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Soltan Achilova again banned from traveling to receive her award

November 21, 2024

The undersigned human rights organisations, which together represent the Jury for the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, condemn the continued harassment against 2021 Martin Ennals Award Finalist and woman human rights defender from Turkmenistan, Soltan Achilova. This morning, Soltan Achilova and her daughter were once again prevented from travelling to Geneva. As in 2023, Soltan Achilova was set to be recognized for her valuable contributions to the documentation of human rights violations in Turkmenistan by the Martin Ennals Foundation.

Soltan Achilova is a woman human rights defender and journalist, who continues to work in Turkmenistan, 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. She has been reporting about her country for over a decade. Her pictures of daily life are one of the few sources of documentation of human rights violations occurring in Turkmenistan. As a result of this work, she remains under constant surveillance by Turkmen authorities and has suffered numerous incidents of harassment, intimidation, and threats. Despite the challenges, Soltan Achilova persists in her human rights work, regularly sending information and pictures outside the country so that government authorities can be held accountable. [see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/soltan-achilova/]

On the morning of 20 November 2024, Soltan Achilova and her daughter Maya Achilova were scheduled to travel from Ashgabat to Geneva, to participate in the Martin Ennals Award ceremony. At 6:30 a.m. local time, according to the information received by the Martin Ennals Foundation, a group of law enforcement officers pushed Soltan Achilova, her daughter and her daughter’s husband into an ambulance and brought them to the specialised hospital “Infectious Disease Control Centre” in the Choganly neighbourhood of Ashgabat, located near the Ashgabat International Airport. Maya Achilova reported to the Foundation that her husband, her mother and herself are being retained at the medical facility, guarded by the security forces, and that one of the security service agents is in possession of the keys to Soltan Achilova’s apartment. Thereby, Turkmen authorities have once again prevented Soltan Achilova from travelling to Geneva, Switzerland, where she would finally be recognized as a Finalist of the 2021 Martin Ennals Award for her documentation of land grabs and forced evictions of ordinary citizens in Ashgabat.

Turkmen authorities have prevented woman human rights defender Soltan Achilova from traveling freely outside of her country on several occasions; the latest occurring as recently as November 2023. In the early hours of 18 November 2023, Soltan Achilova and her daughter were stopped by Turkmen government officials from boarding their flight to Switzerland. A customs official took their passports, wet them with a damp rag and declared the passports to be ruined, preventing Soltan and Maya Achilova from boarding the plane. Despite receiving assurances at high-level from Turkmen authorities that Soltan Achilova would not be prevented from traveling once again, the authorities continue to harass the woman human rights defender with travel restrictions and arbitrary detention.

The human rights organisations that make up the Jury of the Martin Ennals Award, as well as the Martin Ennals Foundation, once again condemn Turkmen authorities for their continued harassment of woman human rights defender and photojournalist Soltan Achilova and her family members and call for their immediate release. The organisations jointly call upon the Turkmen authorities to provide all the necessary assistance to enable her travel outside of Turkmenistan. Finally, the organisations renew their calls for Turkmenistan to fully implement their human rights obligations, including, inter alia, allowing human rights defenders and journalists to conduct their work without fear of reprisals.

Following the writing of this statement, an article containing further details was published by the Chronicles of Turkmenistan, an online publication of the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, which, according to its author, has also been in contact with Soltan Achilova’s family.

Signatories:

Amnesty International

Human Rights Watch

World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)

International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)

HURIDOCS

Human Rights First

Front Line Defenders

Brot für die Welt

International Commission of Jurists

The Martin Ennals Foundation

https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/statement-report/turkmen-authorities-yet-again-prevent-woman-human-rights-defender-and-2021-martin

https://www.reuters.com/world/journalist-seized-turkmenistan-ahead-swiss-award-ceremony-say-rights-groups-2024-11-21/

Turkmen Human Rights Activist Soltan Achilova Released After Forced Hospitalization

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Story of human rights defender Marcela de Jesus Natalia

November 19, 2024

In June 2017, Indigenous Ñomndaa’ journalist Marcela de Jesus Natalia found herself fighting for her life. A gunman waited for her outside the radio station where she worked and shot her three times.

“I didn’t think he wanted to kill me,” she said. “I turned around. The first bullet went to my forehead. I put my hand up, [and] the bullet went in and came out. The second one shattered my jaw. Then this guy held me, dragged me, gave me a final shot in my head and laid me on the pavement.”

