This 5 minute video of the ProtectDefenders.eu 2016 Annual Beneficiaries’ Meeting, held in Brussels on the 29 November 2016 is now available on Your Tube. The motto was “Defending Human Rights is not a crime – #DefendersNotCriminals”.
Posts Tagged ‘meeting’
Line-up of speakers for Oslo Freedom Forum 22-24 May 2017 – Zimbabwean speaker detained
February 2, 2017
The New York based Human Rights Foundation has announced the initial speaker lineup for its 2017 Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF), taking place 22-24 May 2017 in Oslo. It includes quite a few well-known human rights defenders [the names are linked to short CVs]: Read the rest of this entry »
On 2-3 September SIM hosts annual Association of Human Rights Insitutes Conference
September 1, 2016On 2-3 September 2016, the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) hosts the 2016 Association of Human Rights Institutes Conference. The conference is entitled “50 Years of the Two UN Human Rights Covenants: Legacies and Prospects” and will be attended by many human rights scholars from around the world. There will be nearly 100 speakers, a number of them SIM researchers, presenting on six major themes:
(i) the indivisibility and interactions of norms and regimes;
(ii) citizenship, migrants and refugees;
(iii) non-state actors and human rights;
(iv) the EU and human rights;
(v) the global economy and human rights; and
(vi) new avenues in human rights research.The United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights, Zeid Ra’adAl Hussein, will close the conference by giving the 2016 SIM Peter Baehr lecture.
Graduate Institute in Geneva celebrated human rights defenders with meeting and march
June 24, 2016To mark the tenth anniversary of the Human Rights Council, the Graduate Institute, together with the European Union Delegation to the UN and the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, held an event on 15 June to honour Human Rights Defenders across the world. [see; https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2016/06/13/15-june-2016-human-rights-defender-berta-caceres-academy-geneva/]
The debate, moderated by Professor Andrew Clapham, featured Human Rights Defenders Taslima Nasrin and Aida Khemiri, as well as Stavros Lambrinidis, EU Special Representative for Human Rights.
“Too many people are dying for protecting human rights,” Mr Lambrinidis said, while promising that “the EU is committed to defending the defenders.”
“There is a price on my head,” revealed Taslima Nasrin, a Bangladeshi author and blogger who has been targeted by radical Muslim groups who have condemned her writing as blasphemous. “It’s been 22 years since I have been allowed to return to my country, not even in times of sickness and death of my closest family.”
Aida Khemiri, an LGBTI activist from Tunisia drew attention to the psychological challenge of having to lie to her friends and family for their protection. “As a Human Rights Defender, I have to live a double life. I cannot tell my family all I am doing, I have to protect them.”
Following the debate, participants and panelists marched past the UN Palais des Nations to express their support to Human Rights Defenders who were not able to walk freely. The event concluded at the Ariana Museum, with a spectacular show of the Violonissima Duo, performing from a hot air balloon. A playlist with photos from the event can be found through the link below.
Side event on human rights situation in Ukraine on Monday 20 June Geneva
June 18, 2016
Despite the hopes raised by the Euromaidan movement and improvements in many facets of life and governance in Ukraine, the last two years have brought the occupation of Crimea, armed conflict in parts of eastern Ukraine, and ongoing abuses, corruption, and political unrest. Two years after Euromaidan and the illegal occupation of Crimea, what efforts have been undertaken to prevent unlawful killings and ensure accountability, justice and redress in such cases?
The Human Rights House Foundation organisms a side event: “The human rights situation in Ukraine two years after Euromaidan: a view from civil society”, on Monday 20 June 2016, from 17:00 to 18:00 in Room XXIV, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Speakers:
- CHRIST HEYNS, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
- TETIANA PECHONCHYK, Human Rights media monitoring, Ukraine;
- OLGA SKRYPNYK, Crimean Human Rights Group, Ukraine;
- MARKIYAN HALABALA, Euromaidan victim’s legal representative, Ukraine;
- Moderator: Anna Innocenti, Human Rights House Foundation.
for more info: ALEXANDER.SJODIN@HUMANRIGHTSHOUSE.ORG
Academic Freedom monitored by Scholars at Risk which celebrates its 15th anniversary in Montreal
May 27, 2016Attacks on higher education threaten the safety and well-being of scholars, administrators, staff and students; undermine academic work and instruction; and deny everyone the benefits of expert knowledge and scientific and creative progress. Too often such attacks go unreported. Scholars at Risk (SAR) publishes an Academic Freedom Monitor which tracks key attacks with the aims of protecting vulnerable individuals, promoting accountability and preventing future violations. In the period February – April 2016 SAR reports 20 incidents:
Video to learn more about the Nelson Mandela Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners
February 10, 2016On 4 February 2016 Penal Reform International, the Quaker UN Office, and the Permanent Representations of Switzerland and Uruguay to the UN in Geneva, invited delegates, representatives of NGOs and interested stakeholders to a briefing in the Palais des Nations in Geneva on the recently adopted revised UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the ‘Nelson Mandela Rules’.
An expert panel provided an overview of the revision process and the significance of this set of standards, and then focused on a number of critical areas of the Rules that were updated. It sought to initiate discussion on the implementation of the Nelson Mandela Rules and to start collecting recommendations and good practice in this regard.
The panel was moderated by Laurel Townhead, Quaker UN Office, and included:
· Representative of the Permanent Mission of Switzerland
· Philipp Meissner, UN Office on Drugs and Crime
· Robert Husbands, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
· Nigel Rodley, Chair, Essex University Human Rights Centre
· Stefan Enggist, World Health Organization
· Andrea Huber, Penal Reform International.
The video – prepared by True Heroes Films (THF) – is on the long side (1 1/2 hours) but is excellent for people who want to learn more about the revised standards.
