Posts Tagged ‘Human Rights Defenders’

« Older posts
Newer posts »

NGO Statement on outcomes of the UNGA 78 Third Committee

November 23, 2023

14 NGOs that closely follow and engage with the General Assembly Third Committee have published a joint statement on outcomes of this 78th sessionp

The undersigned civil society organisations mark the conclusion of the UN General Assembly’s (GA) 78th Third Committee session with the following observations on both thematic and country-specific outcomes. We urge all States to implement the commitments they have made during this session to their full extent.

We welcome the joint statement on reprisals, led by Ireland and Uruguay and joined by a cross-regional group of countries. The statement called on all States and the UN to prevent, respond to, and ensure accountability for cases of intimidation and reprisals against those who engage or seek to engage with the UN. Once again, 80 States signed on to the statement, and affirmed their commitment to freedom of expression and association; solidarity with defenders, civil society and victims of violations; and contributed to ensuring that UN bodies and processes are informed by, and respond effectively to, the needs of communities on the ground. We urge more States to sign on to future such statements. 

We welcome the adoption of the biennial resolution on human rights defenders focusing on the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the 25th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. The resolution included strengthened language on women human rights defenders, defenders in conflict and post conflict situations and children defending human rights; as well as multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and defenders’ work to develop new human rights ideas. We welcome calls on States to refrain from internet shutdowns and restrictions including digital technologies, as well as on OHCHR to collect information on threats, attacks and cases of arbitrary detention. We now look to all States to implement these commitments and meaningfully progress the protection of human rights defenders.        

We welcome the adoption of a strong resolution on the safety of journalists. This resolution adds new commitments for States on a wide range of issues, including on strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs), journalists covering protests, and gender-based harassment and abuse. The resolution also recognised the growing threat of generative artificial intelligence to the safety of journalists. We urge all States to translate these renewed international commitments into allocation of resources and political will at the national level to prevent, protect and remedy all human rights violations against journalists.

A new resolution on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of digital technologies was adopted, advancing discussion on artificial intelligence at a critical time as the Global Digital Compact attempts a similarly comprehensive exercise. The text brings the omnibus coverage of the various Human Rights Council resolutions to the Third Committee, highlighting intersections of digital technologies, human rights, security and sustainable development, and crucially recognising that certain applications of digital technologies are incompatible with international human rights law. The text included language on racial and gender-based discrimination, business and human rights, privacy, targeted surveillance, data protection, freedom of expression, censorship and internet shutdowns. We hope to build on this broad foundation and strengthen elements on targeted surveillance, commercial spyware, biometric data in digital public infrastructure, and applications of artificial intelligence in future resolutions.

The resolution on terrorism and human rights adopted by consensus underscores the importance of the promotion of human rights and meaningful participation of all of society in counter-terrorism efforts nationally and globally. This resolution offered an opportunity to reflect on changes in State violations in the name of counter-terrorism or national security, and to build on language on gender inclusivity, civil society engagement and the importance of international humanitarian law and humanitarian access included in the recent UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and report by the Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter terrorism. However, as the resolution was a technical rollover from GA76, we regret that this opportunity was not seized this session and hope that future resolutions will build upon these advancements.

We welcome the adoption of the resolution on strengthening the role of the UN in the promotion of democratization and enhancing periodic and genuine elections, focusing on media freedom and freedom of expression, presented by the US. The role of human rights defenders, as well as States’ obligation to ensure the right of all to participate in elections and to take steps to eliminate policies and practices discriminating on various grounds was maintained in the text. Critically, for the second time, the text recognised women and girls in all their diversity, and listed sexual orientation and gender identity as prohibited grounds of discrimination; despite votes being called to amend those references. Consensus was broken on the resolution for the first time, but was ultimately adopted by an overwhelming majority. 

We welcome the adoption by consensus of the resolution on the rights of Indigenous Peoples. We specifically welcome calls on States to ensure the protection and safety of indigenous human rights defenders, and to prevent and investigate human rights violations, killings, reprisals and abuses against them.

The rights of the Child resolution, focusing on the digital environment, was adopted by consensus. Despite the timeline precluding a full consideration of the lengthy text and risking an imbalanced update, we welcome the co-facilitators’ decision to open the full text for negotiation, to include updates related to the theme and references to General Comments 25 and 26 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child. We welcome retention of agreed language, and updates, including: bridging digital divides; protection from violence, harassment and abuse in the digital environment; access to information and impacts of digital acceleration on education access; sexual and reproductive health; multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination; and private sector responsibilities. We are disappointed however by decisions to delete agreed language on the full, equal and meaningful participation of girls, delete paragraphs on COVID-19 that resulted in lost language on children’s rights, to remove language on specific challenges facing girls, and to include new non-agreed language on the common responsibilities of parents.

Gender related resolutions

The resolution on policies and Programmes Involving Youth presented by Cabo Verde, Kazakhstan and Portugal, was adopted by consensus. The zero-draft was slimmed down in a streamlining exercise, leading to the exclusion of human rights frameworks and a focus on reinserting previously agreed language. We are pleased that references to multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, sexual and gender based violence, sexual and reproductive health services, menstrual health, comprehensive education and human rights frameworks were retained.  However we regret that despite significant support from Member States, agreed language from the previous resolution on sexual and reproductive health and rights, menstrual hygiene management, marginalised persons and situations, comprehensive sexuality education, as well as references to adolescents were not included in the final text.

We welcome the adoption by consensus of the resolution on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation (WASH), presented by Germany and Spain, that included new references to menstrual health and hygiene management, sexual and reproductive health-care services, and sexual and gender-based violence. Language was maintained on the stigmatising effect of lack of menstrual health and hygiene management on young women and girls; as well as inequalities caused by COVID-19 in accessing adequate WASH services especially for women, girls and persons in vulnerable situations, adversely impacting gender equality and women’s empowerment. We regret that, despite significant support, references to multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and sexual and gender-based violence were either omitted or diluted in the final text, neglecting the need to comprehensively address various forms of violence and discrimination women and girls face when accessing water and sanitation. 

We welcome the adoption by consensus of the violence against women migrant workers resolution presented by Indonesia and the Philippines. The resolution includes new references to gender-based violence through digital technologies, particularly impacting women migrant workers in transit and in destination countries; as well as root causes of migration, including climate change, the availability of equitable work and inequitable ownership of local resources, which undermine women’s empowerment. Strengthened recognition of domestic and care migrant workers as a particularly vulnerable group who can face exploitation, violence, and abuse due to the informal nature of their employment was included. We regret that despite significant support, additional references to sexual and reproductive health, intimate partner violence, and multiple and intersection forms of discrimination were omitted in the final text. We echo the resolution’s call to all Member States to protect all migrant women from harassment and violence, regardless of migration status.

