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.
On 21 March 2013, Uyghur human rights defender Ilham Tohti was placed under strict house arrest at his home in Beijing. On 22 March, the human rights defender was due to travel to Hong Kong to attend an academic conference. Ilham Tohti is an academic who has been consistently outspoken on Uyghur rights in China. He has been detained numerous times as a result of his human rights work. According to UighurBiz, a website set up by Ilham Tohti, there are currently a number of plain-clothed men stationed outside the door of the human rights defender’s apartment who are preventing him from leaving the building or welcoming visitors. On 4 February 2013, Front Line Defenders issued already an urgent appeal when lham Tohti was prevented from boarding a flight bound for the United States at Beijing Capital Airport.
The second criminal case against journalist Andrzej Poczobut has been closed, and the charges of “libelling the President of Belarus” have been dropped, reports AI through Protection on Line. He had been targeted for his work as a journalist and for the legitimate exercise of his right to freedom of expression. On 15 March, criminal charges against Andrzej Poczobut were dropped by the Investigative Committee of the Hrodna region, Belarus, due to lack of evidence. The Investigative Committee reached the conclusion that there is no evidence of a crime by Andrzej Poczobut, as the experts fail to agree that he had libelled the President in his articles. Andrzej Poczobut was arrested on 21 June 2012 and released on 30 June under bail conditions. His bail conditions have now been lifted and he can now travel within Belarus. Andrzej Poczobut is a correspondent of the Polish daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and a prominent activist for the Polish minority in Belarus. Andrzej Poczobut continues to serve a three-year suspended prison sentence – imposed on 5 July 2011 – on similar charges for other newspaper articles. Under this sentence he cannot leave Belarus and has to register with the police.
On 22 February I reported on a large trial in Oman against several human rights defenders, Front Line now report in an update that some of them were released on bail but others continue in detention.
(Said Al-Hashimi, a HRD amongst those released on bail)
On 17 March 2013, several human rights defenders were granted bail by the Appeals Court during a retrial ordered by the Supreme Court. Amongst the human rights defenders released are writer Said Al Hashimi, lawyer Basma Al Kiyumi, Basima Al Rajihi, Khalid Al Nawfali and Mohammed Al Fazari. The next hearing was adjourned until 24 March 2013. Basma Al Kiyumi, Basima Al Rajihi, Khalid Al Nawfali and Mohammed Al Fazari had been convicted for allegedly publishing insulting and defamatory material on a social media site, while Said Al Hashimi was convicted for alleged participation in an illegal gathering.
While Front Line Defenders welcomes the release of the human rights defenders, it reiterates that the ongoing campaign of judicial harassment and intimidation should be ceased and that all their convictions should be quashed.
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 