Posts Tagged ‘woman human rights defender’
November 17, 2013
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), expresses its great concern about the smear campaign and threats suffered by Ms.
Nimalka Fernando, attorney-at-law, women’s rights activist and President of the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR) in Sri Lanka. [Ms. Fernando was also a convener of the alternative summit to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which is taking place in
Sri Lanka from November 10 to 17, 2013 amid strong criticism of the country’s human rights abuses.]
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in FIDH, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, OMCT | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, death threats, Fernando, hate speech, Hiru TV, Hudson Samarasinghe, Human rights defender, intimidation, intolerance, Nimalka Fernando, Observatory for the Protection of HRDs, radio, Radio programming, smear campaign, Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, woman human rights defender
November 4, 2013
On 1 November 2013, human rights defender, Zinaida Mukhortova, was released from Astana Medical Centre for Psychological Health in Kazakhstan. As reported in this blog earlier she had been detained in psychiatric confinement since 9 August 2013 in Balkhash and was transferred to Astana on 30 September 2013 for psychological testing. Since her detention, Zinaida Mukhortova has been subjected to forced psychiatric confinement and treated against her will. Zinaida Mukhortova is a human rights lawyer with more than 10 years’ legal practice. Through her work, she has denounced cases of corruption and interference of political interests in the judiciary.
To find out more about the legal proceedings taken against Zinaida Mukhortova, please see update of 9 October 2013, http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/23924 by
Posted in Front Line, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: anti corruption, Astana, forced psychiatric treatment, Front Line (NGO), Health in Kazakhstan, Human right, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, human rights lawyer, independence of the judiciary, Kazakhstan, psychiatric confinement, Psychiatry, woman human rights defender, Zinaida, Zinaida Mukhortova
October 31, 2013
reports that on 30 October human rights lawyer, Ms Wang Yu, was finally permitted access to Chaoyang Detention Centre in Beijing in order to see Cao Shunli, who had reportedly been detained since 14 September 2013.
Wang Yu reported that Cao Shunli is extremely thin and has not received any medical attention in the detention centre. According to Wang Yu, Cao Shunli has been detained on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.
[On 14 September 2013, two security agents prevented Cao Shunli from boarding a flight from Beijing Capital Airport to Geneva. She was flying to take part in a training on UN mechanisms]
[In the months leading up to China’s Univeral Period Review (UPR) on 22 October 2013, Cao Shunli had been campaigning for greater civil society involvement in the UPR process]
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Beijing, Cao Shunli, China, detention centre, freedom of expression, Front Line Defenders, Geneva, ill treatment, illegal detention, United Nations, UPR, Wang Yu, woman human rights defender
October 30, 2013
Today it was announced that the Bremen Solidarity Award for the year 2013 has been awarded by the German Province of Bremen to the Saharawis activist and President of the Collective of Saharawis Human Rights Defenders (CODESA), Ms. Aminatou Haidar.
The committee overseeing the selection of the winner explained that Aminatou Haidar has been chosen for her record of defending the Saharawis’ human rights desert, praising the great efforts being made by CODESA’s President in order that the Sahrawis benefit from their natural resources, as human rights cannot be separated from political and civil rights. “Aminatou Haidar has frequently and boldly defended the rights of the Saharawis by peaceful mean. She still struggling to find a just solution to the question of Western Sahara by the same means,” added the committee. The Bremen Solidarity Award has, since 1988, been presented to people who campaign for freedom, democracy and human rights and who fight against colonialism and racism.
via Activist Aminatou Haidar awarded Bremen Solidarity Award | Sahara Press Service.
Posted in human rights | 1 Comment »
Tags: Aminatou Haidar, awards, Bremen, Bremen Solidarity Award, Collective of Saharawis Human Rights Defenders, freedom, Germany, Human right, human rights, human rights award, non-violence, Province of Bremen, Sahrawi people, western Sahara, woman human rights defender
October 26, 2013
On Saturday, the 19th of October 2013 , around 1:00 pm, Rocío Mesino Mesino, leader of the Peasant Organization of the Southern Sierra (OCSS ), was killed in the town of Mexcaltepec, municipality of Atoyac de Alvarez, in the state of Guerrero, Mexcio. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: activism, activists, campesinos, Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos, environmental issues, Extrajudicial killing, Forced disappearance, Guerrero, Hilario Mesino, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, kili, Mesino, Mexico, Miguel Angel Mesino, murder, OCSS, Peasant Organization of the Southern Sierra, Rocío Mesino, Rocío Mesino Mesino, Truth, woman human rights defender
October 22, 2013
Dina Goor was an elite model. She was an interior designer in Israel and much more. Dina’s arrival at the Qalandiya checkpoint a decade ago in her grey Volkswagen Golf, changed her and the human rights movement in Israel. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Dina Goor, Human right, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights Defenders Fund, Israel, Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israelis, Machsom Watch, occupation, woman human rights defender, Yesh Din
October 16, 2013
A group of United Nations experts has expressed serious concern at reports that Chinese human rights defenders have suffered reprisals for seeking to participate in a major UN human rights assessment of China. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | 5 Comments »
Tags: Cao Shunli, Chen Guangcheng, Chen Jianfang, China, Civil society, Frank LaRue, Geneva, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Human rights in China, illegal detention, Maina Kiai, Margaret Sekaggaya, reprisals, retaliation, UN Special Rapporteur, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review, UPR, woman human rights defender, Zhao Zhenjia
October 14, 2013
The Economist of this week (11 October) carries an interesting piece on peace under the title “Peace comes dropping slow”. It argues that MALALA YOUSAFZAI would have been an appropriate recipient of the Nobel peace prize, but that her admirers should be not be too disappointed that the award went instead to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. For the Western world, and indeed for many of her fellow Muslims, Malala is an extraordinary example of disinterested courage in the face of theocrats who practise tyranny by claiming a monopoly on religion and religious law. She was already famous at the age of 11 as the writer of a blog for the BBC Urdu service, giving an impression of life under the rule of the Taliban in her native Swat Valley.
