Posts Tagged ‘Human Rights Defenders’
February 4, 2013
The pressure on human rights defenders in Zimbabwe is building in the run up to the referendum. Here is in short what happened to the leaders of two civil society organisations:
On 31 January 2013, approximately one hundred persons attended the community meeting organised by ZOYP (Zimbabwe Organization For Youth In Politics) and CCDZ (Centre for Conflict Development in Zimbabwe) in the Mbizo Youth Centre in Kwekwe to discuss developments in the drafting of the country’s new Constitution, including the bill of rights, before the draft is put to a referendum. During the meeting, which had been sanctioned by local police under the Public Order and Security Act, an armed group of hundreds of youths, reportedly affiliated to the ruling party ZANU PF and who identify themselves as “Al Shabab”, violently disrupted the meeting and threatened the participants. [ The youths were reportedly transported to the venue by bus by ZANU PF Chairman of Mbizo, and were dressed in overalls with President Mugabe’s face at the back. The youths carried heavy sticks and sang ZANU PF slogans and songs about President Mugabe, stating that whoever tries to question the President “will die like a dog”.] Human rights newsletters, cameras and other materials were stolen. Police did not intervene to ensure the safety of participants, who fled the meeting in fear of their lives. Organisers of the meeting, Nkosilathi Moyo and Jasper Maposa were targeted and threatened with death by the youths, who told them that their human rights activism was an attempt to “change the regime” and that the ZANU PF-led government will eliminate them if they continued to organise similar meetings in Kwekwe.
Following threats from the youths to follow them home and fearing for their safety, Nkosilathi Moyo and Jasper Maposa (heads of ZOYP and CCDZ respectively) went into hiding and have not been able to return to their regular activities. They subsequently submitted a complaint to police. To date, no investigation has been initiated by police.
On 2 February 2013, Mr Nkosilathi Moyo and Mr Jasper Maposa, were subjected to threats to drop the charges. Around 11am, Nkosilathi Moyo received a phone call from an unidentified number threatening him and Jasper Maposa to drop the charges at the police. Later in the same day, around 3pm, Jasper Maposa received another call from an unidentified number, renewing earlier threats and saying he was “fighting a losing battle.”
By the way, Al Shabab in early January 2013 has already stated that no civil society organisation or human rights defender would be allowed to operate in Kwekwe as they were “agents of regime change”. ZOYP has been subjected to previous acts of intimidation and harassment. One such example is a human rights defenders’ youth meeting, which was organised by ZOYP and held in Kwekwe Theatre on 16 November 2011. Although the meeting had been permitted by police, police and ZANU PF youths reportedly disrupted the meeting and presented ZOYP Director Nkosilathi Moyo with a trumped-up charge of defaming the state. Nkosilathi Moyo was subsequently sentenced to six months in prison. Furthermore, the offices of the organisation were raided in July 2011 and computers stolen. During the incident, Nkosilathi Moyo and Jasper Maposa were beaten and went into hiding. On 11 July 2011, a meeting organised with former US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Charles Ray, and young human rights defenders in Kwekwe was violently disrupted by Al Shabab, with the US envoy and ZOYP members fleeing for their lives.
Front Line Defenders is concerned by the threatening phone calls against Nkosilathi Moyo and Jasper Maposa and expresses grave concern at the failure of police to intervene and fulfil its duties to provide protection to the meeting’s participants.
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: Centre for Conflict Development in Zimbabwe, civil society organisations, death threats, elections, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, Front Line (NGO), Human Rights Defenders, Jasper Maposa, Kwekwe, Nkosilathi Moyo, politics, protection, Public Order and Security Act, referendum, violence, ZANU PF, Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Organization For Youth In Politics
February 3, 2013
Human rights defenders from Iran, Cambodia, Kenya, Uzbekistan, Colombia and Mauritania are finalists for the 2013 Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk. The jury is made up of members of the Irish and the European Parliament as well as Front Line Defenders board member Noeline Blackwell.
The winner of the 2013 Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders will be announced at a ceremony in Dublin later in the year.
