Posts Tagged ‘politics’
September 9, 2013
The Sikh wire in Canada reports on an interesting mix of party politics and the officialisation of the term ‘human rights defender’:
In April 2013, with thunderous applause and support at the federal NDP convention in Montreal, a resolution to recognize Jaswant Singh Khalra [abducted 18 years ago] as a defender of human rights was passed by the membership of Canada’s NDP (New Democrats ). After the adoption of the resolution, Leader of the Official Opposition and Canada’s NDP Tom Mulcair spoke with the daughter of the late Jaswant Singh Khalra, Navkiran Kaur about spreading her father’s message of peace and justice. “Jaswant Singh Khalra spoke on Parliament Hill and delivered his last international speech while he was here in Canada. He came to this country because we had a reputation of being defenders of human rights – we must uphold that” said Marston (Hamilton East—Stoney Creek). Foreign Affairs Critic Paul Dewar (Ottawa Centre) added: “Our resolution sends a clear message – an NDP government will return Canada to the world stage as a nation of neutrality, committed to defending the human rights of all.”
The Sikh Wire – Canada: NDP Remembers Defender Of Human Rights Jaswant Singh Khalra.
Posted in human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Canada, definition of HRD, Human rights defender, Jaswant Singh Khalra, minority rights, Montreal, NDP, New Democratic Party, Ottawa Centre, paul dewar, politics, Sikh, Sikh wire
September 6, 2013
( Photo: EPA)
The piece below, taken from the Voice of Russia of 6 September 2013, is interesting for a number of reasons:
1. it addresses the almost comical issue of basing the Arab Court of Human Rights in Bahrain
2. it quotes at length the (understandably) sarcastic comments by Brian Dooley of Human Rights First in the Huffington Post
3. it is lovely example of a different but biased geopolitical perspective: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in HRF, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Al-Jazeera, Arab Court of Human Rights, Arab League, Bahrain, Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, Bashar al-Assad, Boris Volkhonsky, Brian Dooley, Huffington Post, human rights, Manama, Maryam Alkhawaja, massive violations, politics, Voice of Russia
June 28, 2013
In a post on 4 June under the title “Bradley Manning not a Prisoner of Conscience for Amnesty International ?” I related the controversy surrounding the status of human rights defender for Breadly Manning. On 13 June, under title “Snowden a human rights defender? – Russia seems to think so” I referred to a similar issue with regard Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Amnesty International, Bradley Manning, citizens freedom, definition of HRD, Ecuador, Edward Snowden, freedom of information, Human rights defender, Just Foreign Policy, Oliver Stone, political asylum, politics, right to privacy, Snowden, United States
June 27, 2013
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Thursday 27 June said there had been significant achievements since a historic human rights document was adopted in Vienna 20 years ago, but there have also been many setbacks and “the magnificent construction is still only half built.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | 1 Comment »
Tags: Democratic Republic of Congo, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, International Criminal Court, Navi Pillay, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Pillay, politics, Sarajevo, Vienna, Vienna +20 Conference
June 11, 2013
There is and always will be debate on who is a human rights defender. At a recent meeting in May 2013 at York University, UK, there were several sessions and academic interventions devoted to the topic (when the report is out, I will revert), but in the meantime is interesting to note the use of the term – posthumously – for one of the leading politicians in Nigeria: Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Abiola, Babatunde Fashola, definition of HRD, Democracy, Dosunmu, human rights, Human rights defender, Lagos State, National Democratic Coalition, Nigeria, politician, politics, Wahab Dosunmu, York university
June 4, 2013
According to a statement from the Federation of Media Employees Trade Unions forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) on 4 June there is an ongoing attack in Sri Lanka on Human Rights Defenders, NGOs & opposition politicians through the Independent Television Network (ITN). The statement give concrete and detailed indications to show that ITN – in spite of its name – has continued to follow the government line and started a fresh round of attacks in May this year. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in AHRC, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Asian Human Rights Commission, Criminal Investigation Department, Federation of Media Employees Trade Unions, freedom of expression, Friedrich Nauman Foundation, friedrich nauman stiftung, Human Rights Defenders, intimidation, journalists, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE, media, NGOs, opposition, politics, reprisals, Sri Lanka, state media, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, United National Party
May 29, 2013
One should be grateful for small gains: Front Line Defenders reported that on 11 May 2013, the Gambian government released renowned Muslim cleric and human rights defender, Iman Baba Leigh, to whose arrest I referred earlier. The human rights defender was arrested on 3 December 2012, and was detained incommunicado for five months for declaring the execution of nine death row inmates to be inimical to Islamic teaching. Imam Baba Leigh Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Front Line, human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Advocacy Organizations, Africa, death row inmates, detention, Frontline Defenders, Gambia, gambian government, Human right, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, politics, religion
May 25, 2013
Posted in books, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Amnesty International, Double bind, Gita Sahgal, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, islamic fundamentalists, Islamism, London, Meredith Tax, Muslim, politics, religion, right-wing, United States, universal human rights
May 21, 2013
(Konstantin Dolgov -Image from vaseljenska.com)
On 16 May 2013 Russia Today spoke with the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Commissioner for Human Rights Konstantin Dolgov, to find out his view on the situation as the hunger strike in Guantanamo hits its’ 100-day landmark. It is good to see Russia express its concern about this and even invoke the views of human rights defenders. Below I give some quotes from the interview. If only Russia would always be so concerned with their views! As to illustrate this the Moscow Times comes today with an article by Jonathan Earle Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: AI, Baltic countries, Council of Europe, EU, Foreign agent, Gitmo, Guantanamo, homophobia, Human right, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, human rights organization, illegal detention, jonathan earle, Konstantin Dolgov, minority rights, Moscow Times, politics, Ravil Mingazov, registration, RT (TV network), Russia, Russia Today, terrorism, United States, USA
May 20, 2013
(Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng Photo: AP)
On 19 May 2013
Bruno Waterfield, reports for the Daily Telegraph from Brussels that the blind human rights lawyer,
Chen Guangcheng, the exiled
Chinese dissident has demanded that the European Union (EU) must go public with the results of human rights talks with China’s leaders, and publish its own list of people known to be suffering repression and persecution. Chen Guangcheng wants Western leaders to be more straightforward about their dealings with China so that the public can hold them to account: “
The Chinese authorities try and pretend that they dont care about the highlighting of human right abuses but they do care. It is a responsibility to do this. If it is not pursued more actively the situation will go backwards.“
via Chen Guangcheng pressures the EU on secret human rights talks with China – Telegraph.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Brussels, Chen Guangcheng, China, Daily Telegraph, dialogue, diplomatic pressure, EU, European Union, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, human rights lawyer, List of Chinese dissidents, politics
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 