Posts Tagged ‘Human right’
September 27, 2013
On 26 September 2013 many countries attended the first ministerial meeting held at the United Nations on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals.

(UN Photo/Amanda Voisard)
Foreign ministers attending the meeting, held on the margins of the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate, adopted a declaration pledging not just to protect LGBT rights but also to counter homophobic and transphobic attitudes. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay commended
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: argentina, Brazil, Croatia, equality, European Union, France, homophobia, HRW, Human right, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, LGBT, LGBT rights, LGBTI, meeting, Navi Pillay, Netherlands, non-discrimination, Norway, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, sexual identity, United Nations, United States Secretary of State
September 26, 2013
In what could possibly put trafficking campaigners and human rights organisations on a collision course, the Uzbekistan authorities have recourse to trafficking and sexual harassment charges to put human rights defenders behind bars. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Bukhara, Central Asia, fabricated charges, Front Line (NGO), Hasan Choriyev, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, human rights group, Human Rights Watch, human trafficking, illegal detention, Mercy, prison, rape, Razzakov, Sergei Naumov, sexual harassment, sexual harassment charges, Steve Swerdlow, Uzbek, Uzbekistan
September 25, 2013

On 23 September Amy Bergquist of the Advocates for Human Rights writes in her blog: The International Justice Program doesn’t get to travel to Geneva very often, but thanks to the United Nations’ live webcasts, we can usually see and hear all the U.N.’s human rights action as it happens. On Friday morning, I was eager to watch the U.N. Human Rights Council’s consideration of the Universal Periodic Review of Cameroon. I was especially moved when one of our colleagues from the Cameroonian Foundation for AIDS (CAMFAIDS) took the floor to speak on behalf of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association and recounted his July 15 discovery of his tortured and murdered colleague, Eric Ohena Lembembe, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Advocates for Human Rights, allafrica com, Cameroon, CAMFAIDS, Eric Ohena Lembembe, gay rights, Geneva, homophobia, HRW, Human right, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, investigation, IRIN, LGBT, LGBT rights, Neela Ghoshal, NGOs, persecution, reprisals, Roger Jean Claude Mbede, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review, UPR
September 20, 2013
Philip Alston, John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, and former UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions wrote a piece on one of the most crucial topics facing human rights defenders at the moment and which has figured regularly in this blog: the issue of retaliation or reprisals against those HRDs who cooperate with the Un and their Rapporteurs. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | 5 Comments »
Tags: fact finding, Geneva, Human right, Human Rights Defenders, International Service for Human Rights, ISHR, New York University School of Law, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Philip Alston, reprisals, retaliation, testimony, treaty bodies, UN Special Rapporteur, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, WUNRN
September 11, 2013
Having last week referred to 3 different (and competing?) techno initiatives to increase the security of HRDs, i would be amiss not to note the post of 11 september 2013 by Tanya O’Caroll on the AI blog concerning the development of the Panic button. Over the next couple of months, she will be keeping you posted about the Panic Button. If you want to join the community of people working on Panic Button, please leave a comment on the site mentioned below or email panicbutton@amnesty.org.
via Inside the development of Amnesty’s new Panic Button App | Amnestys global human rights blog.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Advocacy Organizations, Amnesty International, Artificial intelligence, global human rights, HRDs, Human right, Human Rights and Liberties, Human Rights Defenders, information technology, internet, mobile phones, Panic Button, protection, technology, YouTube
September 5, 2013
On 29 August 2013, human rights defender Ms Naw Ohn Hla was found guilty of disturbing public tranquillity under Section 505(b) of the Burmese Penal Code and sentenced to two years in prison with hard labour. She had been arrested on 13 August 2013 during a peaceful protest. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: aung san suu, Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma, copper mine, environmental issues, Front Line (NGO), hard labour, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, judicial harassment, Letpadaung copper mine, Myanmar, Naw Ohn Hla, Nonviolent resistance, peaceful efforts, woman human rights defender
September 5, 2013
On 7 April 2013 I posted on this blog the announcement of the Anti-kidnap alarm for human rights defenders in form of the Natalia bracelet launched in Stockholm by Civil Rights Defenders.
This was followed 10 days later, 17 April, by a post referring to the Panic Button developed by Amnesty International (“How to turn a mobile phone into an alert system for human rights defenders: AI’s Panic Button”).