Finalists for Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk 2013 are:
Mam Sonando – Cambodia – has devoted his life to helping the poor and disenfranchised of Cambodia, fighting for their rights while also following the non-violent precepts of his Buddhist faith. He is a journalist and the Director of one of only three independent radio stations in Cambodia where the state has almost complete monopoly over the media, and crackdowns on free speech have led to widespread self-censorship. He is also founder and president of a national organisation called the Association of Democrats, which actively promotes democracy and human rights. He was arrested In early July 2012 and despite there being absolutely no evidence to link him with the so-called secessionist movement, he was found guilty on 1 October 2012 of instigating insurrection and incitement to take up arms against the state and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.
Mansoureh Behkish – Iran – is a women’s rights activist and co-founder of Mothers of Khavaran and Mothers of Laleh Park. As a supporter of non-violent resistance and a HRD she has spent the past three decades empowering survivors and victims of human rights abuses. In particular she seeks to help the mothers, sisters and wives of the thousands imprisoned or executed by the Islamic Republic authorities, to seek justice through legal and humanitarian channels.As a result of her work as a HRD, she herself has faced continuous harassment, confiscation of her passport and violation of her right to travel and three terms of imprisonment.
David Rabelo Crespo – Colombia – has worked for 35 years in the defence of human rights. In the early years, he worked mainly in defence of social, economic and cultural rights, and later worked for worker’s rights, promoting social and union mobilisation. In more recent years, he has worked to defend the lives of others although in doing so he has put his own life at risk. Between 1998 and 2004 he was director of the Municipal Peace Council, a body devised to protect the lives of the local people who, with the arrival of the paramilitaries were at risk from the upsurge in assassinations of social and community leaders, and a series of massacres carried out with impunity. David Rabelo Crespo has devoted his life to promoting respect for human rights and international humanitarian standards in the Magdalena Medio region of Colombia, and even though he is now imprisoned he continues to work to protect the rights of political prisoners in Colombian prisons.
Bahtiyor Hamraev – Uzbekistan – has been a dedicated campaigner for human rights in Uzbekistan for the last 15 years. He has been head of the Djizak regional branch of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan (HRSU) and has documented human rights violations in this region. In recent years he has become the main contact with families of imprisoned human rights defenders, helping to spread the information about their conditions in detention, the torture and ill-treatment and helping to provide the families with legal aid and financial assistance. The price he has had to pay has sometimes been far too high, but despite all of these difficulties, he has continued to work, refused to leave the country and tried to make a difference in one of the worst human rights situations in the region. Sadly, Hamraev is suffering from terminal cancer, yet he continues to send information about human rights violations and to assist families of imprisoned human rights defenders.
Biram Dah Ould Abeid – Mauritania – has been threatened, defamed and harassed because of his work for human rights and against slavery in Mauritania. He has been arrested and ill-treated on several occasions and in April 2012 he was “disappeared” for several weeks into a secret, high-security government facility, without being able to contact to his family and without any legal assistance. It is believed he would have been killed but for the international outcry. He was released in September 2012 but has chosen to continue his work inside Mauritania.
Ruth Mumbi – Kenya – is a passionate community mobiliser, and is the founder and current National Coordinator of Bunge la Wamama, a women’s chapter of Bunge la Mwananchi a movement that conducts strong advocacy and campaigning on issues of social justice and accountability in different parts of Kenya. She was born and still lives in Kiamaiko, a Nairobi slum and she began her involvement in community mobilisation initiatives in the late 1990s, when she was barely 16 years of age.
For further information please contact Jim Loughran, Head of Communications, Front Line Defenders
Tel +353 (0)1 212 37 50
Mobile +353 (0)87 9377586
Email: jimloughran@frontlinedefenders.org
Posted in Front Line, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: awards, Cambodia, Colombia, Front Line, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Iran, Kenya, Mauritania, nominees 2013, Uzbekistan
February 2, 2013
Under the title “Urgent Appeals, theory and practice“, the NGO ‘Asian Human Rights Commission‘ reflects on the need and increasing practicality (especially thanks to IT) of conducting urgent appeals. The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations and it now concludes that “Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies. The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region”.
