Posts Tagged ‘illegal detention’
September 19, 2013
While Iran has started to free some of its political prisoners, China does the opposite by detaining two prominent rights activists who were en route to Geneva ahead of a U.N. review of Beijing’s rights record. Beijing-based activist Cao Shunli was stopped at Beijing’s airport on 14 September and questioned by state security police, the overseas-based China Human Rights Defenders [CHRD] said in an emailed statement. On the same day, Guangdong rights activist Chen Jianfang was also intercepted at Guangzhou’s International Airport.The activists, who have been incommunicado since, had been en-route to Geneva to attend a training course at the invitation of a Geneva-based rights group ahead of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review of China on 22 October. Chen, a farmer-turned-petitioner who has been repeatedly detained in illegal “black jails” and who served a 15-month term in labor camp in March 2010, said she was threatened with violence by airport police, who also tore up her plane ticket. Both women had been active in transparency campaigns around the U.N. review process, sending information requests, suing the foreign ministry, and staging demonstrations outside its gates in a bid to be included in China’s submission to the U.N. “In recent weeks, police in several Chinese cities have interrogated other activists and lawyers about the same training program and warned them about serious consequences,” CHRD said.
(Reported by Wei Ling for RFA’s Cantonese Service, and by Xin Yu for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie).
via RFA’s China Detains Activists Over UN Campaign.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 3 Comments »
Tags: Beijing, Cao Shunli, Chen Jianfang, China, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, freedom of movement, Geneva, Guangzhou, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, retaliation, United Nations Human Rights Council, UPR, women human rights defenders, Xu Zhiyong
September 13, 2013
I remember from my visit to the Philippines in the early 80s that the nuns were extraordinarily active in the area of human rights (that was under Marcos). I was reminded of this when I saw the Bulalat report of 13 September that a long-time lay worker of a Catholic-run organization was arrested by elements of the Philippine Army on 8 September and the fierce reaction by Sister Somogod.
(Joel Yadao (in gray shirt) in June 2012. Photo courtesy of RMP-NMR) Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: agrarian reform, arbitrary arrest, bulalat, catholic church, Economic rights, human rights, Human rights defender, illegal detention, impunity, indigenous groups, judicial harasment, military, Mindanao, Misamis Oriental, New People's Army, Northern Mindanao, nuns, peasant movement, Philippine Army, Philippines, rural areas, Somogod, United Church of Christ, Villanueva Misamis Oriental, Yadao
September 6, 2013
In a piece in the Huffington Post of 9 September Frank Jannuzi, dep director of Amnesty International USA gives a good overview of the the 6 most damaging laws passed in Russia since President Putin was inaugurated last year, effectively criminalizing criticism: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: AI, Amnesty international USA, foreign funding, Frank Jannuzi, Huffington Post, illegal detention, judicial harassment, LGBT rights, NGOs, President, President of Russia, restrictive laws, Russia, Vladimir Putin
September 3, 2013
A recent 100-page report by Human Rights Watch, “Tightening the Screws: Azerbaijan’s Crackdown on Civil Society and Dissent,” documents the dramatic deterioration of the government’s record on freedom of expression, assembly, and association in the past 18 months. The authorities have arrested dozens of political activists on bogus charges, imprisoned critical journalists, broken up peaceful public demonstrations, and adopted legislation imposing new restrictions on fundamental freedoms.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: activism, Azerbaijan, Civil society, critical journalists, Election, facebook, freedom of expression, Giorgi Gogia, HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights Watch, illegal detention, imprisonment, judicial harasment, protest, twitter
August 14, 2013
On 13 August 2013 the United Nations added its voice to the many to call for his immediate release of Adilur Rahman Khan, the director of Odhikar, a well-known human rights organization in the country. He was arrested at his home in the capital, Dhaka, on 10 August by plainclothes officers reportedly acting without a warrant, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights [OHCHR]. “We are calling on the Government of Bangladesh to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Khan, whose arrest might be linked to his work as human rights defender,” OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssell told reporters in Geneva. She said Mr. Khan is reported to have been arrested under section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and
section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology Act, accused of publishing false information about violence by Government forces during demonstrations in May by the Islamist movement, Hefazat-e-Islami. Odhikar reported that 61 people had died during these protests, challenging the Government’s version of events, noted Ms. Throssell.She said that the day after his arrest, Mr. Khan was denied bail and ordered to be held on remand for five days. “He was allegedly denied access to a lawyer before his court hearing,” she added.
via United Nations News Centre – Bangladesh: UN urges immediate release of detained human rights defender.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Adilur Rahman Khan, arbitrary arrest, Bangladesh, Dhaka, freedom of information, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, human rights organization, illegal detention, Khan, Liz Throssell, Politics of Bangladesh, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations, united nations news centre
August 11, 2013
Reuters reports that China has arrested an activist on a charge of subversion and the latest sign that the authorities are hardening their stance toward dissent. Yang Lin, 45, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in films, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: anti corruption, Bangkok Post, Beijing, Charter 08, China, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, dissidents, illegal detention, Liu Xiaobo, Tiananmen Square, University of Hong Kong's China Media Project, video, Xi Jinping, Xu Zhiyong, Yang Lin
August 9, 2013
Mohammed El-Bejadi
On 6 August 2013, human rights defender Mr Mohammed Saleh El-Bejadi was released from detention in which he had been kept since his arrest during a peaceful protest in the area of Buraidah, on 21 March 2011. Mohammed El-Bejadi is Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights | 3 Comments »
Tags: ACPRA, Arab spring, Front Line (NGO), human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, kingdom of saudi arabia, Middle East, Mohammad Al-Qahtani, Mohammed Saleh El-Bejadi, Politics of Saudi Arabia, release, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association, Specialized Criminal Court
August 8, 2013
Social activist Dyiana Yakauleva was detained by the riot police at the police station in Krylenka Street. Human rights defenders Barys Bukhel and Aliaksei Kolchyn are trying to clear up the circumstances of the detention. From 11.30 -12.30 a.m. a solidarity action, timed to coincide with the International Day of Solidarity with the Civil Society of Belarus, was held in the city of Mahiliou, Belarus. During the action, social activists handed out postcards with a portrait of the imprisoned head of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” Ales Bialiatski. The protest went peacefully but after it ended Dyiana Yakauleva was detained anyway.
via Detentions after solidarity action in Mahiliou – Charter97 :: News from Belarus – Belarusian News – Republic of Belarus – Minsk.
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Tags: Ales Bialiatski, Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus, Dyiana Yakauleva, Human right, human rights, illegal detention, Minsk, solidarity action, Viasna Human Rights Centre, woman human rights defender
August 5, 2013
Since 13 July 2013, five ethnic Azerbaijani human rights defenders detained in Tabriz prison have taken part in an ongoing hunger strike in protest at their conviction following an unfair trial. Mahmud Fezli, Latif Haseni, Ayat Mehrali Baglou, Behboud Gholizadeh and Shahram Radmehr are members of the organisation Yeni Gamoh, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Azerbaijani, Azerbaijani language, Front Line (NGO), human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, Iran, judicial harassment, minority rights, right to education, Tabriz, Tehran, Unesco
August 5, 2013
Today Amnesty International urges the Cuban authorities to immediately and unconditionally release five men who have been named prisoners of conscience.
The cases of the five men Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in AI, Amnesty international, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: AI, Amnesty International, Cuba, Emilio Planas Robert, Freedom of speech, human rights, illegal detention, journalists, National Reconciliation, prisoner of conscience, Rafael Matos Montes
Mohammed El-Bejadi
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 