Posts Tagged ‘United Nations’
April 23, 2013
You can now apply for ISHR‘s Geneva Training Course 2013. This advanced level training course will be held in Geneva from 26 May to 7 June, in parallel to the 23rd session of the UN Human Rights Council. The course offers an opportunity for participants with existing advocacy experience at domestic or regional level to expand their knowledge and skills, and over the 2-week period in Geneva directly engage in lobbying and advocacy activities at the UN level. This new programme blends ISHR extensive training experience, with its unique access to the UN mechanisms in Geneva and its close collaboration with leading human rights organisations. It will combine a common intensive training course with supported lobbying and advocacy activities adapted to the areas of interest of participants, as well as peer education among different groups of defenders. The programme will consist of the following elements:
a) A short online learning component, which takes place prior to Human Rights Council sessions, and supports participants in consolidating existing knowledge and developing advocacy objectives;
b) An intensive course in Geneva during the beginning of the June 2013 session of the Human Rights Council, focusing on ways to use international human rights mechanisms and to influence outcomes at the Human Rights Council;
c) Specific advocacy at the Human Rights Council session, with regular feedback and peer education to learn from the experiences;
b) Where appropriate, common follow-up at national level.
It is directed at experienced human rights defenders at the national level who have already some prior knowledge of the international human rights system.
The 23rd session of the Human Rights Council, which runs in parallel, will among other things focus on the following key areas:
- A resolution to follow-up to the Council’s work combating discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity (the SOGI resolution).
- Thematic reports by the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women; Special Rap on Cultural Rights; Working Group on Discrimination Against Women
- Thematic Reports by Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, and Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression.
- Annual Full Day Discussion on Women’s Rights
- Report of the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, the Forum on Business and Human Rights and a panel discussion on human rights and business
The draft programme of work of the Human Rights Council is expected to be published shortly, and will be available at http://bit.ly/pow-hrc23.
A description of the course, what is expected of participants and instructions on how to apply are available at http://bit.ly/gtc2013-tor.
Posted in human rights | 2 Comments »
Tags: Geneva, Human right, human rights, Human Rights Council, Human Rights Defenders, human rights of women, International Service for Human Rights, intervention, lobbying, Special Rapporteur, training course, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, Working Group
April 22, 2013
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan’s highly repressive policies are coming up for rare international scrutiny as from today (22 and 24 April 2013), Human Rights Watch said today. United Nations member countries gathering at the Human Rights Council in Geneva under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) procedure should seize the opportunity to expose and denounce the ongoing repression in both countries and press for concrete steps to end abuses.
The governments of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan stand out as among the most repressive in the world, Human Rights Watch said. Both also stand out for their failure to heed recommendations made during their previous Human Rights Council reviews, in December 2008. “The extraordinarily high levels of repression in both Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, coupled with their governments’ refusal to acknowledge problems, let alone to address them, underscores the need for a strong, unified message,” said Veronika Szente Goldston, Europe and Central Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.
In submissions on Turkmenistan and on Uzbekistan Human Rights Watch highlighted key concerns with respect to both countries, and the steps needed to address them. One immediate step – and crucial if crime should not pay ! – is that both governments should be urged to end their longstanding denial of access for the UN’s own rights monitors. Ten UN rapporteurs have requested such access to Turkmenistan, while the number of UN rapporteurs barred from Uzbekistan has reached 11! Cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC is another pressing issue [On April 12, the ICRC took the unusual step of announcing publicly its decision to end prison visits to detainees in Uzbekistan].
Other key concerns in Turkmenistan include: The government’s longstanding use of imprisonment as a tool for political retaliation and draconian restrictions on freedom of expression and association, which authorities enforce by threatening, harassing, or imprisoning those who dare to question its policies, however modestly. The severe repression of civil society activism makes it impossible for independent human rights defenders and journalists to work openly.
via Turkmenistan/Uzbekistan: Abuses in International Spotlight | Human Rights Watch.
