Posts Tagged ‘human rights awards’
December 23, 2013
(Mary Aileen Bacalso receiving the Award in Argentina from foreign Minister Hector Timerman)
Human rights defender Mary Aileen Bacalso from the Philippines received the Emilio F. Mignone International Human Rights Award in Argentina Tuesday last week for her advocacy work in her capacity as the secretary-general of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD). Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman presided over the ceremony, which was conducted at the Argentine Foreign Ministry. It was attended also by representatives from Argentine human rights organizations, and the family of human rights defender Emilio Mignone, after whom the award was named. [Mignone’s daughter Monica disappeared during the Argentine dictatorship]
Bacalso’s own husband was abducted by seven armed men in 1988. He was released after being tortured and made to admit to the accusations, said Bacalso in a phone interview with InterAksyon.com. In 1998, she co-founded AFAD with two other organizations in India and Sri Lanka as a response to the problem of enforced disappearances in many parts of Asia. In Sri Lanka alone, there were 60,000 cases at the time, according to the AFAD website. From the beginning, they took pointers from and coordinated with human rights groups in Latin America which were formed in the 1980s to take action on enforced disappearances. AFAD now has 11 member-organizations from eight countries, with the main office based in the Philippines. They disseminate information, campaign for the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, research and document cases, and accompany families of victims of enforced disappearances.
Aside from bringing them recognition, Bacalso said she hoped the award would also give them credibility as they try to convince governments in Asia and in the rest of the world to stop enforced disappearances.
In her acceptance speech, she recalled the adversity faced by those who fought for the rights of the victims of enforced disappearances. “AFAD’s own former Chairperson from Indonesia, Munir, who worked tirelessly for the cause of the disappeared, was poisoned by a lethal dose of arsenic in a flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam via Singapore.” “Our colleagues in Kashmir are persecuted in more ways than one, including non-issuance of passports to restrict their movement and block them from forging solidarity with sister organizations in other countries. “Our leaders in Bangladesh were recently arrested, their office raided and files and pieces of equipment stolen in a desperate attempt to silence them. “In Laos, almost a year ago, development worker Sombath Somphone was taken by the police in broad daylight as evidenced from the CCTV camera footage, yet despite the obvious proof, the Laos government denies knowledge of the victim’s whereabouts. His wife has gone from pillar to post and has knocked on doors of national and international bodies yet her husband is nowhere to be found.” “In the Asian region with a huge number of cases and where defenders face the danger of being disappeared themselves, this award, representing the support of the Argentinian government, is a strong protection to our work in our region,” Bacalso said.
for more information on the Mignone award go to the Digest of awards on: www.trueheroesfilms.org
Filipina wins international rights award for advocacy against enforced disappearances – InterAksyon.com.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: AFAD, argentina, Asia, Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances, awards, digest of human rights awards, disappearances, Forced disappearance, Human right, human rights awards, Human Rights Defenders, India, International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, Mary Aileen Bacalso, Mignone, Munir, Philippine, Sombath Somphone, Sri Lanka, woman human rights defender
December 20, 2013
Whether
Edward Snowden is a human rights defender or a criminal has been much debated and was also reported on in this blog. He was nominated for the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize and received the Netizen’s award from the NGO Reporters without Borders. Now the highly respected
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), through its Executive Director
Anthony Romero, has taken a clear stand and his article of 17 December 2013 is provided here in full:
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: ACLU, American Civil Liberties Union, American government, Amnesty, Anthony Romero, Congress, Edward Snowden, electronic surveillance, European Parliament, government surveillance, human rights awards, Human rights defender, National Security Agency, netizens award, NSA, patriot, Reporters without Borders, right to privacy, Sakharov Prize, Snowden, United States, USA, whistleblower
December 18, 2013
Today, 18 December 2013, Scoop News brings the sad news that Palestinian Human Rights Defender Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj, Palestinian psychiatrist and Commissioner-General of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens’ Rights, passed away in Gaza a few hours ago. Born in Beersheva, Palestine on 27 April 1944, Dr El-Sarraj arrived with his family in Gaza in 1948 as a refugee. He grew up to become the first psychiatrist to practice in Gaza, beginning in 1977. Dr El-Sarraj went on to found and direct the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme [GCMHP], which he established in 1990 to promote the mental well-being of three major target groups in the Palestinian community: children, women, and victims of organized violence and torture. “We strongly believe that there is a correlation between human rights and mental health, because sound mental health cannot be gained under violent circumstances, and human rights will not be respected in a society exposed to ongoing trauma,” states the organisation’s strategy document. His human rights work was not without cost – in 1996 he was arrested and tortured for condemning torture and violation of human rights by the Palestinian Authorities. In 1998 he received the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders [MEA], in 1997 the Physicians for Human Rights Award, and in 2010 the Swedish labour movement’s Olof Palme Prize. In the same year, Dr El-Sarraj was jointly awarded the Juan José López-Ibor prize in psychiatry, along with Professor Jules Angst, in recognition of his contribution to advancement of the rights and dignity of people with a mental illness, and his scientific research. Other notable activities include being a consultant to the Palestinian delegation at the Camp David 2000 Summit, and his appearance as an expert witness before the United Nations-mandated Goldstone Commission on the war crimes committed during Israel’s 2008-9 military offensive “Operation Cast Lead.” His evidence on the long-term psycho-social impacts of the conflict on civil society in Gaza was quoted in the final report. The light that Iyad El-Sarraj shone into some of the darkest corners of Palestine can not be dimmed by his death. “You are the window through which I can breathe,” one of his patients once told him. His legacy of hope, and a legion of Palestinians both taught and inspired by him, will continue his important work. During his acceptance speech at the MEA ceremony he said, “Receiving this award reminded me of one of the persons I left behind in prison. He said to me: ‘Don’t forget me… please… don’t forget me’.” The best we can do now, is the same for El Sarraj: Don’t forget him… please… don’t forget him!
