Last Thursday, 13 October, the ceremony for Kasha, the Ugandan 2011 laureate of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, took place in Geneva, again in the beautiful Victoria Hall. There was a large audience of 600 people. Moreover, the 2010 MEA laureate, Muhannad al-Hassani from Syria, also made a surprise appearance. The True Heroes Foundation made a 8-minute summary of highlights of the ceremony and this overview gives an excellent impression of the whole evening. Please go to our newly designed website: http://www.martinennalsaward.org.
Posts Tagged ‘LGBT’
Martin Ennals Award ceremony 2011 now on-line: martinennalsawrd.org
October 16, 2011Amnesty Bermuda inspired by AI’s SG and MEA Laureate to campaign against homophobia
September 27, 2011
Amnesty Bermuda’s Nelleke Hollis said that a postcard campaign was launched in August at the international meeting of AI to amend Bermuda’s Human Rights Act to add sexual orientation. She said hundreds of signatures from fellow human right campaigners were gathered at the meeting, including those of Mr Salil Shetty, AI’s Secretary General and Ugandan gay activist Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, who won the 2011 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.
The postcards should send a strong message to Premier Paula Cox and her Cabinet to stop dragging their heels on the long-awaited amendment.
Useful website: www.amnestybermuda.org
MEA Laureate 2011, Kasha, in the end given visa for UK
August 24, 2011As an illustration of how ill-conceived or ill-executed immigration policies can affect Human Rights Defenders, the following:
Last week Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera – who is the Laureate of the 2011 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, – was denied entry to the UK where she was invited to attend as a special guest the Northern Ireland Pride festival in Derry this weekend. The visa denial was apparently based concerns over her financial status. Foyle Pride chairwoman Shay Gillespie said at the time: “I can’t understand why the UK is the only country to deny her entry and deny the opportunity for the people of Derry and Northern Ireland as a whole the chance to hear this inspirational woman speak.”
A petition was set up to challenge the decision while Amnesty UK invited her to give a speech on Thursday. Then on Monday – within minutes of filing a second application- Kasha was granted permission to attend
Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland Programme Director of Amnesty International said: “In the face of ongoing threats and attacks for her work, she has continued to speak out on behalf of Uganda’s LGBT community. She constantly has to shift from house to house, never staying too long in the same place, yet her voice for human rights in Uganda has never been dimmed…..Kasha is here to tell people in Northern Ireland the real stories behind our reports and to explain how people here can support gay people in Uganda.”
Other Human Rights Defenders or other travelers with a legitimate purpose to come to Europe may not have the public status or international support needed to overturn such decisions.
Human Rights Defenders and LGBT persons
June 29, 2011Most of you will have noticed that on 17 June 2011 the UN Human Rights Council (on the last day of its session) adopted a exceptional resolution dedicated to advancing the basic and fundamental human rights of LGBT persons (stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered). This historic vote marked a major victory for defenders of human rights, not just the gay movement. It sent a clear message that abuses based on sexual orientation and gender identity must end. And for the first time ever, it commissioned a UN report to investigate the challenges that LGBT persons face. The vote marks the beginningsof universal recognition that LGBT persons are endowed with the same inalienable rights as all human beings and entitled to the same protections as all human beings, but it will be a long struggle especially if one sees how small margin of the ‘victory’ in the UN was: despite opposition from Russia as well as many African and Arab countries, the resolution passed narrowly, with a final tally of 23 to 19, with three abstentions. South Africa was the country that submitted the resolution to the Human Rights Council, and the country’s delegate, Jerry Matthews Matjila, presented the resolution saying: “The resolution before us today does not seek to impose values on other states” …”It seeks to initiate a dialogue which will contribute to us ending discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”
Only one month before, in May, the UN NGO Committee voted to deny UN accreditation to the Belgium-based International Lesbian and Gay Association. ECOSOC this July could overturn that decision overturn.
MEA 2011 Laureate Kasha – a Lesbian Human Rights Defender from Uganda – and her colleagues around the world still have a hard long road ahead of them.
Kasha can breathe again, for now: Ugandan anti-gay bill fails to be tabled.
May 12, 2011“Am I going to be hanged for being who I am?” said Kasha Jacqueline, winner of the 2011 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, of the Ugandan bill that at draft stage had proposed the death penalty for homosexuals who are “repeat offenders” and included a number of other discriminatory measures. It seem that the bill was not on the agenda of parliament yesterday and is now unlikely to be debated during this parliamentary session as a new parliament will take over next week (but a similar bill could be re-introduced in the future).
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and many other international and national human rights groups had campaigned against passing the law and the on-line campaign group, Avaaz, collected 1.5 million signatures from around the world.
One should note however that the issue is more controversial internationally than in Uganda and most other African countries where homosexuality is often illegal and certainly widely unpopular.
Martin Ennals Award 2011 goes to African Gay Right activist Kasha
May 3, 2011The Jury of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (MEA), meeting in Geneva yesterday, selected Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera as its 2011 Laureate for her work for LGBT rights and marginalised people in Uganda. Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, a Ugandan woman, is the founder and Executive Director of Freedom and Roam Uganda, a main lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights organization. Kasha has had the courage to appear on national television and international fora openly stating her sexual orientation and demanding equal protection of the law. This has led to her being constantly harassed and threatened. For more details and languages please go the website of the MEA www.martinennalsaward.org
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 