Posts Tagged ‘Human Rights Defenders’
December 11, 2012
The Asian Human Rights Commission – in spite of its name a NGO – published an elaborate and detailed report on human rights developments in Pakistan this year. The part on HRDs reads as follows:
Human Rights Defenders: Human rights defenders HRDs remain subject to: threats and reprisals against them and their families; harassment; legal and physical attacks; arbitrary arrests and detention; forced disappearance; and torture and extra-judicial killing by state and non-state actors. The government has failed to establish an effective national policy of protection for HRDs or to combat impunity by effectively investigating and prosecuting those responsible for such attacks. The lack of effort to combat impunity mirrors the lack of effort to address the whole range of human rights violations witnessed in Pakistan. And, this, in turn, stems from institutional failings within the police and justice delivery mechanisms, and lack of political will on the part of the government to institute effective institutional reforms. The fact that HRDs expose these failings, places them at particular risk.Persons who work in favour of human rights, but 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.Another accepted recommendation calls for the government to address the repressive effect of civil society monitoring procedures and anti-terrorism legislation on the operation of human rights defenders. The sentencing of six leaders of a power-loom workers union to a total of 490 years in jail, based on fabricated charges under anti-terrorism legislation in November 2011, illustrates the government’s failure in this regard.The killings of HRD’s in Balochistan, while they were documenting cases of forced disappearances as part of the Supreme Court’s efforts to compile a list of cases, illustrates the risks to defenders who work on the gravest rights abuses.
The Government of Pakistan has failed to invite the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders to visit the country despite accepting a recommendation to do so.
via PAKISTAN: Failure of the institutions related to the rule of law provides impunity to the perpetrators of violations human rights — Asian Human Rights Commission.
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Tags: AHRC, Asian Human Rights Commission, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, impunity, Pakistan
December 10, 2012
A Turkish court has acquitted four men on trial for their participation in a protest in support of a conscientious objector.
On Thursday 7 December 2012 the court in the north-western city of Eskişehir cleared human rights defender Halil Savda and three others of the charge of “alienating the public from military service”, a criminal offence under Turkey’s Penal Code. The case against them began in 2011 after they protested outside the hearing of fellow conscientious objector Enver Aydemir a year earlier in what became known as the “everyone is born a baby” case – a twist on the Turkish military slogan “every Turk is born a soldier”. In response John Dalhuisen, Director of Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Programme said: “This acquittal should prove that every Turk is born with rights, including the right to freedom of expression”.
In acquitting the defendants, the court ruled that their protest and slogans were protected under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Turkish Constitution, because they did not contain or incite violence, and that a democratic society must allow freedom of expression even if it shocks and disturbs. However, Savda has another similar conviction that is currently pending at the Supreme Court of Appeals.
Over the last few years, Amnesty International has been campaigning for the Turkish authorities to end their prosecution of Savda and others facing convictions under Article 318 of the Penal Code – which criminalizes “alienating the public from military service”.
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Tags: Amnesty International, conscientious objectors, European Convention on Human Rights, freedom of expression, Halil Savda, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Turkey, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
December 7, 2012
Bangladesh is not always high on the agenda of the international human community, so it is interesting to read the preliminary findings of the report below:
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture OMCT, expresses concerns about the restrictive environment for human rights defenders in Bangladesh, after it completed a fact-finding mission in the country on November 22, 2012.
“With the existing polarised political context and increasing tensions ahead of the upcoming 2013 general elections, human rights defenders are put at further risk of human rights violations”, the mission concludes. “While laws have become a tool used by the State to hinder the work of and suppress dissident voices through judicial harassment, a lack of proper judicial safeguards and remedies has allowed for the culture of impunity to continue”.
via Bangladesh: Restrictive environment for human rights defenders ahead of the 2013 elections – Preliminary findings of a fact-finding mission / December 7, 2012 / Urgent Interventions / Human rights defenders / OMCT.
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Tags: Bangladesh, dissidents, elections, FIDH, Human Rights Defenders, judicial harassment, Observatory for the Protection of HRDs, OMCT
December 5, 2012
The LA Times and others report that jailed Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, 2012 nominee of the MEA and winner of the Sacharov Award, has halted her hunger strike after the Iranian judiciary agreed to drop a travel ban against her daughter, her husband Reza Khandan said this Tuesday. Sotoudeh had endured nearly seven weeks without food, drinking salt and sugar solutions, to protest her 12-year-old daughter Mehrave being banned from leaving the country. The couple claimed their daughter was being punished for the alleged crimes of her mother, who has defended dissidents.
Khandan went with a group of female activists to the Iranian parliament on Tuesday, where they met with reformist lawmaker Mohammad Reza Tabesh, who in turn negotiated with the deputy speaker and speaker Ali Larijani to obtain an agreement from the head of the judiciary, Khandan said.
“They agreed to close the dossier of Mehrave and she is no longer banned from leaving the country and there are no charges against her,” Khandan said Tuesday.
