An international conference on Human Rights and Counter-terrorism is being convened in Geneva on 16-17 February by The Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD) headquartered in Stavanger, Norway. Reported by Business Wire on 4 February. The main topic of discussion will be the draft of the International Convention on Balancing Counter-terrorism and Human Rights, as well as an introduction of the International Initiative on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism, coordinated by GNRD.
Posts Tagged ‘Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD)’
Human rights investigators in Qatar: “being followed by the police here. Looks like they will give me troubles now”
September 4, 2014
Two British human rights workers investigating the plight of migrant labourers constructing facilities for Qatar’s 2022 World Cup have disappeared and are feared to be held incommunicado by the Gulf state’s security forces reports the Independent. Krishna Upadhyaya and Ghimire Gundev vanished on Sunday 31 August after sending texts to colleagues saying they were being followed by plain clothes police officers and feared they arrest as they tried to leave Qatar on flights that day. The two men, who are of Nepalese extraction and both carry British passports, had been in the Qatari capital Doha to record interviews with Nepali labourers and investigate conditions in accommodation camps. They were working in cooperation with Nepalese diplomats in the city.
The Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD), employing the men, said it believed its employees were being held by the Qatari police and were at risk of maltreatment or torture: “We are deeply concerned that our employees, both British citizens, may have been subjected to enforced disappearance and are currently at risk of torture.”
[Qatar has been strongly criticised for the working conditions of its 1.4m migrant labourers as it races to spend £123bn on new infrastructure ahead of the 2022 World Cup. More than 400 Nepalese, the vast majority of them in Qatar to work on construction projects, died in the Gulf state between January 2012 and this May – a death rate of one worker per day. Qatar has insisted that none of the deaths occurred on World Cup sites. Qatar has been criticised for routinely holding detainees incommunicado for weeks or months at a time. Amnesty International has described the tactic as “standard practice” and said it can be followed by lengthy further detention without charge or trial.]
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 