for the full text of the reflection go to: http://www.humanrights.asia/news/urgent-appeals
To illustrate the point the AHRC comes at the same time with a call for action against what it calls a “witch hunt” by the Indian authorities against human rights defender Madhuri Krishnaswami of the Jagrat Dalit Adivasi Sangthan. In the most recent attack, the District Magistrate has written a letter to the Divisional Commissioner that found its way to Chief Secretary accusing the organisation to have links with Maoists and have demanded an inquiry into the issue. The attack is not a stray one but comes high on heels of an externment notice served on her by the same district administration in May, 2012 and subsequent attack on a JADS rally by the local goon with the administration looking away. Interestingly, the charge has been refuted by the police with the Inspector General of Police, categorically denying the presence of any Maoists activities in the reason.[The administration, evidently, is working on the behest of deeply entrenched vested interests whose corruption Madhuri and the organisation have continuously been exposing. The current attack, too, is an attempt to divert attention from the massive scam in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in the area tipped to be worth more than 150 crore INR.]
At the same time the AHCR expresses great concern over the abduction of 4 human rights defenders in Pakistan by (probably) members of an outlawed religious organization. The unknown armed persons abducted six workers of a NGO including, two lady workers. However, after some time they threw the two women out of the vehicle. It is feared that the abducted workers would be assassinated as has happened in the past. Many health workers and human rights defenders have been killed after their abduction by such ‘religious groups’. The NGO, ‘HAND’, works under the UN programme. The abducted persons and female workers who were working in the Noor Mohammad Village Goth, Mauripur, Karachi, where they have been distributing medicines and rations to the residents for some time. The male abductees were Engineer Amjad Ali Siyal, Mohammad Ashfaq, dispenser, Khurram Ahmad Abbas, dispenser and driver Humayun Ahmad, driver. The released women, Miss. Shakila and Miss. Rashida told police that the kidnappers had taken the four abducted workers in a car towards Balochistan. The police claim that they were abducted by one of the banned Muslim extremist groups who are opposed to the polio vaccination programme and this incident due to the campaign against NGO volunteers. It is believed that the abductors are convinced that they are working for the interests of America or the West.
Posted in AHRC, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: AHRC, Asian Human Rights Commission, dalits, HAND, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human Rights Defenders, India, Madhuri Krishnaswami, NGO, Non-governmental organization, Pakistan, United Nations, urgent action, urgent appeals
February 1, 2013
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay. on Thursday 31 January launched an appeal for US$130.4 million in 2013, telling donors that the UN Human Rights Office could respond to more of the many requests for assistance she receives if additional resources were made available. Despite reducing its expenditure by more than 7.5 percent in 2012, the UN Human Rights Office experienced a funding shortfall for the third year in a row. “As a result, 46 posts have been cut or frozen, a decision which will affect our ability to respond to ongoing challenges, such as discrimination, climate change, HIV-related issues, protection of human rights defenders and support for various key human rights bodies”, Mrs Pillay said.
“Clearly, preventing crises costs vastly less than responding to them once they have occurred,” the High Commissioner said. “It is a disturbing paradox that raising funds to respond to crisis situations is so much easier than raising funds to prevent crises from happening in the first place. Imagine all the suffering, destruction and loss of life that could have been avoided if we were able to prevent or mitigate only some of the crises the world is witnessing today……… This prevention role – which is generally less visible than our responsive role – is of crucial importance and deserves strong donor support and attention.”
Twenty years ago, when the Office of the High Commissioner was created, the international community made the decision to invest more in human rights, but this sector remains severely underfunded, especially compared to the high degree of public recognition the UN gets for its human rights work.
Posted in human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: appeal, budget, funding, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human Rights Defenders, Navanethem Pillay, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Pillay, staff, UN, United Nations
February 1, 2013
Two NGOs, Stockholm-based Civil Rights Defenders and Dublin-based Front Line Defenders, have expressed concern for the safety of two human rights defenders in the Transnistria, the internationally unrecognised separatist republic of Moldova. Stepan Popovsky andVladimir Maimust are the subject of judicial harassment and threats by the local administration.
On 9 January 2013, Stepan Popovsky, a private lawyer and chairperson of the Republican Social Movement for the Protection of Property and Social Rights of Peasants, held a meeting where he provided legal support to local peasants. The meeting was interrupted by police officers accusing him of trespassing on a private area, although the Criminal Code of Transnistria does not define trespassing as a criminal offense. One week after the incident, Stepan Popovsky was informed that a criminal case had been initiated against him. He responded with a letter of complaint to the local Minister of Internal Affairs. Since then, Stepan Popovsky has been repeatedly threatened by Transnistrian region’s law enforcement officers while performing his profession as a lawyer. A few months earlier, Stepan Popovsky was the subject of a defamatory media campaign that presented him as a foreign spy earning millions of dollars by buying local real estate.
