Posts Tagged ‘United Nations’
August 27, 2013
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in collaboration with DIGNITY, has made the practice of custodial torture and ill-treatment a core area of engagement. With a view to counteract the widespread practice of torture, the AHRC and DIGNITY have formed an Asian Alliance against Torture and Ill-treatment (AAATI) in 2012. The first conference of Asian Parliamentarians and Human Rights Defenders was held in Hong Kong in 2012 [ see report Torture – Asian and Global Perspectives Vol. 1, No. 3 ].
The focus for the second meeting [scheduled for 11-13 November 2013] will be to identify the reluctance of governments to achieve a substantial change in the nature of policing in their countries to bring these institutions at par with the policing systems of advanced democracies.
The link below refers to the announcement which in fact is a CONCEPT PAPER:
ASIA: Second Regional Conference of Asian Parliamentarians & Human Rights Defenders on Elimination of Custodial Torture and Ill-treatment in Asia November 2013, Hong Kong — Asian Human Rights Commission
For details please contact: Bijo Francis, Executive Director, Email: ahrc at ahrc.asia
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: AHRC, Asia, asian human rights, Asian Human Rights Commission, DIGNITY, Hong Kong, Human right, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, ill treatment, meeting, Non-governmental organization, parliamentarians, Police, torture, United Nations
August 14, 2013
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 »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: activist community, diplomacy, Foreign Policy, human rights activists, Human Rights Defenders, International Rescue Committee, Invisible Children, Mark Leon Goldberg, Samantha Power, Susan Rice, UN, UN Ambassador, UN Dispatch, United Nations, United States
August 14, 2013
Special Rapporteur Richard Falk. UN Photo/Jess Hoffman
On 13 August 2013 a group of 5 United Nations independent human rights experts expressed deep concern at the alleged ongoing judicial harassment, intimidation and abusive treatment directed against Issa Amro, a prominent Palestinian human rights defender. Mr. Amro, a founder of the non-governmental organizations Youth Against Settlements and Hebron Defenders, was arrested and detained 20 times in 2012, and six times in 2013, without being charged
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Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | 2 Comments »
Tags: Amro, Frank La Rue, harassment, Hebron Defenders, Human right, Human rights defender, Israel, Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Issa Amro, Juan E. Méndez, Maina Kiai, Margaret Sekaggya, Non-governmental organization, Palestine, Richard Falk, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, Youth Against Settlements
August 14, 2013
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.
via United Nations News Centre – Bangladesh: UN urges immediate release of detained human rights defender.
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Tags: Adilur Rahman Khan, arbitrary arrest, Bangladesh, Dhaka, freedom of information, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, human rights organization, illegal detention, Khan, Liz Throssell, Politics of Bangladesh, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations, united nations news centre
August 14, 2013
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.
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Tags: Africa, arbitrary execution, Congo, congo rebels, death, Democratic Republic of Congo, human rights, Human rights defender, human rights investigators, Katanga, Katanga Province, killing, Monusco, rebel groups, republic of congo, United Nations, United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
August 9, 2013
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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Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: Cameroon, foreign funding, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Indonesia, international protection, International Service for Human Rights, ISHR, LGBT, Memorial, Navi Pillay, Non-governmental organization, Phil Lynch, Russia, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council
August 1, 2013
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.
via allAfrica.com: Central African Republic: UN Mission Concerned About Reported Human Rights Violations By Rebel Groups.
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Tags: allafrica com, Babacar Gaye, Ban Ki-moon, Bangui, BINUCA, Central African Republic, extrajudicial executions, François Bozizé, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, impuntiy, Ngombet Jerome, rebel groups, Special Representative of the Secretary-General, systematic killings, UN, United Nations, violations
August 1, 2013
launched two innovative legal databases: the Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity (SOGI) UN Database and the SOGI Legislative Database. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, HURIDOCS, ICJ | Leave a Comment »
Tags: databases, HURIDOCS, ICJ, International Commission of Jurists, Law, legal databases, legal profession, legislation, LGBT, lgbt human rights, research, sexual identity, Sexual orientation, UN Compilation, United Nations, university of toronto faculty
June 25, 2013
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 »
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Tags: administrative rules, Africa, Civil society, EHAHRDP, freedom of association, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Isaiah Abraham, journalists, Juba, NGOs, oral statement, South Sudan, UN Human Rights Council, United Nations, UNMISS
June 21, 2013
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:
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Tags: Human right, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, internally displaced, Kosovo, Kosovo Liberation Army, minority rights, Navi Pillay, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Pillay, refugees, Serbia, United Nations, UPR
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 