5 June Stockholm: breakfast seminar on the importance of whistleblowers
May 27, 2015Stockholm-based Civil Rights Defenders and Svenska PEN are organizing on 5 June 2015 a seminar where , Daniel Ellsberg, and Jesselyn Radack will talk about the importance of whistleblowers, how they are treated and what states and the international community need to do to improve their protection.
Mass surveillance, corruption and human rights violations are all issues that have been brought into light by whistle blowers. Protecting and supporting these individuals is important for any democratic state, but as history tragically has shown, this is not always the case. Today, a state’s treatment of whistle blowers can be considered a democratic litmus test – a way to measure how well-functioning its democracy is.
There is some ‘soft law’ on the protection of whistle blowers in the international arena, such as Resolution 1729 of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Draft Recommendation on the Protection of Whistleblowers adopted by the Committee of Ministers of 30 April 2014, and there is binding jurisprudence from the European Court for Human Rights (derived from article 10 and linked to the media), but there is no internationally binding definition of what is a whistleblower and his/her protection.
For earlier posts on this topic: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/whistleblower/
The seminar (5 June from 9.00 – 10.00 am will latched place at Civil Rights Defenders, Stora Nygatan 26, and will be moderated by Ola Larsmo, chair Svenska PEN. The seminar will be conducted in English, and broadcasted live at Civil Rights Defenders’ Bambuser Channel. For more information, please contact Miriam Nordfors: miriam.nordfors@civilrightsdefenders.org
[More about the participants:
Thomas Drake is a former senior executive at the National Security Agency where he blew the whistle on massive multi-billion dollar fraud, waste and the widespread violations of the rights of citizens through secret mass surveillance programs after 9/11. As retaliation and reprisal, the Obama administration indicted Drake in 2010 as the first whistle blower since Daniel Ellsberg charged with espionage, and Drake faced 35 years in prison, turning him into an Enemy of the State for his oath to defend the Constitution. In 2011, the government’s case against him collapsed and he went free in a plea deal.
Daniel Ellsberg is a former U.S. military analyst who served in Vietnam, worked at the RAND Corporation, and then risked decades in prison to release the top-secret Pentagon Papers to The New York Times and other newspapers in 1971 — thereby adding impetus to the movement to end the Vietnam War. Although Ellsberg faced espionage and other felony charges, the case against him was dismissed because of egregious misconduct by the Nixon administration. Ellsberg has been a strong supporter of modern-day NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden and convicted Army whistle-blower Chelsea Manning. Daniel Ellsberg was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 2006.
Jesselyn Radack is the director of National Security & Human Rights at the Government Accountability Project (GAP), the leading U.S. whistle blower organization. Her program focuses specifically on secrecy, surveillance, torture and discrimination. She has been at the forefront of defending against the government’s unprecedented “war on whistle blowers”. She represents national security and intelligence community employees who have been investigated, charged or prosecuted under the Espionage Act for allegedly mishandling classified information, including Edward Snowden. Radack is author of TRAITOR: The Whistleblower & the “American Taliban”.]
Today you can watch the Oslo Freedom Forum via live streaming
May 26, 2015The 2015 Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) will be streamed live in high-definition at oslofreedomforum.com on both Tuesday, 26 May and Wednesday, 27 May, beginning at 9:30 CET (3:30am EST, 12:30am PST). The full program can be viewed here.
This year’s theme is “Living in Truth,” in honor of Václav Havel, the great Czech playwright, dissident, and president. “In Oslo, we are honoring the spirit behind Václav Havel’s life and memorializing how he inspired millions to live in truth,” said Human Rights Foundation chairman Garry Kasparov. “Havel demonstrated that peaceful resistance and creative dissent could prevail over dictatorship and violence. We will study and celebrate his achievements in Norway over the next two days.”
Speakers, performers, and artists from 35 countries, including Afghanistan, Chile, Gabon, Malaysia, Mexico, North Korea, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, Tunisia, and Ukraine, are uniting in Oslo to share stories of how they are taking action to make the world a more free and open place.
For inquiries, please contact info@oslofreedomforum.com or join the conversation by using #OsloFF.
The Lemkin Summit: a Gathering of the Next Generation of Human Rights Defenders in the USA
March 23, 2015In a post of 10 March 2015, Rachel Finn of the Enough Project describes an interesting but in Europe mostly unknown gathering of US student leaders preparing to become human rights defenders:
From 21-13 February 2015, the Lemkin Summit: A National Gathering of the Next Generation of Human Rights Defenders took place in Washington DC. During the three-days students networked with one another, developed their advocacy and movement-building skills, and engaged with experts on current conflict areas including Burma, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, South Sudan, and Syria. Participants were from 28 States, including D.C., as well as the UK, Canada, India, Rwanda, and South Sudan, with 48 different high schools, colleges, and universities represented.
Students arrived Saturday night for a screening of Watchers of the Sky, as well as two special presentations by community leaders. Sunday’s program included panels on sexual & gender based violence, the financial leverage of combatting atrocities, and conflict-specific overviews; advocacy trainings, communications and storytelling workshops; and an Open Space for students to capitalize on the collective knowledge they brought to the Summit themselves. Sunday’s program included student participation in a Keynote Discussion with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, who skyped into the Summit, moderated by John Prendergast.
The final day of the Summit was an advocacy day on Capitol Hill, during which students discussed these ongoing issue areas with various congressional offices, and urged Congress to support the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and additional expert capacity to the Treasury Department to investigate and enforce sanctions on people in the DRC, Sudan, South Sudan, and Central African Republic. Students met with 43 offices in the House, 27 in the Senate, and one at the State Department, with Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region and DRC Russ Feingold.
For a visual representation of the students’ experience over the weekend through social media, check out the Storify below or click here.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 