Posts Tagged ‘Observatory’

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Philomène Muamba in CONGO (DRC) threatened

January 24, 2013

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the FIDH and OMCT, received information from the local group “Voix des sans-voix pour les droits de l’Homme ” about serious threats against the HRD Philomène Muamba, President of ADDEF ( l’Association pour la défense des droits des enfants et femmes opprimés), based in Kasaï-Occidental. It seems that on 17 January at 03h00 in the morning 3 policemen and 2 military came to the house of Ms Philomène Muamba, in Tshikapa, without any written order. As she was not home, they expressed threats against her little sister. Philomène Muamba then lodged a complaint against X  with both the military and civilian prosecutors in Tshikapa.

Since 2011 Philomène Muamba has received several death threats on the telephone along the lines that “you had us arrested and thought we were going to die in jail but …we will bury you”. In 2011 et 2012, she was indeed at the basis of a trial that had led to the conviction of persons who had been accused of several cases of rape. And one should note that on 17 January 2013 around 20h00 several detainees – including men mentioned above – had escaped from the central prison in  Tshikapa.

The original report is only in French: http://www.omct.org/fr/human-rights-defenders/urgent-interventions/congo-dem-republic/2013/01/d22133/

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Good news from the Gambia: judicial harassment of 2 HRDs ended

November 15, 2012

On November 14, 2012 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), announced and welcomed the vindication of two women human rights defenders in The Gambia following two years of judicial harassment.

On November 12, the Banjul Magistrates’ Court decided to drop all charges against Dr. Isatou Touray and Ms. Amie Bojang-Sissoho, respectively Executive Director and Programme Coordinator of The Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (GAMCOTRAP), an organisation working on sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and children. The two women human rights defenders had been prosecuted since October 2010 on charges of “theft” for the alleged embezzlement of 30,000 Euros received in 2009 from “Yolocamba Solidaridad”, a Spanish development NGO.

This landmark decision puts an end to an uninterrupted judicial harassment that had been going on for more than two years, since the police started interrogations of GAMCOTRAP staff in May 2010. Since the opening of their trial, Dr. Isatou Touray and Amie Bojang-Sissoho had been summoned to 66 hearings, which took place in a hostile atmosphere and on completely unlawful grounds. Indeed, the alleged victims had never filed a complaint and the Prosecution failed to present sufficient evidence that they had indeed committed a criminal offence. Furthermore, on January 31, 2011, Ms. Begoña Ballestros Sanchez, Director of Yolocamba Solidaridad, denied accusing anyone associated with GAMCOTRAP of theft and submitting a complaint in relation thereof during a hearing at Banjul Magistrate’s Court. During interrogation, Ms. Isatou Touray had to respond to very precise questions by the Prosecutor covering all aspects of GAMCOTRAP’s activities, staff and resources that are unrelated to the charges. In addition, the Prosecutor also repeatedly made depreciating comments about the work of GAMCOTRAP’s programme to eradicate female genital mutilation.

One can only hope that their acquittal marks a step forward in the respect of the rights of human rights defenders in the Gambia.

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Human Rights Groups Welcome Spanish Court’s Decision to Acquit Judge Baltasar Garzón

February 28, 2012

On 27 February 2012 an impressive array of international NGOs welcomed the decision by the Criminal Chamber of the Spanish Supreme Court to acquit the judge and human rights defender Baltasar Garzón. The organizations include: the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), Lawyers Rights Watch Canada (LRWC), 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), Asociación pro Derechos Humanos de España (APDHE), Asociación Española para el Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos (AEDIDH), the Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF) and Rights International Spain (RIS). The stated: “… We have previously issued a statement https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByBM8_x9YdxiOTllZTE4YzYtNGQ1Mi00NGQ1LWJlNTgtMDhjNDliMDE4MzYx/edit?pli=1 warning the international community and Spanish society of the danger that the process posed to both judicial independence and access to justice for victims of crimes committed during the Spanish Civil War and the Franco regime. We welcome the Supreme Court’s decision to finally acquit Judge Baltasar Garzón of the malfeasance charges against him. However, at the same time, we strongly reaffirm that grave damage has been done to both Judge Garzón and judicial independence more broadly. Judge Garzón should never have been prosecuted for complying with the clear obligation under international law to investigate grave violations of human rights.”

 

The organizations added that the critical question that motivated the prosecution of Judge Garzón has not been adequately answered: “Who has the legal authority to investigate crimes committed during the Spanish Civil War and the Franco regime?” “We remind the Supreme Court of its obligation to rule on this issue of legal authority or competency raised before it. Determination of this pressing issue was inexplicably subordinated to the malfeasance prosecution against Judge Garzón and as a result has unjustifiably remained pending for over two years. Our organizations call on the Supreme Court to consider and determine, in accordance with its constitutional mandate and principles of international law, what courts have the authority to investigate and provide effective remedy for the 114,266 enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings committed during the Civil War and Franco regime that followed. We also call on the Court to confirm the applicability of national and international law to the investigation and redress of these and other serious crimes against international law.”

