Posts Tagged ‘Human Rights Defenders’
June 14, 2013
The next thematic report of the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, to the General Assembly in October 2013 will focus on the links between large-scale development projects and a safe and enabling
- environment for human rights defenders, with a particular emphasis on the challenges of the human rights-based approach to development and the role of human rights defenders. This is indeed – as also shown in this blog – a growing area of concern with many HRDs working on e.g. land grabbing, forced evictions, environmental issues or the protection of indigenous minorities under constant threats and many having been killed .
To this end, the Special Rapporteur is requesting Member States, national human rights institutions, non-governmental organizations and regional human rights mechanisms to answer a questionnaire. If you would like to contribute to this exercise, kindly complete the questionnaire and send it to defenders@ohchr.org. Deadline: 24 June 2013!. Should you have any question, please send an e-mail to the same address. Questionnaire to be found via Questionnaire on large-scale development.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: climate, development projects, Environmental issue, environmental issues, forced evictions, General Assembly, Human right, Human Rights and Liberties, Human Rights Defenders, human rights institutions, human rights mechanisms, indigenous minorities, indigenous peoples, Land issues, Margaret Sekaggya, Non-governmental organization, Special Rapporteur, UN, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, United Nations Special Rapporteur
June 13, 2013
On 10 June 2013 the Gulf Centre for Human Rights Centre (GCHR) issued a report alleging a widespread pattern of attacks on human rights defenders and journalists in Yemen.
Since Yemen has been engaged in a process of transition to full democracy, the security services have intimidated journalists, allowed the judicial system to be used as a means of attack against them, and failed to investigate violence against human rights defenders. The GCHR has documented multiple cases of attacks, some by the state security forces, but with many being perpetrated by non-state actors. The GCHR calls for an end to the harassment.
Prior to the overwhelmingly peaceful revolution in 2011, attacks were commonplace but easily identified as emanating from the oppressive government of former President Saleh, says the GCHR report. The present pattern of attacks is more unpredictable and their source much harder to identify. “This gives rise to the requirement of even greater vigilance by the authorities to investigate, prevent and punish this wrongdoing, yet the authorities in Yemen have failed to act to investigate the widespread pattern of attacks in the transitional period,” comments GCHR Advisory Board member Melanie Gingell, a British lawyer who carried out a mission to Yemen in April.
– Mohamed Al-Absi is a blogger and journalist who specialises in publishing the documents leaked to him from government departments about corrupt practices. He is now on trial on defamation charges and faces many years in jail if convicted. He has exposed corruption at the highest levels over the years and there are now well-founded concerns for his well-being should he be convicted.
– Judge Ahmed Saif Hashid, currently a member of parliament, has fought for social justice in Yemen but was recently the victim of a brutal beating by security forces when he joined a protest of injured people campaigning for their rights outside parliament. There has been no investigation of this attack.
– A Yemen based organisation, Freedom Foundation, has catalogued 109 attacks on journalists by mid-April 2013, including an attempt to bomb the offices of a newspaper, an attempt to assassinate a local journalist in the south of the country, shots fired at the car of a journalist working for the Times newspaper, and threats to cut out the tongue of a local newspaper editor.
– The journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye remains in prison following his arrest and conviction in relation to an article he wrote exposing the aftermath of an US cluster bomb attack on a suspected Al-Qaeda target, thereby discrediting the previous claim of responsibility for that attack by the government of former President Saleh.
The full report is available online in English and Arabic at: http://www.gc4hr.org/report/view/16
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Tags: Abdulelah Haider Shaye, Ahmed Saif Hashid, freedom of expression, GCHR, Gulf Centre for Human Rights, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, journalists, Mohamed Al-Absi, protection, reedom Foundation, Yemen
June 13, 2013
Antoine Madelin of the International Federation for Human Rights (OSCE/Shiv Sharma)
A new project to promote the effective protection of human rights defenders through the development of recommendations for governments was launched by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) at a two-day expert meeting in Warsaw on 10 and 11 June 2013. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in FIDH, human rights | 1 Comment »
Tags: Advocacy Organizations, Europe, harassment, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, judicial harassment, June 2013, Non-governmental organization, ODIHR, promotion, protection, regional organisation, Warsaw
June 12, 2013
The US State Department announces today, 12 June 2013, the winners of its annual human rights awards: The Human Rights Defenders Award is given to individuals or non-governmental organizations that have shown exceptional valor and leadership in advocating for the protection of human rights and democracy in the face of government repression: Syrian human rights activist Hanadi Zahlout organized peaceful protests in the beginning of the Syrian revolution and continues to work for a peaceful democratic transition. The second recipient of this award, Iraqi NGO Hammurabi Human Rights Organization, has fearlessly advocated for human rights and was critical in concrete achievements in the protection of female detainees, as well as taken on critical work on curriculum reform to promote religious freedom.
At the same time the State Department announced as the winner of the Diplomacy for Human Rights Award its Ambassador, John Tefft, in the Ukraine. And for the Human Rights and Democracy Achievement Award (which honors a U.S. Department of State employee who has implemented creative strategies to support human rights and democracy) Erin Webster-Main from the Embassy Rangoon, Burma.
