Posts Tagged ‘judicial harassment’
November 6, 2013
The OMCT and the FIDH, in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, made an intervention under agenda item 9: “Situation of human rights defenders” at the at the 54th session of African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights [ACHPR] on 5 November.
Human rights defenders were attacked, received threats or were slandered in the DRC, Senegal and Tunisia. In some cases they were even killed, as in the DRC and in Cameroon, in a climate of impunity. Defenders, and in particular defenders of economic, social and cultural rights, also continued to be subjected to arbitrary arrests and judicial harassment in Angola, Cameroon, the DRC, Egypt, Mauritania and Tunisia. Obstacles to freedom of association were also recorded, as for instance in Angola, Egypt and Rwanda. A summary is as follows: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in FIDH, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, OMCT | 1 Comment »
Tags: African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, Angola, Cameroon, Death threat, DRC, Egypt, environmental issues, FIDH, foreign funding, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, freedom of expression, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, judicial harassment, killing, land disputes, LGBT rights, Mauritania, murder, Non-governmental organization, Observatory for the Protection of HRDs, OMCT, Rwanda, Senegal, Tunisia
October 29, 2013
Human rights defenders working on behalf of communities affected by large-scale development projects are increasingly being branded ‘anti-government’, ‘against development’ or even ‘enemies of the State’, the Special Rapporteur for human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, has warned. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | 3 Comments »
Tags: criminalization, death threats, detention, development, environmental issues, freedom of expression, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, judicial harassment, Land issues, Margaret Sekaggya, retaliation, Sekaggya, Special Rapporteur, UN General Assembly, United Nations, United Nations Special Rapporteur
October 28, 2013
reports that on 22 October 2013, human rights lawyer André Michel in Haiti was arbitrarily held in police custody after police attempted to carry out a search on his vehicle. He was eventually released the next morning but remains at risk of arrest. André Michel is involved, as legal representative of the complainant, in a case of corruption and embezzlement of public funds allegedly implicating members of the President’s family. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Front Line, Human Rights Defenders, MEA | 1 Comment »
Tags: André Michel, arrest, Arrest warrant, Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers of 1990, Haiti, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, human rights lawyer, Independence of Lawyers, judicial harassment, lawyer, lawyers, legal profession, Mario Joseph, MEA, police intimidation, Political corruption, threats
October 14, 2013
That there can be a risk in accepting (monetary) awards is demonstrated again by the case of Massoumeh Dehghan, retired teacher and wife of imprisoned human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani in Iran. She told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that her one-year prison sentence for accepting her husband’s human rights award has been upheld (suspended for five years, and five years’ ban on foreign travel). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Abdolfattah Soltani, awards, backlash, Germany, human rights, human rights award, human rights awards, human rights lawyer, International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Iran, judicial harassment, Massoumeh Dehghan, Nasrin Sotoudeh, Nuremberg, Nuremberg Human Rights Award
October 3, 2013
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), reports on 2 October 2013 on the ongoing judicial proceedings against the Anti-Discrimination Centre “Memorial” (ADC Memorial), which has now become the first NGO in Russia facing both administrative and civil proceedings for the same “offence” on the basis of the law on so-called “foreign agents”. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in FIDH, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, OMCT | 1 Comment »
Tags: ADC Memorial, administrative rules, FIDH, Foreign agent, foreign funding, Gerald Staberock, Human Rights Defenders, International Federation for Human Rights, judicial harassment, Karim Lahidji, Memorial, Non-governmental organization, Observatory for the Protection of HRDs, OMCT, persecution, Prosecutor, Russia, United Nations, World Organisation Against Torture
September 26, 2013
The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, whose founder and director are both jailed, wins Norway’s Rafto Prize for rights defenders. The award hopes to “turn the spotlight on systematic violations of human rights in a region where abuse is too often met with silence from Western governments,” the Rafto Foundation said in a statement on 26 September. The founder of the centre, Abdul Hadi al-Khawaja, is serving a life sentence in jail after he and several other leading opposition figures were convicted of plotting to overthrow the monarchy. They were arrested in April 2011, in the wake of the Sunni-monarchy’s crackdown on a month of Shiite-led protests that demanded political reforms. Meanwhile the centre’s director, Nabeel Rajab, has been in jail for more than 14 months, serving a three-year jail term for taking part in unauthorised protests. The prize jury commended the rights group for its non-violent protests and documentation of human rights violations, despite government attempts to shut it down. The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights was, inter alia, also one the Final Nominees for the MEA of 2012 and received the Baldwin Medal
The annual Rafto award was founded in 1986 in memory of Norwegian economic history professor Thorolf Rafto, a longtime human rights activist. The 15,000 Euro prize will be presented on November 3 in Bergen.
via Bahrain rights group wins Norwegian award | GlobalPost.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, Bahrain, Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, GlobalPost, human rights activist, human rights awards, Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, judicial harassment, MEA, Middle East, Nabeel Rajab, Rafto award, Roger Baldwin Medal, Thorolf Rafto
September 12, 2013
As concerns grow in Southeast Asia over the use of national security, anti-terrorist and defamation laws to limit freedom of expression on the Internet, a coalition of international and local NGOs and activists from Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia urged governments to stop using vague legislation based on ill-defined concepts such as “national security”, “sovereignty” or “lèse-majesté” to intimidate, harass and imprison independent voices. Speaking at an event in Geneva, which coincides with the 24th session of the UN Human Rights Council, FIDH, IFEX, Article 19 and PEN International united to call for the urgent revision of these laws to bring them into line with international human rights standards. Independent and dissenting voices, including bloggers and netizens, journalists, activists and human rights defenders, have increasingly been subjected to repression in Southeast Asia.
A lot more detail in Human Rights Council : Stifled Southeast Asian Voices: NGOs Unite … – FIDH.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: anti-terrorist laws, Article 19, asian voices, Cambodia, censorship, civil society organizations, criminal defamation laws, defamation laws, dissenting voices, FIDH, freedom of expression, Geneva, Human Rights Defenders, IFEX, internet, intimidation, judicial harassment, National security, NGOs, Non-governmental organization, PEN, side event, Thailand, United Nations Human Rights Council, Viet Nam
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 5, 2013
On 29 August 2013, human rights defender Ms Naw Ohn Hla was found guilty of disturbing public tranquillity under Section 505(b) of the Burmese Penal Code and sentenced to two years in prison with hard labour. She had been arrested on 13 August 2013 during a peaceful protest. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: aung san suu, Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma, copper mine, environmental issues, Front Line (NGO), hard labour, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, judicial harassment, Letpadaung copper mine, Myanmar, Naw Ohn Hla, Nonviolent resistance, peaceful efforts, woman human rights defender
August 20, 2013
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), draw attention to the following situation in Malaysia.
According to the information received, on 7 August 2013, at 3.00pm, Cynthia Gabriel, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Aliran, anti corruption, Companies Commission Malaysia, Cynthia Gabriel, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, International Federation for Human Rights, judicial harassment, Malaysia, Observatory for the Protection of HRDs, Petaling Jaya, Scorpène-class submarine, Scorpene, Suaram, threats, woman human rights defender, World Organisation Against Torture
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 