Posts Tagged ‘human rights’
October 14, 2013
While 130 NGOs in Africa and elsewhere call in a joint letter to the African Union not to abandon the International Criminal Court, Bishop Desmond Tutu publishes in the New York Times of 10 October an excellent piece explaining why it is a terrible mistake. Here is it is in full:
CAPE TOWN — MEMBERS of the African Union will meet in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, today to discuss recent calls by some African leaders to withdraw from the International Criminal Court. These calls must be resisted. The continent has suffered the consequences of unaccountable governance for too long to disown the protections offered by the I.C.C. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Africa, African countries, African Union, AU, campaign, Desmond Tutu, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights Watch, ICC, impunity, International Criminal Court, international justice, Protection International
October 12, 2013
On Thursday 3 October the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights [RFK Center] launched its third annual “Speak Truth to Power Student Video Contest“. This year, the contest is for the first time open to student filmmakers from all of the USA in partnership with the American Federation of Teachers, the New York State United Teachers and the Tribeca Film Institute. The video competition, originally launched in New York State in 2011, invites students to create a 3-6 minute video examining a human rights issue or violation and profiling the defenders who are fighting to restore justice.
Last year’s prize went to students of the Young Women’s Leadership School of Brooklyn, who made a film about the work of sexual slavery and trafficking activist Juliana Dogbadzi of Ghana.
Additional details can be found at http://www.speaktruthvideo.com
via Teachers, RFK Center Expand Annual Human Rights Video Contest to Students and Schools across America – The Paramus Post – Greater Paramus News and Lifestyle Webzine.
Posted in human rights | 1 Comment »
Tags: American Federation of Teachers, documentary, films, Ghana, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, human rights education, human rights films, Juliana Dogbadzi, New York State United Teachers, Paramus New Jersey, RFK, Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, Speak Truth to Power, student filmmakers, Tribeca Film Institute, United States, video clips, woman human rights defender
October 8, 2013
The Joint Mobile Group was selected by the International Human Rights Community (See Jury Below) as the Laureate 2013 of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, MEA | 1 Comment »
Tags: award, Chechnya, Civil society, Egypt, Geneva, Haiti, Human right, human rights, human rights awards, Human Rights Defenders, international community, Joint Mobile Group, Jury MEA, Mario Joseph, Martin Ennals, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, MEA 2013, Micheline Calmy Rey, Mona Seif, NGOs
October 7, 2013
This blog tends to prioritize news on human rights defenders who are in trouble. This makes one overlook perhaps too often the contribution made by those who are working for the cause in other ways. To rectify I want to pay tribute to another woman who has contributed enormously to the creation and growth of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders: Simia Ahmadi. After 20 years she is leaving the Board of the Foundation on 7 October, just before the 20th ceremony tomorrow.
In 1992 Simia was a young, upcoming human rights worker who had just finished an internship with the UN. To her great regret she never met Martin Ennals in person. Her main motivation was that an award could be effective and volunteered to help it being set up. After successful initial fundraising she was the part-time Secretariat in the first year.
(Simia, left of first Laureate Harry Wu in 1994, Geneva)
After that, she worked several years for the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). Thereafter she was Programme Coordinator of the Legal and Human Rights Centre in Tanzania and from 2006-2009 she served as FIDH’s Representative to the UN in Geneva. After her move to Kenya in 2010, she served as the Chief of Party of the Public International Law and Policy Group in Kenya. Now she devoting her considerable energy to Kahesa, of which she is the Director-Founder and undertakes consultancy work such as evaluations KAHESA is a social enterprise that produces decorative and environmentally-sound paper through the employment of mentally-challenged Kenyans. Check out her www.kahesa.com and Facebook page: Kahesa paper
For being at the cradle of the MEA and making sure that the there is no grave for long time she deserve the deepest thanks from all especially Human Rights Defenders around the world.
Posted in FIDH, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, MEA | Leave a Comment »
Tags: FIDH, Geneva, Harry Wu, human rights, International Federation for Human Rights, Kahesa, Kenya, Legal and Human Rights Centre, Martin Ennals, Martin Ennals Award, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, Martin Ennals Foundation, MEA, Tanzania, United Nations, woman human rights defender
October 7, 2013
This blog tends to prioritize news on human rights defenders who are in trouble. This makes one overlook perhaps too often the contribution made by those who are working for the cause in other ways. To rectify I want to pay tribute to a woman who made an enormous contribution to the creation and development of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders: Leah Levin. After 20 years she is leaving the Board of the Foundation today, 7 October, just before the ceremony on October.
Leah was there from the start; from the now ancient looking logo of the first years
to the current one:
When the MEA came into being in 1992, a year after Martin died, Leah was already an ‘old hand’ and a well-known name in the international human rights movement. She was one of Martin’s closest friends and felt very strongly motivated by the idea of making sure his legacy was honored and made useful.
