The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) is working with journalists in the Middle East and Northern Africa to investigate various violations affecting the safety of journalists and their ability to do their work.
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“I find myself wishing there was more protection [for investigative journalists], a sense of safety and even simply just hope. I watch in awe as they investigate crimes that they unfortunately know they could well be victims of in the future, or in some cases already have been.“ Zaynab Al-Khawaja, GCHR’s Journalists Protection Coordinator, working with journalists conducting the investigations
With a strong gender focus, the GCHR ensures that the majority of the investigations are carried out by women, empowering them and shedding light on cases involving women.
One investigation highlights the story of an anonymous woman journalist who quit her job and relocated due to sexual harassment. She writes:
A large proportion of society is aware of widespread harassment in the streets, resulting from an exacerbated hypermasculinity. However, statements by several Iraqi women journalists confirm that this phenomenon did not spare women in press and media outlets, forcing a considerable number of them to quit journalism for good.
The investigation also reported that 41% of women journalists in Iraq have been victims of harassment, forcing 15% to leave their jobs and 5% to quit their profession for good.
This data aligns with UNESCO’s Chilling report, revealing increasing offline and online attacks against women journalists, including stigmatization, sexist hate speech, trolling, physical assault, rape and murder.
Another investigation looked into the imprisonment and silencing of journalists, some facing fabricated allegations of sexual harassment. GCHR collaborates with the NGO Vigilance and 40 partners on a joint appeal to end the persecution and detention of journalists and human rights defenders exercising their right to freedom of expression. GCHR also supported a journalist in the Middle East investigating the case of a disappeared journalist in Syria.
Since 2022, GCHR and UNESCO have joined forces to support investigative journalism, reducing impunity for crimes against journalists and enhancing their safety through the Global Media Defence Fund. Established in 2019, this fund has supported over 120 projects globally, directly benefiting over 5,000 journalists, 1,200 lawyers and 200 non-governmental organizations.
In 2022, UNESCO published recommendations on addressing violence against women journalists, based on The Chilling, a global research project by UNESCO and the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). All reports related to this project are available here on UNESCO’s website.
Naw Hser Hser and Maggi Quadrini wrote in the Diplomat of 31 January 2024 how 3 years after the Myanmar coup, women Human Rights Defenders remain at the forefront
Three years have passed since the military coup in Myanmar. Since then, the resistance movement has flourished into an inspired example of people’s power and the defiance of authoritarian forces. In the eyes of the military, the hijacking of the 2020 general election and subsequent coup attempt was an easy conquest. They thought that violence and their long-practiced orders of “shoot to kill” would silence the civil unrest that immediately followed. It soon became clear that the generals gravely underestimated the will of the country’s people, who refused to inherit another era of military rule. The people’s rejection of the junta has been widespread and notable for the prominent role played by women in the revolution against military rule.
While the political, social, and armed aspects of the revolution have shifted, what has remained constant is the unwavering participation and leadership of women who have defied patriarchal systems, including gender stereotypes, and set an unquestionable new standard of what is possible for women and girls in Myanmar.
Women human rights defenders are resisting the military dictatorship in different ways despite the many challenges they face. They remain resilient and unwavering in their quest to see the fall of the junta. During these difficult times, women and girls, especially those from ethnic areas, including the Rohingya as well as those who identify as LGBTQ, have faced more forms of violence, including domestic assaults, sexual violence, rape, being coerced into sex work, and human trafficking.
No reliable justice mechanisms exist in Myanmar that can bring perpetrators to court and ensure accountability. Facing a myriad of barriers that prevent and undermine women’s participation, women human rights activists have defied the patriarchal systems promoted by the Myanmar military, which have been used to influence a culture that does not see women as equals.
Rather than submit to the military junta and its patriarchal dictates, women have increased their participation in various facets of the pro-democracy movement. The women’s rights movement has also become more intersectional than ever. Women from urban and rural backgrounds, different ages, ethnic groups, and religions have united in their shared goal of defeating the Myanmar armed forces, quashing the patriarchy, and ensuring gender equality.
In the immediate aftermath of the coup, many women human rights defenders were forced into exile. Many fled to border areas, their names rapidly reaching the top of the lists of those wanted by the junta. This also put a target on their family members. The threat of unlawful arrest and the possibility of torture and death has taken an immense strain on women fighting the military. Yet they have continued to resist the junta’s tactics of intimidation and terror in pursuit of a gender-equal future for Myanmar that is free from military rule.
Women human rights defenders have refused to adhere to Myanmar’s patriarchal status quo in many ways. This was evident through their strong participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), where many female majority professions, including garment workers, health care providers, teachers, engineers, police, and even those in the military, quit their jobs following the attempted coup and refused to work for the junta. The Gender Equality Network has estimated that women comprise over 60 percent of frontline protest leaders and roughly 70 to 80 percent of the CDM’s leaders…
Women have been actively involved in resolving the many struggles of this revolution, including in the political, social, and armed arenas. However, there is still a lack of funding support and a lack of recognition within the resistance of women’s roles. There is also a lack of women’s participation in decision-making.
Findings from a new report called “Triple Resistance,” released this month by the Women’s League of Burma (WLB), a community-based organization working on the rights of the country’s women, revealed that despite the risks facing women human rights defenders, including threats to their physical and digital security, they have not been discouraged. On the contrary, they remain committed to seeing an end to military rule – something that is only possible through the participation of women. Of the women interviewed for WLB’s report, nearly 100 percent are involved in humanitarian work, and 50 percent have taken on new roles in the political arena, particularly as federalism becomes more established.