The resolution on the Girl Child, presented by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), was adopted by consensus. We welcome the retention of agreed language, as well as the theme proposed for the Secretary General’s Report to the eightieth GA session on the impact of digital technologies on girls, and related language updates. However, we deeply regret   that the circulation of the text did not allow sufficient time for a comprehensive and substantive update. We are disappointed that the only other update to the text was the unprecedented inclusion of language on family-oriented and family-policies. In the absence of references to other policies that aim to realise the rights of girls in all their diversity, this new inclusion results in an imbalanced text that fails to fully recognize and address the challenges they face. Given the rapidly changing global landscape for girls and that last substantive revision of this text was in 2017, a comprehensive update to this resolution remains crucial.

The resolution on rural women was adopted by consensus and co-sponsored by more than 60 Member States. We welcome the retention of agreed language that recognizes the impact of historical and structural power relations, gender stereotypes and negative social norms on the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, particularly those living in rural areas. We also welcome that the resolution urges Member States to implement policies and programs that promote and protect the human rights of women and girls, address sexual and gender-based violence and multiple intersecting forms of discrimination, and strengthen measures to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights. We, however, deeply regret that several proposals to further strengthen the resolution that were supported by many Member States were not retained in the final draft including on the particular challenges women and girls living in rural areas face in accessing sexual and reproductive health services, and references to women and girls in all their diversity. 

The resolution on follow up to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action presented by Bangladesh was adopted by consensus. We welcome the text, which includes new references to the high-level meeting on universal health coverage, the universality of the 2030 agenda and their role in achieving gender equality, and to the UN system-wide Knowledge Hub on addressing sexual harassment. It also calls for a high-level meeting at the 80th General Assembly to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, and to accelerate the realisation of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. We regret that proposed text on multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and on the importance of the realisation of sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights was not included in the final document. 

COUNTRY SITUATIONS

The joint statement on the human rights situation in Xinjiang, China delivered by the UK on behalf of a cross-regional group of 51 countries is a strong message to Chinese authorities regarding growing concerns about abuses against Turkic Muslim communities. This year, there are new signatories from several regional groups. The statement emphasises the serious human rights violations Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim communities continue to suffer in Xinjiang, and echoes the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ August 2022 report, which concluded that the abuses ‘may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.’ The statement notes that a year has passed since the release of the OHCHR report, and China has yet to engage constructively with its findings. It urges China to end its human rights violations, engage constructively with the OHCHR, and fully implement the reports’ recommendations. With only one more State signature than the 2022 joint statement, work remains to be done to ensure broader support from Member States to hold China accountable for its human rights violations including from Muslim-majority countries.

Resolutions 

While we support the below resolutions that highlight violations of human rights in specific countries, we acknowledge the existence of human rights violations in many other countries that also merit the attention of the UN General Assembly and look forward to a time when they are also considered in the Third Committee.

The resolution on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran was adopted following a vote (80 in favour; 65 against; 29 abstentions). Initiated by Canada and a core group and cosponsored by 50 countries, this comprehensive resolution calls on Iran to uphold the rights of all citizens. It specifically calls on Iran to prohibit child, early and forced marriage, female genital mutilation, children being subject to the death penalty, torture and other inhuman treatment. It condemns fundamental rights violations, the frequent imposition of the death penalty, intensified and targeted repression of women and girls, the use of surveillance and force against non violent protesters, and poor prison conditions. It also calls for an end to all discrimination and violations against ethnic, linguistic and other minorities as well as recognized and unrecognised religious minorities, including Baha’is who continue to suffer various violations including persecution, mass arrests, lengthy prison sentences. 

We welcome the adoption of the resolution on the situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic. We particularly welcome new references to the victim- and survivor-centric Independent Institution on Missing Persons, a mechanism established by the UN General Assembly this June, to help clarify the fate and whereabouts of all missing persons in Syria. However, we are disappointed that the resolutions’ co-sponsors orally amended the text to remove a critical paragraph that would have mandated a regular report on humanitarian access in the country. Not only would this report have specifically highlighted instances where humanitarian access was not full, timely, unrestricted or sustained; it would have filled a gap left by the failure to renew the Security Council-mandated cross-border humanitarian mechanism earlier this year. 

The consensus adoption of the resolution on the human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) demonstrates that Member States remain deeply concerned about the appalling abuses committed by the DPRK authorities. We welcome in particular the inclusion of language on accountability. We also welcome language stressing the linkages between the human rights situation in the country, including with respect to the rights of women and girls, and the continuing diversion of DPRK’s resources to pursuing nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes over the welfare of its people. 

The resolution on the situation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar, which was adopted by consensus, once again does not reiterate key elements of the 2021 UNGA resolution which followed the military coup in February 2021. The resolution fails to comprehensively address ongoing and escalating human rights violations by the military, despite the Special Rapporteur on Myanmar’s warning that a ‘raging fire of brutality’ is engulfing the country. The resolution however recognizes the impacts of militarization aggravated by the continued access to arms from abroad, reiterates protection needs of the Rohingya and calls for all necessary measures to be taken to provide justice to victims and ensure accountability.

The resolution on the situation of human rights in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, including the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol was adopted by vote. The resolution strongly condemns intensifying crackdowns against journalists and other media workers, human rights defenders and civil rights activists, as well as forcible transfers of Ukrainian children and other civilians to the temporarily controlled or occupied territories of Ukraine and their deportation to the Russian Federation. The resolution further calls on Russia to cease all violations and abuses, including discriminatory measures and practices, arbitrary detentions and arrests within the framework of the so-called filtration procedures, enforced disappearances, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, including compeling apprehended persons to self-incriminate or ‘cooperate” with law enforcement, ensure fair trial, and revoke all discriminatory legislation.

CIVIL SOCIETY ACCESS While we welcome the action by some States to invite civil society organisations to join informals as observers this session, it was disappointing that only a few States extended this invitation. This year, once again, civil society encountered challenges in staying informed about informal negotiations. The schedule of these informal sessions, previously available in the UN journal until 2019, was once again absent from the said journal. Instead, it was exclusively published on the e-deleGATE platform, to which civil society does not have access.These critical barriers to civil society access to Third Committee negotiations deprive the Committee of civil society’s technical expertise and mean that its outcomes fail to leverage the contributions of a crucial stakeholder in promoting the implementation of human rights.

SIGNATORIES

Access Now 

Amnesty International

ARTICLE 19

Association for Progressive Communications – APC

Center for Reproductive Rights 

CIVICUS

Fòs Feminista

Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect

Human Rights in China

Human Rights Watch

International Center for Not-for-Profit Law

International Service for Human Rights

Outright International

Women Deliver

https://ishr.ch/latest-updates/joint-civil-society-statement-on-outcomes-of-the-unga-78-third-committee/

Posted in ISHR, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

The impressive story of human rights defender Brandon Lee and the role of APEC

November 22, 2023
Brandon Lee and his daughter Jesse Jane at the People's Counter Summit of the No To APEC Coalition, Nov. 11, 2023. Photo by Jia H. Jung Ifugao Igorot Environmental Activist Philippine State Violence Anti-APEC
Brandon Lee and his daughter Jesse Jane at the People’s Counter Summit of the No To APEC Coalition, Nov. 11, 2023. Photo by Jia H. Jung

Jia Jung wrote on 20 November, 2023 about Chinese American Bay Area native Brandon Lee who gave the keynote speech at the No to APEC People’s Counter Summit, “People Over Profit and Plunder,” at San Francisco State University on Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023.

