13 NGOs have signed an open letter concerning the situation in Bahrain in the light of the upcoming mass demonstration on 14 August. As it is short and to the point here is the full text copied from the FIDH website: Read the rest of this entry »
Posts Tagged ‘Human rights defender’
Saudi Arabia: Release of human rights defender Mohammed El-Bejadi after more than two years
August 9, 2013
Mohammed El-Bejadi
On 6 August 2013, human rights defender Mr Mohammed Saleh El-Bejadi was released from detention in which he had been kept since his arrest during a peaceful protest in the area of Buraidah, on 21 March 2011. Mohammed El-Bejadi is Read the rest of this entry »
Honduras: mining company destabilizes community and threatens HRDs
August 9, 2013Front Line reports the continuous presence of armed security guards in the community of La Nueva Esperanza, in the department of Atlántida, threatening and intimidating the local population, resulted in the temporary kidnapping of two human rights defenders, Mr Daniel Langmeier and Ms Orlane Vidal. Both are working for the Proyecto de Acompañamiento Honduras – PROAH (Honduras Accompaniment Project), an organisation which aims to prevent or alleviate situations of risk against human rights defenders in Honduras. Read the rest of this entry »
Phil Lynch of ISHR expects UN Human Rights Council to enhance protection of HRDs
August 9, 2013In a piece published in the Alaska Dispatch of 8 August 2013, Phil Lynch, the Director of the Geneva-based International Service for Human Rights, contemplates what the next session of the UN Human Rights Council could do to improve the fate of HRDs.
Read the rest of this entry »
Ethnic Azerbaijani human rights defenders in detention in Iran resort to hunger strike after unfair trial
August 5, 2013Since 13 July 2013, five ethnic Azerbaijani human rights defenders detained in Tabriz prison have taken part in an ongoing hunger strike in protest at their conviction following an unfair trial. Mahmud Fezli, Latif Haseni, Ayat Mehrali Baglou, Behboud Gholizadeh and Shahram Radmehr are members of the organisation Yeni Gamoh, Read the rest of this entry »
UN Rapporteur joins chorus to urge freedom for Bialiatski in Belarus
August 2, 2013
Special Rapporteur on Belarus Miklós Haraszti. – Photo: OSCE/Susanna Lööf
2 August 2013 the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Republic of Belarus, Miklós Haraszti, said that the detention of Bialiatski is “a symbol of the repression against human rights defenders.” Read the rest of this entry »
Bangladesh: the sad story of the attack on Shahed Kayes
August 2, 2013The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHCR) tells the story of what happened recently in Bangladesh to human rights defender and philanthropic educator Shahed
Kayes well. I suggest you read the full story provided in the link below but the essence is that Shahed Kayes knew that his attempt to educate impoverished children from the low castes was unacceptable to the deeply entrenched local power structure and those at the top of it, as schooling can lessen the abundant supply of uneducated labour at their disposal. He was also trying to stop illegal sand-mining, a crime that threatens the very survival of the Meghna river communities. The sand mafia was bound to be irked. Read the rest of this entry »
Armenian HRD says: Hospitals charge extra sums from parents
August 1, 2013Here an example of what an ‘official’ human rights defender (the Armenian Ombudsman with the somewhat confusing title HRD) can do in the area of social rights:
Armenia’s Human Rights Defender (HRD) issued a statement saying that the HRD has already examined omissions in the State Child Health Certificate Program in his previous annual report. Under the program children under the age of 7 shall receive free medical care. Yet parents, while having the necessary documents for free health care, often have to pay extra money to some doctors. “A year has passed since the problem was raised, but there has been no progress. Moreover, the Defender continues receiving complaints about such violations, especially complaints about Austrian Mother and Child Hospital of Gyumri CJSC. The Defender officially informed the Health Minister about it, but he has not received any definite answer about whether those guilty were held accountable or not. The Human Rights Defender, Karen Andreasian, calls upon citizens to apply to the HRD Staff in case of encountering such a problem.
via HRD: Hospitals charge extra sums from parents – aysor.am – Hot news from Armenia.
Philippines Chief Human Rights Defender, Rosales, asked to resign for ‘incompetence’
July 30, 2013The Business Mirror in the Philippines published on Monday 29 July 2013 a piece quoting the human-rights group Karapatan which asked the Chair of the Commission on Human Rights, Loretta Ann Rosales, to step down for allegedly failing to fulfill the mandate of her office. The group said that instead of doing her job as the country’s chief human-rights defender, Read the rest of this entry »
Saudi Website Founder to be Imprisoned and Lashed · Global Voices
July 30, 2013Global Voices reports today that Free Saudi Liberals website founder Raif Badawi was sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes. Badawi was arrested on 17 June, 2012 in Jeddah and was charged with “setting up a website that undermines general security” and ridiculing Islamic religious figures. The Free Saudi Liberals website was an online forum for public discussions. It was shut following Badawi’s arrest, and it had been blocked within the country for years. In todays sentence, the judge also ordered the permanent shutdown of the website. On December 17, 2012, the case was referred to a higher court, the General Court in Jeddah, after he had been charged with apostasy, which carries the death penalty. Badawi was asked by the judge to abandon his views, but he refused. Amnesty International has considered him “a prisoner of conscience detained solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression” and demanded his immediate, unconditional release.
via Saudi Website Founder to be Imprisoned, Lashed · Global Voices.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 