via: 1 march, 11 sentences for Myanmar rights activist :: WRAL.com. (1 September 2014)
Posts Tagged ‘Human rights defender’
Human rights defender Htin Kyaw in Myanmar keeps walking in spite of 11 convictions
September 16, 2014Saudi Arabia: ‘only’ 14 years jail for blogger Fadel Al-Manasef
September 12, 2014
reports that on 9 September 2014, the Specialised Criminal Court reduced [SIC and sick] the sentence of human rights defender Mr Fadel Al-Manasef after it was reconsidered by the Specialised Criminal Court of Appeal. The human rights defender was originally sentenced (http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/25761) to 15 years’ imprisonment and a subsequent 15-year travel ban, as well as a fine of approximately €20,000). The Court reduced the sentence to 14 years’ imprisonment, to be followed by a 14 years travel ban, while maintaining the initial fine. Hard not to be cynical.
[Fadel Al-Manasef is a writer and blogger, and a founding member of Al Adalah Center for Human Rights, a Saudi Arabian NGO that documents and monitors human rights violations and provides support to victims of human rights abuses. He has been in detention since his arrest on 2 October 2011. – https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/fadel-al-manasef/]
Russia’s Human Rights Defenders continue the struggle against foreign agents law and other repression
September 11, 2014I have posted extensively on the ‘foreign agents” law in Russia (and a few other countries that got inspired by this bad example) [see: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/foreign-agent/] and the article below in the Moscow Times is an excellent piece that sums up the current repression AND the resilience of the human rights defenders. Election-monitoring watchdog Golos won a rare victory among Russian NGOs on Tuesday 9 September when a Moscow court ruled it should not after all be labeled a “foreign agent.” But rights activists warn that the battle against the “foreign agents” label is only the tip of the iceberg in a far broader pressure campaign being waged by the authorities. Read the rest of this entry »
Veteran human rights defender Ahmed Seif Al Islam dies in Egypt
August 29, 2014On 21 August I reported on the travails of an Egyptian family of human rights defenders [https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/08/21/an-exceptional-egyptian-family-of-human-rights-defenders/], a week later Mona Seif’s father has died. Ahmed Seif Al Islam was a veteran Egyptian lawyer, activist and former political prisoner. Arrested and tortured by State Security Investigations officers in 1983 for his political activity, he served five years in prison. Founder of the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre, which since 2008 has been providing legal assistance to protesters. The Hisham Mubarak Law Centre (HMLC ) monitored state violence during the 2011 protests, and became a gathering place for human rights activists during the revolution. Ahmed Seif was arrested by Military Intelligence with his staff at the height of the protests.
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© 2011 Platon for Human Rights Watch
Seif, a human rights lawyer, was on the legal defense team in numerous high-profile trials of human rights, labor, and more broadly political activists in the Hosni Mubarak years, but he was above all an activist himself. The was more often than not the coordinating center for planning peaceful demonstrations and then, invariably, for deploying lawyers to various detention centers in response to the usual mass arrests that followed such events.In a conversation I had with Seif several years ago, in February 2007, he told me how he became engaged in human rights activism and lawyering:
Early human rights defender Helen Bamber dies aged 89
August 22, 2014
(Photograph: Helen Bamber Foundation/PA)
Many newspapers, including the Guardian of 21 August, carry the news of the demise of human rights defender and early member of Amnesty International, Helen Bamber. She died aged 89. Bamber was a psychotherapist who began helping victims of torture and atrocities aged 20 when she started working with survivors of the Holocaust.
She used her vast experience to work with actor Colin Firth on his film The Railway Man, an account of a British officer captured by the Japanese during the second world war and made to work on the Thai-Burma railway. Firth said his encounter with Bamber was life-changing and the compassion she showed had touched him for life. He said that even in old age and ill-health Bamber continued to be determined to do all she could to help those affected by slavery, torture and human rights abuses: “Her courage, wisdom and pragmatism were formidable – and what she did worked.”