Lee was living with his wife and daughter in the Philippines and working as a human rights advocate, land defender, and journalist for the Northern Dispatch when he was shot by Philippine armed forces on Aug. 6, 2019. He survived – as a quadriplegic who remains steadfast in his international activism. Lee said, inter alia:

In high school, I was voted most shyest. I always preferred to work behind the scenes behind the camera, never in front. I was working security during rallies or painting posters the day before.

…In 2003, I transferred to this campus and joined the League of Filipino students at San Francisco State University. That’s where I learned that our country, the United States, continues to dominate and stagnate the Philippine economy, politics, and culture.

Around this time, I also started volunteering for the Chinese Progressive Association. That’s where I learned about the conditions and struggles of immigrant Chinese workers, and tenants. It was at that time I met Pam Tau Lee, the founder of the Chinese Progressive Association.

She was one of my mentors. And that’s where I learned that in the late nineties, San Francisco had 20,000 garment workers. But in less than 10 years, many of the immigrant monolinguistic women workers lost their jobs, with 88% of the workers being offshored to countries with weaker labor protection. It was during these years that I learned how interconnected our struggles are, and I became an internationalist and an anti-imperialist.

In 2007, I went on a life changing exposure trip to the Philippines. I met Youth and Students who are now movement leaders. I joined with workers boycotting Nestlé on their picket line. Ka Fort [Diasdado Fortuna], the chair of their union, was killed in cold blood by state agents. Ka Fort was dearly, dearly loved by the Nestlé workers for his leadership in building the union and his ultimate sacrifice.

So workers also launched a public campaign – “there’s blood in your coffee” – to draw international attention against Nestlé. Nestlé believes that water is a corporate right and not a human right. In this same trip, we visited many sectors, including the most oppressed majority and largest class – the peasants – as well as the Igorot Indigenous people in the northern part of the Philippines.

The Igorots, who live on resource-rich lands, are considered squatters on their own land because the Philippine government considers any land with a slope of 18 degrees Philippine land. The Igorots have been fighting against foreign occupation and colonization for hundreds of years.

And until now, they have continued their fight against government neglect and development aggression, militarization, and for the recognition for the right to ancestral land and self-determination.

On that exposure trip, our group also attended the one-year death anniversary of Alyce Claver, the wife of Chandu [Constancio]Claver, who was the provincial chair of the progressive party, Bayan Muna, and the president of the Red Cross. Chandu and Alyce were driving their kids to school when a motorcycle pulled up and shot at their car. Alyce shielded her husband and was riddled with two dozen bullets. Chandu made it out alive and is now in Canada with his kids after filing for political asylum, but the family today continues to be traumatized.

During this trip, we joined a medical and fact-finding mission to a remotevillage, and thankfully, the military had pulled out. The Indigenous peasants taught us about how the soldiers had blindfoldedthem and pointed a gun to their nape. The soldiers accused the farmers of supporting the land defenders and the resistance fighters known as the New People’s Army. The Philippine militarypretended to have a fake medical mission, giving out expired medicine to the local Indigenous people.

This trip, 16 years ago, changed the direction of my life.

I believe that we are shaped by our experiences, and this exposure program gave me new direction. It fortified my commitment to serving the fight for the Philippine liberation from U.S. imperialism. And to this day, the stories and sacrifices of Alyce Claver, Ka Fort, and so many others continue to fuel my commitment.

Two years later in 2009, I decided to deepen my commitment and decided to do a three-month integration in a remote area deep in the mountains. When I returned, I learned about Melissa Roxas, who was also from the U.S. and was abducted by the Armed Forces of the Philippines. She was conducting a medical mission. After a week, her captors released her as long as she promised to shut up.

She didn’t, though – she didn’t shut up. As she was she was released, she told the world what happened. As a health worker, Melissa diagnosed the Philippines’ societal problems and saw the illness of neoliberal policies from living among the poor. Melissa was brave. Her journey back from the trauma perpetuated by the Philippine military would soon follow for me.

The year following, 2010, I went all in and decided to live and serve the Igorot Indigenous people. I married my girlfriend, who is an Indigenous Ifugao, and we had a daughter, Jesse Jane, who is here with us today. I lived nine years with Indigenous people in the northern part of the Philippines, and I learned how they defended their land rights and lives in the resource-rich area known as the Cordillera region.

I saw firsthand how neoliberal policies promoted by APEC, such as the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, liberalize the mining industry, allowing foreign mining companies to reap 100% profit from the plundering of Indigenous people’s lands, unbridled large-scale destructive mining, dams, energy and other foreign projects, masquerading as development projects, and destroy the environment and forcibly displace Indigenous people who have been living there for generations.

Now, 13 years later, I’m speaking in front of you, a survivor of state violence and war that is spread by APEC and neoliberalism. They say APEC will promote sustainability. The Indigenous community say no. They are robbed of their life, land, culture, and worse, their future. Despite decades of people’s resistance, the plunder the natural resources, of indigenous – of ancestral – domains, continues. The region is blanketed with 176 large-scale mining and more than 100 energy projects, such as hydropower and geothermal projects awarded to private corporations.

One such energy project is the Chevron geothermal power project, which covers a large area in Kalinga. If left unchallenged and unopposed, all these could mean the ethnocide of the Igorots and the massive destruction of the ecosystem in the Cordillera region…

Indigenous communities were militarized, bombed, and strafed with artillery shelling, but they did not cower and they did not back down. They remained steadfast. They took care of each other. And they continued to hold the line.

They say APEC is innovative and will solve our problems. Hell, no.

We know this because the people do not stand to gain anything from APEC. Instead, the people are threatened, harassed, surveilled, abducted, slapped with legal cases based on fabricated evidence, illegally arrested, and even assassinated. I lost two of my dear friends and comrades, William Bugatti in 2014 and Ricardo Mayumi in 2018, at the hands of state agents. [see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2014/03/27/another-human-rights-defender-shot-dead-in-philippines/]

Because I protested alongside the Indigenous communities, and, as a journalist, wrote about the daily attacks they face, I was also threatened and harassed. I was placed under surveillance. Tailed. Followed. They watched our office. They took pictures of us at our office and homes, as well as the tricycle, jeep, and bus terminal. I was red-tagged and politically vilified as a terrorist. I experienced death threats in the form of the burial blanket for the dead. I was detained and had my bag illegally searched at a military checkpoint the week before members of the 54th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army shot me in front of my daughter in front of my home on August 6th, 2018.

They had visited me at my house and office looking for me. They said they wanted to partner with my organization, the Ifugao Peasant Movement, but we refused. I told them two names – William Bugatti and Ricardo Mayumi – on why we do not want to partner with them.

