While major NGOs are involved in a campaign to save the life of human rights defenderAhmed Mansoor, Sharjah– the third largest and third most populous city in the United Arab Emirates – launches an international award for refugee work.
Mansoor is being kept in an isolation ward in Al-Sadr prison in Abu Dhabi, where he is being held in “terrible conditions” in a cell with no bed, no water and no access to a shower. His health has deteriorated significantly, and he is in bad shape, moving slowly when he is allowed out of his cell. He is not allowed to have regular family visits, another reason he started his hunger strike in mid-March. The NGOs – Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), ARTICLE 19, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), CIVICUS, English PEN, FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) under the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, Front Line Defenders (FLD), the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), IFEX, International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), Martin Ennals Foundation, PEN International and Reporters Without Borders (RSF)- call on the UAE to immediately and unconditionally release Ahmed Mansoor, and other unlawfully detained human rights defenders.
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We need to step up support for refugees, said Filippo Grandi.
On 30 April 2019 the fawning press agency Gulf News reported that “the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has said that the Sharjah International Award for Refugee Advocacy and Support should be commended for making the refugee issue more relatable by bringing the human face of the crisis to the fore. Grandi said the award launched by Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher Bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, Wife of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah, Eminent Advocate for Refugee Children at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Chairperson of the Big Heart Foundation, had been instrumental in highlighting both individual and organisational efforts and their substantial achievements. Such recognitions can help inspire others to act on supporting the refugee cause within their own capacity“.
...The SIARA award was established to recognise the contributions of an inspirational individual or group making a real difference in alleviating the plight of refugees, IDPs and other vulnerable groups of people. UNHCR’s Nansen Refugee Award has been doing so since 1954.
At a time when some are demonstrating intolerance and calling for more restrictive policies, do you think these awards have a role to play in inspiring collective solidarity and action towards this important cause? Absolutely. Humanitarian awards are significant occasions to highlight both individual and organisational efforts and their substantial achievements. People who have made exceptional contributions that make a difference in the lives of the disadvantaged should be recognised and acknowledged as role models. This recognition can help inspire others to act on supporting the refugee cause within their own capacity.
On 21 September 2018 the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (FIDH/ OMCT) petitioned the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) to seek the release of Iranian human rights lawyer Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh. Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent defender and 2012 laureate of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize, was arrested on June 13, 2018 at her home in Tehran. [see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2018/08/30/human-rights-defender-nasrin-sotoudeh-on-hunger-strike-in-iran/ ].. On September 16, 2018, Ms. Sotoudeh was informed that she would be denied her family visitation rights if she and her female visitors – including her daughter – did not wear a full hijab. Ms Sotoudeh has refused the condition and was denied the right to see her daughter on September 17, 2018.The Observatory urges the Iranian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Ms. Sotoudeh and to cease all acts of harassment and other abuses against her and all human rights defenders in Iran, in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and with international human rights standards and international instruments to which Iran is a State party.
The semi-official ISNA news agency reported on Thursday 27 September that another human rights defender, Narges Mohammadi, has been granted a three-day leave from prison to visit her ailing father.
However, the recent terror attack in Iran may be expected to prompt the Guards to compensate by cracking down on domestic detractors and perceived opponents of their mission of defending and principles of the Islamic revolution. Certainly, some prominent figures within the Iranian activist and expatriate communities have been quick to raise alarms about the likelihood of this outcome. For instance, the Center for Human Rights in Iran quoted the Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi as saying of last Saturday’s attack, “Such actions lead to the justification of state violence and the arrest of many opponents in the name of fighting terrorism.” Meanwhile activists echoed the sentiment, saying, “Terrorism and violence in any form should be condemned in the strongest terms [but] such acts of violence should not become an excuse for state violence to suppress peaceful opposition.”
One of the most admirable human rights defenders in the world, IranianNasrin Sotoudeh, has gone on hunger strike, Front Line Defenders reports on 25 August 2018. This time in protest against her judicial harassment and the continuing pressure which is being exerted on her family, relatives and friends. The defender was arrested in June and has been in the women’s ward of Evin Prison since.
