Posts Tagged ‘Geneva’
December 3, 2013
International Human Rights Day this year marks the 20th anniversary of the UN Human Rights Office and will be celebrated with events around the world throughout the week, including a day of discussions on 5 December in Geneva on a range of pressing human rights issues. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web and founder of the World Wide Web Foundation, will join UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay in a discussion over access to the Web and the balance between security and privacy online. Sir Tim Berners-Lee has been working to ensure that the World Wide Web is made freely available to all, and to establish the Web as a global public good and a basic right. The discussion will be moderated by prominent TV presenter Tim Sebastian, former host of the BBCs Hardtalk programme. The High Commissioner and the President of the Human Rights Council, Remigiusz Achilles Henczel will also deliver speeches at the opening of the event. Hina Jilani, former Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders and Christof Heyns, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, will lead panel discussions on protecting the space for human rights defenders and building a vision for an effective human rights system over the next 20 years and beyond. Panelists will also engage on the importance of ensuring the participation and inclusion of all individuals, regardless of their background or status, in the economic and political life of a State. The panels will be moderated by journalist Ghida Fakhry Khane, who was until recently one of the primary anchors for Al Jazeera English. Civil society representatives from Zimbabwe, Colombia, Tunisia and Norway will also lend their perspectives and rich experience to the discussions. The day will end with a performance by renowned musician Salif Keita, from Mali. Known as the “Golden Voice of Africa“, Mr. Keita was born with albinism and, in 2005, founded the Salif Keita Global Foundation to raise awareness about albinism.
The event will be held on Thursday, 5 December 2013, at the Palais des Nations in Room XX, from 9h30 to 17h00. The full programme and biographies of the participants can be found on http://at20.ohchr.org/events.html.
via Human Rights Day – 20 years of working for your rights – World News Report.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Christof Heyns, digital security, Geneva, Hina Jilani, human rights, Human Rights Day, Human Rights Defenders, international human rights day, Navanethem Pillay, panel, right to privacy, Salif Keita, Tim Berners-Lee, UN, World Wide Web
November 30, 2013
Human rights defenders play a critical role in exposing and ensuring accountability for business-related human rights violations. Despite this, around the world, there is an increase in attacks, judicial harassment, restrictions, surveillance, intimidation and reprisals against defenders who work on land and environment issues associated with business activities. A side event on 3 December in Geneva (Palais des Nations Room XX from 13h00 to 15h00) will pay special attention to challenges engendered by the increasing criminalisation or repression of those peacefully denouncing adverse human rights impacts of corporate projects, discussing the role of both States and companies. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in FIDH, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, OMCT | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Center for International Environmental Law, corporate accountability, criminalization, environmental issues, FIDH, Forum Asia, Geneva, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, human rights violations, International Federation for Human Rights, International service for, ISHR, Jorge Luis Morales, land disputes, OMCT, Peace Brigades International, side event, streaming, webcast, World Organisation Against Torture
November 27, 2013
To mark my post number 1000, I have chosen the subject of human rights awards, timely as today, 27 November, is also the LAUNCH OF THE TRUE HEROES AWARDS DIGEST on www.trueheroesfilms.org. The number of human rights awards has exploded with over 50 new awards created in just the last decade, bringing the total number to well over 100. Most of the research was done when I was writing an article on Human Rights Awards for the Special Issue of the OUP Journal of Human Rights Practice on ‘The Protection of Human Rights Defenders” which comes out on 29 November (for more info go to: http://jhrp.oxfordjournals.org/). Doing the research I found that the information on awards is scattered all over the internet and that human rights defenders would greatly benefit if the dat were put all together in a searchable way in a single Digest.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Human Rights Defenders, THF | 2 Comments »
Tags: 1000 posts, awards, blog, database, digest of human rights awards, Geneva, Havel, honor, Human right, Human Rights and Liberties, human rights awards, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, information, internet, laureates, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, recognition, role models, THF, True Heroes Foundation, United Nations
November 21, 2013
The legal recognition and protection of human rights defenders is crucial to ensuring that they can work in a safe, supportive environment and be free from attacks, reprisals and unreasonable legal restrictions. Despite this, governments in all regions are increasingly enacting laws which restrict and even criminalise the work of human rights defenders and NGOs. In response the Geneva-based International Service for Human Rights [ISHR] in partnership with regional, sub-regional and national human rights defender groups from around the world announces its plan to develop a model national law on human rights defenders to be enacted locally.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, criminalization, foreign funding, Geneva, harassment, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, International Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, international protection, International Service for Human Rights, model law, Non-governmental organization, reprisals, restrictive laws, retaliation, UN Human Rights Council, United Nations Human Rights Council
October 31, 2013
reports that on 30 October human rights lawyer, Ms Wang Yu, was finally permitted access to Chaoyang Detention Centre in Beijing in order to see Cao Shunli, who had reportedly been detained since 14 September 2013.
Wang Yu reported that Cao Shunli is extremely thin and has not received any medical attention in the detention centre. According to Wang Yu, Cao Shunli has been detained on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.
[On 14 September 2013, two security agents prevented Cao Shunli from boarding a flight from Beijing Capital Airport to Geneva. She was flying to take part in a training on UN mechanisms]
[In the months leading up to China’s Univeral Period Review (UPR) on 22 October 2013, Cao Shunli had been campaigning for greater civil society involvement in the UPR process]
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Beijing, Cao Shunli, China, detention centre, freedom of expression, Front Line Defenders, Geneva, ill treatment, illegal detention, United Nations, UPR, Wang Yu, woman human rights defender
October 26, 2013
Two hundred and eighteen human rights defenders in Shanghai signed a public appeal urging the United Nations not to elect China to the 47-member Human Rights Council. The election will be held on 12 November in the General Assembly.