Now the New York based Human Rights foundation announces its Partnership with global encrypted communications firm Silent Circle to protect the private communications of political dissidents, human rights groups, and civil society organizations in at-risk scenarios. (http://humanrightsfoundation.org/HRF-Announces-Silent-Circle-Partnership-to-Support-Dissidents-04-09-2013.php)
There exist already the older and more wide-ranging tools of: “Security in a Box” (a collaboration between Front Line and Tactical Tech Collective – see http://security.ngoinabox.org/welcome) and Protection International‘s on-line Manual: http://protectioninternational.org/publication/new-protection-manual-for-human-rights-defenders-3rd-edition/.
While these (and perhaps other tools that I have missed!) may have all different features, the question could be asked who among the hard-pressed human rights defenders on the ground have the time and energy to sort through all this and pick what is most meaningful for them? Competition may well bring out the best but can also be confusing.
Posted in Front Line, human rights | 4 Comments »
Tags: Amnesty International, Civil Rights Defenders, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Foundation, information technology, internet, Natalia project, Panic Button, protection, Protection International, Security-in-a-box, Silent Circle, Tactical Tech Collective, technology
August 30, 2013
For the fifth time the Dutch Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (NJCM) will issue the Thoolen NJCM-Scriptieprijs for the best master thesis. Any student who has followed university level education – at least partly – in the Netherlands is allowed to participate as long as the paper was written between 2011 and 2013. The winning paper will be published by the Foundation NJCM-Boekerij. The deadline is 1 november 2013. Four copies of the paper – in English or Dutch – have to be sent to: NJCM, Steenschuur 25, 2311 ES Leiden. Former winners of the award are:
– Laura Henderson, Tortured reality. How media framing of waterboarding affects judicial independence
– Erik van de Sandt, A child’s story for global peace and justice. Best practices for a child-friendly environment during the statement- and testimony-period in respect of the Rome Statute and the International Criminal Code
– Shekufeh Jalali Manesh, het recht van het kind op behoorlijke huisvesting en het BLOEM-model
– Janine de Vries, Sexual violence against women in Congo. Obstacles and remedies for judicial assistance .
via NJCM – Nederlands Juristen Comité voor de Mensenrechten.
Posted in books, human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Advocacy Organizations, awards, Dutch Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Human right, Human Rights and Liberties, lawyers committee for human rights, Leiden, master thesis, Netherlands, NJCM, research, Thesis, Thoolen NJCM prijs, university level education
August 30, 2013
On 25 August 2013, human rights defenders Ms María Enriqueta Matute, Mr Armando Fúnez Medina and Mr Ricardo Soto Fúnez were killed in an attack in Honduras. The three belonged to various tribes of the Tolupán indigenous people, from Locomapa, in the Yoro zone, and had been involved in a peaceful protest against a local mining operation and the construction of Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Armando Fúnez Medina, environmental issues, Front Line (NGO), Honduras, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, hydroelectric dam, indigenous groups, Indigenous People, Land issues, Locomapa, María Enriqueta Matute, peaceful protest, Ricardo Soto Fúnez, San Francisco, sit in protest, Yoro
August 27, 2013
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in collaboration with DIGNITY, has made the practice of custodial torture and ill-treatment a core area of engagement. With a view to counteract the widespread practice of torture, the AHRC and DIGNITY have formed an Asian Alliance against Torture and Ill-treatment (AAATI) in 2012. The first conference of Asian Parliamentarians and Human Rights Defenders was held in Hong Kong in 2012 [ see report Torture – Asian and Global Perspectives Vol. 1, No. 3 ].
The focus for the second meeting [scheduled for 11-13 November 2013] will be to identify the reluctance of governments to achieve a substantial change in the nature of policing in their countries to bring these institutions at par with the policing systems of advanced democracies.
The link below refers to the announcement which in fact is a CONCEPT PAPER:
ASIA: Second Regional Conference of Asian Parliamentarians & Human Rights Defenders on Elimination of Custodial Torture and Ill-treatment in Asia November 2013, Hong Kong — Asian Human Rights Commission
For details please contact: Bijo Francis, Executive Director, Email: ahrc at ahrc.asia
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: AHRC, Asia, asian human rights, Asian Human Rights Commission, DIGNITY, Hong Kong, Human right, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, ill treatment, meeting, Non-governmental organization, parliamentarians, Police, torture, United Nations