While their assassination attempt against me was unsuccessful, I am permanently scarred and paralyzed. I am now quadriplegic, unable to use my hands and legs. I am considered one of the lucky ones. But I live with trauma every day. [see also: SF human rights activist fights for his life after being shot in the Philippines]

I know firsthand that the backdoor trade deals handled by APEC will not benefit the people; they only benefit the corporations and imperialist countries like the United States. That is why the United States sends its military around the world, finance schools, support fascist governments – to open up industries.

In fact, I have no doubt that the bullets lodged in my body today are paid by our taxpayer dollars.

Although I am paralyzed physically, they have failed to shut me up.

Today, I am proud to be standing with you, metaphorically speaking, in fighting back against APEC. Against state and political repression. Against corporate greed and power. Against the wealthy elite. Against the plunder of our planet. Against foreign domination of our peoples.

The Indigenous communities are resilient also. Like millions of people in the Global South, they are fighting back. They continue to protest despite being attacked. They have successfully barricaded several mines, rejecting countless mining and dam projects.

They have been on the frontlines of fighting the WTO [World Trade Organization], dismantling the Chico Dam equipment during the late dictator Marcos, which launched a coordinated people’s response that brought the Indigenous people to the national liberation struggle.

They are also on the frontlines of fighting APEC; a fight has led thousands to take up armed struggle as an appropriate response to defending their land, which is their life.

One of their martyr freedom fighter, Arnold “Ka Mando” Jaramillo, favorite expression ispayt latta! It means fight to the end, or continue to fight, and it’s today emulated by the Cordillera mass movement. Payt latta.

I will continue to fight as long as I breathe. Take a look around – my story is just one of many. There are a thousand people here today, diverse and multigenerational, coming from across the world, each with their own journey, own experiences, and reason for being here. But what unites us all is our opposition to APEC and neoliberal policies. We have so much in common – so much we can unite and rage against. A common enemy – APEC – and the neoliberal policies that prioritize profit and plunder over people and planet.

We will not go gently into that night. Rage. Rage! We will fight!

We will fight for a better future for all. Let us continue to talk, to build and work together, now and after APEC. For now, are you ready? Are you ready to shut down APEC?

https://asamnews.com/2023/11/20/

Posted in Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Polish refugee worker and Kurdish defender receive Paul Grüninger award 2023

November 21, 2023

The Paul Grüninger Foundation awarded Polish refugee worker Paula Weremiuk and Kurdish politician Ayşe Gökkan, who is in prison in Turkey, the 2023 Grüninger Recognition Prize for Humanity and Courage 2023. [see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/845EA081-C3DB-705C-E6FC-1BA88858803E]

The award ceremony took place on at the Palace Cultural Center in St. Gallen.

Paula Weremiuk from Narewka on the Polish-Belarusian border works as a teacher during the day and as a refugee aid worker in the Bialowieza forest at night. According to the Paul Grüninger Foundation, a refugee drama of enormous proportions has been taking place there since 2021.

Paula Weremiuk searches for people in need in the inaccessible areas of Bialowieza, providing them with clothing, food, sleeping bags and the most basic necessities, writes the Paul Grüninger Foundation. The Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenka is forcing thousands of refugees from the Middle East and Africa across the border to Poland, where they are met with strong political rejection.

At the border, in the primeval forest of Bialowieza, there is often brutal violence, abuse, rape and repeated deaths. The refugees, including women and small children, are helplessly abandoned to their fate in the inaccessible terrain and are chased back and forth across the border by the authorities. Refugee helpers are being harassed and criminalized, the press release continues.

Ayşe Gökkan’s award was accepted by her lawyer, Berfin Gökkan. The lawyer read out a letter from Ayşe Gökkan written in Kurdish: “I greet you with the warmth of the sun and the enthusiasm of Jin-Jiyan-Azadî. As a member of the Movement of Free Women, I accept this award on behalf of thousands of struggling Kurdish women. There are many fighting women in prison in Turkey.”

The foundation justified the awarding of the recognition prize of 10,000 francs to the Kurdish feminist and human rights defender Ayşe Gökkan for her civil society commitment and her criminalization:

“Ayşe Gökkan has particularly distinguished herself as a journalist and as an activist for women’s rights. For almost forty years, she has been writing newspaper columns against racial and gender discrimination, speaking at national and international podiums and seminars, leading workshops on the topic of gender inequality and taking part in peaceful demonstrations in this context.

From 2009 to 2014, Ayşe Gökkan was mayor of the Kurdish city of Nusaybin, which lies on the border between Turkey and Syria. When Turkey began to build a wall against refugees between Nusaybin and the neighbouring Syrian town of Qamishlo, the mayor protested against this “wall of shame” with, among other things, a sit-in strike.

Because of her civil society commitment, Ayşe Gökkan has been arrested in Turkey more than eighty times, subjected to more than two hundred investigations and, in 2021, sentenced to more than 26 in a grotesque court case based on the statements of a single “secret witness” for membership in a “terrorist organization”.

She is a victim of the criminalization of the political opposition in Turkey. Ayşe Gökkan is in prison, her sentence has not yet been confirmed by the Turkish Court of Cassation, and proceedings are also pending before the European Court of Human Rights.”

https://anfenglish.com/women/jailed-kurdish-politiciangokkan-awarded-paul-gruninger-foundation-s-recognition-prize-70380

Posted in human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Soltan Achilova – finalist MEA 2021 – denied travel to Geneva Human Rights Week

November 21, 2023

On 21 November, 2023 the Martin Ennals Foundation, joined by HRW and the ISHR, issued the following statement:

The Martin Ennals Foundation condemns the harassment of Soltan Achilova and her daughter by government authorities at Ashgabat airport and calls for Turkmen authorities to stop their reprisals against journalists for their human rights work.

In the early hours of November 18th, 2023, Mrs. Soltan Achilova and her daughter were stopped by Turkmen government officials from boarding their flight for Switzerland. A customs official took their passports, wet them with a damp rag and declared the passports to be ruined, effectively obstructing Soltan from traveling to Geneva where she would feature as a keynote speaker at the University of Geneva’s Human Rights Week 2023.

This act of harassment and denial of freedom of movement is particularly reprehensible in that it comes only a few days after Turkmenistan’s 4th Universal Periodic Review, during which high-level government representatives expressed their “support for …the promotion and protection of fundamental freedoms and human rights“, giving multiple examples of their progress in terms of respect for freedom of expression.

Soltan Achilova believes she was not allowed to leave the country because of the authorities’ fear that negative information might be heard during the Human Rights week in Geneva. Yet, the obstruction from travel of an internationally recognized human rights defender is more striking evidence of the lack of freedoms in the country and the bad faith with which the Turkmenistan government engages with the Human Rights Council.  

Turkmenistan is one of the most repressive and isolated countries in the world, ranking 176th out of 180 countries in terms of press freedom and working conditions for journalists. Soltan has been reporting about her country for more than a decade. Her pictures of daily life are one of the few sources of documentation of human rights violations occurring in this most secretive nation. In 2021, Soltan was recognized by the Martin Ennals Award for her documentation of land grabs and forced evictions of ordinary citizens in Ashgabat.

