share information on human rights defenders, with special focus on human rights awards and laureates
courtesy Nat Daudrich
Thanks to the partnership with the City of Geneva hundreds of posters are lining the streets of Geneva in anticipation of the ceremony of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (MEA) on 2 October in the splendid Victoria Hall. The laureate will be announced that evening but all three nominees will be honored and films on their work shown. The nominees are: Luon Sovath (Cambodia), Nasrin Sotoudeh (Iran) and the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights.
The Ceremony of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (MEA) on 2 October 2012 at 6 p.m. at the Victoria Hall, Geneva. The ceremony will be followed by a reception at 7h15 p.m.
The Laureate will be announced and awarded by Ms. Navanethem Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, with the presence of Ms. Micheline Calmy Rey, newly-appointed Chair of the Martin Ennals Foundation,
Register online for the ceremony: http://www.martinennalsaward.org/ <http://www.martinennalsaward.org/>
The three nominees for the 2012 award are: Venerable Luon Sovath, Cambodian monk, Nasrin Sotoudeh, Iranian lawyer and the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR). They all courageously stand for the rights of other despite continuous harassment and threats. The nominees were carefully selected by ten human rights organizations which make up the Martin Ennals Award Jury: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, the International Federation for Human Rights, the World Organisation Against Torture, Frontline, the International Commission of Jurists, German Diakonie, the International Service for Human Rights and HURIDOCS.
“The sentencing of Nabeel Rajab represents yet another blatant attempt by the Government of Bahrain to silence those legitimately working to promote basic human rights,” said the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya. “The Bahraini Government must immediately cease its campaign of persecution of human rights defenders in the country”.
The Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, stressed that “the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly should not be subject to prior authorization from the authorities.” He noted that the criminalization of people participating in peaceful assemblies for the sole reason that they did not seek the approval of the authorities to hold such assemblies contradicts international human rights law.
“The continuing repression of free speech in Bahrain runs counter to international law and standards that individuals will not be prosecuted for peaceful political speech,” said the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue. He added, “The authorities must take all measures to guarantee the free expression of all individuals in Bahrain, whether through social media or otherwise.”
for the full text: Independent UN experts call for end to persecution of rights defenders in Bahrain.
Image from twitter.com by user @SAIDYOUSIF
Late last night, Wednesday 15 August, Russia Today reported that another Bahraini HRD was arrested: Said Yousif (pictured on the right with Nabeel Rajab). Both work for the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, one of the three nominees for the 2012 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. The ongoing crackdown on human rights activists completely contradicts the promised made by the Government after a government-sponsored report revealed gross violations of human rights.
On 12 August 2012 the Ahlul Bayt News Agency published a moving letter by Sumaya Rajab, the wife of the prominent Bahraini human rights defender,Nabeel Rajab, who is currently detained in Bahrain. Nabeel Rajab is one of the 3 MEA nominees for 2012. She writes this letter also in the name of their son Adam and daughter Malak to urge all of you to use your influence and act quickly to guarantee her husband’s immediate release.
for the full text of the letter see: Bahrain: An open letter from the family of Human Rights Defender Nabeel Rajab.
As new cases of arbitrary arrests and ongoing judicial harassment have been reported in Bahrain, the Observatory for Human Rights Defenders – a joint project of OMCT and FIDH – remains extremely concerned with the very repressive climate faced by human rights defenders in that country, it appears from a press statement of 9 August 2012..
On August 2, 2012, Ms. Zainab Al-Khawaja was once again arrested while she was protesting alone at Al Qadam roundabout against the arbitrary detention of her father Mr. Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja,founder of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), former President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), and former MENA Director at Front Line. While arresting Ms. Al-Khawaja, police officers verbally assaulted her and threatened her with reprisals as she was legitimately resisting their orders to give a blood sample. She was finally forcibly led to the Fort Prison Hospital before being transferred to Isa Town Detention Center, where she was kept handcuffed despite a serious leg injury sustained after security forces shot her with tear gas canisters at close range. On August 4, 2012, the Public Prosecution remanded her into custody for seven days.
The Observatory further recalls that Mr. Nabeel Rajab, President of the BCHR – which is one of the three nominees for the 2012 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders – and FIDH Deputy Secretary General, has faced constant judicial harassment, as four cases have been brought against him since May 2012 in relation with his human rights activities. Mr. Rajab is still facing three of these cases. In particular, he has been detained since July 9, 2012 and sentenced to 3 months’ imprisonment for alleged libel after he tweeted the following on June 2: “Khalifa, leave the residents of Al Muharraq, its Sheikhs and its elderly. Everyone knows that you are not popular here, and if it wasn’t for the subsidies, they wouldn’t have gone out to welcome you. When will you step down?“
The Observatory is deeply concerned about constant postponements, as their only aim seems to be to keep Mr. Nabeel Rajab in detention as long as possible, by delaying the examination of the request filed by his lawyers against his 3-month imprisonment sentence. The Observatory reiterates its call on the Bahraini authorities to immediately and unconditionally release him as his detention is arbitrary and only aims at sanctioning his human rights activities.
