The US State Department announces today, 12 June 2013, the winners of its annual human rights awards: The Human Rights Defenders Award is given to individuals or non-governmental organizations that have shown exceptional valor and leadership in advocating for the protection of human rights and democracy in the face of government repression: Syrian human rights activist Hanadi Zahlout organized peaceful protests in the beginning of the Syrian revolution and continues to work for a peaceful democratic transition. The second recipient of this award, Iraqi NGO Hammurabi Human Rights Organization, has fearlessly advocated for human rights and was critical in concrete achievements in the protection of female detainees, as well as taken on critical work on curriculum reform to promote religious freedom.
Posts Tagged ‘USA’
US State Department announces today the winners of its 2012 Human Rights Awards
June 12, 2013Russia rightly interferes on Gitmo but does not appreciate interference on its own record
May 21, 2013
On 16 May 2013 Russia Today spoke with the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Commissioner for Human Rights Konstantin Dolgov, to find out his view on the situation as the hunger strike in Guantanamo hits its’ 100-day landmark. It is good to see Russia express its concern about this and even invoke the views of human rights defenders. Below I give some quotes from the interview. If only Russia would always be so concerned with their views! As to illustrate this the Moscow Times comes today with an article by Jonathan Earle Read the rest of this entry »
US State Department sets out its actions to support Human Rights Defenders
March 10, 2013On 8 March 2013 – probably timed to coincide with the debate in the UN Human Rights Council – the U.S. Department of State published an overview of it support for Human Rights Defenders. It reads in part:
Protecting and supporting human rights defenders is a key priority of U.S. foreign policy. The Department’s objective is to enable human rights defenders to promote and defend human rights without hindrance or undue restriction and free from fear of retribution against them or their families. The work of these brave individuals and groups is an integral part of a vibrant civil society, and our investment in and support of them is likewise an investment in and support of the rule of law and democracy. Every day, around the world, many in civil society turn to us for assistance in emergency situations and to help them achieve longer-term goals that will make their countries more just and democratic.
The Human Voices of Freedom, Securing Human Rights Online – Event by Internet Freedom Fellows
March 4, 2013On 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.
Human Rights Defenders in the USA: fighting the looney right
February 8, 2013In the aftermath of the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, at the end of last year, I came across a post that used the word ‘human rights defenders’ to describe those who publicly countered attempts to blame the victims or to scold the teachers for not being religious enough or being too soft. I decided to sit on it for a while as the shock and emotions run too high and is seemed all very political. Now, on reflection I have decided to share it here as it certainly clarifies the climate in which liberal groups (such as People For the American Way) have to operate in parts of the USA. The qualification Human Rights Defenders in the end seems about right to me. The article reads in part:
“..grief stricken and appalled Human Rights Defenders throughout the nation called on citizens Tuesday to reject extremist hate messages American leaders and groups have relayed, as the nation mourns the tragic and horrific loss of 20 children and six adults“, such as “God caused the shooting” and singing “praise to God for the glory of his work in executing his judgment.” [Only hours after the tragedy Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church group’s tweeted: “Westboro will picket Sandy Hook Elementary School to sing praise to God for the glory of his work in executing his judgment.”]
Mike Huckabee and Bryan Fischer (of the American Family Association) both implied that the school shooting occurred on public schools for adhering to the separation of church and state — saying God let the massacre happen because we’ve moved away from things like compulsory prayer (1). Echoing Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson in the wake of 9/11 (who also, in part, blamed that tragedy on People For the American Way), Focus on the Family’s James Dobson said God has ‘allowed judgment to fall upon us’ because the nation has turned its back on him by accepting things like abortion and gay marriage.”(2). The Tea Party Nation has called the teachers “radicals in the classrooms,” accusing them of being part of a liberal plot to “destroy the family” and create a society that “coddled” the shooter (3).
- http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fischer-god-didnt-stop-ct-school-shooting-because-hes-gentleman-who-doesnt-go-where-he-not-w
- http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/dobson-connecticut-shooting-was-god-allowing-judgment-fall-upon-us-turning-our-back-him
- http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/tea-party-nation-attacks-teachers-over-ct-school-shooting
The references above provide links to the statements mentioned in the article of 19 December 2012 which can be found in full on : http://www.examiner.com/article/god-did-not-cause-it-human-rights-defenders-say-1
A Canadian Human Rights Defender teaching in the USA put in the limelight
January 31, 2013
Conversation around the dinner table in the van Isschot home in Montreal was a bit different than in most Canadian homes. Growing up with a Spanish, Peruvian, and Dutch family heritage, Luis van Isschot listened to discussions about Latin American history and politics led by his father, a physician who treated families in a clinic based in Montreal’s Latino community…….