Soltan has not been allowed to travel freely outside of her country on several occasions. She is under constant surveillance by Turkmen authorities and has suffered numerous incidents of harassment, intimidation, and threats. Despite the challenges, Soltan persists in her human rights work, regularly sending information and pictures  outside of the country so that government authorities are held to account.

We renew calls for Turkmenistan to fully implement their human rights obligations, including, inter alia, allowing human rights defenders and journalists to conduct their work peacefully. We invite Member States accompanying the 4th Universal Periodic Review of Turkmenistan to strongly sanction the silencing of Soltan Achilova and other Turkmen journalists.

For more on Soltan: https://youtu.be/7xkSvMXaZUU?si=JhWOrMxs4yQQ2wz8

Soltan Achilova MEA2021 denied travel to Geneva Human Rights Week

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/11/21/turkmenistan-journalist-prevented-travelling-abroad

https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/statement-report/turkmenistan-whrd-soltan-achilova-denied-travel-geneva-human-rights-week

https://www.rferl.org/a/turkmenistan-achilova-stopped-flying-europe/32692666.html

Posted in Front Line, HRW, Human Rights Defenders, MEA | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Notre Dame law professor Diane Desierto about Human Rights Defenders

November 20, 2023

Law professor Diane Desierto advocates for dignity and justice, and for her students to do the same

When Nobel laureate Maria Ressa was arrested for cyberlibel, she wasn’t shaken. In a two-year period, the Filipino American journalist, Time magazine Person of the Year, Fulbright scholar, and author of How to Stand Up to a Dictator had racked up 10 arrest warrants, plus a barrage of online hate, for her role as founder of Rappler, an independent news site known for its criticisms of authoritarian president Rodrigo Duterte. The claims ranged from fraud to tax evasion to ties with the Central Intelligence Agency, all of which were eventually dismissed.

Nobel laureate Maria Ressa.
Ressa offers the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize lecture in Oslo, Norway.

But when her cyber libel conviction, the first of its kind in the Philippines and which carries a seven-year jail sentence, reached the country’s Supreme Court, she needed help. That help came in the form of Notre Dame law professor Diane Desierto.

Desierto is the faculty director of the LL.M. in International Human Rights Law and founding director of the Law School’s new Global Human Rights Clinic. While teaching and publishing, she also serves as a member of a United Nations working group, faculty at the Hague Academy of International Law, and international counsel at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the UN Human Rights Committee, the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, and the Philippine Supreme Court. She’s tangled with threats, attacks, and authoritarian governments, primarily in the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries, as well as China, where she was detained twice.

Though Ressa already had a powerhouse legal team, she asked Desierto to represent her at the Philippine Supreme Court.

“I chose Diane to represent me because she had the courage to stand up. She understood the risks,” Ressa says, noting that these days lawyers are even more likely to be harassed or killed than journalists. “Yet she also understood both, from a Filipino perspective, the ties that bind and the way the law can be used to protect us.”

Desierto 1600
Professor Diane Desierto says human rights lawyers from around the world are welcome at Notre Dame.

She smiles and says, “And she’s never lost a case.”

In a matter of days, Desierto had filed an appeal, on top of her international commitments and teaching load. But her motivation was simple: “This is the right thing to do.” She adds, “We’re the place that wants to do the right thing.”

“Human rights lawyers generally experience a range of threats. It’s not just physical threats and death threats and actual killings, but also the delegitimization of the work that they do. And that includes being discredited publicly. That includes having all forms of coercion being placed on your family. So some of the threats that I’ve dealt with have not just been physical threats to my person or detention, but have also included threats to my family’s law firm, have also included arrests and detentions and all manner of harassment and intimidation. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg that most human rights lawyers face today.” Desierto says

Desierto notes that according to recent studies, 72 percent of the world’s population live under authoritarian rule. Additionally, during the COVID pandemic, emergency regimes were set up, during which time 3,000 human rights lawyers were killed globally. That’s already a high number, but Desierto underscores the ripples of what 3,000 people could have done.

“We are trusted by a lot of places around the world where human rights defenders are under siege,” Desierto says. “They have sanctuary here, and they can grow with a community here, and they can be supported with this community.” Roqia Samim has experienced that support firsthand. Samim is a human rights lawyer from Afghanistan and a 2022 graduate from the LL.M. program.

A photo of Roquia Samim

“Notre Dame Law School and the LL.M. Program for International Human Rights Law became my home and became my shelter.”—Roqia Samim ’22 LL.M.

“Unfortunately, when I came to Notre Dame, at the same time that I arrived here, I lost my home and my country,” Samim says, citing the 2021 Taliban takeover. She adds that given her background in human rights and her advocacy for women’s rights, she fears detention, disappearance, or murder if she were to return home. “It was really hard for me to accept that there is no home for me to go back to from Notre Dame; there is no place for me to go back and work for human rights. But Notre Dame Law School and the LL.M. Program for International Human Rights Law became my home and became my shelter. They supported me here to continue my work for human rights in my country from here.”

Samim remains committed to research human rights issues and violations in Afghanistan as a senior research associate in the Law School. In that role she co-authored a piece titled “Afghan Women’s Rights as the Taliban’s Bargaining Tool for International Recognition,” which was featured by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders. In the piece, she and co-author Tahmina Sobat ’20 LL.M. detail violations and oppression such as banning women from working or attending secondary school or university, and imposing dress codes and gender segregation rules.

“With this opportunity I can document all those human rights abuses and violations by the Taliban in Afghanistan, and provide evidence and reports to the international organizations, including United Nations, to have serious attention for these ongoing violations in my country.”

Research aside, being part of a robust, diverse, and historic community has given her confidence and a sense of belonging, she says.

“Since I came to Notre Dame, and since I attended this program, I don’t feel that I’m alone anymore. I see my work as a strong commitment to serve humanity and human beings to access their basic rights and dignity,” she says. “There are many people like me, fighting for human rights around the world. I saw that, and I learned that, here in this program. Working with a diverse group of people, a diverse group of human rights lawyers from different countries, I realized that gave me more motivation to work harder for human rights and realized that I’m not alone in this fight.”

Desierto wants that message sent to lawyers around the globe. You are not alone. You are welcome here. We at Notre Dame can and will support you.

“We have something really great here,” Desierto says. “I want to let human rights defenders know anywhere in the world that this is legitimately the one place where no topic is censored. Where no issue is ever immune from discussion. This is one place that has genuine freedom to do all of it and be all of it. Where we strive to realize the human rights outcome.”

Desierto is living that mission. While teaching and zig-zagging across the globe, she is handling Maria Ressa’s final petition and preparing for oral arguments at the Supreme Court of the Philippines.

She and Ressa await a decision, as do thousands of journalists, and hundreds of Notre Dame LL.M. alumni who also fight for human rights, all across the globe.