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Tags: awards, Burma, Hammurabi Human Rights Organization, Hanadi Zahlout, human rights, human rights awards, Human Rights Defenders, human rights organization, Iraq, john tefft, Non-governmental organization, Syria, syrian human rights, Ukraine, US State Department, USA, Yangon
June 11, 2013
On 6 June 2013 five unknown assailants wielding hammers forced entry into the Harare offices of human rights organisation Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ). GALZ is an association founded in 1990 that advocates social tolerance for sexual minorities and the repeal of homophobic legislation in Zimbabwe. On the morning of the raid, the assailants gained entry by disguising one of their group as a mentally challenged person and driving in whilst this member threatened the security personnel at the gate with a hammer. Upon entry, the assailants forced all staff present into the Guard Room and locked them there whilst they ransacked the offices, gathering laptops, mobile phones and bags which contain sensitive information about the work of the organisation and individual members. It is believed that the incident was not a normal robbery, but an attack carried out under orders, as the assailants frequently made contact over the phone with an unknown person called ‘Machacha‘ from an unknown ‘security wing’. In a statement, GALZ said “GALZ is not taking this incident as a random act of attempted robbery but that of deliberate attack by the youth militia, acting on the orders of someone superior.” [President Robert Mugabe has in the past made some extremely homophobic comments]
Perhaps surprisingly but mercifully, the police arrived swiftly and arrested the assailants, who have now been taken for further questioning at Harare Central Police Station. No members of staff were injured during the raid, and most of the equipment which the assailants had gathered has been returned to GALZ.
Front Line Defenders welcomes the swift action of the Zimbabwean police, but remains concerned about the motives behind the raid, which are possibly related to the peaceful and legitimate work that GALZ carries out in defence of human rights, particularly LGBTI rights, in Zimbabwe.
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Tags: attacks, Front Line Defenders, GALZ, gay, Harare, Human right, Human Rights Defenders, LGBT rights, LGBT social movements, LGBTI, Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe
June 10, 2013
During the last week, Turkish citizens, human rights defenders, trade unions and civil society organisations have come under attack by the Turkish government. What started as a peaceful demonstration has turned into a violent clash with the Turkish police and security services. In the protests, at least 3 people died and more than 2800 people were injured in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Reports indicate that about 3000 people were taken into custody and Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in EMHRN, FIDH, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, OMCT | Leave a Comment »
Tags: EMHRN, European Parliament, European Union, FIDH, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, human rights activists, Human Rights Defenders, illtreatment, Istanbul, NGOs, OMCT, peaceful protestors, police violence, Politics of Turkey, trade unionists, Turkey, Turkish, Turkish government
June 7, 2013
At the end of a 10-day fact-finding mission to South Korea
UN special rapporteur on human rights Defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, said Friday that South Korea’s 65-year-old national security act posed a “seriously problematic” challenge to freedom of expression. It prohibits the printing, distribution and ownership of any material deemed “anti-state” and outlaws any organisation advocating overthrow of the government.
“
I have been acquainted with the national security act which, despite the fact that it has been amended on several occasions, still appears seriously problematic for the exercise of freedom of expression,”
Sekaggya said.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: country visit, environmental issues, freedom of expression, Government, Human Rights Defenders, human rights groups, labour rights, Margaret Sekaggya, National Human Rights Commission of Korea, National Security Act, self censorship, South Korea, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, United Nations, United Nations Special Rapporteur
June 6, 2013
ABC News Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports on a conference held in Australia on a topic that sounds like it comes straight from the middle ages: sorcery. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Australia, Canberra, Human right, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, killings, Pacific, Papua New Guinea, protection, right of women, social custom, sorcery, stigma
June 6, 2013
In the Huffington Post of 6 June 2013 there is an excellent post by Jane Cohen, researcher at Human Rights Watch about the link between the protection of the environment and that of human rights defenders. The whole piece is worth reading but here is the essential message: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights | 1 Comment »
Tags: Bangladesh, China, environmental issues, exploitation, Huffington Post, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights Watch, Jane Cohen, Kenya, Non-governmental organization, right to clean environment, toxic mercury, UN, UNEP, World Environment Day, Zimbabwe
June 5, 2013
Twenty-four years after the bloodshed of Tiananmen, China’s Communist Party is exercising its traditional response to the unwelcome anniversary: detaining and silencing dissidents and blocking bereaved families who hope to observe the day with mourning from the graveyards; mobilizing extra police officers to ensure that no protests break out around Tiananmen Square; and scrubbing Chinese Internet sites of any references and images that refer to or even hint at the upheavals of 1989.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
On 4 June the police in China blocked the gate of a cemetery housing victims of the Tiananmen crackdown on its 24th anniversary. More than a dozen security officials deployed outside the stone gate at the Wanan graveyard near the hills of western Beijing, which mothers of the victims visit each year, and told AFP journalists to leave the area. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Ai Weiwei, Beijing, China, Hong Kong, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Liu Xiaoyuan, remembrance, Sina Weibo, Tiananmen, Tiananmen Square, twitter, Ye Haiyan
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 