Though at first presumed dead, Marcela de Jesús survived the attack and, with the support of lawyers and advocates, as well as of UN Human Rights, continues to fight for justice for the crime perpetrated against her. Marcela de Jesús was attacked because she angered powerful people by informing Indigenous Peoples about their rights, such as the importance of education, justice, and in particular, violence against women, thus empowering them to fight against historical discrimination against them.

“Journalists who expose wrongdoing and show us the horrific reality of conflict are human rights defenders,” said Volker Türk, UN Human Rights Chief, in a statement commemorating the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, observed every year on November 2. “Attacks against them affect everyone’s right to freedom of expression and access to information, leaving us all less well informed.”

In 2023, 71 journalists and media workers were killed and over 300 imprisoned around the globe, Türk said.

Marcela de Jesús is an Indigenous Ñomndaa’ woman born in Xochistlahuaca, in the state of Guerrero, on Mexico’s Pacific coast. From a young age, Marcela de Jesús witnessed violence and attacks by men in positions of power and even the military. It was there that her desire to defend her people was born and she realised that to confront abusers she needed to learn Spanish.

Marcela de Jesús migrated to the state of Oaxaca, and by her own efforts, she managed to continue studying and encountered a radio station that was looking for an Indigenous person from Guerrero who spoke Ñomndaa’ and Spanish and had completed middle school.

“I went behind my husband’s back, took the exam and passed,” she said. “I remember that the director [of the radio station] said to me, ‘Why do you want to be an announcer?’ ‘I always wanted to be the voice of my people,’ I answered.” Later, she returned to the state of Guerrero and got a precarious job as a radio announcer, but with patience and hard work she managed to become the radio manager.

It was after her return to her home state that she began to encounter opposition to her “voice.” Marcela de Jesús was told by powerful people in her town that she was not supposed to inform Indigenous Peoples; that the only thing they were interested in was whether a goat or a cow was lost, and not to get into trouble. She fought against and won lawsuits filed against her for giving Indigenous Peoples news.

It is my conviction that my people should be guaranteed the right that is enshrined in the Constitution and in international treaties, that we have the right to information.

“They couldn’t [silence me] because what is legal is legal. What is morally good is morally good. And that is the reason for the attack against me,” said Marcela de Jesús.

According to UN Human Rights in Mexico, at least five journalists and one media worker have been killed and one more media worker was disappeared this year because of their work. This continuous danger in which journalists have had to operate for years, led universal and regional human rights mechanisms to recommend to the Mexican State the creation of a Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists.

…The gunman who shot Marcela de Jesus has been arrested and sentenced for his crime, but the ones who called for her shooting are still out there. She is hopeful for them to be brought to justice.

“I have a lot of faith that the alleged intellectual author will forget about me. I have faith that nothing is forever,” said Marcela de Jesús. She added: “Nothing and no one, not jail, not this attack with three bullets, takes away my desire to continue being the voice of my people, to continue with my activism, my defence of human rights. I am fulfilling my dream of being the voice of my people at the national and international level.”

https://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2024/11/i-always-wanted-be-voice-my-people

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Anna Politkovskaya-Arman Soldin Prize for Courage in Journalism 2023 and 2024

November 12, 2024

Established jointly by the Ministry and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov in 2023 this prize honors the work of reporters and photojournalists who are continuing their vital mission of spreading free, reliable, quality information in crisis and conflict areas. Journalist Anna Politkovskaya was working in Russia for Novaya Gazeta, whose investigations into corruption, attacks on human rights and the war in Chechnya cost the lives of six of its reporters. Despite the threats she received, she never stopped working to inform the public. Despite the risk to his life, AFP reporter and photojournalist Arman Soldin helped inform the entire world about the reality of the Russian aggression in Ukraine through the photos he took on the front lines of the conflict, starting in February 2022.

PLEASE NOTE: the new award [https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/63b130ab-84e4-41c0-aa9c-3bed6254deb3 ] shares in part the name with the older: [https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/1599D542-7B24-47EF-8D55-CE248EE07356]

The second Anna Politkovskaya-Arman Soldin Prize in 2024 has been awarded to Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham and Palestinian journalist Basel Adra for their whole body of work on the Israeli occupation and settlement-building in the West Bank and in Palestinian territories.

Yuval Abraham and Basel Adra belong to an Israeli-Palestinian collective that made the documentary, No Other Land, which won an award at the 2024 Berlinale. In it, the Palestinian journalist Basel Adra filmed evictions of Palestinians in the West Bank over five years and meets the Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham. The film tells the story of their friendship that was built over the years of their collaboration.