Actress Emma Thompson, who is president of the Helen Bamber Foundation, said: “Not only is she a great listener and an incredible interpreter, but she never lets her imagination run dry…She resists institutionalism. She knows which borders should be crossed and melds them together.”
via Human rights campaigner Helen Bamber dies aged 89 | World news | The Guardian.
for contributions: https://www.justgiving.com/HelenBamberMemorialFund/
Egyptian Human Rights Defender Maheinour El-Massry receives the Ludovic Trarieux Award
July 7, 2014On Wednesday June 25, it was announced that the “Ludovic Trarieux” human rights award was granted to Maheinour El-Massry, Egyptian lawyer and human rights defender. She currently serves two years in prison for violating the Protest Law. The defender was imprisoned under three consecutive presidents in Egypt: Mubarak, Mohamed Morsi and Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) expresses its pleasure and reiterates its demand to release Maheinour El-Massry along with all those who are being imprisoned under the notorious Protest Law. For more on the award see: http://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/award/ludovic-trarieux-international-human-rights-prize
Good NEWS: Ales Bialiatski – Belarus’ best-known human rights defender – freed from prison
June 22, 2014On 21 June 2014 it was reported by AP and others that prominent Belarusian human rights defender Ales Bialiatski was finally released from prison that day. The 51-year-old leader of the NGO Vyasna, was released 20 months ahead of schedule. Supporters greeted Bialiatski at a train station in the capital, Minsk, after he traveled from prison.”The international support and the support back home, this is what brought about my release,” Bialiatski told reporters, “I will continue to do what Ive been doing.” [6 people remain in prison for political activism, including former presidential candidate Nikolai Statkevich]
for earlier posts on Ales Bialiatski: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/ales-bialiatski/
Tibetan Filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen Released from Prison Yesterday
June 6, 2014
On 5 June 2014 Dhondup Wangchen, the imprisoned Tibetan video-activist, was released from prison in Qinghai’s provincial capital Xining, China, after serving a six-year sentence. In a phone call to Gyaljong Tsetrin, cousin and president of Filming For Tibet, living in Switzerland, a very emotional Dhondup Wangchen said: “At this moment, I feel that everything inside me is in a sea of tears. I hope to recover my health soon. I would like to express my feeling of deepest gratitude for all the support I received while in prison and I want to be reunited with my family.”
Lhamo Tso, wife of the imprisoned filmmaker who was granted US asylum in 2012 and now lives in San Francisco, is overjoyed: “Six years of injustice and painful counting the days ended today. It is a day of unbelievable joy for his parents in Dharamsala, our children and myself. We look forward to be reunited as a family.”
Gyaljong Tsetrin, his cousin and co-producer of “Leaving Fear Behind”, said after talking him to: “Though Dhondup is still under the control of the Chinese authorities I am very relieved that he finally could leave prison and has now the possibility to consult a doctor.” The self-taught cameraman and video-activist travelled across Tibet with his assistant Golog Jigme in 2007/2008. His film “Leaving Fear Behind” (28 min.) has been translated into a dozen languages and has been screened in more than 30 countries worldwide. Golog Jigme recently just arrived in India after a spectacular escape from Tibet. Dhondup Wangchen has been given awards by various NGOs, such as Committee to Protect Journalists, for his courageous work making the documentary “Leaving Fear Behind” and his case was the focal point of many campaigns of international human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Reporters without Borders. Government representatives around the world have brought up his case in their talks with their Chinese counterparts.
Critically Ill Human Rights Defender Abdurasul Khudoynazarov Freed in Uzbekistan
June 6, 2014A court in Uzbekistan ordered the release of a human rights defender on medical grounds on 31 May 2014. The Uzbek government should now meaningfully investigate credible allegations that Abdurasul Khudoynazarov was tortured and denied appropriate medical care in prison, and allow him to resume his human rights work.
via Uzbekistan: Critically Ill Activist Freed | Eurasia Review.
Update on case of MEA Laureate Mbonimpa in Burundi
May 29, 2014 reports that on 26 May 2014, the Bujumbura Court of First Instance refused a request for release due to unlawful arrest (Habeas Corpus) filed by human rights defender Mr Pierre Claver Mbonimpa in Burundi. Mbonimpa – Laureate of the MEA in 2007 – has been in detention since 16 May 2014 and is currently being held in the Central Prison of Mpimba. More information on Pierre Claver Mbonimpa’s case is available on http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/25956 and my previous post https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/alert-mea-laureate-2007-pierre-claver-mbonimpa-arrested-in-burundi/.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 