By Brian Dooley
12 June 2012
The Bahraini government’s crackdown has no end in sight as leading human rights defenders continue to be targeted. Nabeel Rajab was arrested and detained again last week, only days after being released from custody. Rajab is the President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, a leading NGO in Bahrain that documents and publicizes human rights violations in the country. The work of Rajab and the Center has been consistently acknowledged by international human rights organizations, and within just the last year, won the Roger Baldwin Medal of Liberty, the Ion Ratiu Democracy Award and is a nominee for the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (MEA) 2012.
Charged with multiple offences, Rajab is to spend at least a week in custody. According to his lawyer, these include taking part in an illegal gathering and tweeting criticism of the government.
Other defenders have also been targets of government harassment.
via HRF: Targeting of Bahraini Human Rights Defenders Intensifies | Bahrain Center for Human Rights.
On 28 May 2012 there was finally some light at the end of the tunnel. Nabeel Rajab was released on bail and Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja ended his hunger strike. Another HRD Zainab Al-Khawaja was also freed. I reported several times on these cases related to the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), the 2012 nominee of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.
Throughout Al-Khawaja’s hunger strike he was able to draw international attention to the on-going human rights violations that are taking place in Bahrain. The hunger strike brought attention to the plight of human rights defenders and political activists who are in detention or have been subjected to human rights violations by the authorities. Despite the primary demand of his hunger strike of “freedom or death” not being met, he has achieved one of his main goals by attracting global attention and focus on the human rights situation in the country. In a statement the human rights defender thanked his family for their support and expressed his gratitude to all those who had shown solidarity with him both inside and outside Bahrain. He will now begin a special diet in order for his body to recover from the 110-day hunger strike.
That Nabeel Rajab was released on bail is of course excellent but we should not forget that he should never have been arrested (on the 5th of May) to start with. He was charged with ‘insulting the statuary bodies” the so-called “Twitter Defamation case”, “participating in illegal assembly and calling others to join” through social networking sites. (See GCHR appeal dated 05-05- 2012 (http://gc4hr.org/news/view/138)
He was released on bail of 300 Bahraini Dinars (appr. $796). However, a travel ban remains in place and the trials will continue (a hearing on the “illegal assembly” case is scheduled for 17 June while another session for the “twitter case” is scheduled for 24 June).
Furthermore, human rights defender Zainab Alkhawaja @angryarabiya was released on 29th May 2012, after more than 1 month imprisonment. She is still facing trials in 2 cases. One of the hearing sessions on the case of “illegal assembly, assaulting a police officer and inciting hatred against the regime is scheduled on June 24th, while the case of “obstructing traffic” is scheduled for November 1st 2012.
While the BCHR welcomes the ending of Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja’s hunger strike and the release of both Nabeel Rajab on bail and Zainab Al-Khawaja, it expresses serious concern for the on-going trials of the released activists, the on-going violations of human rights by Bahraini authorities and the continued detention of human rights defenders including Abdulhadi Alkhawaja on fabricated charges.
We have just learned that the Venerable Luon Savath been released and is now at the office of the NGO LICADHO. But not sure that this is the end of the story and will keep you posted.
The 2012 nominee of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, the ‘multimedia’ monk Luon Savath, was this morning ‘arrested’. In fact, senior members of the monastic community were involved in detaining him after he took photos of protesting Boeung Kak lake villagers outside Phnom Penh municipal court. As can be seen on http://youtu.be/0sG6iLwj95o, some monks, police and unidentified plain-clothed men forced him into a Land Cruiser and ushered him away from the scene as more than 60 protesters, flanked by about 100 police, called for the release of 13 Boeung Kak women who where being questioned inside. The Venerable Loun Savath was already banned from all pagodas in Phnom Penh last year by Supreme Patriarch Nun Nget. It seems that the Venerable Loun Savath was driven to Pagoda Botum, where police and officials from the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Cults and Religion barricaded him inside, sealing off entries so even pagoda boys could not enter. According to Buddhist internal rules, a committee of monks needs to meet and express whatever they think he has done wrong, then the monk in question is supposed to be able to respond to committee. Afterwards, the committee can decide to ‘advise’ him of ‘misconduct’ or ask ‘permission’ to defrock. With unusual and uncommon speed this has happened all within the same day! Luon Savath was able to make one call and then his mobile phone was cut off and no one has been able to reach him since. There is serious reason to worry and the international community should be mobilized.
To stay up to date check with Twitter @witnessryan.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 