The first 2023 Anna Politkovskaya-Arman Soldin Prize for Courage in Journalism, was awarded to the Mexican journalist Marcela Turati for her commitment to reporting on violence related to drug trafficking and the social consequences of the war waged against cartels, despite the risks that have often cost Mexican journalists their lives.

https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/french-foreign-policy/human-rights/freedom-of-expression/article/anna-politkovskaya-arman-soldin-prize-for-courage-in-journalism

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UN experts call for justice for Tunisian human rights defender Sihem Bensedrine

August 12, 2024

UN experts called on the Tunisian authorities to respect the right to judicial guarantees and judicial protection of Sihem Bensedrine, who was arrested on 1 August 2024.

“In a context marked by the suppression of numerous dissenting voices, the arrest of Ms Bensedrine raises serious concerns about the respect of the right to freedom of opinion and expression in Tunisia and has a chilling effect on journalists, human rights defenders and civil society in general,” the experts said.

https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/5A2E5622-80B0-425E-A2AE-2703983126B4

Bensedrine is the former President of the Truth and Dignity Commission (TVD) which documented the crimes committed under previous regimes, and a journalist who has long denounced human rights violations in the country.

Since 2021, she has been involved in a judicial investigation into the alleged falsification of a chapter in the TVD´s final report regarding corruption in the banking system. The independent human rights experts have already held discussions with the Tunisian government concerning this investigation.

“This arrest could amount to judicial harassment of Ms Bensedrine for work she has undertaken as President of the Truth and Dignity Commission,” the experts said. “It appears to be aimed at discrediting information contained in the Commission’s report, which could give rise to legal proceedings against alleged perpetrators of corruption under the previous regimes.”

The Special Rapporteurs urged Tunisia to uphold its obligation to protect members of commissions of enquiry into gross human rights violations from defamation and civil or criminal proceedings brought against them because of their work, or the content of their reports.

“We call for strict respect for Ms Bensedrine’s right to judicial guarantees, including the right to a fair trial by due process, impartiality and independence, and for an end to abusive proceedings and reprisals against her.”

The experts: Bernard Duhaime, Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence; Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression; Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.

https://www.miragenews.com/un-experts-demand-justice-for-tunisian-rights-1292532/

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/08/un-experts-call-justice-tunisian-human-rights-defender

https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/08/12/tunisia-hollows-out-its-media-landscape-ahead-elections

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Human rights defender’s profile: Óscar Calles from Venezuela

July 24, 2024

Óscar Calles is a journalist and human rights defender from Venezuela. Since 2019, he has been working for PROVEA, one of the country’s most prominent rights groups.

In an interview with ISHR, he recalled his experience of witnessing and broadcasting mass protests in his country in 2017, and how harshly these were repressed. This, he said, led him to take direct action in the defence of human rights and civil liberties.

Human rights organisations, activists and defenders only exist to ensure that all persons can live with dignity,’ says Oscar Calles. ‘Do not turn your backs on the hundreds of victims who are still awaiting justice to this day,’ he further urges States at the UN Human Rights Council, calling on to renew a key accountability mechanism for Venezuela.

In June 2024, Óscar was also one of 16 defenders who participated in ISHR’s Human Rights Defender Advocacy Programme (HRDAP)

https://ishr.ch/defender-stories/human-rights-defenders-story-oscar-calles-from-venezuela

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Kadar Abdi Ibrahim human rights defender from Djibouti.

February 16, 2024

Kadar Abdi Ibrahim is a human rights defender and journalist from Djibouti. He has drawn inspiration from iconic figures in the human rights movement in the hopes of building a genuine and lasting democracy in his country.

Speaking to ISHR, he shared his vision for a future where the youth of Djibouti would no longer see its dreams and aspirations stifled by fear and censorship, as well as his admiration for his fellow human rights defenders whose actions ‘pave the way for future generations’. see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2023/09/11/human-rights-defenders-at-the-54th-session-of-the-un-human-rights-council/

Kadar Abdi Ibrahim has also been the subject of acts of reprisals by his government for his engagement with international bodies. In 2018, days after returning from Geneva where he carried out advocacy work ahead of Djibouti’s Universal Periodic Review, intelligence service agents raided his house and confiscated his passport.

https://ishr.ch/defender-stories/human-rights-defenders-story-kadar-abdi-ibrahim-from-djibouti

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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

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China continues to imprison whoever disagrees

September 24, 2023

The New York Times of 22 September 2023 and other outlets report on the increasing crackdown on dissent: Huang Xueqin, the journalist who gave #MeToo Victims a voice, and Wang Jianbing, a labor activist, have been accused of inciting subversion.