Desierto Ressa 1600
Desierto and Ressa await a decision for their appeal to the Philippines’ Supreme Court. 

https://fightingfor.nd.edu/2023/fighting-to-defend-human-rights/

Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Defamation indictment for Fatia Maulidiyanti and Haris Azhar, two human rights defenders in Indonesia

November 14, 2023

Responding to the indictment of two prominent human rights defenders, Fatia Maulidiyanti and Haris Azhar, Amnesty International Indonesia’s Executive Director Usman Hamid said on 13 November 2023:

“This disgraceful indictment will have a destructive effect on the work of human rights defenders in Indonesia. Instead of protecting the right to freedom of expression, the Indonesian authorities are obliterating civic space. These alarming indictments illustrate the increasing oppression faced by activists who express dissenting opinions. We urge the Indonesian authorities to immediately release Fatia Maulidiyanti and Haris Azhar. The right to freedom of expression must be respected and guaranteed.” See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2021/10/15/indonesia-human-rights-defenders-under-pressure/

The prosecutor demanded that Fatia should be imprisoned for three years and six months, and Haris for four years. They were deemed guilty after being sued by the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. The minister filed a defamation case against Fatia and Haris in September 2021. Both were charged by the police on 17 March 2022 with defamation under Article 27 section (3) of the Electronic Information and Transactions (EIT) Law. Amnesty International Indonesia has voiced concerns related to problematic provisions in Indonesian EIT Law, including this provision.

The police investigation relates to a YouTube video of a conversation between the two human rights defenders where they discussed the findings of a report on the alleged involvement of several military figures in the mining industry.

Amnesty International Indonesia has recorded that at least 1,021 human rights defenders were prosecuted, arrested, attacked and intimidated by various actors from January 2019 to December 2022. Meanwhile, there are at least 332 people that have been charged under the EIT Law, most of them accused of defamation, between January 2019 and May 2022.

https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/alarming-defamation-indictment-for-two-human-rights-defenders-in-indonesia/

Others also came out in support:

https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/statement-report/solidarity-human-rights-defenders-fatia-maulidiyanti-and-haris-azhar

But then on 8 January 2024 comes the good news: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/two-activists-cleared-of-defaming-indonesian-senior-cabinet-minister-luhut-pandjaitan

And on 21 March 2024: https://www.ucanews.com/news/indonesian-court-scraps-defamation-laws/104540

https://forum-asia.org/?p=38920

https://forum-asia.org/?p=38862

Also worth reading on this topic: https://www.icj.org/indonesia-criminalization-of-disinformation-threatens-freedom-of-expression/

[Stories] An interview with human rights defenders Fatia Maulidiyanti and Haris Azhar on their monumental victory against repressive laws

Posted in AI, Amnesty international, FIDH, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Senator Leila de Lima finally granted bail

November 13, 2023

In response to the news that the court granted former Philippine Senator Leila de Lima bail for the third and last drug-related charge against her, Butch Olano, Amnesty International’s Philippines Director, said: “This is a welcome development and a step towards justice.

Leila has been detained for nearly seven years during which she was subjected to verbal and physical attacks. Evidence, including various witnesses retracting their statements implicating her in the illegal drug trade, shows that the charges were fabricated. See: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2023/05/25/acquittal-of-de-lima-and-other-human-rights-defenders-in-the-philippines

As a human rights activist and former Senator, she has been one of the staunchest critics of the human rights violations under the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte. Since her arrest, Amnesty alongside many other organisations have repeatedly said that the charges against her were fabricated and that the testimonies by witnesses against her were manufactured. See: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/35cd51c0-93fb-11e8-b157-db4feecb7a6f

The authorities arrested de Lima after she sought to investigate violations committed in the context of the so-called “war on drugs” under the former Duterte administration, including the extrajudicial execution of thousands of people suspected of using or selling drugs, which Amnesty has said may amount to crimes against humanity. As in the case of de Lima, there has been almost no justice or accountability for the victims of these abuses and their families.

Court proceedings against de Lima in the last six years have been marked by undue delays, including the repeated failure of prosecution witnesses to appear in court and changes in judges handling the cases against her. In 2018, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that the detention of de Lima was arbitrary because of the lack of legal basis and the non-observance of international norms relating to the right to a fair trial.

The arbitrary detention of de Lima reflects the broader context of increasing impunity for human rights violations in the Philippines. These violations include killings, threats and harassment of political activists, human rights defenders, members of the media and other targeted groups.

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2023/11/13/2311201/de-lima-walks-free-rights-defenders-declare-times-accusers-jailers

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/philippines-granting-leila-de-lima-bail-step-towards-justice

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2023/11/15/2311553/international-community-welcomes-de-limas-release-jail

Posted in AI, Amnesty international, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , ,

HRW submission to Special Rapporteur focuses on child and youth human rights defenders

November 13, 2023

Human Rights Watch’ submission discusses the risks climate activists have faced in Australia, India, and Uganda. It focuses on examples of activists under age 32, as requested by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders.

Australia

Following increased climate protest activity in New South Wales (NSW), the government in March 2022 established a new police unit known as the Strike Force Guard. The unit is designed to “prevent, investigate and disrupt unauthorized protests across the state.” On April 1, the state parliament introduced new laws and penalties specifically targeting protests that blocked roads and ports. Protesters can now be fined up to AU$22,000 (US$15,250) and be jailed for up to two years for protesting without permission on public roads, rail lines, tunnels, bridges, and industrial estates.

In 2022, Human Rights Watch interviewed three climate protesters who had been arrested and charged under the new laws. These cases indicate that climate protesters are being targeted for disproportionate punishment.

Violet (Deanna) Coco, a 31-year-old activist, took part in a climate protest on April 13, 2022, that stopped traffic in one lane on the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Coco climbed on the roof of a parked truck and stood holding a lit emergency flare. After approximately 25 minutes, NSW police forcibly removed her and the other protesters from the road. Coco was charged with disrupting vehicles, interfering with the safe operation of a bridge, possessing a bright light distress signal in a public place, failing to comply with police direction, and resisting or hindering a police officer. She was also charged under explosives regulations for holding the emergency flare; with an incitement offense for “encouraging the commission of a crime” by livestreaming the protest on Facebook; and for uploading a video of a climate protest she took the previous week, and with disrupting traffic during three previous protests.

Coco pleaded guilty to two charges – blocking traffic and failing to comply with police direction – and not guilty to the other charges. She was released on AU$10,000 (US$6,940) bail, but the magistrate ordered her not to leave her apartment for any purpose except for emergency medical assistance or to attend court. She was also ordered not to associate with any other Fireproof Australia member. Coco spent 21 days under what amounted to house arrest. On May 5, 2022, a magistrate amended her bail and, while she was allowed to leave her property, the authorities imposed a curfew banning her from leaving her address before 10 a.m. and after 3 p.m.

In March 2023, Coco was issued with a 12-month conditional release order after a district court judge heard she had been initially imprisoned on false information provided by the New South Wales police.

In August 2022, the state of Victoria followed New South Wales with harsh new measures targeting environmental protesters at logging sites with up to 12 months in jail or $21,000 in fines. In Tasmania, environmental activists now face fines of $13,000 or two years in prison, while nongovernmental organizations that have been found to “support members of the community to protest” face fines of over $45,000.

