In the early hours of 6 April, human rights lawyer Mr Wang Quanzhang was released from detention in the province of eastern Jiangsu, approximately 56 hours after he was detained and placed under a 10-day judicial detention for “disrupting court order”. The human rights defender was detained for photographing a document which he had been asked to submit to the court, as it was his only copy! The Jingjiang People’s Court released Wang Quanzhang on the grounds that the short detention had already served as a punishment and a warning. However, the human rights defender believes that his release is due to public pressure. Wang Quanzhang had been defending Mr Zhu Yanian, who is a member of Falun Gong and was being tried for ‘using a cult organisation to undermine the implementation of the law’.
Proceedings in this case, brought by a fruit processing company before the South Bangkok criminal court, are scheduled for today April 11, 2013. The charges stem from a defamation complaint filed on February 14 by the Natural Fruit Company Limited against Andy Hall for an investigative report about serious labor rights violations at the company’s factory in Prachaub Kirikhan province. If convicted, Hall faces up to two years in prison. He is also facing civil damages of 300 million baht (US$10 million).“Criminal charges against Andy Hall reflect an attempt to stifle serious reporting on alleged abuses by one of Thailand’s top fruit processors,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Freedom to investigate abuses by corporations is critical to ensure compliance and accountability under Thai law and human rights standards.” The Natural Fruit Company, using a workforce comprised primarily of migrant workers from Burma, asserted that Hall defamed and damaged the company by “broadcasting false statements to public media.”
Hall’s report, “Cheap has a high price: Responsibility problems relating to international private label products and food production in Thailand,” researched and written with the Finnish nongovernmental organization FinnWatch, investigated the production practices of private label juices and fruit sold in Finland, including by Natural Fruit Company Limited. The report alleged that Natural Fruit Company Limited had committed serious labor rights abuses, including poor working conditions, unlawfully low wages, confiscation of workers’ official documents, use of child labor, and excessive overtime. Human Rights Watch, along with an increasing number of states and international authorities, believes that criminal defamation laws should be abolished, as criminal penalties are always disproportionate punishments for reputational harm and infringe on free expression. Criminal defamation laws are open to easy abuse, resulting in very harsh consequences, including imprisonment. As repeal of criminal defamation laws in an increasing number of countries shows, such laws are not necessary for the purpose of protecting reputations. “The prosecution of Andy Hall strikes at the very core of efforts by human rights defenders to end pervasive abuses of workers in Thailand’s export industry,” Adams said. “International companies sourcing from Thailand should raise concerns with the government that using criminal charges to silence rights critics could adversely affect the overall reputation of Thailand’s major export sectors. The Thai government should welcome efforts to protect worker’s rights, not penalize them.”
Interesting example of how NGO pressure can have effect on the EU: last December, FIDH organised a round of advocacy with its Vice-President and Laureate of the MEA 2006, Arnold Tsunga, to convey to the European Union its concerns around the ongoing risks for human rights defenders in the context of political deadlock and pre-electoral period [“Zimbabwe: Ongoing risks for human rights defenders in the context of political deadlock and pre-electoral period”, report of the Observatory for the protection of human rights defenders published in November 2012.] FIDH’s objective was to gear up the EU’s attention to ensure early warning and appropriate reaction in case of human rights violations taking place in the electoral cycle staring with the upcoming referendum on the new Constitution before the holding of Presidential elections in the summer of this year. FIDH’s advocacy was reflected in the European Parliament’s prompt reaction to the arrest of Okay Machisa, National Executive Director of ZimRights, and two other ZimRights members Leo Chamahwinya, Dorcas Shereni through an urgent resolution adopted on 7 February, which also relays the Observatory report recommendations. In addition, the EU Delegation and Heads of Missions in Harare issued a Statement on 22 February to indicate the EU’s particular concern around the pattern of incidents of harassment against civil society organisations and to call on the authorities to demonstrate impartiality in their relation to civil society.
On 8 April 2013, the Minister for the Prison Services, Ms Iris Valera, accused prominent human rights defender, Dr Humberto Prado Sifontes, of instigating violence within the country’s prisons ahead of upcoming elections on 14 April. Humberto Prado Sifontes is the Director of the Observatorio Venezolano de Prisiones – OVP (Venezuelan Prisons Observatory) which documents cases of violations against persons in detention in Venezuela.
At a press conference at her office,the Minister stated that on 3 April Humberto Prado Sifontes had met with the families of prisoners in the Comunidad Penitenciaria de Coro. The Minister accused the human rights defender of planning protest actions within prisons all over the country, beginning with hunger strikes before escalating to blood strikes, where prisoners self-mutilate in order to bring attention to their situation. She alleged that Dr Humberto Prado Sifontes quickly departed from the Plaza and went to the Diocesan of the Archbishop when he noticed the presence of officials from the Ministry of Prison Services who were there to investigate what was going on. She claimed to have found evidence for these plans in the notebooks of a prisoner. Minister Valera also linked the human rights defender to two unrelated incidents; one in which five women tried to smuggle grenades into the same prison, and a foiled escape attempt at the Metropolitan Prison Yare II in Caracas. Dr Humberto Prado Sifontes was in fact in Coro to participate in two conferences organised by the University of Falcón. When the families of the prisoners heard of his presence in the State, they arranged to meet him in order to give him photographic and video evidence of torture in the prison.
In 2009 Dr Humberto Prado Sifontes was the winner of the Canadian Embassy in Venezuela’s first human rights award. Front Line Defenders has previously issued appeals to protect him in his peaceful and legitimate work on behalf of prisoner’s human rights in Venezuela. Given the political climate in the run-up to elections in Venezuela, Front Line Defenders is seriously concerned that statements such as those made by the Minister could lead to reprisals against the human rights defender, up to and including physical attack.