On 25 August 2018, human rights defender Nasrin Sotoudeh began a hunger strike in protest against her judicial harassment and the continuing pressure which is being exerted on her family, relatives and friends. The next day, the Assistant Prosecutor and two other judicial authorities filed three new charges against her for “urging a referendum,” “assisting in the formation of house churches” and “organising protest rallies”. The human rights defender believes that these charges have been filed as a result of her failure to attend a court hearing on 15 August 2018, when she was sentenced to five years in prison in absentia for “propaganda against the state”, “assembly against national security” and “espionage”. The defender has lodged an appeal against these convictions. On 18 August 2018, at approximately 8 a.m., three agents of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry, holding a warrant from Branch 7 of the Revolutionary Court in Evin Prison, raided Nasrin Sotoudeh’s house while her children were asleep. The agents also raided the house of her sister-in-law. It is believed that the agents were searching for objects related to the defender’s human rights work, such as badges reading “I oppose the compulsory Hijab”.
The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) has finally received information about Mansoor, including the surprising news that his trial had already started in March 2018. There had been no news about him since September 2017. The second hearing took place on 11 April 2018, and as Mansoor still has no lawyer to defend him, no details about the exact charges are available.
In the weeks leading up to his arrest, Mansoor had used Twitter to call for the release of human rights activist Osama Al-Najjar, who remains in prison despite having completed a three-year prison sentence in March 2017 for his peaceful activities on Twitter; as well as prominent academic and economist Dr.Nasser bin Ghaith. The latter, who was jailed in a previous case with Mansoor in 2011, was also held incommunicado for nine months after his subsequent arrest in August 2015. He continued to be held in solitary confinement after court proceedings began, remaining in solitary for 19 months. On 29 March 2017, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for critical comments he had made online about human rights violations in the UAE and Egypt. On 2 April 2017, Dr. Bin Ghaith began a hunger strike to protest his sentence, which violated his rights to freedom of expression and fair trial. On 25 February 2018, Dr. Bin Ghaith began another hunger strike to protest poor conditions in Abu Dhabi’s notorious Al-Razeen prison, a maximum security prison in the desert used to hold activists, government critics, and human rights defenders. On 2 April 2018, GCHR learned that Dr. Bin Ghaith had been forced to end his recent hunger strike earlier due to threats made by the authorities to restrict visits after news of his protest became known….
In this week’s Episode [already no 47!], AHRC TV covers the tragic news of the death of Nanda Prasad Adhikari, following a 333-day hunger strike in Nepal.
There is also attention for the dramatic and spontaneous civil disobedience movement in Hong Kong. AHRC TV captures the mood on the occupied streets and catches up with the protestors, many of whom are students hoping to shape a better future for themselves.
The family of MEA 2013 Final Nominee, Mona Seif, continues to be under the greatest strain in Egypt. Front Line Defenders reports that on 18 August 2014, her brother, human rights defender Mr Alaa Abd El Fattah, began a hunger strike to protest his detention [http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/AlaaAbdElFattah] and said that he will remain on hunger strike until he is released. Her sister human rights defender Ms Sanaa Seif also continues to be imprisoned. [https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/26336]. Her father, human rights defender Ahmed Seif El-Islam is in the Intensive Care Unit of Qasr el-Eini hospital. Her family had tried several times to visit the father, but in vain.
On 23 August 2013, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of FIDH and OMCT, expresses its deep concern about the Iranian blogger and human rights activist Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki, whose health status has been deteriorating. On August 9, 2013, Mr. Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki started a hunger strike to protest the authorities’ ongoing refusal to allow him to continue his medical treatment out of Evin prison in Tehran. His mother, Ms. Zolaykha Mousavi, also started a hunger strike on August 20, 2013 to draw attention to his plight. Ronaghi-Maleki has been suffering from kidney and heart problems and bladder inflammation. Since the beginning of his hunger strike, he has suffered kidney bleeding, blood pressure oscillations and arrhythmic heart beats. He has already undergone several operations on his kidneys that were damaged after being repeatedly tortured during his detention, including 13 months in solitary confinement. He has been serving a 15-year prison sentence after being arrested on December 13, 2009 and convicted on charges of “membership of Iran-Proxy Internet Group”, “spreading propaganda against the system”, “insulting the Iranian Supreme Leader and the President”.