…His path to a doctoral degree developed from his volunteer work in Guatemala and later in Colombia, where he served as a human rights observer. It was during his time in Colombia that a friend who was a university professor and a historian told him that one of the most important books of Colombian history was written by a professor from his hometown of Montreal, Catherine Le Grand at McGill University, and that he should look her up. He did, and it led to his enrollment in the doctoral program. “She made it seem that you could be a wonderful teacher, a cutting-edge scholar, and have a balanced life of engagement in your community, and that the Ph.D. was a way of doing that,” van Isschot says. “The university is central to the community, not apart from it. That makes sense to me.”
He later became involved with MEA Laureate 2001 Peace Brigades International, a nonpartisan organization that sends international volunteers to areas of conflict to provide protective accompaniment to human rights defenders threatened by political violence in 11 nations, including in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In addition to serving as a human rights observer in Colombia, he also traveled to the Great Lakes Region of Africa, doing research in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi.
“It was a really important experience for me to go somewhere where the language of human rights and social justice and the understanding of history really enriched my own understanding of what I was working on in Latin America,” he says. His experience in Colombia led him to focus his doctoral studies on human rights activities in that nation’s oil capital, Barrancabermeja, where he lived for a year. The city was the center of a major urban war between Colombian paramilitary groups and leftist guerillas. Between 1998 and 2002, in a city of 300,000 there were about 2,000 violent murders. “It was a devastating period. The relationships I made with Colombian human rights activists, teachers, and scholars convinced me that I needed to find some place to explore the issues,” he says.
His book, The Social Origins of Human Rights: Protesting Political Violence in Columbia’s Oil Capital, 1919-2010, is near completion, and scheduled to be published in early 2014. His new research project is titled “When the Courts Make History: the Impact of the Inter American Court of Human Rights in Latin America’s Conflict Zones,” and examines the historical changes set in motion by the pursuit of justice across borders.
http://today.uconn.edu/blog/2013/01/focusing-on-human-rights-with-a-latin-american-perspective/
Human Rights First job opportunity in its Human Rights Defenders Program
January 6, 2013HRF in Washington DC is looking for a Senior Associate responsible for devising, planning, coordinating, and executing strategies for influencing U.S. human rights policy on the range of issues covered by Human Rights First’s Human Rights Defenders HRD program. Deadline 25 January 2013!
via Senior Associate – Human Rights Defenders Program Washington, DC.
Is US aid Endangering Women Human Rights Defenders in Mexico and Colombia?
November 30, 2012In the FPIF edition of 29 November 2012 (Foreign Policy in Focus, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies) Christine Ahn and Erika Guevara-Rosas have published a provocative piece that takes US policy – especially its aid policy – to task for contributing to the process of militarization that adds to the woes of (women) HRDs. A long but well-argued piece worth reading:
“While a significant chunk of USAID spending goes to education and health programs, pockets of aid enlarge the already bloated military budgets of recipient governments. The result: less security and more violence against women, particularly women human rights defenders. ………..we take a look into Colombia and Mexico, the two countries with the largest number of documented instances of death threats against women human rights defenders—and coincidently two major recipients of U.S. aid.”
Editorial “Waiting for Lefty” regrets absence of human rights concern in debate
October 18, 2012In an editorial “Waiting for Lefty”, William Fisher (former government official – http://billfisher.blogspot.com) muses about the final debate between Obama and Romney and concludes that there was a glaring lack of reference to the human rights issues that dominated the first election campaign. The relevant part reads:
“Obama started out in 2010 with the electoral wind at his back. On his first day in office he vowed to close the military prison at Guantnamo Bay, where detainees slated to have been released months — years — ago are still there, exactly where they started and no closer to freedom for the innocent. Scary because they weren’t released. Except the ones who committed suicide. They’re back home now.
When the electoral air was all filled with “hope and change” and “yes, we can, “Was Obama simply pandering to the Left — whose votes were a big help in getting him elected? After all, if he threw them all under a bus at this stage, where could they go? Vote for Romney? No way. Not vote at all? A possibility.
More disenchanted bodies widening the enthusiasm gap — and that could cost the president his job in a close election. And if he beats Romney, he will have to contend, in his second term, with a large and growing gaggle of organizations that have only one overarching interest — the restoration of human rights and the return to the rule of law.
But in a second Obama term, I would not expect hundreds of groups like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty, and Human Rights First — and thousands of individual human rights defenders –– to be quite so patient and seemingly understand as their first-term counterparts.”
Solitary confinement like a torture chamber for black revolutionaries in the USA
August 13, 2012Bret Grote (an investigator with the Human Rights Coalition, a Pennsylvania-based prison abolitionist and prisoner rights organisation) and
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Kanya D’Almeida (an editor for the Inter Press Service (IPS) News Agency, currently based in Colombo, Sri Lanka) wrote an excellent article for Al-Jazeera on prison conditions in the USA and even more on the political and racial aspects. It is not directly related to HRDs but touches on the important question of the severe treatment handed out to ‘jailhouse’ lawyers or those prisoners who take on the risky job of defending fellow inmates. |
for the full piece see: Solitary confinement: Torture chambers for black revolutionaries – Opinion – Al Jazeera English.
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Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 