers of Khavaran and Mothers of Laleh Park. As a supporter of non-violent resistance and a HRD she has spent the past three decades empowering survivors and victims of human rights abuses. In particular she seeks to help the mothers, sisters and wives of the thousands imprisoned or executed by the Islamic Republic authorities, to seek justice through legal and humanitarian channels.As a result of her work as a HRD, she herself has faced continuous harassment, confiscation of her passport and violation of her right to travel and three terms of imprisonment.
David Rabelo Crespo – Colombia – has worked for 35 years in the defence of human rights. In the early years, he worked mainly in defence of social, economic and cultural rights, and later worked for worker’s rights, promoting social and union mobilisation. In more recent years, he has worked to defend the lives of others although in doing so he has put his own life at risk. Between 1998 and 2004 he was director of the Municipal Peace Council, a body devised to protect the lives of the local people who, with the arrival of the paramilitaries were at risk from the upsurge in assassinations of social and community leaders, and a series of massacres carried out with impunity. David Rabelo Crespo has devoted his life to promoting respect for human rights and international humanitarian standards in the Magdalena Medio region of Colombia, and even though he is now imprisoned he continues to work to protect the rights of political prisoners in Colombian prisons.
Bahtiyor Hamraev – Uzbekistan – has been a dedicated campaigner for human rights in Uzbekistan for the last 15 years. He has been head of the Djizak regional branch of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan (HRSU) and has documented human rights violations in this region. In recent years he has become the main contact with families of imprisoned human rights defenders, helping to spread the information about their conditions in detention, the torture and ill-treatment and helping to provide the families with legal aid and financial assistance. The price he has had to pay has sometimes been far too high, but despite all of these difficulties, he has continued to work, refused to leave the country and tried to make a difference in one of the worst human rights situations in the region. Sadly, Hamraev is suffering from terminal cancer, yet he continues to send information about human rights violations and to assist families of imprisoned human rights defenders.
Biram Dah Ould Abeid – Mauritania – has been threatened, defamed and harassed because of his work for human rights and against slavery in Mauritania. He has been arrested and ill-treated on several occasions and in April 2012 he was “disappeared” for several weeks into a secret, high-security government facility, without being able to contact to his family and without any legal assistance. It is believed he would have been killed but for the international outcry. He was released in September 2012 but has chosen to continue his work inside Mauritania.
Ruth Mumbi – Kenya – is a passionate community mobiliser, and is the founder and current National Coordinator of Bunge la Wamama, a women’s chapter of Bunge la Mwananchi a movement that conducts strong advocacy and campaigning on issues of social justice and accountability in different parts of Kenya. She was born and still lives in Kiamaiko, a Nairobi slum and she began her involvement in community mobilisation initiatives in the late 1990s, when she was barely 16 years of age.
For further information please contact Jim Loughran, Head of Communications, Front Line Defenders
Tel +353 (0)1 212 37 50
Mobile +353 (0)87 9377586
Email: jimloughran@frontlinedefenders.org
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Tags: awards, Cambodia, Colombia, Front Line, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Iran, Kenya, Mauritania, nominees 2013, Uzbekistan
January 29, 2013
On 28 January 2013, a number of Brazilian civil society organisations and social movements addressed an open letter to the Coordinator of the National Programme for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (NPPHRD) and the Presidency regarding the security situation for human rights defender Alexandre Anderson de Souza.
Alexandre Anderson de Souza is head of the Associação dos Homens do Mar – AHOMAR (Association of Seamen), an organisation set up to defend the rights of the fisherfolk working in Rio de Janeiro, and particularly those affected by the construction of a gas pipeline for Petrobras. AHOMAR argues that there are reports of environmental permit irregularities in the construction of the pipeline and it will have a negative impact on local flora and fauna as well as on the livelihood of those who fish in those waters in the Guanabara Bay.