Nataša Kandić, founder of Humanitarian Law Center in Serbia and 1999 MEA Laureate, has been awarded the 2013 “Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award” for her “persistent and fearless work on documenting war crimes and the most serious human rights abuses in the former Yugoslavia, and for supporting war crimes trials by providing courts with evidence and witnesses.” Nataša’s human rights work has put her life at risk but her concern has always been with the war crime victims and not her own persona. “Those who choose to work with human rights connected to war cannot be afraid. I have never thought about risks. I am always only thinking about uncovering the truth about the crimes that have been committed and seeking the conviction of those responsible. There is no room for fear”, she stated. Read the rest of this entry »
On 5 April 2013 Civil Rights Defenders announced a potentially life-saving gizmo which is a personal alarm to alert in the case of kidnapping of Human Rights Defenders. The slick promotional video clip above makes cleat what it intends to do. Civil Rights Defenders has dubbed it the Natalia Project (named after Natalia Estemirova, a leading, human rights defender in the North Caucasus, who was brutally kidnapped and murdered). The bracelet uses GPS and social media to inform of a kidnapping within seconds.
The bracelet uses a mobile signal to notify of an attack and issues a real-time GPS location of the victim directly Read the rest of this entry »
For many years Dublin-based Front Line Defenders has continued a practice of issuing official-looking cards to whom they judge to be genuine human rights defenders. It is interesting to note that the news service Authint has picked up on this and issued a statement on 2 April 2013 saying: Defenders has issued an identity card to local human rights activist Abdul Qadeer Dar [in Kashmir]. Dar is an Executive Director of Voice of Victims and Chairman Peoples Rights Movement.” “The card is for those human rights defenders who have worked very closely with or have attended one of the Dublin Platforms or trainings”, Front Line told KNS. The “Card doesn’t empower the holder to represent Front Line defenders as it is not a membership organization. The card is intended to demonstrate that its holder is human rights defender with whom front Line Defenders has worked”.
On 21 March 2013 human rights defenders gathered in Yaounde, Cameroon for the first counterparts meeting of the Pan-African Human Rights Defenders Network PAHRD-Net adopted a plan of action to promote stronger collaboration and protection of human rights defenders across Africa. During the week-long meeting, representatives from the five sub-regions, the Central Africa Human Rights Defenders Network REDHAC, West African Human Rights Defenders Network, Southern African Human Rights Defenders Network, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies and the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, as well as thematic focal points for women human rights defenders, defenders working on issues of sexual orientation and gender identity and HRDs working in conflict zone and journalist working to end impunity and corruption, shared experiences and best practices for protection, security management, advocacy, research, information technology, program management and fundraising.
In the plan of action, the PAHRD-Net steering committee agreed to carry out a number of joint activities to strengthen the capacities of the sub-regional networks and to work together to increase the protection and security support available to human rights defenders at risk across the continent.At the end of the meeting, Hassan Shire, PAHRD-Net chairperson said: “African human rights defenders encounter myriad risks and obstacles in carrying out their work. With the steps agreed today, PAHRD-Net looks forward to seeing empowered, safer and more effective HRDs working throughout the continent.” The meeting was made possible by the EU, the Swedish International Development Agency, and the National Endowment for Democracy.
The main aim of this blog is to follow events regarding Human Rights Defenders worldwide, but this time I have something of a ‘scoop’: in the process of doing research for an academic article on human rights awards I came across the Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, which was thought to be defunct since 2011 with the death of the Libyan leader.
Talking to the North-South foundation in Switzerland, which has administered the 250.000$ award from 1988 to 2010, it turns out that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of former leader Muammar Gaddafi, from his jail in western Libya, has decided to resurrect as from 1 April 2013 the Prize in honor of his late father under the name: Gaddafi Award for African Governance.
Disappointed with the support received from the Arab world during the uprising in Libya last year, the resurrected award wants to focus on Africa. The rumor is that the first winner – supposed to be announced only tomorrow! – is rather surprisingly President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. When asked whether this would not lead the award to be seen as encouraging ‘bad governance’, the spokesman for the Foundation, T. (Thomas) Yran, refused to comment on Mugabe being the first winner, but said that the new award wanted to clearly distinguish itself from the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership (http://www.moibrahimfoundation.org) which rewards mostly “lackeys of the capitalist system” and anyway has not been given out for 3 years.
Strategic thinking is a discipline used in all types of work. In order to build a house, you need a plan. In order to win votes to get elected for a political position, you need a plan. Human rights work is no exception – in order to make change, you need a plan and hopefully, it’s a good one!. New Tactics in Human Rights wants to build a collection of strategic-thinking resources and tools for human rights defenders to help in the selection and application of successful tactics. They have been working closely with human rights defenders in the Middle East and North Africa region to share a methodology to apply strategy and tactics to human rights work, and are eager to share with you the tools they have been using.
New Tactics in Human Rights knows that many others have been developing and using tools and resources, some that have been shared online. New Tactics in Human Rights would like to collect and share these resources on its website. If there are any that you have found to be really useful in your work you can share your ideas, resources and tools in the open forum on: New Tactics in Human Rights.
egic-thinking resources and tools for human rights defenders to help in the selection and application of successful tactics. They have been working closely with human rights defenders in the Middle East and North Africa region to share a methodology to apply strategy and tactics to human rights work, and are eager to share with you the tools they have been using.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 