 

Along with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee, the NGOs call on Spain to repeal its 1977 Amnesty Law as it violates the international law obligations Spain has assumed since that year and the Spanish Constitution itself (articles 1.1, 9, 10.2, 95 and 96).  

Spain: Human Rights Groups Welcome Spanish Court’s Decision to Acquit Judge Baltasar Garzón / February 27, 2012 / Urgent Interventions / Human rights defenders / OMCT.

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42 human rights defenders and political activists detained to prevent them from participating in a peaceful protest in Jaffna on Human Rights Day – FIDH – Worldwide Human Rights Movement

December 15, 2011

For those who thought that the situation in Sri Lanka is normalizing the attached report from the OMCT/FIDH Observatory for Human Rights Defenders makes disappointing reading: 42 human rights defenders and political activists detained to prevent them from participating in a peaceful protest in Jaffna on Human Rights Day – FIDH – Worldwide Human Rights Movement.

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Observatory for HRDs comes out with annual report

October 27, 2011

IPS reported that on Monday 24 October a symbolic empty chair was at the launch of a report on the repression of human rights defenders, a physical reminder that its would-be occupant – Ales Bialiatski, president of Human Rights Centre Viasna in Belarus – has been languishing in prison since August. Bialiatski is charged with tax evasion, but supporters say it is clear that the charges are in retaliation for his long and distinguished career of human rights activism in the country. The chair was also empty for the hundreds of other human rights defenders across the world who have been deprived of their freedom and fundamental rights, leaving a void in the communities they worked to protect.

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), published its 600-page report on individual human rights defenders and organisations that faced repression between January 2010 and April 2011. It covers 70 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, the Middle East, Asia, The Americas and Europe. The abuses cited include the ‘usual’ harassment, threats and arrests, arbitrary detention, defamation campaigns, and restrictions in terms of freedoms of association and expression, but  also notes Antoine Bernard, of FIDH, a trend to the criminalise social protests. “That is a very universal trend, to use the law not as a protecting tool, that is supposed to be its role, but law as a repressive tool to arbitrarily provide the legal basis for silencing human rights defenders”, he said to InterPress Service (IPS).  “A threat to a human rights defender very often transcends beyond the individual case, it carries a shadow to society at large,” concluded Gerald Staberock, secreterary-general of OMCT.

The United Nations special rapporteur on the situation for human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggaya, underscored the importance of implementing the Declaration for Human Rights Defenders that the General Assembly adopted back in 1998, and the importance of disseminating information about it. “It is still an instrument that is not sufficiently known, either to those who should shoulder the main responsibility for its implementation, namely states, or to those whose rights it sets out to protect, human rights defenders,” Sekaggaya said.

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Arbitrary arrest and detention of 31 human rights defenders in Turkey

October 4, 2011

Several important human rights NGOs, including AI and HRW, have in recent days expressed concern about the situation of human rights defenders in Turkey. I base myself here on the appeal issued on 28 September by 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). 

The Observatory has been informed by the reliable Human Rights Association (İnsan Haklari Derneği – İHD) about the arbitrary arrests of 31 members and executives of İHD Şanlıurfa Branch, the Education and Science Workers Trade Union (Egitim-Sen), the Health and Social Service Workers Trade Union (SES) as well as the searches by the police of the houses of the chairpersons and executives of the above mentioned organisations and their offices.

In the morning of September 27, law-enforcement officers raided İHD, Egitim-Sen and SES Şanlıurfa Branch offices as well as the houses of their chairpersons and executives and arrested 31 members of these organisations. The police was in possession of a warrant from the Şanlıurfa Chief Public Prosecution Office mentioning allegations of “propaganda for an illegal organisation” and “participating in activities in line with the action and aims of that organisation” and has denied to release information on the reasons of the raids and arrest, on the basis of legal provisions pertaining to the fight against terrorism.

Among those arrested were İHD Şanlıurfa Branch President Cemal Babaoğlu, İHD executivesMüslüm Kına and Müslüm Çiçek, Eğitim-Sen Branch President Halit Şahin, Eğitim-Sen former Branch President Sıtkı Dehşet and Eğitim-Sen executive Veysi Özbingöl.

The Observatory denounces the continuing policy of arbitrarily arresting human rights defenders in Turkey, and particularly İHD members and members of trade unions, which seems to merely aim at sanctioning their human rights activities. To that extent, the Observatory recalls that other İHD members are in pre-trial detention, notably Mr. Muharrem Erbey, İHD General Vice Chairperson and Chairperson of its Diyarbakir Province branch who had been detained since December 2009, Mr. Arslan Özdemir and Ms. Roza Erdede, İHD members in Diyarbakır, or that others remain in provisional release pending the outcome of criminal trials on alleged terrorism charges.

Accordingly, the Observatory calls upon the Turkish authorities to put an end to the continuing harassment against human rights defenders, including members of İHD, and urges the Turkish authorities.

for more detials and suggested actions you can take, see:

Arbitrary arrest and detention of 31 human rights defenders – TUR 001 / 0911 / OBS 114 – FIDH – Worldwide Human Rights Movement.

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