share information on human rights defenders, with special focus on human rights awards and laureates
Many of us have been looking forward to the first expressions of policy and position by the new US Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power. Thanks to Mark Leon Goldberg in UN Dispatch of 12 August 2013 there is now a confirmation that she does not intend to drop her earlier interest in Human Rights Defenders. I decided to copy the piece in toto and let you decide for yourselves: Read the rest of this entry »
Special Rapporteur Richard Falk. UN Photo/Jess Hoffman
On 13 August 2013 the United Nations added its voice to the many to call for his immediate release of Adilur Rahman Khan, the director of Odhikar, a well-known human rights organization in the country. He was arrested at his home in the capital, Dhaka, on 10 August by plainclothes officers reportedly acting without a warrant, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights [OHCHR]. “We are calling on the Government of Bangladesh to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Khan, whose arrest might be linked to his work as human rights defender,” OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssell told reporters in Geneva. She said Mr. Khan is reported to have been arrested under section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and
section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology Act, accused of publishing false information about violence by Government forces during demonstrations in May by the Islamist movement, Hefazat-e-Islami. Odhikar reported that 61 people had died during these protests, challenging the Government’s version of events, noted Ms. Throssell.She said that the day after his arrest, Mr. Khan was denied bail and ordered to be held on remand for five days. “He was allegedly denied access to a lawyer before his court hearing,” she added.
Business Week reports on 14 August that rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Katanga province murdered a human-rights investigator who criticized their movement for committing abuses against civilians. Armed men from the secessionist Kata Katanga group [whose name means “cut out Katanga” in the Swahili language] forced their way into the victim’s house on 7 August before killing him, according to Scott Campbell, the director of the UN’s joint human-rights office in Congo. The UN mission, known as Monusco, wouldn’t release the victim’s name or organization for security reasons, Campbell said. “Monusco is gravely concerned by the arbitrary execution” of the activist, it said in a separate e-mailed statement that also called on Congolese authorities to protect human-rights defenders and their families. Almost 370,000 people have been displaced in the province as of July, mainly because of the violence, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
via Congo Rebels Execute Human-Rights Worker in Katanga Province – Businessweek.
In a piece published in the Alaska Dispatch of 8 August 2013, Phil Lynch, the Director of the Geneva-based International Service for Human Rights, contemplates what the next session of the UN Human Rights Council could do to improve the fate of HRDs.
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The United Nations political mission in the Central African Republic [CAR] is concerned about purported human rights violations in the country. A spokesperson for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told journalists in New York on the 24th of July that the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the CAR, Babacar Gaye, met yesterday with local human rights defenders and NGOs, who informed him of systematic killings of civilians, rape and other violations by soldiers from the Séléka coalition. Violence erupted in December 2012 when the Séléka rebel coalition launched a series of attacks. A peace agreement was reached in January, but the rebels again seized Bangui in March, forcing President François Bozizé to flee. Meanwhile, the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic, known by the acronym BINUCA, condemned last week of reports of multiple extrajudicial executions accompanied by torture and mutilation. Among the identified victims is Ngombet Jerome, an accountant at the Association of Women Lawyers of Central AFJC, a local NGO. “These executions were carried on, in all likelihood, at routine checks in the open countryside and in the city of Bangui,” BINUCA said in a statement. BINUCA also called on authorities to immediately open an investigation to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice, and to continue the process of securing Bangui, the statement added. Speaking publicly earlier this month, UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos urged national authorities to urgently re-establish the rule of law so that assistance and access can continue unimpeded, warning that the political crisis gripping CAR has affected its entire population of 4.6 million.
launched two innovative legal databases: the Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity (SOGI) UN Database and the SOGI Legislative Database. Read the rest of this entry »
On 12 June 2013 Rachel Nicholson, on behalf of the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP), delivered an oral statement to the UN Human Rights Council. It started by congratulating South Sudan Read the rest of this entry »
In June 2013, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights visited former Yugoslavia. In both Serbia and Kosovo she mentioned that human rights defenders have a key role to play:
In its concluding observations, the United Nations Committee on the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has asked Pakistan to improve in key areas of education, legislation, employment and public and political participation of women. The observation were shared and discussed at a consultation organised by Aurat Foundation. Human Rights activist Tahira Abdullah highlighted the challenges and constraints in the way of implementation of CEDAW and Naheed Aziz discussed role of civil society in application of CEDAW. ……. In its other recommendation regarding education, the committee has asked the government to prevent the occurrence of attacks and threats against educational institutions which undermine women and girls’ fundamental rights. The committee-members have urged Pakistani government to prevent, investigate, and punish gender-based violence by non-state actors in conflict affected areas and have suggested the government to conduct an assessment of the impact of the conflict situation on women and girls and strictly enact legislation regulating the trade, sale and possession of small arms. The Committee has asked the government to ensure the safety and protection of women human rights defenders and mobilize adequate resources to address the specific risks and security needs of women’s rights defenders.
via CEDAW calls for improvement in key areas of education, legislation, employment – thenews.com.pk.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 