Interesting example of how NGO pressure can have effect on the EU: last December, FIDH organised a round of advocacy with its Vice-President and Laureate of the MEA 2006, Arnold Tsunga, to convey to the European Union its concerns around the ongoing risks for human rights defenders in the context of political deadlock and pre-electoral period [“Zimbabwe: Ongoing risks for human rights defenders in the context of political deadlock and pre-electoral period”, report of the Observatory for the protection of human rights defenders published in November 2012.] FIDH’s objective was to gear up the EU’s attention to ensure early warning and appropriate reaction in case of human rights violations taking place in the electoral cycle staring with the upcoming referendum on the new Constitution before the holding of Presidential elections in the summer of this year. FIDH’s advocacy was reflected in the European Parliament’s prompt reaction to the arrest of Okay Machisa, National Executive Director of ZimRights, and two other ZimRights members Leo Chamahwinya, Dorcas Shereni through an urgent resolution adopted on 7 February, which also relays the Observatory report recommendations. In addition, the EU Delegation and Heads of Missions in Harare issued a Statement on 22 February to indicate the EU’s particular concern around the pattern of incidents of harassment against civil society organisations and to call on the authorities to demonstrate impartiality in their relation to civil society.
Voluntary work in one of the world’s leading human rights organisations can provide valuable experience and is a great opportunity to contribute to the international human rights movement. The voluntary work is unpaid, although travel and lunch expenses are provided. Amnesty International can also act as a sponsor to enable you to arrange your own right to be in the UK as a volunteer. Please note that volunteering does not lead directly to employment with Amnesty International.
The volunteers will work in the ‘Individuals at Risk’ team to ensure the development and coordination of a strategic, sustainable body of casework for effective action. The volunteers will work directly with the Individuals at Risk Research and Policy Advisor, under whose supervision the volunteers will contribute to work on human rights defenders protection, with a specific focus on women human rights defenders, as well as work related to relationship management and ethics policy of human rights engagement. The deadline is 17 April.
Nataša Kandić, founder of Humanitarian Law Center in Serbia and 1999 MEA Laureate, has been awarded the 2013 “Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award” for her “persistent and fearless work on documenting war crimes and the most serious human rights abuses in the former Yugoslavia, and for supporting war crimes trials by providing courts with evidence and witnesses.” Nataša’s human rights work has put her life at risk but her concern has always been with the war crime victims and not her own persona. “Those who choose to work with human rights connected to war cannot be afraid. I have never thought about risks. I am always only thinking about uncovering the truth about the crimes that have been committed and seeking the conviction of those responsible. There is no room for fear”, she stated. Read the rest of this entry »
On 5 April 2013 Civil Rights Defenders announced a potentially life-saving gizmo which is a personal alarm to alert in the case of kidnapping of Human Rights Defenders. The slick promotional video clip above makes cleat what it intends to do. Civil Rights Defenders has dubbed it the Natalia Project (named after Natalia Estemirova, a leading, human rights defender in the North Caucasus, who was brutally kidnapped and murdered). The bracelet uses GPS and social media to inform of a kidnapping within seconds.
The bracelet uses a mobile signal to notify of an attack and issues a real-time GPS location of the victim directly Read the rest of this entry »
Under the heading “Navi Pillay: My fight for Human Rights” Matthew Bannister meets the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay. A bus driver’s daughter from a poor Indian section of Durban in South Africa, Navi grew up and began her human rights work during the apartheid era and became the first non-white woman to establish her own law practice and to be appointed as a High Court Judge in South Africa. She has become on e of the most remarkable personalities in the worldwide human rights movement.