The human rights lawyer Vladimir Maimust is also under pressure from the Transnistrian authorities. He is the lawyer of a person who was detained by the Transnistrian authorities on 23 June 2012 and who later died from suffocation in jail on 21 November 2012. Vladimir Maimust filed a complaint to the local Investigation Committee and to the Transnistrian leader Yevgeny Shevchuk, in which he accused the investigator of abuse of power and negligence that led to the death of his client. Vladimir Maimust was later threatened by KGB agents “to be included in the list of persons whose activity on the territory of the republic has to be undermined” and that criminal charges can be brought against him. During a working visit to the Investigation Committee on 11 January 2013, the human rights lawyer was beaten and injured by four men in police uniform who also tried to slip an unknown package into his pocket, accusing him of being drunk although medical expertise later confirmed that there was no sign of alcohol consumption. A criminal case has been recently opened against Vladimir Maimust for conspiracy. If found guilty, he may face up to 12 years in prison.
Civil Rights Defenders and Front Line Defenders believe that the threats and the fabricated criminal cases against Stepan Popovsky and Vladimir Maimust are directly related to their human rights work. The organisations urge the representatives of the Transnistrian administration to launch an immediate and impartial investigation into the threats against the human rights defenders, to protect them from any further threats or attacks, and to ensure that all human rights defenders in the region can carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions, including judicial harassment.
http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/21494
http://www.civilrightsdefenders.org/news/statements/threats-against-human-rights-defenders-must-be-condemned-and-investigated/
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Civil Rights Defenders, Front Line Defenders, harassment, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human Rights Defenders, KGB, lawyers, Moldova, Stepan Popovsky, threats, Transnistria, Vladimir Maimust
January 31, 2013
On 29 January 2013 the Association for Progressive Communications(APC) released its new resource “Digital security first-aid kit for human rights defenders.”
It is an interactive website publication available online at http://rights.apc.org/infosec
In the face of increased human rights surveillance of ever-growing
online traffic and the multiplication of commercial interest in user
data, APC’s Connect Your Rights! campaign is today putting out tips and
tricks for human rights defenders to circumvent threats to their privacy
and their information.
The kit is meant to help people working to defend human rights to act
quickly to straighten-out situations in which their personal data is
compromised or in which they suspect they have fallen victim to online
wiretapping. Relying on eight different scenarios, information is
presented to users in-need using an accessible format. The digital
security first-aid kit advises on tactics such as how to access blocked
websites and how to encrypt electronic mail.
The Digital security first-aid kit is a living project – New topic areas
will be added to the kit in future.
“We want to be sure that this toolkit will actually help human rights
activists wherever needed,” Mallory Knodel of APC says. “We are working
through our network of local technology groups in more than 40 countries
to achieve this”.
Connect Your Rights! – an awareness-building and advocacy campaign aimed
at framing internet rights as human rights – has produced issue papers,
infographics and many articles about internet rights violations. It monitors internet rights via its online platform. Please visithttp://rights.apc.org
*Digital security First Aid Kit* <http://rights.apc.org/infosec>
*Connect Your Rights!* <http://rights.apc.org>
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is an international
network and non-profit organisation founded in 1990: <http://www.apc.org>
Posted in Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Advocacy Organizations, APC, Association for Progressive Communications, cyber activism, digital security, First aid kit, HRDs, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, intenet, protection, wiretapping
January 28, 2013
ShabanoYanomami.jpg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This 30-minute film, directed by Daniel Schweizer, is part of OMCT’s sponsorship project “Defend the Defenders”. The film follows a mission of OMCT in Brazil, accompanied by the sponsor and actress Noémie Kocher, showcasting human rights defenders of indigenous peoples rights, Megaron and Davi Yanomami Kopenawa. The documentary – available through VIMEO – illustrates the challenges and threats facing the indigenous Yanomami and Kayapo and their defenders on the construction of Belo Monte hydroelectric dam and illegal mining in Amazonia. http://protectionline.org/2013/01/23/documentary-by-omct-amazon-indians-on-borrowed-time/
For more information on the Sponsorship project “Defend the Defenders”, visit OMCT website:bit.ly/u8puEj
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Amazon rainforest, Brazil, Daniel Schweizer, documentary, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human Rights Defenders, Indigenous People, OMCT, video, Vimeo, World Organisation Against Torture
January 26, 2013
The Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) was informed today by its partners that prominent human rights defenders were arrested in Baku, Azerbaijan, in connection with a protest held on Saturday 26 January 2013:
Hundreds of people have demonstrated in Azerbaijan’s capital to express solidarity with recent protests in the central town of Ismayilli.More than 40 participants to the peaceful protests were detained, including prominent blogger Emin Milli, Rafto Prize winner 2009 Malahat Nasibova, human rights lawyer Intigam Alieyev, as well as investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova.The arrests happen to come two days after the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution on the human rights situation in Azerbaijan and called upon the authorities to stop attacks and harassment against human rights defenders. The Azerbaijani human rights defenders present in Strasbourg held a joint press conference in the Council of Europe buildings on Wednesday 23 January 2013.