A casually dressed woman in a broad-brimmed black hat stands against a green wall, holding a sign that reads “Me Too.”
The Chinese journalist Huang Xueqin in Singapore in 2017. She has been in detention in China for two years.Credit…#FreeXueBing, via Associated Press

On 22 September saw the start of their trial after two years of arbitrary detention. A large number of civil society organisations, including the FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) expressed their deep concern about their conditions of detention and called for their immediate and unconditional release.

Huang Xueqin, an independent journalist who was once a prominent voice in China’s #MeToo movement, and her friend Wang Jianbing, the activist, were taken away by the police in September 2021 and later charged with inciting subversion of state power. Their trial was held at the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court in southern China.

Little is known about the government’s case, but the vaguely worded offence with which the two were charged has long been seen as a tool for muzzling dissent. Since China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, came to power in 2012, the ruling Communist Party has sought to essentially silence people who have fought for free speech and political rights. A steady stream of activists, lawyers, tycoons and intellectuals have been put on trial and sentenced.

In Ms. Huang and Mr. Wang’s cases, the authorities questioned dozens of their friends in the months after their detentions and pressured them to sign testimonies against the two, according to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, an advocacy group that is in close contact with many activists.

In the meantime the Washington Post of 22 September reports that Rahile Dawut, a prominent Uyghur academic who disappeared six years ago at the height of the Chinese government’s crackdown in Xinjiang, has been given a life sentence in prison, according to a human rights group that has worked for years to locate her..

Dui Hua, a California-based group that advocates for political prisoners in China, said in a statement Thursday that the 57-year-old professor — who was convicted in 2018 on charges of endangering state security by promoting “splittism” — had lost an appeal of her sentence in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region High People’s Court.

At a regular press briefing, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning said she was “unaware” of Dawut’s case. “What I can tell you is that China is a law-based country and handles relevant cases in strict accordance with the law.”

A former professor at Xinjiang University and leading scholar on Uyghur folklore, she is among more than 300 intellectuals, artists and writers believed to be detained in Xinjiang, amid a government campaign ostensibly aimed at better assimilating China’s Muslim minority and promoting ethnic harmony. Rights groups have accused the Chinese government of committing “cultural genocide” by wiping out previously vibrant local Uyghur culture. See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2020/11/11/rahile-dawut-recipient-of-courage-to-think-award-2020/

“The sentencing of Professor Rahile Dawut to life in prison is a cruel tragedy, a great loss for the Uyghur people, and for all who treasure academic freedom,” said John Kamm, executive director of the Dui Hua Foundation.

https://www.fidh.org/en/region/asia/china/china-call-for-the-release-of-human-rights-defenders-huang-xueqin-and

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/21/china/china-metoo-activist-huang-xueqin-trial-intl-hnk/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/22/rahile-dawut-life-sentence-uyghur-china/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/24/chinese-authorities-uyghur-professor-rahile-dawut

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10 Organisations Demand The Dropping Of Charges Against Journalist Nguyen Lan Thang in Viet Nam

April 13, 2023

On 11 April 2023 10 NGOs demanded the dropping of charges against journalist Nguyen Lan Thang and a fair trial by admitting observation.

Dear President Võ Văn Thưởng,

We are writing to express our concern about the ongoing persecution of Mr Nguyen Lan Thang, a journalist, and we demand that he be released immediately, and all charges dropped against him. Mr Nguyen Lan Thang is a victim of persecution by the Vietnamese government and has been criminally charged due to his work as a journalist. Mr Nguyen Lan Thang is one of many journalists and activists throughout the country who is facing ongoing persecution for reporting of the government of Viet Nam in a critical manner.

On 5 July 2022, Mr. Thang was arrested for “making, storing, distributing, or disseminating information, documents, and items against the State” under article 117 of the 2015 Criminal Code. He has been held in incommunicado detention in Hanoi’s Detention Centre No. 1 for more than seven months, during which time he was prohibited from meeting with his family members and legal counsel. After being arrested in July 2022, he did not meet his lawyer for the first time until 16 February 2023.

