This video of Human Rights Defender Chia-Wei Chi in Taiwan is one of 13 that have recently been published by European External Action Service (EEAS) in the context of the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Human Rights Defenders all over the world embody that resilience.
“These are some of their stories. The EU stands up and continues to relentlessly support human rights defenders, to speak out against the shrinking civil society space, and to use political and financial action to support them. They stood up, will you? #Standup4humanrights.”
I will publish these videos in the coming weeks in the lead up to 10 December 2018 as they did not get much publicity until now.
Psychiatric patients are often placed into situations of particular vulnerability, which can qualify as torture. And the use of forced psychiatric treatment on human rights defenders is unfortunately an ongoing affair [see e.g. https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/forced-psychiatric-treatment/]
So, Jean-Jacques Gautier National Preventive Mechanism Symposium 2016, organised by the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT), provided a platform to discuss on how devise recommendations for monitoring psychiatric institutions. The video – produced by THF – above gives an impression. To learn more about the symposium, visit: goo.gl/7Jlv6R�
This 5 minute video of the ProtectDefenders.eu 2016 Annual Beneficiaries’ Meeting, held in Brussels on the 29 November 2016 is now available on Your Tube. The motto was “Defending Human Rights is not a crime – #DefendersNotCriminals”.
The weekly video service of Just Asia of 26 January 2017 is a special focus on the regional meeting of Asian Parliamentarians & Human Rights Defenders Against Torture, held in Hong Kong in December. During the meeting focusing on modernizing criminal institutions, Just Asiainterviewed several parliamentarians and human rights defenders.
Just Asia speaks to Dr. P. M. Nair, Chair Professor at the TATA Social Sciences Institute. According to Dr. Nair, institutions need to work together in India to combat torture, and he is confident that once this occurs, things will improve quickly. Dr. Nair also noted the importance of persons implementing laws and regulations to have a human rights perspective, which would particularly help vulnerable and marginalized sections of society.
Just Asia interviews Pakistani Member of National Assembly Imran Zafar Laghari, to learn his views on the rising incidents of torture and corruption in the policing and judicial systems.
In Nepal, the February 2017 deadline for the transitional justice commissions to complete their work is fast approaching. However, other than collecting over 60,000 complaints and starting preliminary investigations, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) have not succeeded in anything meaningful. Meanwhile, Nepal’s Anti-torture legislation is pending in the Parliament. With Colonel Kumar Lama being released by the UK court, there are nominal chances for the Parliament to pass the anti-torture legislation and put it into practice. Just Asia speaks to Mr. Dipendra Jha, a practicing lawyer at the Supreme Court of Nepal, for his views.
Indonesia also faces a rise in executions and the use of the death penalty. At the same time, the revision of the country’s penal code has been ongoing for over a decade. Member of the drafting committee and parliamentarian Mr. Arsul Sani speaks about his views on the penal code revision process and rule of law in Indonesia.
Bangladesh has seen considerable violence and political manipulation in the last year. Dr. Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of Citizens for Good Governance shares with Just Asia his views on free and fair elections and the Bangladesh electoral system.
On 24 May 2016 Vladimir Kara-Murza spoke at the Oslo Freedom Forum. As the Human Rights Foundation states: “The Russian government doesn’t love activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, but he loves Russia. That’s why he is devoting his life to the fight for democracy in Russia, even though it might get him killed.“
Surendra Pratap works for the Centre for Workers’ Education in India. He talked to ISHR about his activities promoting workers’ rights and trade unions. This video clip was published in the ISHR Monitor of December 2016.
After her father, Oswaldo Paya, was killed in a car accident, Rosa María Payá had two choices: keep her head down, or raise her own voice. She chose the latter. Today, despite the threats Cuban dissidents face from the Castro regime, Payá is demanding accountability for her father’s death and is pushing forward on his ambitious plan for a free and democratic Cuba. From the 2016 Oslo Freedom Forum on 24 May 2016. https://oslofreedomforum.com/talks/let-cuba-decide
Abdalaziz Alhamza and his team of citizen journalists risk their lives to smuggle video out of Syria to expose the shocking brutality of both the Assad regime and ISIS. Now ISIS has put a price on his head. Abdalaziz took the stage at the 2016 Oslo Freedom Forum of the Human Rights Foundation to talk about his work and his hopes for a brighter future in Syria.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 