(one of the last pictures where Leah and Martin are seen together – 1979 Bellagio)
But Leah is more than the MEA. She has a OBE and is Hon. Doctor of the University of Essex. She served on the Boards of United Nations Association, Anti-Slavery and International Alert. Was Director of JUSTICE from 1982-1992 and is currently on Boards of Redress, Readers International and The International Journal of Human Rights. She is the author of UNESCO’s ‘Human Rights : Questions and Answers’, one the world’s widely disseminated books on human rights.
Twenty years of active Board membership in any enterprise is impressive; doing it on a voluntary basis without always getting the recognition deserved is outright admirable. We all owe her a lot.
Posted in Human Rights Defenders, MEA | 1 Comment »
Tags: Board of the Martin Ennals Foundation, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, International Alert, International Journal of Human Rights, Justice (NGO), Leah Levin, Martin Ennals, Martin Ennals Award, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, MEA, REDRESS, Unesco
October 5, 2013
The 20th Ceremony of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders will take place on Tuesday 8 October and can be followed live on www.martinennalsaward.org as from 18h00 Central European (Geneva) time. The moment of the announcement of the laureate will be approximately 18:30.
As a reminder, the 3 Final Nominees are: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, MEA | 1 Comment »
Tags: broadcast, Chechnya, City of Geneva, Egypt, Final Nominees for the Martin Ennals Award 2013, Geneva, Haiti, human rights, human rights abuses, human rights activists, human rights awards, international community, internet, Jean-Claude Duvalier, Joint Mobile Group, Mario Joseph, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, MEA, MEA ceremony, media, Micheline Calmy Rey, Mona Seif, Russia, streaming
October 5, 2013
Malala Yousafzai has been declared the winner of an award for female defenders of human rights in war and conflict. The 16-year-old from Pakistan was due to accept the 2013 RAW in WAR Reach All Women in WAR Anna Politkovskaya Award at a London-based ceremony on 4 October. The award is named after Politkovskaya, a Russian human rights journalist and outspoken government critic, who was murdered in October 2006 – and whose assassin has still not been brought to justice. Named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people in April 2013, Malala began blogging for the BBC in 2009 about her life in Pakistan’s Swat Valley region and her desire to attend school freely and safely, reported the BBC. Her increasingly public profile led to her being shot in the head by a Taliban gunman on her way home from school in October last year. She was then flown to the U.K. for treatment and currently lives in Birmingham, where she continues to campaign for education for girls and boys.
via Malala Yousafzai Receives Women’s Human Rights Award | TIME.com.
Posted in human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Anna Politkovskaya, award, BBC, blogger, defenders of human rights, freedom of expression, human rights, human rights awards, Human rights defender, London, Malala, Malala Yousafzai, Pakistan, RAW in WAR, WAR Reach All Women in WAR Anna Politkovskaya, woman human rights defender
October 4, 2013
Authorities in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou are continuing to hold human rights lawyer Yang Maodong, better known as Guo Feixiong, without criminal activists said on 3 October. He was criminally detained on 8 August on charges of “incitement to disturb public order,” after being involved in anti-censorship and anti-corruption protests. “The authorities have made one arrest after the other in recent months, and this is still going on,” said Beijing-based fellow activist and poet Wang Zang, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: arbitrary arrest, Beijing, Cao Shunli, China, Chinese Communist Party, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, Front Line (NGO), Guangzhou, Guo Feixiong, human rights, Human Rights Campaign in China, illegal detention, Nuowei Senlin, repression, United Nations Human Rights Council, UPR, Wang Zang
October 4, 2013
Looking back at the 24th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council which came to an end last Friday, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies [CIHRS] is disappointed to see how timid the Council becomes when dealing with human rights in the Arab region. Indeed, the people of Syria, Sudan, Bahrain, Egypt, Palestine, and Yemen need all the support they can get to move their countries towards political stability and the rule of law. The Council should be a driving force in confronting cases of human rights violations and making recommendations to address them.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Arab region, Bahrain, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, CIHRS, Civil society, Council, Egypt, foreign funding, Human right, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, human rights mechanisms, human rights violations, International Criminal Court, Non-governmental organization, reprisals, retaliation, Sudan, Syria, UN Resolution, UN Special Rapporteur, United Nations Human Rights Council, Yemen
October 3, 2013
The Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Bangladesh, a member of the Law Commission, and several rights activists and academics said on Saturday 28 september that the state should not treat human rights defenders as its enemy. They also expressed concern over the use of several laws against human rights defenders Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Advocacy Organizations, Bangladesh, Human right, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Law Commission, Mizanur Rahman, National Human Rights Commission, national human rights institutions, protection, repression, Shah Alam, United Nations
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 