“By arresting within a crowd of protesters also these prominent human rights defenders, Azerbaijan authorities show that they use detention as a tool to punish critical voices, few days after those critical voices expressed their opinions at the Council of Europe” says HRHF.
Posted in human rights | 2 Comments »
Tags: Azerbaijan, Baku, Council of Europe, Emin Milli, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, harassment, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights House Foundation, Intigam Alieyev, Malahat Nasibova, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
January 26, 2013
In December 2012, the Stockholm-based NGO Civil Rights Defenders wrote a letter to the Swedish Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt, and urged him to demand stronger protection for human rights defenders in Kosovo. Civil Rights Defender’s letter to Carl Bildt was sent after the attacks against the organisations ‘Kosovo 2.0’ and ‘Libertas’ in late 2012. Read more about the background: http://www.civilrightsdefenders.org/news/statements/kosovo-police-must-promptly-investigate-hate-crime-attacks/
Carl Bildt (Wikipedia)
What is interesting is the frank exchange between the NGO and the Ministry and the fact that the exchange of letter can be made public. I think that in quite a few countries civil society can only dream of this kind of transparency.
For this reason I reproduce the response of 21 January 2013 by the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs here in full:
Dear Robert,
Thank you for your letter about the human rights situation in Kosovo and the information about the attacks in Pristina against human rights defenders, addressed to Foreign Minister Carl Bildt. I’ve been asked to answer you. I would first like to apologize for the late reply.
The events you describe is obviously regrettable and unacceptable, and unfortunately part of a pattern in the Western Balkans where gay, bisexual and transgender people’s rights are not guaranteed and they are subjected to harassments. From a Swedish perspective, strengthening human rights in Kosovo is a priority both on a political level and within the framework of the Swedish development cooperation, where we work closely with the civil society, including Civil Rights Defenders. Improvement of the human rights situation is also crucial for Kosovo’s EU integration.
We are discussing these important issues on a political level with politicians in Kosovo. When Prime Minister Hachim Thaci visited Sweden in October, EU integration and the necessary reforms in Kosovo, including human rights, were major themes. In development cooperation, Sweden is working with great commitment with LGBT issues in several projects in the Western Balkans, including Kosovo. As you probably know the Swedish Institute in 2012 showed the exhibition “Article One” to empower the LGBT movement in Kosovo and make them more visible in the community.
One reason why Sweden wants to see Kosovo as well as the other Western Balkan countries as members of the EU, is the great development of these countries’ societies that comes with the EU integration. Democracy in Kosovo has made considerable progress in recent years, but significant challenges remain, not least in the field of human rights. A clear EU perspective with strict requirements and evaluations with regard to respect for human rights is the best way to drive development in Kosovo. Civil society engagement, both within countries and internationally, is of utmost importance for Kosovo to become a more open and democratic society.
Sincerely
Emilie af Jochnick
MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Posted in Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Balkan, Carl Bildt, Civil Rights Defenders, European Union, Human Rights Defenders, Kosovo, Kosovo 2.0, LGBT rights, Libertas, Minister for Foreign Affairs (Sweden), Robert Hard, Sweden
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 