On May 18, 2023, the South Australia government introduced harsh new anti-protest measures in the South Australian lower house in the morning and then rushed them through after lunch with bipartisan support after just 20 minutes of debate and no public consultation. The bill would increase the punishment for “public obstruction” 60-fold, from $750 to $50,000 or three months in jail, with activists also potentially facing orders to pay for police and other emergency services responding to a protest or action. On May 30, the laws were passed after a 14-hour debate in the South Australian upper house.

India

In February 2021, Indian authorities arrested Ravi who was sent to police custody for five days. Indian authorities also issued arrest warrants against Nikita Jacob, a lawyer, and Shantanu Muluk, an activist, who were granted pre-arrest bail. The authorities alleged Ravi was the “key conspirator” in editing and sharing an online toolkit shared by the Swedish Fridays for Future founder Greta Thunberg on social media, including Twitter, aimed at providing information to those seeking to peacefully support ongoing farmers protests. In granting bail to Ravi, the Delhi court said the evidence on record was “scanty and sketchy,” and that citizens cannot be jailed simply because they disagreed with government policies. It added: “The offense of sedition cannot be invoked to minister to the wounded vanity of governments.”

The Indian government has enforced Information Technology Rules that allow for greater governmental control over online content, threaten to weaken encryption, and seriously undermine media freedoms, rights to privacy, and freedom of expression online. These rules put youth and other human rights defenders and journalists at further risk of being targeted by the authorities for their online content.

Uganda

Young people from across Uganda have faced reprisals for fighting for climate justice. On September 25, 2020, Ugandan police arrested and detained for eight hours eight youth climate activists while participating in the global climate strike in Kampala. The police told them election campaigns were not allowed, although the activists repeatedly explained that they were an environmental—not a political—movement. The activists, only two of whom were above the age of 18, were detained in a room for eight hours, questioned, and then allowed to leave.

Human Rights Watch published a report that documented a range of restrictions on freedom of expression, association, and assembly related to oil development, including the planned East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) by the government. Civil society organizations and environmental defenders regularly report being harassed and intimidated, unlawfully detained, or arbitrarily arrested. Human Rights Watch interviewed 31 people in Uganda between March and October 2023, including 21 environmental defenders, and several of whom were under 32 years old.

Many student climate activists protesting EACOP have been arrested and charged with various offences in Kampala since 2021. These protests have been largely peaceful and usually small in scale. Since 2021, there have been at least 22 arrests, largely of students, at anti-EACOP protests in Kampala. Nine students were arrested in October 2022 after demonstrating support for the European Parliament resolution on EACOP and charged with “common nuisance.” Their case was finally dismissed on November 6, 2023, after more than 15 court appearances. Another four protesters were arrested on December 9, 2022, as they marched to the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) to demand a re-evaluation of the environmental damage caused by EACOP. One of the detainees was kept at an unknown location until the morning of December 12 when all four were released.

Another protesting student was arrested in Kampala on June 27, 2023, after trying to deliver a petition to the Speaker of the House of Uganda’s parliament. He told Human Rights Watch he was taken to an unlawful place of detention known as a “safe house” with his hands tied behind his back, questioned by plain-clothed security officials about who was providing the funding for the protests, before he was knocked to the floor. He said he awoke two days later in the hospital with serious injuries. On July 11, 2023, five individuals were arrested after protesting EACOP in downtown Kampala.

On September 15, 2023, four student protesters were arrested after a “Fridays for Future” and “StopEACOP” joint protest at the Ugandan parliament as part of the “Global Fight to End Fossil Fuels,” a global mobilization and day of action. They were released on bond five days later and have been charged with “common nuisance.” Their next hearing is scheduled for November 27, 2023. One of the students described to Human Rights Watch being held in a room inside parliament and beaten by uniformed parliamentary security officials and others in civilian clothes with “batons, gun butts, and using their boots to step on our heads” before being taken to Kampala’s Central Police Station (CPS). At the CPS he described plainclothes intelligence officers asking: “Who are your leaders? Among us, who is your leader? How many are you? Who are your leaders in different universities? Who is managing your social media accounts?” They then described being beaten further in CPS cells by other prisoners, one of whom said, “We have order from above to discipline you. You need to stop working on EACOP.”

See also: https://globalpressjournal.com/africa/uganda/ugandan-pipeline-project-begins-landowners-navigate-crooked-road-compensation/

Human Rights Watch encourages the Special Rapporteur to call on governments to:

  • Promote and protect universally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms, respect, and protect the work of climate activists, in line with their human rights obligations.
  • Publicly condemn assault, threats, harassment, intimidation, and arbitrary arrests of activists, and direct security and other government officials to stop arresting, harassing, or threatening activists for protesting or on false accusations.
  • End arbitrary arrests and prosecutions of human rights defenders, anti-EACOP activists, and peaceful protesters.
  • Respect and protect the rights of all human rights defenders and civil society organizations to exercise freedoms of association, assembly, and expression, in accordance with international human rights norms.
  • Where applicable, ratify and implement regional human rights agreements to ensure public participation in environmental decision-making and to protect environmental defenders.

Submission to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders

Posted in HRW, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

10th Asian Regional Human Rights Defenders Forum promotes Courageous Voices

November 10, 2023

On 3 November 2023 the 10th Asian Regional Human Rights Defenders Forum concluded:

  • Judicial harassment was the most common violation experienced by human rights defenders (HRDs) in Asia from 2021 to 2022.
  • State actors–such as the police–were the top perpetrators.
  • The forum coincides with the 25th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which requires states to protect HRDs. Nevertheless, violations against HRDs still persist in Asia.
  • HRDs call for stronger mechanisms for protecting and creating an enabling environment for human rights work.

This collective call echoed throughout the 10th Asian Regional Human Rights Defenders Forum, which brought together some of Asia’s most courageous voices. 

Held from 1 to 3 November 2023 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the forum provided a platform for over 200 human rights defenders (HRDs) to discuss their shared advocacies, struggles, and hopes for promoting and protecting fundamental rights and freedoms across Asia and beyond.  

The forum expressed deep concern on the situation in Occupied Palestine Territory and Israel, particularly the indiscriminate bombing and military operations in Gaza by Israel that bears hallmarks of genocide. Participants called for an immediate ceasefire and end to the ongoing siege of Gaza by Israel as well as for unfettered access for humanitarian aid to Gaza. Likewise, defenders called for accountability and an investigation into the alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by both Israeli military forces and Palestinian armed groups.

The forum also celebrated the invaluable work of HRDs, emphasising the need for innovative ways of supporting them amid increasingly hostile environments in the region. 

In addition, an art exhibit was set up to commemorate the courageous acts of Asian human rights defenders while also showcasing the creativity of young Asian artists, highlighting the power of arts and storytelling as advocacy tools.

The three-day forum was organised by the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) alongside Pusat KOMAS and Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM). 

Violations against human rights defenders

This year’s forum coincided with the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the 25th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. The latter requires states to protect HRDs in recognition of their crucial contributions to ‘peace, sustainable development, and human rights.’