via Palestinian Human Rights Defender Dies at 69 | Scoop News.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, MEA | 1 Comment »
Tags: Camp David 2000, death, Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj, El-Sarraj, Eyad El-Sarraj, Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, Goldstone, human rights awards, Human rights defender, illegal detention, Israel, Juan José López-Ibor, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, MEA, MEA 1998, mental-health, Olof Palme Prize, Palestine, Palestinian community, Palestinian Human Rights Defender, Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens’ Rights, Physicians for Human Rights Award, Psychiatry, torture, UN, victims of torture
December 14, 2013
Laila Alawa in a post on PolicyMic of 13 December puts a good question:
should award givers not take care in selecting the one who hands out the award? She does not mince her words in stating that
Queen Noor of Jordan was the wrong choice by the
Thomson Reuters Foundation as she does not uphold the qualities that this foundation wants to reward.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Alaa Murabit, awards, human rights awards, India, Jordan, Libya, London Trust Women Conference, Neha Dixit, Queen Noor, Queen Noor of Jordan, Reuters, South Asia, thomson reuters foundation, Trust Women Awards, women human rights defenders, Women's rights
December 13, 2013
On 9 December 2013, 4 human rights defenders [Ms Razan Zaitouna, Mr Wael Hamada, Mr Nazem Hamaadi and Ms Samira Khalil] were abducted by masked armed men and taken to unknown whereabouts in Syria. They were kidnapped from the offices of the Center for Documenting Human Rights Violations in Syria, located in Douma. Razan Zaitouna is an award-winning human rights defender who worked on the rights of political prisoners in Syria before the revolution, and continued her activities throughout the peaceful uprising in 2011, founding the ‘local coordination committees’. In 2011, she received the Anna Politkovskaya award “RAW (Reach All Women) in WAR” and in 2013 the International Women of Courage Award. Wael Hamada is an active human rights defender who had been kidnapped by the authorities in 2011 for his legitimate work in the defence of human rights in Syria, and Nazem Hamaadi is a well-known lawyer and poet, respected for his defence of detainees who were arrested in Damascus during the revolution. Samira Khalil is a human rights activist and a member of a peaceful political opposition party in Syria.
Posted in Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: abduction, Anna Politkovskaya, Center for Documenting Human Rights Violations in Syria, Damascus, Douma, Front Line (NGO), Human right, human rights awards, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, International Women of Courage Award, kidnapping, Nazem Hamaadi, Razan Zaitouneh, Samira Khalil, Syria, Wael Hamada, women human rights defenders
December 5, 2013
On 5 December 2013 the six winners announced of the UN Human Rights Prize were announced: Biram Dah Abeid of Mauritania, a son of freed slaves who works to eradicate the heinous practice; Hiljmnijeta Apuk of Kosovo, a campaigner for the rights of people with disproportional restricted growth short stature; Liisa Kauppinen of Finland, President emeritus of the World Federation of the Deaf; Khadija Ryadi, Former President of the Morocco Association for Human Rights; Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice the Constitutional Court; and Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot by the Taliban for attending classes and is now a renowned education activist. The award ceremony will take place at UN Headquarters in New York on 10 December 2013, as part of the annual commemoration of Human Rights Day [The Prize, which is bestowed every five years, is an honorary award given to individuals and organizations in recognition of outstanding achievement in human rights.]
via United Nations News Centre – Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai among winners of 2013 UN human rights prize.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: awards, Biram Dah Abeid, disabled, Finland, Hiljmnijeta Apuk, Human right, human rights awards, Human Rights Defenders, Khadija Ryadi, Kosovo, Liisa Kauppinen, Malala Yousafzai, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Morocco Association for Human Rights, New York, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Pakistan, UN Human Rights Prize, United Nations, women human rights defenders, World Federation of the Deaf
November 27, 2013
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: Aliyev, awards, Azerbaijan, Buzzfeed, Committee for Protection of Journalists, Committee to Protect Journalists, Freedom House, human rights, human rights awards, Human Rights Watch, Idral Abbasov, Ilham Aliyev, Journalist, Miriam Berger, President Ilham Aliyev, Press Freedom, Rory Peck awards
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 26, 2013
(ZimRights chairperson Everson Ndlovu announcing the awards)
Human rights awards are growing more and more popular both at international and national level. For that reason my post number 1000 (this is number 999!!) tomorrow will be fully devoted to international human rights awards. The national human rights awards created by Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZIMRIGHTS) in 2012 are to be extended this year, increasing categories from an already very high number of 14 to 20. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Abel Chikomo, Africa, Amnesty International, awards, Everson Ndlovu, freedom of association, Harare, Human right, human rights awards, Human rights defender, national award, Zimbabwe, ZimRights
November 19, 2013
On 15 November 2013 William J. Burns, Deputy Secretary of State of the USA, spoke at a ceremony honoring Syrian human rights defender Ms. Hanadi Zahlout, who was accorded the 2013 Human Rights Defender Award of the US Government. He said inter alia: Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Advocacy Organizations, awards, Bashar al-Assad, Hanadi Zahlout, Human right, Human Rights and Liberties, human rights awards, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defender Award, Human Rights Defenders, Syria, Syrian human rights defender, United States, William J. Burns
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 