On 15 February 2013 News.az (an Azeri news agency) distributed under the title “Western human rights defenders’ silence shows double standards” a bit of a rambling attack on western-based international organizations and human rights defenders for using double standards by being quickly critical of repression of journalists in the ‘new democracies’ such as Azerbaijan and being silent with regard to similar repression in western Europe.
The 15 February piece is mostly based on an interview with Eynulla Fatullayev, editor of the website Haqqin.az, who stated that the case of journalists from News of the World is a high-profile case, and certainly should be considered in the plane of restrictions on the rights of journalists to work freely. What the article does not state is that on 22 January of this year Amnesty International has announced the termination of its collaboration with Eynulla Fatullayev, a former prisoner of conscience, and head of the Public Association for Human Rights in Azerbaijan. Amnesty International believes that Fatullayev, and in particular, his site Haqqin.az, is used by the Government of Azerbaijan to discredit European criticism of human rights violations in Azerbaijan. In 2011 Amnesty International had issued a “mass tweet” on Fatullayev’s behalf; Fatullayev attributed his release inter alia to the work of Amnesty International activists.
In the interview Eynulla Fatullayev states among others the following:“I am more than sure that if a similar event occurred in Azerbaijan or in another state, located in the zone of the new democracies, it would be followed by statements by most international organizations condemning the policy of the authorities to the persecution of media. Why in the case of the United Kingdom or other EU countries, all these organizations remain strangely silent?” Read the rest of this entry »
Disabled Peoples International (DPI) has a special Human Rights Defenders Project, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). It aims to positively influence the lives of persons with disabilities in mainly five CIDA Countries of Focus that have ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities CRPD: Bangladesh, Jamaica, Peru, Tanzania and Ukraine.The Human Rights Defenders Project includes four components: (1) Institutional strengthening of five national member organizations to monitor the Convention (2) Development and the use of educational material to assist with the monitoring of the Convention (3) Publications, promotion and networking related to the rights of disabled people, and (4) Data collection, reporting and monitoring related to disability issues.
The UN Human Rights Council’s 22nd session will be held from 25 February to 22 March 2013 and consider a range of significant thematic and country-specific human rights issues and actions. The ISHR provides timely and expert information especially as for human rights defenders there are several relevant initiatives. Norway will lead negotiations on a resolution focusing on legislation that affects human rights defenders with the goal of improving the protection of human rights defenders and eliminating laws which impair their work. ISHR has watched the development of this resolution closely. The resolution will build on the report of the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Ms Margaret Sekaggya, to the UN General Assembly in 2012. This report considered the issue of the ‘criminalisation’ of human rights defenders Read the rest of this entry »
The recent killing of Dalit human rights defender Mr Chandra Kant Gaikwad shows that a democratic system is not enough to guarantee a peaceful progressive development. If the leaders of the victims are not protected and the powerful feel free to kill with impunity, this is what happens according to a report by Front Line…….
Dear readers, You may have discovered that since today most of my posts have a ‘read more…’ separation which give you only the first lines of the post Read the rest of this entry »
Human Rights Watch issues a video and press release concerning a series of death threats made over the last four months to two lawyers who represent clients accused of homosexual conduct. Human Rights Watch on 13 February 2013 sent an open letter to President Paul Biya. Read the rest of this entry »
I am sharing this with you as a measure of transparency and to promise to do better this year with more pictures – feedback welcome as always, best Hans
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 6,500 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 11 years to get that many views.
Scholars at Risk (SAR) is an international network of over 300 universities and colleges in 34 countries dedicated to promoting academic freedom and its constituent freedoms of thought, opinion, expression, association and travel. Read the rest of this entry »
Emergency workers and human rights defenders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo DRC must be protected, stated Lilianne Ploumen, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation on 5 February 2013. The Minister was speaking after talks with Alexandre Luba, the Congolese defence minister and deputy prime minister, and trade minister Jean-Paul Nemoyato. During those talks she focused on the position of Dr Denis Mukwege. Last year human rights defender Dr Mukwege fled to Europe after narrowly escaping an assassination attempt in which one of his security guards was killed (as I reported in an earlier post in this blog). The gynaecologist has now returned to DRC but his life remains in danger, and his work for female victims of rape and mutilation continues to be obstructed.During the talks, the defence minister acknowledged that military personnel have been guilty of sexual violence against women, including rape. The Netherlands is supporting the United Nations stabilisation and reconstruction plan aimed at combating violence, is helping to fund MONUSCO rape investigations, and will be spending one million euros this year on projects providing care and shelter to victims. The Minister is on a visit to the Great Lakes Region, where she is finding out about the conflict in eastern DRC, security, the humanitarian situation, human rights and economic developments.
The Asian Human Rights Commission (regional NGO) reports that two prominent lawyers have been assassinated in targeted killings on 2 February 2013.
Mr. Malik Jarrar 47, a Supreme Court lawyer, was shot dead in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Paktoonkha province by unknown persons, riding a motorcycle. He was on his way to pick up his two sons from school. Mr. Jarrar was the former vice chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Another prominent lawyer, Mr. Mian Muhammad Tariq 55, was also shot dead in similar manner in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province. He was shot dead by unknown assailants when he was parking his car inside his apartment building.
Mr Malik’s was probably a sectarian killing as he was from the Shia sect, the second largest sect of Islam which is under attack by the Taliban and other fundamentalist Sunnis who had declared them as Kafir (infidel) and liable to be killed. In the recent days four prominent Shia were assassinated by unknown persons in Peshawar.
The legal fraternity of the whole country organised a two-day boycott of courts in protest of killings. The lawyers see in the killings of their colleagues the total failure of the government to for maintaining the rule of law in the country.
In the last week four workers of one NGO, HANDS, working to provide health facilities and food rations to poor fisherfolk, were abducted by unknown persons but the government has failed to recover them. Persons who work in favour of human rights, which is deemed contrary to the interests of radical Islamist groups face considerable threat, as may be noted in the killings in 2011 of the Governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, and the Federal Minister of Minority Affairs, Shabaz Bhatti, who were targeted for their efforts to protect minorities, and their opposition to Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy laws.
So far 87 journalists had been killed in Pakistan since 2000. In the year 2012, eight journalists were killed while performing their official duty.
The irresponsible attitude of the government towards the security and protection of the human rights defenders and the appeasement policy towards the Muslim fundamentalists groups can be judged by the government’s refusal to allow the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders to visit the country. The government, after ratifying the UN ICCPR has accepted a recommendation to do so.
The 15 February piece is mostly based on an interview with Eynulla Fatullayev, editor of the website Haqqin.az, who stated that the case of journalists from News of the World is a high-profile case, and certainly should be considered in the plane of restrictions on the rights of journalists to work freely. What the article does not state is that on 22 January of this year Amnesty International has announced the termination of its collaboration with Eynulla Fatullayev, a former prisoner of conscience, and head of the Public Association for Human Rights in Azerbaijan. Amnesty International believes that Fatullayev, and in particular, his site Haqqin.az, is used by the Government of Azerbaijan to discredit European criticism of human rights violations in Azerbaijan. In 2011 Amnesty International had issued a “mass tweet” on Fatullayev’s behalf; Fatullayev attributed his release inter alia to the work of Amnesty International activists.
Mr. Malik Jarrar 47, a Supreme Court lawyer, was shot dead in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Paktoonkha province by unknown persons, riding a motorcycle. He was on his way to pick up his two sons from school. Mr. Jarrar was the former vice chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Another prominent lawyer, Mr. Mian Muhammad Tariq 55, was also shot dead in similar manner in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province. He was shot dead by unknown assailants when he was parking his car inside his apartment building.