Unfortunately, violations against HRDs still persist in Asia.
In 2021 and 2022 alone, FORUM-ASIA documented 1,636 cases of violations which affected 4,440 defenders–alongside their families, organisations, and communities–across 22 monitored Asian countries. The exact numbers, however, may be higher as cases often go unreported.

Judicial harassment was the most common violation, followed by arbitrary arrests and detention, physical violence, and intimidation and threats. At worst, such cases may result in enforced disappearances, killings, and deaths. Other violations included administrative harassment, restrictions on movement, surveillance, vilification, and abduction.
Among all HRDs, pro-democracy defenders were at most risk. Meanwhile, women human rights defenders and sexual orientation and gender identity rights defenders often experienced gender-based harassment. Community-based defenders–including land and environment defenders, indigenous peoples’ rights defenders, and grassroot activists were the third most affected group. Other targeted HRD groups included media workers, students and youth, non-governmental organisations, and minority rights defenders.

Most violations were committed by state actors, with the police topping the list of perpetrators.

Among those who have experienced judicial harassment are FORUM-ASIA members Khurram Parvez in Kashmir, Adilur Rahman Khan in Bangladesh, Cristina Palabay in the Philippines, among many others. FORUM-ASIA is in solidarity with all the defenders facing harassment.

‘I want to emphasise that the government recognizes that human rights defenders and civil society organisations play an indispensable role in advocating for the rights and concerns of marginalised communities. They act as watchdogs, exposing injustices, discrimination, and human rights violations that might otherwise go unnoticed,’ Malaysian Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation YB Chang Li Kang said during the forum.

Despite the many challenges, HRDs in Asia are not giving up.

‘Indeed, we are stronger together. This year alone, human rights defenders and organisations have overcome tremendous challenges in the region. We are never keeping silent, we will continue to demand justice and accountability not only here in Malaysia but across Asia and beyond,’ said Jerald Joseph, Chairperson of FORUM-ASIA and Director of Pusat KOMAS. 

For the latest forum’s report, see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2021/10/05/report-on-forum-asias-9th-asian-human-rights-defenders-forum/

www.forum-asia.org

https://forum-asia.org/?p=38834

Posted in Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , ,

Burkina Faso: Emergency Law Targets Dissidents

November 10, 2023

On 8 November, 2023 Human Rights Watch reported that Burkina Faso’s military junta is using a sweeping emergency law against perceived dissidents to expand its crackdown on dissent. Between November 4 and 5, 2023, the Burkinabe security forces notified in writing or by telephone at least a dozen journalists, civil society activists, and opposition party members that they will be conscripted to participate in government security operations across the country.

The transitional military authorities assert that the conscription orders are authorized under the April 13 “general mobilization,” part of a plan to recapture territory lost to Islamist armed groups, which control roughly half of the country. The plan seeks to create a “legal framework for all actions” to be taken against insurgents and gives the president extensive powers to combat the insurgency, including requisitioning people and goods and restraining civil liberties.

“The Burkina Faso junta is using its emergency legislation to silence peaceful dissent and punish its critics,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The government should not respond to the abusive Islamist armed groups with further human rights abuses but should instead strengthen efforts to protect civilians and uphold basic rights to freedom of expression and speech.”

By targeting individuals who have openly criticized the junta, the conscription undertaken in Burkina Faso violates fundamental human rights, Human Rights Watch said. The recent notifications for conscriptions targeted, among others, Bassirou Badjo and Rasmane Zinaba, members of the civil society group Balai Citoyen; Daouda Diallo, prominent rights defender, secretary-general of the Collective Against Impunity and Stigmatization of Communities (Collectif contre l’Impunité et la Stigmatisation des Communautés, CISC), and laureate of the 2022 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders [see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/ca7f1556-8f73-4b48-b868-b93a3df9b4e1]; Gabin Korbéogo, president of the Burkina Faso Democratic Youth Organization (Organisation Démocratique de la Jeunesse du Burkina Faso, ODJ); and the journalists Issaka Lingani and Yacouba Ladji Bama.

Domestic civil society groups, media organizations, and trade unions have strongly condemned what one called the “selective and punitive” application of the “general mobilization” decree. In a November 6 statement, the Burkinabe Movement of Human and Peoples’ Rights (Mouvement Burkinabè des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples, MBDHP) said the general mobilization “has been specifically designed and adopted not to contribute to the fight against terrorism,” but to repress critical opinions.

Human rights activists and journalists told Human Rights Watch they feared being conscripted. “This wave of notifications is affecting people’s mental wellbeing,” said an independent journalist living in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital. “I am asking myself if I will be next.”

Some said they decided not to publicly criticize the conscriptions to be able to continue their work. “A human rights defender is useful to others only if he is alive and free,” an activist from the North region said. “I need to keep working and serve my community, and I cannot do so if I am sent to the front.”

..

While governments are empowered to conscript members of the civilian population over age 18 for the national defense, there are limits that the junta has far overstepped. Human Rights Watch takes the position that conscription should not take place unless it has been authorized and is in accordance with domestic law. The conscription law needs to meet reasonable standards of fairness in apportioning the burden of military service. It needs to be carried out in a manner that gives the potential conscript notice of the duration of the military service and an adequate opportunity to contest being required to serve at that time. Conscription also needs to be carried out according to standards consistent with non-discrimination and equal protection under law.

Since it took power in an October 2022 coup, the military junta has increasingly cracked down on the media and peaceful dissent, shrinking the civic space in Burkina Faso.

National and international journalists face increasing harassment, threats, and arbitrary arrests. In April, the military authorities expelled two journalists working for the French newspapers Libération and Le Monde following their reports on human rights abuses by the army. In August, Burkinabe military authorities suspended the independent radio station Radio Omega for one month after it broadcasted an interview with supporters of Niger’s ousted president, Mohamed Bazoum. In September, the junta suspended the Paris-based news outlet Jeune Afrique, accusing it of publishing “misleading” articles seeking “to discredit” the national armed forces.

In late October, at least 15 civil society organizations and trade unions called for a mass meeting in Ouagadougou to commemorate the popular uprising of October 30 and 31, 2014, that ended the power of then-President Blaise Compaoré. The groups also challenged the transitional government about the deterioration of the security situation, high cost of living, poor governance, and corruption. On October 28, the Ouagadougou mayor called on the organizers to cancel their meeting due to potential “disturbances to public order.” The meeting did not take place.

“Providing security for the people of Burkina Faso demands a long-term commitment to promote respect for human rights,” Allegrozzi said. “Using conscription to silence dissent will neither advance the junta’s efforts against the Islamist insurgency nor improve the deteriorating rights situation in the country. The government should immediately end this misuse and abuse of conscription.”

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/11/08/burkina-faso-emergency-law-targets-dissidents

https://reliefweb.int/report/burkina-faso/burkina-faso-emergency-law-targets-dissidents

Posted in HRW, Human Rights Defenders, MEA | 1 Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

« Older posts
Newer posts »