China is one of the five candidates for the four seats to be filled by Asia-Pacific states. The other candidates are Jordan, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam. Among the voluntary pledges made by China for its membership are: “To continue to strengthen the development of democracy and the rule of law [and] push forward the reform of the judicial system.” The appeal is dated October 21, 2013, the day before China’s Universal Periodic Review at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Below are copies of the original signature sheets. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: boycott, China, elections, Geneva, human rights, Human Rights Council, Human Rights Defenders, Human rights in China, Shanghai, the United Nations, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review
October 26, 2013
On 26 October 2013, the Geneva-based Alkarama human rights organisation announced that Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Haidar Shaye will receive the 2013 Alkarama Award for human rights defenders. The Director of Alkarama’s Legal Department, Rachid Mesli, said that Shaye was awarded the prize because he personifies the struggle against human rights abuses in Yemen and for his courageous investigative reporting in this regard. Since last year, the Alkarama Award for Human Rights Defenders is presented every year to a human rights defender or organization in recognition of their contribution to the protection and the promotion of human rights in the Arab world.
via Saba Net – Yemen news agency.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Abdulelah Haidar Shaye, Alkarama, Arab world, awards, Geneva, Human right, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, human rights awards, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Journalist, Rachid Mesli, reporting, Shaye, Yemen
October 23, 2013
On 22 October the BBC and others reported that many member states of the UN Human Rights Council expressed concern at the arrest of dissidents, the continued use of the death penalty and the use of torture in prison, but Chinese officials maintained major progress had been made in improving social and economic rights. Julie de Rivero, of Human Rights Watch, told the BBC that China’s focus on economic progress was a way of avoiding the real issues: “The question is why does China continue to torture people in prisons and why is it systematic? Why do they not allow human rights defenders to raise questions that party members are even raising, about corruption? When it comes from the mouth of a human rights defender it earns them a place in prison”. Members of the UN panel also expressed concern about the treatment of a number of Chinese human rights activists in recent weeks.
(Activists from Students for a Free Tibet defied security to display a banner
on scaffolding in front of the United Nations (via BBC))
Under the UPR system, all UN member states undergo the review by the UN once every four years. [The UN panel – with a rotating membership of 47 states that does not currently include China – has no binding powers.] The report on China is expected later this week.
via BBC News – UN criticises Chinas rights record at Geneva meeting.
Posted in HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: BBC, China, corruption, freedom of expression, Geneva, HRW, human rights, human rights activists, Human Rights Defenders, Human rights in China, Human Rights Watch, reprisals, UN Human Rights Council, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review, UPR
October 23, 2013
On 22 October 2013 the Office of the United Nations High Commissioners for Human Rights called for the immediate release of a well-known Qatari poet who it says was harshly sentenced for a poem considered to be encouraging the overthrow of the ruling system of the country. Mohammed al Ajami – also known as Ibn al Dheeb – was initially sentenced to life in prison on 29 November 2012 for the poem, which was also considered insulting to the nation’s symbols. His sentence was reduced to 15 years last February during a second appeal. On 20 October, Qatar’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, decided to uphold the 15-year sentence. Mr. al Ajami’s only recourse now is to appeal for clemency to the Emir of Qatar, the home country of Al-Jazeera. “This sentence is clearly disproportionate,” OHCHR spokesperson Cécile Pouilly told reporters in Geneva. “Last January, we already publicly expressed our concerns about the harsh sentencing, the fairness of his trial and about the many months Mr. al Ajami had spent in solitary confinement,” she added.
via United Nations News Centre – Citing freedom of expression, UN calls for release of Qatari poet given 15-year sentence.
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Tags: Al-Jazeera, freedom of expression, Geneva, Ibn al Dheeb, imprisonment, Mohammed al-Ajami, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Office of the United Nations High Commissioners for Human Rights, poet, Qatar, release, sentence, Sentence (law), United Nations
October 22, 2013
Nominations for the 2014 MARTIN ENNALS AWARD FOR HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS (MEA) can now be submitted electronically at http://www.martinennalsaward.org. Deadline: 9 December 2013.
The Award is granted annually to an individual, or exceptionally an organisation, in recognition of their commitment and ongoing efforts in the defence and promotion of human rights. Nominees must be currently involved in work for the promotion and protection of human rights. Special account is taken of those who are at risk and have demonstrated an active record of combating human rights violations by courageous and innovative means. The MEA aims to encourage individuals or organisations, particularly those who are working in conditions hostile to fundamental human rights and who are in need of protection.
The present value of the annual Award is 20’000 Swiss Francs, to be used for further work in the field of human rights. The following organisations participate in the Jury that selects the award: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Front Line, Human Rights First, International Federation for Human Rights, the World Organisation Against Torture, International Commission of Jurists, International Service for Human Rights, Protestant Agency for Diakonia and Development (Germany) and HURIDOCS.
The Ceremony is hosted by the City of Geneva in late 2013. They provide each of the final three nominees with project funds of 11’650 CHF and a 5’000 CHF travel grant.
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Tags: AI, awards, call for nominations, Diakonie, FIDH, Frontline Defenders, Geneva, HRF, HRW, Human right, human rights, human rights awards, Human Rights Defenders, human rights violations, HURIDOCS, ICJ, ISHR, Martin Ennals, Martin Ennals Award, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, MEA, nominations, OMCT
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 