Posts Tagged ‘Human rights defender’
February 13, 2012
The following story illustrates very well how HRDs straddle the issue of civil rights in relation to social and economic rights. It comes from the reliable Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC).
A troop of twenty-five rangers illegally raided the house of Mr. Muhammad Ali Shah, a human rights activist and chairperson of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum.
On Thursday 9 February, 2012 around 7pm in the evening, Mr. Shah participated in a protest organised by the labourers of M/S MASCO (A German Garments Factory in Karachi) against the unjust and inhuman working conditions imposed by the management. The peaceful protesters were fired upon resulting in many casualties. Moreover, a number of protesters were abducted by the police. They were given no reason for their arrest. Mr. Shah condemned the acts of the factory management and unlawful support of the police. He talked to the officials and had the labourers released. This infuriated the factory owner and he contacted one of his friends in the Rangers named Lt. Col. Jawaid.
The Rangers already had a grudge against Mr. Shah and. Lt. Col. Jawaid therefore wasted no time in taking up his friend’s unofficial complaint. The same evening he phoned Mr. Muhammad Ali Shah, abused him verbally and threatened him with kidnapping and death. He warned Mr. Shah to keep himself away from social work or get ready to bear the harsh consequences. Mr. Shah replied that he was not undertaking any unlawful acts and that he was only showing support to the people who are victims of injustice.
Lt. Col. Jawaid became even angrier and sent 20-25 armed Rangers at around midnight to kidnap Mr. Shah and teach him a lesson. The soldiers cordoned off the area where Mr. Shah lives as if they were acting against some terrorist threat and raided his house without having any legal order or complaint in black and white. Fortunately, Mr, Shah was not at home at that time otherwise he might have been treated brutally before being abducted.
The urgent appeal by the Asian Human Rights Commission then goes on to give more detailed background information and to issue a call for action. See: http://www.humanrights.asia/news/urgent-appeals/AHRC-UAC-022-2012
Posted in AHRC, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Asian Human Rights Commission, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, Pakistan, Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, protest, Rangers
February 9, 2012
Three out of every four female human rights defenders in Mexico have been violently attacked for their work, according to the book “Human Rights Defenders in Mexico: A Diagnostic of 2010-2011 on the Risks of Performing their Work”, which was presented on 19 January this year.
The report, which was researched by organizations such as the Association for Justice and Women´s Network of Ciudad Juárez, say that the activists are the target of persecution and threats, regardless of whether they work defending the environment, sexual health rights or against violence against women. Between 2010 and 2011 nine Mexican women who worked in human rights were killed.
“In recent years, the risk and attacks against women human rights defenders has increased in the entire country,” said the report.
Journalists, indigenous leaders, and LGBT activists are among the main persons at risk.
The human rights defenders tend to be targets of violence just for being women, and for being women who promote and defend human rights, which breaks with the traditionally accepted female identity, said the report. In other words: “Sexual violence is the main threat to women activists”. For the full report, in Spanish, go to: http://issuu.com/cencos/docs/diagnostico-defensoras-imprenta-final
Posted in books, Human Rights Defenders | 3 Comments »
Tags: book, Human rights defender, Mexico, Violence against women, women human rights defenders
February 3, 2012
The christian group that nominated Ms Ni Yulan reported on the ceremony as follows:
“Tulip Prize Jury Emphasizes Human Rights over Economic Interests By Jeremy Reynalds
SURREY, ENGLAND — At an official ceremony to award the Dutch Government’s Human Rights Defenders Tulip Prize for 2011 to Chinese legal activist Ni Yulan, the chair of the jury stressed the importance of highlighting China’s human rights record in spite of economic considerations. According to a news release from Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), Cisca Dresselhuys, Chair of the Human Rights Defenders Tulip Award 2011 Jury said, “Economic interests must never be a reason to close our mouths on human rights. We should rather have one Human Rights Tulip Award than one exported tulip to China.” CSW said that Ni Yulan was unable to attend the ceremony due to her detention in Beijing, and her daughter, Dong Xuan, was recently banned from leaving China to accept the prize on her mother’s behalf. Ni Yulan was nominated for the Tulip Award by CSW and China Aid. Her work as a housing rights activist, defending Beijing residents whose homes were demolished to make way for the 2008 Olympics, resulted in her being imprisoned on several occasions.
CSW said she has also worked on a number of high-profile religious freedom cases. Ni Yulan is in a wheelchair due to beatings received in prison, which left her unable to walk and in poor health. She was put on trial with her husband in Beijing in Dec. 2011 for “creating a disturbance,” and testified evidence from a hospital bed while on oxygen. The trial did not reach a verdict and the couple remain detained in Beijing. ….
CSW said Dresselhuys added, “We give the award with pleasure, reverence and joy, but with immense pain in our hearts because she cannot be here.”