REPUBLICAKATHMANDU reported on 2 April that a high-level delegation of the German parliament [Bundestag] is arriving in Kathmandu on 8 April to get first hand information about latest human rights situation in Nepal. A four-member delegation of German parliamentarians led by Michael Brand, deputy chairman of the Committee for Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid, will arrive in Kathmandu for a four-day visit to Nepal. “The objective of the visit is to exchange views on the current human rights situation in Nepal with human rights defenders and members of the Nepali civil society. The delegation wants to receive first hand information about the recent developments in Nepal,” said Tika Prasad Dhakal, political advisor at the German Embassy in Kathmandu. During the visit, the delegation is scheduled to meet representatives of government, Supreme Court, trade unions, media, human rights community and political parties as well as the German development coöperation partners. The high level visit of German parliamentarians comes amid protest from various quarters over some of the controversial provisions in the proposed Truth and Reconciliation Commission TRC. The diplomatic community, including European Union EU, have already expressed strong reservation over the proposed TRC, which they say aims to grant general amnesty even to those involved in serious cases of human rights violations.
Most of you (but fortunately not all) seem to have understood that my previous post “Gadaffi Human Rights Award resurrected: Mugabe rumored to be Laureate” was not without good reason announced for April 1st.
There is however also more serious news on the awards front: On 13-14 April 2013 the Dalai Lama will hand out the Light of Truth Awards at a ceremony in Fribourg, Switzerland. The award is organised by the International Campaign for individuals and institutions who have made significant contributions to the public understanding of Tibet and the struggle for human rights and democratic freedoms for the Tibetan people. Among The Light of Truth honorees 2013 are:
The International Commission of Jurists, a member on the MEA Jury, and
Theo van Boven, Dutch professor emeritus in international law, former Director of Human Rights in the UN and a Patron of the MEA.
Bernard Kouchner, co-founder of the international humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)will introduce the Dalai Lama.
The main aim of this blog is to follow events regarding Human Rights Defenders worldwide, but this time I have something of a ‘scoop’: in the process of doing research for an academic article on human rights awards I came across the Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, which was thought to be defunct since 2011 with the death of the Libyan leader.
Talking to the North-South foundation in Switzerland, which has administered the 250.000$ award from 1988 to 2010, it turns out that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of former leader Muammar Gaddafi, from his jail in western Libya, has decided to resurrect as from 1 April 2013 the Prize in honor of his late father under the name: Gaddafi Award for African Governance.
Disappointed with the support received from the Arab world during the uprising in Libya last year, the resurrected award wants to focus on Africa. The rumor is that the first winner – supposed to be announced only tomorrow! – is rather surprisingly President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. When asked whether this would not lead the award to be seen as encouraging ‘bad governance’, the spokesman for the Foundation, T. (Thomas) Yran, refused to comment on Mugabe being the first winner, but said that the new award wanted to clearly distinguish itself from the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership (http://www.moibrahimfoundation.org) which rewards mostly “lackeys of the capitalist system” and anyway has not been given out for 3 years.
Further to my post of 27 March, it now turns out that on 21 March Sultan Qaboos of Oman pardoned 50 people, including several human rights defenders, who had been targeted in a recent crackdown. The 50 had been arrested on charges including insulting the ruler, various cyber-crimes, and taking part in unauthorised protests.
Last Saturday I referred to the new Resolution on Human Rights Defenders in the UN Human Rights Council. Now there is an interesting interview with Counsellor, Geir Sjøberg of the Norwegian Mission to the UN, done by the International Service for Human Rights and reported by Reliefweb. The interview contains such so much meat that I have reproduced it here in full:
The Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution which some have called a landmark in furthering the protection of human rights defenders. Are you satisfied with the results?
Let me first of all thank the ISHR and other human rights organizations for the invaluable advise and support throughout the process we have had here in Geneva. In 2011, the General Assembly expressed grave concerns about the serious nature of risks faced by human rights defenders due to threats, attacks and acts of intimidation against them. Regrettably, the situation has hardly improved since then. On the contrary, current trends are largely negative, as reported by the Special Rapporteur and others. Against this background, the Council had to respond with a clear message. The resolution ‘Protecting Human Rights Defenders’ should be seen as such, as the collective voice of the international community in 2013. On balance, we see the resolution as an appropriate response by the Human Rights Council at a very difficult time for human rights defenders in all regions of the world. The unanimous adoption of this resolution sends an important signal of support to all the courageous people who are fighting against human rights violations all over the world. We must now work to ensure that this resolution is translated into concrete results on the ground and leads to an improvement in the situation of human rights defenders.Read the rest of this entry »
