Yesterday the newspaper Pakistani DAWN contained a short piece by GULSHER PANHWER on the increase in religious intolerance and risks to ‘dissidents’ in Sindh. He says that there is an urgent need to train and educate the youth on tolerance and bring the old trained cadre of human rights activists and the new generation of human rights defenders on one platform. This would be a great barrier against the threat of violence which is a direct result of intolerance.
Posts Tagged ‘Human Rights Defenders’
Intolerance a threat to Sindh
September 4, 2012Are the Police human rights defenders? They should be!
August 28, 2012In the Zambian Daily Mail of 27 August there is an interesting editorial written by Samuel Kasankha: WHOSE HUMAN RIGHTS ANYWAY?. It poses very neatly the crucial question of how the police relate to human rights and tries to marry the protection of the public with the limitations on the police.
Human rights groups in South Sudan form coalition: better alive than dead
August 23, 2012
More than seven civil society organizations have merged to form a coalition known as the South Sudan Human Rights Defenders Network (SSHRD).
The SSHRD –was conceived in a three day meeting of the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders that ended in Juba on Friday.
The Protection Officer for the East and Horn of Africa Human Right defenders, Yona Wanjala said it is important for the SSHRD to join and work closely with East Africa regional groups.
Wanjala urged SSHRD to put their safety first-adding that a human rights defender is valuable to his/her own society when alive.
“So we feel we should equip them with skills, knowledge and tools to be able to assess the risk in respect of their working environment. In most cases human rights defenders do think mostly of the people whose rights they do protect but they never think about their security, yet the work of human rights defenders exposes them to a lot risks and threats because in one way or the other they step on peoples interest. So these people in most cases perpetrate violence against human rights defenders. It’s only prudent that he who defend others should think about his security because we get from the backer ground that you are a better human rights defenders alive but not death.“
Human Rights First (HRF) runs a series of HRD Profiles
August 23, 2012Human Rights First – one of the NGOs on the Jury of the MEA – is running an interesting series of profiles on human rights defenders whom work with in various countries. These profiles help to explain their work, motivations, and challenges. The first one is on Ahlam Oun from Bahrain
Human Rights Defender Profile: Ahlam Oun from Bahrain | Human Rights First.
UN Rapporteurs call for end to persecution of human rights defenders in Bahrain
August 23, 2012It is not often that three different UN Rapporteurs jointly take such a strong position on a particular country, but in the case of Bahrain that is exactly what happened today 23 August 2012:
A group of independent United Nations experts today voiced serious concerns about the “campaign of persecution” by the Bahraini authorities against those working to promote human rights in the country, and called for the prompt release of a prominent human rights defender recently sentenced to three years imprisonment.“It is time for the Bahraini authorities to comply with the rights to peaceful assembly and expression and immediately release those arbitrarily detained for exercising their legitimate freedoms,” the experts said in a news release issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).They also called for the immediate release of human rights defender Nabeel Rajab, who was convicted on three charges of illegal assembly related to his participation in peaceful gatherings in favour of fundamental freedoms and democracy, including a peaceful protest to denounce the detention of fellow defender Abdulhadi Al Khawaja. Mr. Rajab was recently sentenced to three years imprisonment. The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights is one of the nominees for the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders to be decided on 2 October in Geneva. Mr. Rajab is also currently serving three months imprisonment for alleged libel through a social networking site. After a series of postponements, a decision by Bahrain’s Higher Appeal Court on that sentence is reportedly due to be announced today, but this will not make much difference of his 3-year sentence referred to above.
“The sentencing of Nabeel Rajab represents yet another blatant attempt by the Government of Bahrain to silence those legitimately working to promote basic human rights,” said the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya. “The Bahraini Government must immediately cease its campaign of persecution of human rights defenders in the country”.
The Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, stressed that “the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly should not be subject to prior authorization from the authorities.” He noted that the criminalization of people participating in peaceful assemblies for the sole reason that they did not seek the approval of the authorities to hold such assemblies contradicts international human rights law.
“The continuing repression of free speech in Bahrain runs counter to international law and standards that individuals will not be prosecuted for peaceful political speech,” said the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue. He added, “The authorities must take all measures to guarantee the free expression of all individuals in Bahrain, whether through social media or otherwise.”
for the full text: Independent UN experts call for end to persecution of rights defenders in Bahrain.