Alexandre Anderson de Souza has suffered a number of threats to his life and has been under the NPPHRD since 2009, but the federal government has delegated the responsibility to authorities in the state of Rio de Janeiro, where he and his family live. However, the human rights defender and a number of Brazilian civil society organisations and social movements that support him, have been repeatedly expressing their discontent with the protection offered by the state programme and the conditions in which Alexandre Anderson de Souza, his wife Ms Daize Menezes and their children have been forced to live. As the situation has worsened the human rights defender and his family have had to relocate to different hotels in the city of Rio de Janeiro but the locations were highly insecure. The buildings did not have 24-hour reception personnel and the rooms they were accommodated in had no telephone. The protection programme has been unable to ensure Alexandre and his family’s return to their residence in Magé, and as a result the human rights defender remains unable to resume his work at AHOMAR. Four members of AHOMAR have been killed to date.
Another point of discontent with the state protection programme has been the unsatisfactory level of legal support provided to the human rights defender by the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Projeto Legal (Legal Project). Projeto Legal has signed an agreement with the government of the state of Rio de Janeiro, in the context of the state protection programme, to provide legal support and advice to the human rights defenders included in the programme. After repeated complaints about the NGO’s inaction in several instances, Alexandre Anderson de Souza received information from a reliable source that one of Projeto Legal’s main funders is Petrobras, the same oil company whose actions the human rights defender and his organisation AHOMAR have been trying to hold accountable for environmental damages. The information was confirmed on the websites of both Petrobras and the NGO, but neither they, nor the government of the state of Rio de Janeiro, have clarified the terms of the agreement, raising doubts over the impartiality of the organisation and a conflict of interests.
The open letter signed by several civil society organisation addressed the main concerns of Alexandre Anderson de Souza and other NGOs working with human rights defenders in the country. While welcoming the formal establishment of the state of Rio de Janeiro’s protection programme for human rights defenders through the Decree 44.038 signed on 18 January 2013, the letter asks for Alexandre and his wife Daize, as well as other human rights defenders who are currently under the protection of the state, to have their security ensured by the National Protection Programme until the state protection programme is fully operating and able to fully ensure the safety of human rights defenders in the territory of the state of Rio de Janeiro.
Front Line Defenders is gravely concerned following reports of the vulnerable security situation of human rights defender Alexandre Anderson de Souza and his family, and of other human rights defenders under the protection of the state of Rio de Janeiro.
http://racismoambiental.net.br/2013/01/carta-aberta-ao-coordenador-nacional-do-programa-de-protecao-aos-defensores-de-direitos-humanos-sr-igo-martini/#more-85964
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: Alexandre Anderson de Souza, Brasil, environmental issues, Front Line, Front Line Defenders, human rights, Human rights defender, Non-governmental organization, Petrobras, protection, threats
January 28, 2013
On 24 January 2013, human rights defender Martha Díaz was targeted again with a death threat.
On 24 January, a package in a manila envelope was delivered to the residence of Martha Díaz, which contained a mass card and note with letters cut from a newspaper. The letters stated: “You are dead, you are a collaborator of the guerilla, we are not joking, one of you is going to die”[translated from Spanish]. On 22 January, the human rights defender had already received a pamphlet sent by a group who identified themselves as “Los Rastrojos”.
Martha Díaz is Director of AFUSODO, an organisation of relatives of victims of extrajudicial executions and a member organisation of MOVICE (National Movement of the Victims of State Crimes). Since its creation, AFUSADO has received some 27 threats. Front Line Defenders issued an urgent appeal https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/20842 on death threats received by Martha Díaz on 14 November 2012, and has issued previous appeals on threats against human rights organisations in the Cauca and Valle del Cauca departments.
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Tags: Colombia, Death threat, death threats, Front Line, human rights, Human rights defender, impunity, Martha Diaz, MOVICE
January 25, 2013
In January 2013, detained human rights defenders and Twerwaneho Listeners Club (TLC) members Messrs Gerald Kankya, Simon Amanyire and Gilbert Kayondo were released on bail following a decision by the Public Prosecutor that no evidence existed of defamatory statements made by the individuals against Uganda’s First Family. However, the human rights defenders immediately faced new charges and are scheduled to report to the Fort Portal Police Station on 30 January 2013 for interrogation. The charges include inciting violence, disseminating harmful propaganda, while other charges relate to funding and the operation of programmes of the organisation. TLC is a non-governmental organisation based in Fort Portal that carries out human rights advocacy and monitoring work, including through radio programmes, with a view to holding public leaders more accountable.