Posted in HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Central Asia, Freedom of speech, Geneva, Human right, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights Watch, political prisoners, political retaliation, Turkmenistan, UN, UN Rapporteurs, United Nations, Universal Periodic Review, Uzbekistan
March 26, 2013
Last Saturday I referred to the new Resolution on Human Rights Defenders in the UN Human Rights Council. Now there is an interesting interview with Counsellor, Geir Sjøberg of the Norwegian Mission to the UN, done by the International Service for Human Rights and reported by Reliefweb. The interview contains such so much meat that I have reproduced it here in full:
- The Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution which some have called a landmark in furthering the protection of human rights defenders. Are you satisfied with the results?
Let me first of all thank the ISHR and other human rights organizations for the invaluable advise and support throughout the process we have had here in Geneva. In 2011, the General Assembly expressed grave concerns about the serious nature of risks faced by human rights defenders due to threats, attacks and acts of intimidation against them. Regrettably, the situation has hardly improved since then. On the contrary, current trends are largely negative, as reported by the Special Rapporteur and others. Against this background, the Council had to respond with a clear message. The resolution ‘Protecting Human Rights Defenders’ should be seen as such, as the collective voice of the international community in 2013. On balance, we see the resolution as an appropriate response by the Human Rights Council at a very difficult time for human rights defenders in all regions of the world. The unanimous adoption of this resolution sends an important signal of support to all the courageous people who are fighting against human rights violations all over the world. We must now work to ensure that this resolution is translated into concrete results on the ground and leads to an improvement in the situation of human rights defenders. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: funding, Geneva, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, International Service for Human Rights, ISHR, legal restrictions, Norway, protection, Reliefweb, Special Rapporteur, UN Resolution, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council
March 23, 2013
On Thursday 21 March 2013 a resolution, led by Norway was adopted by consensus by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. It calls on all States to support the work of human rights defenders and to protect them from harassment, threats and attacks.
The use and abuse of national laws to impair, restrict and even criminalise the work of human rights defenders is a contravention of international law and must end, according to a landmark resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council today.
Introducing the resolution, Norway’s Ambassador to the UN, Steffen Kongstad, said he was ‘gravely concerned by the serious nature of risks faced by human rights defenders’ and called on all states to ‘facilitate their work’ and ensure it is not ‘criminalised or stigmatised’.
‘The resolution is a clear affirmation that national law must conform with international human rights law. The resolution demands the amendment of national laws which target human rights defenders, including laws which restrict NGOs from receiving foreign funding, which criminalise “homosexual propaganda”, or which limit freedom of expression or assembly on discriminatory grounds.’ Michael Ineichen of the ISHR, expressing an opinion similar to that of many other human rights NGOs.
Posted in human rights | 2 Comments »
Tags: Geneva, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, International Service for Human Rights, ISHR, legal restrictions, Non-governmental organization, Norway, UN Declaration, UN Resolution, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council
March 16, 2013
(Flavia Pansieri with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. UN Photo/Rick Bajornas)
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Flavia Pansieri of Italy as the new Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, it was announced today. Ms. Pansieri will replace Kyung-wha Kang of the Republic of Korea “to whom the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights are grateful for her dedicated service to the United Nations human rights programme during the past six years.” This praise is totally deserved i should add. Most recently, Ms. Pansieri served as the Executive Coordinator of the UN Volunteers (UNV) Programme. She brings to her new position nearly 30 years of experience with the UN around the world, including in Yemen, China, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos and New York.
Posted in human rights, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Ban Ki-moon, Flavia Pansieri, human rights, Italy, Kang, Kyung-wha Kang, Navi Pillay, New York, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, South Korea, United Nations
March 16, 2013
I reported earlier that on 28 February the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), in the framework of their joint programme the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, organised a meeting on (legal) restrictions increasingly imposed on human rights defenders. This was followed up on 11 March with an oral intervention at the UN Human Rights Council. 