Related articles
TRADE UNIONISTS IN COLOMBIA STILL AT RISK
August 20, 2012While there have been some notable improvements in Colombia with regard to the situation of Human Rights Defenders over the last years, there are still terrible lapses as shown by the case of the trade unionists Oscar Arturo Orozco and Wilson Jaramillo’s who were shot at when traveling by car on 4 August in the Caldas Department. The president of the Caldas branch of the Trade Union Congress (Central Unitaria de Trabajadores, CUT), Oscar Arturo Orozco and the secretary-general Wilson Jaramillo were travelling by car between Manizales and the municipality of Palestina in Caldas Department when shots were fired by two men on a motorbike and several others standing at the side of the road. Several shots hit the car, but neither man was injured. Both men are also members of the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (Movimiento Nacional de Víctimas de Crímenes de Estado, MOVICE) and the Colombian Electricity Workers’ Union (Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Electricidad de Colombia, SINTRAELECOL).
Over recent years flyers containing death threats have been repeatedly left at the office of SINTRAELECOL, most recently in mid-July when the death threat contained a picture of bullet cartridges. According to the CUT, 12 trade unionists have been killed in Colombia in this year alone. This attack comes at a time when there had been an order to remove the protection Oscar Arturo Orozco was receiving and when parts of the budget of the Ministry of Interior Protection Programme have been reduced.
Amnesty International, Protection International and other NGOs call for expressions of support: Go to original article
Another Bahraini human rights activist, Said Yousif, arrested
August 16, 2012
Image from twitter.com by user @SAIDYOUSIF
Late last night, Wednesday 15 August, Russia Today reported that another Bahraini HRD was arrested: Said Yousif (pictured on the right with Nabeel Rajab). Both work for the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, one of the three nominees for the 2012 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. The ongoing crackdown on human rights activists completely contradicts the promised made by the Government after a government-sponsored report revealed gross violations of human rights.
Solitary confinement like a torture chamber for black revolutionaries in the USA
August 13, 2012Bret Grote (an investigator with the Human Rights Coalition, a Pennsylvania-based prison abolitionist and prisoner rights organisation) and
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Kanya D’Almeida (an editor for the Inter Press Service (IPS) News Agency, currently based in Colombo, Sri Lanka) wrote an excellent article for Al-Jazeera on prison conditions in the USA and even more on the political and racial aspects. It is not directly related to HRDs but touches on the important question of the severe treatment handed out to ‘jailhouse’ lawyers or those prisoners who take on the risky job of defending fellow inmates. |
for the full piece see: Solitary confinement: Torture chambers for black revolutionaries – Opinion – Al Jazeera English.
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An open letter from the wife of Nabeel Rajab HRD detained in Bahrain
August 13, 2012On 12 August 2012 the Ahlul Bayt News Agency published a moving letter by Sumaya Rajab, the wife of the prominent Bahraini human rights defender,Nabeel Rajab, who is currently detained in Bahrain. Nabeel Rajab is one of the 3 MEA nominees for 2012. She writes this letter also in the name of their son Adam and daughter Malak to urge all of you to use your influence and act quickly to guarantee her husband’s immediate release.
for the full text of the letter see: Bahrain: An open letter from the family of Human Rights Defender Nabeel Rajab.
General Prosecutor’s Office in Belarus refuses dialogue with NGOs
August 10, 2012On 10 August, Human Rights Center “Viasna” reported that it received an answer from the General Prosecutor’s Office about a request it and others NGOs (Belarusian Helsinki Committee, Human Rights Center “Viasna”, Committee for Protection of the Repressed “Solidarity”, the Centre for Legal Transformation, and the Center for Human Rights) had made to discuss illegal preventive detention.
The Head of the Department for Supervision over the observance of the rights and freedoms of citizens, M.V.Papova, simply made a bureaucratic response stating that “given that you are not a person to whom, in prescribed order, is delegated the right to represent the interests of these citizens, there are no sufficient grounds to consider your appeal”. But human rights activists in their address didn’t ask to represent the interests of citizens in administrative processes, but only meet with the Attorney General of the Republic of Belarus, the Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus to discuss the situation, prevent illegal practices, and bring the perpetrators to justice. Basically, they didn’t hear an answer from the Prosecutor General’s Office. The Deputy of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” Valiantsin Stefanovich said “representatives of the Belarusian human rights organizations expressed their concern that illegal and politically motivated detentions and arrests of political and civil activists have actually become a norm in the country. It is very unfortunate that not only representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but also judges are involved in these processes. This problem we planned to discuss with senior officials, whose responsibility is to protect legitimate rights of citizens of the country. We did not complain to the sentences of the courts, did not intend to represent these citizens in these public bodies and institutions. It is a pity that the General Prosecutor’s Office declined in an ostrich style the offer of the human rights defenders“.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 