The family reunited Tuesday evening in the administration department of Evin Prison, the husband said. Sotoudeh, who had earlier been restricted to talking to her children behind a glass partition, was allowed to hug her son and daughter.
“There she stopped her hunger strike and started eating in front of us,” he said.
The United Nations high commissioner for human rights called again Tuesday for Sotoudeh to be released along with other detained human rights activists. Iranian authorities often target the families of human rights defenders, “a disturbing trend apparently aimed at curbing the freedoms of expression, opinion and association,” spokesman Rupert Colville said in a Tuesday briefing.
via: http://shahriarshahabi.com/2012/12/04/nasrin-sotoudeh-breaks-49-day-hunger-strike/
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Tags: Ali Larijani, China Human Rights Defenders, Evin Prison, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, hungerstrike, Judicial system of Iran, Khandan, MEA, Nasrin Sotoudeh, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sacharov
December 4, 2012
An interesting local idea: the Liberian Coalition of Human Rights Defenders (LICHRD), in collaboration with the Independent National Commission on Human Rights, will from Tuesday through Wednesday December 4-5 hold the first annual National Human Rights Book Fair in Monrovia. The event is a prelude to the celebration of the International Human Rights Day .
via allAfrica.com: Liberia: First Annual National Human Rights Book Fair Insight.
Posted in books, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: book fair, Human Rights Defenders, international human rights day, Liberia, Monrovia, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
December 4, 2012
Several Pakistani newspapers reported on Monday 3 December that “Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf accepted in principle a proposal made by the Ministry of Human Rights to appoint Human Rights Defenders in the ministry”.
It all came from a presentation made by the Ministry of Human Rights. There were several welcome announcements (such as including human rights as a subject in educational institutions and plans to effectively implement its international obligations) but the idea to appoint Human Rights Defenders in the Ministry (as civil servants one has to assume) is baffling. It would completely do away with the idea that HRDs ought to be independent and capable of monitoring authorities. If accepted under this title it would surely confuse the current understanding of what are HRDs. The Minister for Human Rights would soon be called Human Rights Defender in Chief.
The Pakistani newspaper Dawn adds: “The basic idea to have human rights defenders in the country was to help those poor victims who could not afford to plead their cases in courts or seek other remedial measures against oppressors. “The number of human rights defenders and their service structure will be worked out by the ministry in collaboration with other ministries,” the official said. However, critics of the government say as elections were just a few months away, new positions are being created to accommodate pro-PPP voters.”
Let’s hope that the Ministry will revert to the more neutral and clarifying title of ‘human rights officers”.
Related articles
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Advocacy Organizations, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, human rights education, Ministry of Human Rights, non-governmental, Pakistan, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf
December 3, 2012
For those who did not go to the OMCT website, here is today’s portrait in the series of 10: Pierre-Claver Akolly Amégnikpo DEKPOH, from Lomé in Togo. He has been engaged in the fight for human dignity and social peace and against injustice since 1990; and has been a member of ACAT-Togo since March 1999. He states that his commitment to the fight against torture and ill-treatment is in keeping with his Christian faith.
via Pierre-Claver Dekpoh: Ten Portraits against Torture and Impunity / December 3, 2012 / Events / Human rights defenders / OMCT.
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Tags: ACAT, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, impunity, Lome, OMCT, Pierre-Claver DEKPOH, Togo, torture
December 1, 2012
As Human Rights Defenders are the voice of those who are deprived of it because they are victims of torture, ill-treatment or summary execution, OMCT (one of the 10 NGOs on the Jury of the MEA) has started a series of portraits of those who excel in the fight against torture and impunity. From 1 to the 10 of December, the organisation will every day put a different HRD in the limelight. They tell about the challenges and the obstacles they face and the hopes and disappointments they encounter in their everyday life. It s`tarts today with Edeliza Hernandez from the Philippines:
I may not refer to each case in this blog but invite you to visit the OMCT website: http://www.omct.org/human-rights-defenders/events/2012/11/d22051/
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Tags: human rights, Human Rights Defenders, impunity, OMCT, Philippine, portraits, torture, World Organisation Against Torture
November 30, 2012
In the FPIF edition of 29 November 2012 (Foreign Policy in Focus, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies) Christine Ahn and Erika Guevara-Rosas have published a provocative piece that takes US policy – especially its aid policy – to task for contributing to the process of militarization that adds to the woes of (women) HRDs. A long but well-argued piece worth reading:
“While a significant chunk of USAID spending goes to education and health programs, pockets of aid enlarge the already bloated military budgets of recipient governments. The result: less security and more violence against women, particularly women human rights defenders. ………..we take a look into Colombia and Mexico, the two countries with the largest number of documented instances of death threats against women human rights defenders—and coincidently two major recipients of U.S. aid.”
Endangering Women Human Rights Defenders | FPIF.
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Tags: Christine Ahn, Colombia, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Foreign Policy, Foreign Policy in Focus, Human Rights Defenders, Institute for Policy Studies, Mexico, militarization, USA, USAID
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 