According to his lawyers, Mr. Thang will be tried on 12 April 2023 at a closed hearing at Hanoi’s People’s Court. Failing the dropping of charges and release of Mr Nguyen Lan Thang before the trial commences, we demand that his right to a fair trial be upheld, at least in part, by ensuring that media and the public may observe it, as is the obligation of the state of Viet Nam under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

The right to a public trial is guaranteed under Article 14 of the ICCPR with few exceptions. We understand that Mr Nguyen Lan Thang has been denied this human right. According to Article 14 of the ICCPR:

“the press and the public may be excluded from all or part of a trial for reasons of morals, public order (order public) or national security in a democratic society, or when the interest of the private lives of the parties so requires, or to the extent strictly necessary in the opinion of the court in special circumstances where publicity would prejudice the interests of justice; but any judgment rendered in a criminal case or in a suit at law shall be made public except where the interest of juvenile persons otherwise requires or the proceedings concern matrimonial disputes or the guardianship of children.”

Paragraph 28 of General Comment No 32 of the Human Rights Committee clarifies that the importance of public hearings “ensures the transparency of proceedings and thus provides an important safeguard for the interest of the individual and of society at large”. The Committee has made clear in paragraph 29 that the special circumstances that allow exclusion of the press and public from a trial are “exceptional circumstances”, and otherwise a trial must be open to ensure transparency and assist in guaranteeing the human right to a fair trial.

Despite efforts to obtain further information on the charges and the rationale the court has adopted in excluding the press and public from the trial of Mr Nguyen Lan Thang, there is no information that we possess that indicates any exceptional circumstances exist that would allow the closed nature of this trial under international human rights law.

Accordingly, we demand that the right to fair trial is respected and that members of the public, the press, the United Nations, and the diplomatic community be allowed to monitor the proceedings. We call on the government of Viet Nam, including its courts, to uphold their international obligations and ensure the human rights of those within the justice system.

Yours sincerely,

  • Access Now
  • Amnesty International
  • ARTICLE 19
  • Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
    CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
  • Front Line Defenders
  • Human Rights Watch
    People In Need
  • The Project 88
  • Vietnamese Advocates for Change

See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2023/03/29/vietnam-should-drop-charges-against-human-rights-defender-truong-van-dung/

https://forum-asia.org/?p=38053

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Mongolian human rights defender Munkhbayar Chuluundorj gets support from over 100 NGOs

January 18, 2023

On 12 January 2023, over 100 Groups urged world leaders to jointly press for all charges against Mongolian writer and activist Munkhbayar Chuluundorj to be dropped and for him to be freed.

We urge the Mongolian government to immediately release Mr. Munkhbayar Chuluundorj who was arbitrarily arrested in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, by the General Intelligence Agency (GIA) of Mongolia on February 17, 2022.

Mr. Munkhbayar Chuluundorj is an award-winning Mongolian journalist, poet, and human rights activist known for defending the linguistic, cultural, and historical identities of Southern Mongolians.

Mr. Munkhbayar Chuluundorj was detained in Ulaanbaatar on politically motivated charges related to his public criticism of the Mongolian government’s close ties with China and the shrinking rights in Southern Mongolia. His arrest and sentencing took place amid China’s increasingly severe policies in Southern Mongolia that aim to remove learning in the Mongolian language for several key subjects. …

Mr. Munkhbayar Chuluundorj was sentenced to 10 years in prison on June 28, 2022, for “collaborating with a foreign intelligence agency” against the People’s Republic of China. On December 21, 2022, the Supreme Court of Mongolia heard his appeal and upheld the lower court’s original decision. There is no evidence linking Mr. Munkhbayar Chuluundorj to the charge and his lawyer, Ms. Baasan Geleg, has dismissed the national security charge against him as entirely baseless.

In September 2022 two handwritten letters from Mr. Munkhbayar Chuluundorj – penned in the detention center in June 2022 – were received by the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center. In the letters, he pleaded his innocence and detailed how he believed the evidence against him had been fabricated in relation to his work to better the conditions of Mongolians.

Land-locked Mongolia is highly dependent on China for imports and there has been an increase in economic influence, including vast loans via Xi Jinping’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’, in recent years that have pushed Mongolia into major indebtedness to China. These debts are further exacerbated by a program of cultural propaganda such as the establishment of Confucius Institutes, television and radio broadcasts, and cultural centers.

Growing concern about the Mongolian state’s harassment, intimidation, and reprisals against human rights defenders is growing. In October 2022, the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights raised the issue of human rights defenders and recommended Mongolia put in place protection safeguards and ‘urgently investigate cases in which human rights defenders are criminalized’. Later in the same month, the Japanese “Parliamentary Support Group for Southern Mongolia” published a statement regarding the sentence of Mr. Munkhbayar Chuluundorj.

Rights groups are calling on like-minded governments – both jointly and bi-laterally – and the UN Human Rights Council to call for the immediate release of Mr. Munkhbayar Chuluundorj.

https://www.nchrd.org/

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