To launch its new In-Brief on reprisals against human rights defenders, the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights organized a side event at the 24th Session of the Human Rights Council. The round table discussion was presided by Prof. Andrew Clapham The main Conclusions are: Read the rest of this entry »
Posts Tagged ‘retaliation’
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies assesses UN Human Rights Council latest session
October 4, 2013Looking back at the 24th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council which came to an end last Friday, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies [CIHRS] is disappointed to see how timid the Council becomes when dealing with human rights in the Arab region. Indeed, the people of Syria, Sudan, Bahrain, Egypt, Palestine, and Yemen need all the support they can get to move their countries towards political stability and the rule of law. The Council should be a driving force in confronting cases of human rights violations and making recommendations to address them.
CIHRS notes with regret Read the rest of this entry »
UN Human Rights Council should not be a bystander on reprisals, say two Hungarian Ambassadors
October 1, 2013In the Monitor of the ISHR of 30 September 2013, Ambassadors András Dékány and Istvan Lakatos of Hungary expresses an important opinion regarding the issue of reprisals against human rights defenders. As it is short here is the full text:
Protecting Human Rights Defenders from Reprisals: crucial issue with timely article and side event on 24 September
September 20, 2013Philip Alston, John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, and former UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions wrote a piece on one of the most crucial topics facing human rights defenders at the moment and which has figured regularly in this blog: the issue of retaliation or reprisals against those HRDs who cooperate with the Un and their Rapporteurs. Read the rest of this entry »
China Detains Activists trying to reach UN
September 19, 2013While Iran has started to free some of its political prisoners, China does the opposite by detaining two prominent rights activists who were en route to Geneva ahead of a U.N. review of Beijing’s rights record. Beijing-based activist Cao Shunli was stopped at Beijing’s airport on 14 September and questioned by state security police, the overseas-based China Human Rights Defenders [CHRD] said in an emailed statement. On the same day, Guangdong rights activist Chen Jianfang was also intercepted at Guangzhou’s International Airport.The activists, who have been incommunicado since, had been en-route to Geneva to attend a training course at the invitation of a Geneva-based rights group ahead of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review of China on 22 October. Chen, a farmer-turned-petitioner who has been repeatedly detained in illegal “black jails” and who served a 15-month term in labor camp in March 2010, said she was threatened with violence by airport police, who also tore up her plane ticket. Both women had been active in transparency campaigns around the U.N. review process, sending information requests, suing the foreign ministry, and staging demonstrations outside its gates in a bid to be included in China’s submission to the U.N. “In recent weeks, police in several Chinese cities have interrogated other activists and lawyers about the same training program and warned them about serious consequences,” CHRD said.
(Reported by Wei Ling for RFA’s Cantonese Service, and by Xin Yu for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie).
via RFA’s China Detains Activists Over UN Campaign.
Related articles
- China continues harsh line on dissent but one jailed HRD smuggles out video (thoolen.wordpress.com)
In a few hours starts side event on retaliation against HRDs – can be followed on internet
September 10, 2013In the context of my previous post, here is the reference to a side event organized by the ISHR on this topic which starts today (Tuesday) at 13h15-14h45 Swiss time in the Palais des Nations, Room 21. You can follow the event at www.ishr.ch/council/webcast.
More controversy surrounding the issue of retaliation against HRDs in Sri Lanka
September 10, 2013
On 9 September 2013, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, told the Human Rights Council in Geneva that she had an immediate concern for the protection of human rights defenders, journalists and communities that she met during her recent visit to Sri Lanka. Read the rest of this entry »
4 Sri Lankan Professors gone to Britain accused of launching ‘anti-Sri Lanka activities’
August 16, 2013The statement below was picked up from the Official Government news agency of Sri Lanka on 15 August 2013. I do not know who the professors in question are and therefore we cannot know whether they are human rights defenders, but in view of earlier retaliation by the governmental media in that country against those who testified before the UN mechanisms on human rights and the tone of the message, there is no doubt that those who speak out risk more than disagreement! Read the rest of this entry »
Harassment of HRDs confirmed by the UN
August 18, 2012A few months ago I drew your attention to the annual effort by the UN to collect information on the harassment of those who cooperate with the United Nations (its representatives and mechanisms, including the Special Rapporteurs). Now – on 13 August 2012 – the report has been published as GA A/HRC/21/18 and makes grim reading. Several countries (such as Bahrain, Colombia, Iran, China, Sri Lanka) continue to punish or intimidate persons who had the courage to stand up in the United Nations and accuse their country of human rights violations. Government controlled media routinely refer to them as ‘traitors’ and that is the least of the bad treatment given. One would wish that the UN would be even more outspoken and concrete in protecting its own sources!
full document in PDF:
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 