Azerbaijani human rights defender Emin Huseynov is in hiding in the Swiss embassy in Baku since 18 August, 2014 reports the ”Caucasian Knot” referring to the Norwegian Human Rights House Foundation. He went there after the Azerbaijani authorities searched the office of the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS) and confiscated equipment and documents. The office of the organisation remains sealed since 11 August, 2014, and the employees are called to interrogation. According to the article, Florian Irminger, the head of the Geneva office of the HRHF thinks that Switzerland should go on supporting the Azerbaijani human rights defender on humanitarian grounds: ”His stay at the Embassy is justified with the crackdowns level in the country, false charges against human rights defenders in Azerbaijan, and the impossibility to defend oneself in the court because of the lack of judicial system independence in the country and pressure on their lawyers’‘. The Swiss Foreign Ministry confirmed in the “Rundschau” that they had provided the Azerbaijani human rights defender with shelter on humanitarian grounds. ‘‘Since then we’ve been discussing the matter with the Azerbaijani officials in order to find a solution to the situation,” the Swiss Foreign Ministry written response reads. Read the rest of this entry »
Posts Tagged ‘Switzerland’
Azerbaijani human rights defender Emin Huseynov hides in Swiss Embassy
February 12, 2015Adama Dieng speaks on prevention of mass atrocity on 10 October
October 3, 2014“Prevention of mass atrocity crimes:Achievements, current trends and challenges” is the topic on which Adama Dieng, United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide ( former Registrar of the Rwanda Tribunal and former Secretary General of the International Commission of Jurists) will speak on Friday, 10 October 2014, from 10h30 to 11h45, in Bundesgasse 28, Room BGA 12, Bern, Switzerland.
There are only a limited number of seats available, so please book your seat by e-mail to nathan.broquet[at]eda.admin.ch before Wednesday 8 October 2014.
Alba Viotto – a lifelong human rights defender from Switzerland
December 6, 2013On 7 December 2013, Satur C. Ocampo wrote in the Philippine Star a remarkable tribute to a Swiss woman, Alba Viotto, who died recently. After a short context of the human rights scene in his country, he then describes the work of a Swiss human rights defender that most of us will never have heard of. Read the rest of this entry »
Right Livelihood Awards 2013 announced today
September 26, 2013Today were announced as the 2013 Right Livelihood Laureates:
Paul Walker (USA),
Raji Sourani (Palestine),
Denis Mukwege (Democratic Republic of Congo) and
Hans Herren/Biovision Foundation (Switzerland).
for more information see: http://www.rightlivelihood.org/
The importance of archives for Truth commissions: event on 13 September
September 6, 2013Truth commission archives are an important part of dealing with the past, which is a long-term process addressing a legacy of human rights violations.
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Gaddafi Human Rights Award resurrected: Mugabe rumored to be Laureate
March 31, 2013The main aim of this blog is to follow events regarding Human Rights Defenders worldwide, but this time I have something of a ‘scoop’: in the process of doing research for an academic article on human rights awards I came across the Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, which was thought to be defunct since 2011 with the death of the Libyan leader.
Talking to the North-South foundation in Switzerland, which has administered the 250.000$ award from 1988 to 2010, it turns out that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of former leader Muammar Gaddafi, from his jail in western Libya, has decided to resurrect as from 1 April 2013 the Prize in honor of his late father under the name: Gaddafi Award for African Governance.
Disappointed with the support received from the Arab world during the uprising in Libya last year, the resurrected award wants to focus on Africa. The rumor is that the first winner – supposed to be announced only tomorrow! – is rather surprisingly President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. When asked whether this would not lead the award to be seen as encouraging ‘bad governance’, the spokesman for the Foundation, T. (Thomas) Yran, refused to comment on Mugabe being the first winner, but said that the new award wanted to clearly distinguish itself from the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership (http://www.moibrahimfoundation.org) which rewards mostly “lackeys of the capitalist system” and anyway has not been given out for 3 years.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 