She has been showered with accolades, as this blog has also shown including last week the European Union’s Sakharov prize. However, the Economist piece says that “people who really wish Malala and her cause well should be more relieved than let down. The Nobel Prize has not always brought blessings to its recipients. Mistakes made by Barack Obama as America’s commander-in-chief will be judged even more harshly because he was granted the award in 2009 as a kind of down-payment before his presidency had really got going. Mikhail Gorbachev will probably go down in history as a peace-maker, but the award (in 1990) did nothing to enhance his domestic standing which was in freefall at the time. And whatever history has to say about Henry Kissinger and North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho, garlanded in 1973, it will hardly describe them as doves of peace“[De Klerk and Arafat are not mentioned!]
In Northern Ireland, the article states the peace prize had in some respects a “kiss of death” [mentioning David Trimble, John Hume, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan Maguire] ….”Does 16-year-old Malala really need that? She too comes from a part of the world where international accolades can cause jealousy and cynicism as well as admiration. So she may be better off without the big prize. In any case, Malala will continue to pile up various honours and distinctions; and as with Ms Maguire, there is probably a good chance that she will use her fame to say things that disturb and provoke people, even those who are lining up to admire her.“
The Nobel peace prize: Peace comes dropping slow | The Economist.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: awards, Barack Obama, European Union, human rights awards, Kissinger, Le Duc Tho, Malala, Malala Yousafzai, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nobel Peace Prize, Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, peace prize, The Economist, woman human rights defender
October 12, 2013
On Thursday 3 October the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights [RFK Center] launched its third annual “Speak Truth to Power Student Video Contest“. This year, the contest is for the first time open to student filmmakers from all of the USA in partnership with the American Federation of Teachers, the New York State United Teachers and the Tribeca Film Institute. The video competition, originally launched in New York State in 2011, invites students to create a 3-6 minute video examining a human rights issue or violation and profiling the defenders who are fighting to restore justice.
Last year’s prize went to students of the Young Women’s Leadership School of Brooklyn, who made a film about the work of sexual slavery and trafficking activist Juliana Dogbadzi of Ghana.
Additional details can be found at http://www.speaktruthvideo.com
via Teachers, RFK Center Expand Annual Human Rights Video Contest to Students and Schools across America – The Paramus Post – Greater Paramus News and Lifestyle Webzine.
Posted in human rights | 1 Comment »
Tags: American Federation of Teachers, documentary, films, Ghana, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, human rights education, human rights films, Juliana Dogbadzi, New York State United Teachers, Paramus New Jersey, RFK, Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, Speak Truth to Power, student filmmakers, Tribeca Film Institute, United States, video clips, woman human rights defender
October 7, 2013
This blog tends to prioritize news on human rights defenders who are in trouble. This makes one overlook perhaps too often the contribution made by those who are working for the cause in other ways. To rectify I want to pay tribute to another woman who has contributed enormously to the creation and growth of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders: Simia Ahmadi. After 20 years she is leaving the Board of the Foundation on 7 October, just before the 20th ceremony tomorrow.
In 1992 Simia was a young, upcoming human rights worker who had just finished an internship with the UN. To her great regret she never met Martin Ennals in person. Her main motivation was that an award could be effective and volunteered to help it being set up. After successful initial fundraising she was the part-time Secretariat in the first year.
(Simia, left of first Laureate Harry Wu in 1994, Geneva)
After that, she worked several years for the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). Thereafter she was Programme Coordinator of the Legal and Human Rights Centre in Tanzania and from 2006-2009 she served as FIDH’s Representative to the UN in Geneva. After her move to Kenya in 2010, she served as the Chief of Party of the Public International Law and Policy Group in Kenya. Now she devoting her considerable energy to Kahesa, of which she is the Director-Founder and undertakes consultancy work such as evaluations KAHESA is a social enterprise that produces decorative and environmentally-sound paper through the employment of mentally-challenged Kenyans. Check out her www.kahesa.com and Facebook page: Kahesa paper
For being at the cradle of the MEA and making sure that the there is no grave for long time she deserve the deepest thanks from all especially Human Rights Defenders around the world.
Posted in FIDH, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, MEA | Leave a Comment »
Tags: FIDH, Geneva, Harry Wu, human rights, International Federation for Human Rights, Kahesa, Kenya, Legal and Human Rights Centre, Martin Ennals, Martin Ennals Award, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, Martin Ennals Foundation, MEA, Tanzania, United Nations, woman human rights defender