A video of Ni Yulan’s life and work [produced by True Heroes, films for HRDS, I may add]was shown at the ceremony, in which she is seen in her wheelchair living in a tent in a park. She says, “In this difficult time the support from others really encourages us. It keeps us alive. I will continue to defend others’ rights. We cannot give up.”
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is a Christian organisation working for religious freedom through advocacy and human rights, in the pursuit of justice. For further information, go to www.csw.org.uk.
Posted in films, Human Rights Defenders, THF | 3 Comments »
Tags: award, China, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Human rights defender, Ni Yulan, THF, True Heroes Foundation, Tulip
January 17, 2012
One does not hear much about what Australia does for Human Rights Defenders, so it is a pleasure to see the 6 January announcement by Hassan Shire, executive director of the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP).
Human rights defenders in Uganda and South Sudan are to benefit from Australia’s Human Rights Grants Scheme. The grant will allow EHAHRDP and its joint project with Protection International, Protection Desk Uganda, to deliver programs to improve security management among human rights defenders, strategies for coping with stress and trauma, and engagement with international and regional human rights mechanisms. “South Sudan is facing complex challenges in these early stages of independence,” Hassan Shire. “A strong human rights movement is needed for the entrenchment of a human rights culture in this new nation,”
In Uganda the grant will allow to share tools on security management with Ugandan human rights defenders and provide technical support that will enable them to assess risks emanating from their human rights work and develop tailor-made response strategies that mitigate risks and allow for a continuation of their work.
For more information, please contact: Hassan Shire, Executive Director, EHAHRDP at hshire@yorku.ca or +256-772753753
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Protection International | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Australia, East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, EHAHRDP, Hassan Shire, Human rights defender, Protection International, South Sudan, Uganda
January 17, 2012
Norma Cruz is a human rights defender who received 47 death threats via text messages sent to her mobile phone. As the leader of women’s rights organization Survivors’ Foundation (Fundación Sobrevivientes) in Guatemala she receives repeated threats for simply doing her work to support victims of violence against women and for pursuing prosecutions against those responsible for committing the crimes.
Sauro Scarpelli, Campaign Manager of the Individuals at Risk team, Amnesty International explains “At Amnesty International we are celebrating our 50th birthday and since our inception, we have been fighting for freedom of expression. It was our first campaign and unfortunately 50 years later, despite a very different world, those defending human rights continue to be silenced, imprisoned and threatened with violence in new and different forms.”
Thousands letters to the Attorney General in Guatemala asking for the start of a full and impartial investigation on the threats Norma received had an impact and in September 2011 one of the people who made death threats against Norma Cruz was convicted. The global pressure is working locally! That’s why Amnesty International is kicking off the year with a new action for freedom of expression on 23 January 2012.
picture: Guatemalan human rights defender Norma Cruz (c) Amnesty International
Go to: http://livewire.amnesty.org/2012/01/17/stop-the-death-threats-join-our-campaign-for-freedom-of-expression/
Posted in AI, Amnesty international, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Amnesty International, death threats, freedom of expression, Guatemala, HRDs, Human rights defender, Norma Cruz, Survivors’ Foundation
January 16, 2012
Image via Wikipedia
Alex Fitzpatrick sat down with Nancy Groves, social media manager at UN headquarters in New York. Groves is part of the Secretariat, the UN body charged with carrying out the day-to-day work of the organization. She maintains an active presence on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, Tumblr and other networks.
Interesting enough she mentions in the interview that the ‘Be a Human Rights Defender’ campaign was in fact the UN’s most successful social effort to date. Under the “Be a Human Rights Defender” campaign, created to celebrate Human Rights Day, Groves’s team pushed out 30 different articles on human rights, each centered around one article in the Declaration of Human Rights. People that shared the articles were titled “Human Rights Defenders.” Groves said it was an excellent way to spread knowledge about rights that a lot of people aren’t aware they have.
from: http://mashable.com/2012/01/14/united-nations/
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: google, Human Rights Day, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, nancy groves
January 16, 2012
Aurel Braun and David Matas recently wrote an article for OpEdNews that puts strongly the case for seeing Havel foremost as a HRD. The article starts with a well-worded call to support HRDs abroad: “One reason we should stand up in Canada for human rights abroad is that we are safe in doing this. Human rights defenders in repressive states are not.In spite of those risks, there are people of extraordinary courage and unrelenting commitment even in the most repressive states who at great personal risk to themselves and their families, respect human rights, call for others to do so and decry violations. These human rights defenders give us yet another reason to raise our voices. If they can risk so much, we who have nothing to lose should do our part.” ………”Havel was one of the co -‘writers of Charter 77, which in 1977 challenged the totalitarian Czechoslovak government to abide by the 1975 Helsinki Accords that had stipulated the protection of human rights. Fewer than 300 people signed the Charter, and the reaction of the Prague regime was to imprison many of the signatories, including Havel. He never retracted, he never stopped advocating, and repeated imprisonment never deterred him.”