The statement referred to the recently published Annual Report 2013 of the Observatory, which states that NGOs’ access to funding, in particular foreign funding, is increasingly being hindered by governments around the world. Restrictive laws combined with unfounded criticism, smear campaigns and judicial harassment directed against human rights defenders because of the source of their funding create a hostile environment towards their activities as a way to silence them. Belarusian law now prohibits any possibility for an NGO to hold a bank account in an institution based abroad, and criminalises the use of so-called unauthorised funds. These new provisions were adopted as FIDH Vice-President and “Viasna” President Ales Bialiatski was sentenced to 4.5 years’ imprisonment after he made use of foreign funds to finance human rights activities in his country. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in FIDH, human rights, OMCT | 3 Comments »
Tags: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Egypt, Ethiopia, FIDH, funding, Geneva, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, India, International Federation for Human Rights, judicial harassment, legal restrictions, Non-governmental organization, Observatory for the Protection of HRDs, OMCT, Russia, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, World Organisation Against Torture
March 14, 2013
In a lengthy interview with ‘Geneva International Cooperation’ published on 13 March 2013, Andrew Clapham, the widely respected Director of the Geneva Academy of International Law and Human Rights, argues that the Human Rights Council of the UN, which replaced the Commission on Human Rights (of which, in 2005, Kofi Annan said that its “declining credibility has cast a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system as a whole”) has in the end made important improvements. The interview is certainly worth reading in its totality but for the hard-pressed here are some quotes:
Q: Do you think the Human Rights Council has been effective in restoring the damage caused by its predecessor to the reputation of the UN? Yes. The credibility of the Human Rights Council is now much higher than that of the Commission on Human Rights in 2005. One of the major criticisms of the former Commission was the ability for states to use political pressure to focus attention on individual states. Under the four year Universal Periodic Review (UPR) cycle, it is possible to read reports about the United States, China, Russia, Haiti, Iraq and Libya, and not just the states that are out of favour at any given time. One of the crucial differences is the fact that the Human Rights Council now considers the situations in powerful states. The ability of the Human Rights Council to establish Commissions of Inquiry is another important and unexpected development. These Commissions are now highly regarded references and sources of information.
Q: Can you give some examples of concrete achievements that have resulted from the creation of the Human Rights Council? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Andrew Clapham, Commission on Human Rights, Geneva International Cooperation, human rights, Human Rights Council, Security Council, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review, UPR
March 11, 2013
What is apparent from this blog, which has featured many cases of environmental Human Rights Defenders, has now been clearly stated (on 7 March 2013) by the United Nations Independent Expert on human rights and environment, John Knox. In his report to the Council of Human Rights, he highlighted the urgent need to clarify the human rights obligations linked to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Such clarification, he said, “is necessary in order for States and others to better understand what those obligations require and ensure that they are fully met, at every level from the local to the global.”……………….In his report Mr. Knox also identifies rights whose implementation is vital to environmental policymaking, such as the rights to freedom of expression and association, rights to receive information and participate in decision-making processes, and rights to legal remedies. “The exercise of these rights, makes environmental policies more transparent, better informed and more responsive to those most concerned.” “States should recognize the important work carried out by human rights defenders working on land and environmental issues in trying to find a balance between economic development and environmental protection, should not tolerate their stigmatization and should ensure prompt and impartial investigations into alleged violations of their rights,” he said.
John Knox was appointed as the Independent Expert on human rights and the environment in July 2012 by the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Learn more: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=13089&LangID=E
Knox’s full report: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session22/A-HRC-22-43_en.pdf
via Link between protecting the environment and human rights | Scoop News.
I would also like to refer now to an article by Lauri R. Tanner in the Oxford Press Journal of Human Rights Practice on the landmark environmental defenders cases by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: the milestone case of ‘Kawas v. Honduras‘ and the so-called ‘Mexican Ecologists case‘. In its first-ever ruling on environmental defenders, the Court found a positive obligation on the part of member states in the Hemisphere to protect environmentalists who are in serious jeopardy from human rights violations. The Kawas case is a paradigmatic example of the constant threats these activists encounter, both in the Americas and internationally, and states in the region are now on notice to ensure special protection to those most in danger of harm. The Court arrived at the remarkable juncture of ‘making visible and potentially punishable what heretofore has been invisible and unpunished’. In an epilogue Tanner addresses the subsequent ruling in the ‘Mexican Ecologists’ case, and offers recommendations to human rights and environmental defenders and practitioners both regionally and internationally.