On the afternoon of 22 January 2013, police conducted searches of the offices of TLC and of the residences of Gerald Kankya and Simon Amanyire. Two computers were confiscated from the TLC offices, while during the search of Gerald Kankya’s residence, police barricaded the gate of the residence with their vehicle, blocking Gerald Kankya’s wife from gaining access to her home. While searching Simon Amanyire’s residence, police confiscated a number of documents.
For more information on this case, see Front Line Defenders’ appeal http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/21363 issued on 23 January 2013, as well as previous urgent appeals and updates documenting instances of harassment of TLC members.
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Tags: corruption, Fort Portal, freedom of expression, Front Line, Front Line Defenders, harassment, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, impunity, Non-governmental organization, TLC, Uganda
January 16, 2013
Yvette Alberdingk Thijm, executive director of the US-based NGO Witness, wrote a post in the Huffington Post of 15 January about this fascinating topic on the occasion of Witness’ 20th anniversary. Here are some quotes before making a more critical comment:
“Twenty years ago, WITNESS was created because a world with many cameras — a world “where the eyes of the world are opened to human rights” — did not yet exist, a big bold vision at the time. Today, building on two decades of experience in creating tangible human rights change by exposing the truth through video, we are envisioning the next frontier: a world where video is not only ubiquitous, but has given millions the power to hold human rights abusers accountable, to deliver justice and to transform the human rights landscape.”….”So in 2013 and beyond, we are committed to building “video-for-change” communities, supporting networks of human rights defenders, from communities fighting forced evictions in Brazil to youth in the U.S. campaigning to protect the environment.”
In 2012, Witness launched the Human Rights Channel in partnership with YouTube and Storyful to ensure that important human rights stories are seen and contextualized. “We are committing in 2013 and beyond to take on the systems. The technology companies that run the platforms must create more human rights friendly spaces for all of us. And we decided to focus on the international legal systems to improve the understanding of how to authenticate citizen media to hold perpetrators of abuse accountable. We are working to achieve this vision by partnering and sharing in order to meet the challenge in front of us. We’ll join forces with technology mavens and mobile developers, with courageous human rights defenders worldwide, with brave bloggers, with witnessing citizens, with peer networks and effective organizations.”
—
Witness has indeed greatly advanced the use of images in the struggle for human rights and its future plans are daunting. What is missing – understandably in a piece that celebrates the achievement of a group’s anniversary – is the wider picture of what the human rights movement is doing with images. From the visualization of human rights defenders (the Martin Ennals Award, Front Line Defenders, Rights Livelihood Awards, Tulip Award, Civil Rights Defenders, HRF to mention just some who regularly make film portraits and/or stream their proceedings), the production of films on HRDs (e.g. True Heroes foundation), the systematization of access to images (e.g. by HURIDOCS) and the showing of films by a myriad of human rights film festivals (HRW, AI, Movies that Matter, and some 30 others). This modest blog alone has made some 60 references to the use of film images for human rights, many by Witness and the organizations mentioned above.
I mentioning this not because of ‘fairness’ in the sense that others need to be mentioned also, but because the full scope of the challenges ahead needs to be seen and addressed. Human rights images face the same problems as documentation: (1) information overload; (2) finding the most relevant information (even more daunting for images as searching directly on images is still far away); (3) authenticity and veracity; (4) ensuring quantity and quality of dissemination (what goes ‘viral’ is not necessarily what serves human rights) and (5) protecting of sources and participants (have the persons in the film given informed consent?). And I am sure there are quite a few other important issues.
So when the executive director of Witness states that it excites her “that we, together with so many allies, are taking the challenge for the future head on“, one must hope that it includes all those who can contribute to her vision of a world ” where many, many more citizens and human rights defenders have access to knowledge, skills and tools enabling them to create compelling, trustable videos and to make sure that their video is acted upon and human rights change happens.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/witness/human-rights-2013_b_2475221.html
Follow Witness on Twitter: www.twitter.com/witnessorg see its annual report: annual report
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Tags: 2012, Amnesty International, Civil Rights Defenders, film, film festival, Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, HURIDOCS, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, MEA, Movies that Matter, Non-governmental organization, True Heroes Foundation, Tulip award, video, Witness (human rights group), YouTube
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 