Though very ill towards the end of his life, Vaclav Havel continued to fight for principles and wrote to HRDs in Belarus “I will continue to use every opportunity in the future, with my friends, to draw the international community’s attention to the violations of human rights in Belarus“.
Havel, who lived to see freedom and democracy come to Eastern Europe despite all the might of the Soviet superpower, and who played such a central role in that historic victory for human rights, proved that principles can and do prevail over power.
for the full article see: OpEdNews – Article: Defending Human Rights: The Havel Example.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Belarus, Canada, Czeck Republic, Havel, Human rights defender
January 13, 2012
Image by erjkprunczyk via Flickr
The European Union Guidelines on human rights defenders were created to help staff in the embassies of EU member states to protect threatened human rights defenders (HRDs). In short they tell EU diplomatic missions to:
- Produce periodic reports outlining the broad human rights situation, noting specific cases of concern.
- Take urgent local action when needed and make recommendations for further EU involvement.
- Prepare local strategies in co-ordination with HRDs, with special attention given to the protection of women defenders.
- Organise regular meetings between HRDs and missions diplomats
- Maintain contact with HRDs through receiving them in the missions and visiting their areas of work.
- Publicly recognise HRDs and their work through use of traditional and new-media methods of communication.
- Visit, where appropriate, HRDs in custody or under house arrest and attend trials as observers.
- Raise specific cases with third country governments.
- Involve HRDs in the preparation, follow-up and assessment of human rights discussions with third country governments.
- Provide measures for swift assistance of HRDs in danger, including the issuing of emergency visas and the offer of temporary shelter in EU member states.
- Provide access to financial support where necessary.
Urgent local action can be organised through “local working groups”, of which HRDs should be members.Integral to the Guidelines is a duty to “proactively” support human rights defenders on the world stage through political dialogue and promotion of the UN Human Rights Council and its Special Rapporteurs. When, for example, the EU President, High Representative for Foreign Affairs or other relevant official visits a country with human rights issues they should seek to meet with HRDs wherever possible and reflect any concerns in their discussions with third country governments.
This is not news but at the beginning of the new year it is good to have a reminder AND REMIND THE EU DIPLOMATIC REPRESENTATIVES of all this laid down in 20 short paragraphs; for full text see: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cmsUpload/GuidelinesDefenders.pdf
Posted in EU, human rights | 4 Comments »
Tags: country governments, diplomatic action, emergency visas, EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders, eu member states, European Union, guidelines, Human rights defender
January 13, 2012
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On the occasion of the 13th anniversary of the UN Declaration on human rights defenders (HRDs) on December last year Protection International issued a video interview with the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, Ms Margaret Sekaggya. In 1998, after 14 years of negotiations with governments and under continuous pressure of human rights NGOs, the international community finally recognized the need of human rights defenders for a better protection. To support the implementation of the Declaration, the UN created a Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, at present Mrs. Margaret Sekaggya.
The interview can be seen on: http://www.vimeo.com/27006290, in which Ms Sekaggya explains her motivations for promoting defenders rights, the difficulties defenders are currently facing and how they can rely on her mandate.
For more information on Protection International http://www.protectionline.org/.
Posted in films, Human Rights Defenders, Protection International | 1 Comment »
Tags: HRD, Human rights defender, Margaret Sekaggya, Protection International, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, United Nations Special Rapporteur, Vimeo
January 9, 2012
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ISLAMABAD: Dozens of prominent writers, doctors, intellectuals, lawyers from Pakistan and around the world have endorsed a statement expressing “grave concern” at the threats to “Pakistani human rights defenders for their stance in the ‘memogate’ case” and “at the danger this crisis poses to Pakistan’s democratic political process that had taken a step forward with the elections of 2008”. Over a hundred endorsements from around the world came in within hours of the statement put up online on Jan 4, 2012, at http://tinyurl.com/05012012.
The statement says that allowing the elected civilian government in Pakistan to complete its tenure and hand over power to the next government following democratic elections would be a first step in “an ongoing process that is essential to Pakistan’s peace, progress and prosperity in the long run.” The statement underscores the risk to the lives of former Ambassador of Pakistan to the US, Husain Haqqani, his lawyer, former Supreme Court Bar Association President, Asma Jahangir [both a Laureate and Patron of the MEA], columnist Marvi Sirmed, senior journalist Najam Sethi and their families, to name some of the journalists and activists living under threat.
The ‘memogate’ case may be a complex and highly politicized issue but it should not affect the essential freedom of anyone to speak out against the narrative of the ideological security state.
Posted in Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Asma Jahangir, HRD, human rights, Human rights defender, MEA, memogate, Pakistan
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 