PDF to download:
http://jhrp.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/hur020?ijkey=TmPlvBcvZYHLh18&keytype=ref
Full Text online:
http://jhrp.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/hur020?ijkey=TmPlvBcvZYHLh18&keytype=ref
Posted in books, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | 6 Comments »
Tags: climate, environment, environmental issues, Human right, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human Rights Council, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Independent Expert on human rights and environment, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, John Knox, Journal of Human Rights Practice, Kawas v. Honduras, Knox, Land issues, Lauri Tanner, Mexican Ecologists case, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council
March 10, 2013
On 10 January 2013 I posted something on the largest ever trial of internet dissidents in Viet Nam. On 8 March this issue was continued in the UN:
“We call upon the Council to press Vietnam to put an end to this repression,” said Vo Van Ai, speaking on behalf of Vietnamese campaigners and the International Federation of Human Rights. In a speech to the UN body he said a total of 32 bloggers and other cyber-dissidents were behind bars in Vietnam, either sentenced or awaiting trial. They face prison terms of up to 16 years.
“Such repression does not serve to protect national security, as the Vietnamese authorities claim, but to stifle the voices of an emerging civil society speaking out on corruption, power abuse, the plight of dispossessed peasants and farmers, human rights and democratic reforms,” he said. He condemned Vietnam’s use of Ordinance 44, a 2002 ruling which authorises the detention of suspected national security offenders without due process of the law and which is increasingly deployed against bloggers, sometimes in psychiatric hospitals.
Fellow-campaigner Penelope Faulker, with the French-based group Work Together for Human Rights, noted that after a 2009 United Nations review (UPR), Hanoi had pledged to uphold freedom of information. “However, in the past year alone, scores of bloggers, online journalists and human rights defenders in Vietnam have been harassed, intimated, subjected to police abuse, or condemned to extremely harsh prison sentences simply for expressing their peaceful views on the Internet,” she told the Council. The southeast Asian country has been branded an “enemy of the Internet” by freedom of expression watchdog Reporters Without Borders.
via: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/08/human-rights-activists-push-u-n-for-action-over-vietnams-treatment-of-cyber-protesters/
Posted in FIDH, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: blog, cyber activism, dissidents, Human right, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, International Federation for Human Rights, National security, Penelope Faulker, Reporters without Borders, southeast asian country, United Nations, UPR, Viet Nam, Vietnam, Vo Van Ai
March 4, 2013
On Thursday 7 March 2013 will take place “The Human Voices of Freedom – Securing Human Rights Online” event: a panel discussion and interactive webcast with human rights activists from across the globe at the Human Rights Council, highlighting the importance of protecting freedom of expression on-line. This public event, sponsored by the U.S. Mission to the UN, is to take place from on 7 March from 1pm to 3pm in room XXIII/United Nations Office at Geneva.
The Internet Freedom Fellows program brings human rights activists from across the globe to Geneva, Washington, DC, and Silicon Valley to meet with fellow activists, U.S. and international government leaders, and members of civil society and the private sector engaged in technology and human rights. This year’s Internet Freedom Fellows are human rights activists and active practitioners of digital media from China, Russia, Ghana, Nigeria and Sudan.
Please note: Registration is only required for those attendees who do not hold a United Nations badge.
via Internet Freedom Fellows | Event Registration Page: The Human Voices of Freedom – Securing Human Rights Online.
Posted in human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: China, freedom of information, Geneva, Ghana, Human right, human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, internet, Internet Freedom Fellows, Nigeria, on-line, Russia, side event, Silicon Valley, Sudan, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, US permanent mission to the UN, USA
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 