Women-led organizations are driving relief efforts on the ground, particularly in conflict-affected areas of Myanmar. These organizations provide services for victims of gender-based violence, counseling, food kits, and dignity kits, including menstrual care items and materials for expectant or new mothers. In Karenni State, where the capital city is being attacked relentlessly, the Karenni National Women’s Organization is continuing its operations to ensure displaced and vulnerable communities receive urgently needed humanitarian assistance and access to safe houses as gender-based violence rises.
Similarly, in Karen State, the Karen Women’s Organization works with its networks to ensure the swift and secure delivery of aid through cross-border channels effectively and efficiently to meet the needs of displaced groups, the majority of whom are women and children.
In addition, as local leadership across ethnic states and regions in Myanmar adopt federal bodies and institutions, women have participated in leadership capacities and have been central to forming a new federal Myanmar. For example, in Karenni State, women occupy several positions in the Karenni State Consultative Council, the Ta’ang Political Consultative Council, and other locally-driven bodies, as well as in People’s Administration Teams and village administrations.
Women leaders bring decades of experience working with armed actors and rights groups to provide security and protection for their communities. Their leadership must be recognized, encouraged, and accelerated. Without women, there is no sustainable development and consideration of gender perspectives during operations, service provision, or other political developments.
At an international level, governments and donors must understand that knowledge and expertise on locally-led challenges and solutions come from lived experiences and trust, which women and ethnic people can speak to. Global actors must recognize the efforts of women human rights defenders who continue to defy the status quo to ensure that the fall of the military junta will also lead to substantial improvements in gender equality. To do so, they must reinforce their commitment to amplify civil society organizations, including women-led initiatives. This new political space must be supported in order to hold the military junta accountable, at the International Criminal Court, if not in Myanmar itself.
In short, support of gendered programs, and for women’s participation more generally, is an integral part of the struggle against the military junta. Whether on the frontline, in political positions, or the classroom, women make up the substance of the revolution and are gradually carving out a new, progressive Myanmar. They deserve the world’s support.
Meet Joey Siu, a Human Rights Foundation (HRF) Freedom Fellow and Hong Kong activist based in Washington, D.C. Siu played a vital role in Hong Kong’s 2019 pro-democracy protests, co-founding a student advocacy coalition and organizing city-wide demonstrations. After fleeing Hong Kong in 2020, Siu served as an advisor to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China and a policy advisor to Hong Kong Watch. Siu is currently an Asia Pacific coordinator for the World Liberty Congress, an advisor to the Athenai Institute, and oversees the Hong Kong program at the National Democratic Institute.
In exile, Siu remains a dedicated advocate for Hong Kongers, Tibetans, Uyghurs, and other communities oppressed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Learn more about her activism in the exclusive interview below.
Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your current projects.
A: I am a human rights activist from Hong Kong (HK). Back in 2019, when the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong first started, I was one of the student leaders who led many of the on-campus activities and city-wide protests and demonstrations. In 2019, I also co-founded a student coalition with other student activists in HK to solidify international advocacy efforts for HK. I was forced to flee HK in late 2020 and settled in Washington, D.C. Since then, my efforts have been focused on international advocacy for HK’s democratic freedoms overseas.
I am establishing a regional activist network for women advocates to connect, amplify, and empower one another and to elevate women leaders in this space. Beyond that, I am very active in the HK diaspora community and working to foster cross-movement solidarity with other communities under the repression of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Q: How do you feel about the bounty HK authorities placed on your head?
A: On Dec. 13, I woke up to the news that HK authorities issued an arrest warrant and a $1 million HK bounty on me. Ever since I fled, I knew this could happen given the Chinese and HK authorities’ efforts to silence dissent, not just from those in HK but from those in exile. But this bounty is like a death certification — I can really never go back. I was overwhelmed by the news and the actions I’ve had to take to step up my personal security.
I — and the 12 others with bounties on their heads — saw this coming. They issued the bounty to threaten us, to deter us from continuing our advocacy, to scare us, and to really intimidate us. But that will not work on me. I will not stop; I will continue my advocacy until I can return to HK.
Q: What tactics does the Chinese regime employ to suppress activists like yourself?
A: The overseas communities have lobbied for international attention on China and HK and all of the human rights atrocities committed by the CCP. That is why the CCP is trying so hard to silence us.
Over the past few years, the CCP and the HK authorities have stepped up their transnational repression. We’ve witnessed a wide variety of tactics employed by the CCP, from holding our loved ones back home as hostages to infiltrating our communities, setting up secret police stations all across the world, including in the United States, to coercing different stakeholders and industries to spy on their behalf.
These tactics have not been used just against Chinese and Hong Kongers but also against Uyghurs and Tibetans. And we’ve seen other authoritarian regimes copying the CCP’s tactics, including Russia, Iran, and Belarus. In fact, these regimes are working hand-in-hand to silence dissent overseas.
Q: Should democracies be paying more attention?
A: I want to stress that the impact of transnational repression extends beyond the activists. Beyond spying on dissidents overseas, tactics include economic coercion, brainwashing, and education through Confucius institutes in American universities and colleges. Those tactics impact every individual living in a democracy.
Democracies all across the world should pay attention to this and take concrete steps to combat transnational repression on their soil and in other democracies. Securing the safety and security of dissidents like me is an essential step to allowing us to have the freedom to continue speaking up and to continue confronting authoritarianism.
Q: How has the Freedom Fellowship supported you in your work?
A: The Fellowship allowed me to meet activists from communities I otherwise would not have been in touch with as actively or frequently. In my cohort, I met activists from Bolivia, Cuba, Myanmar, Morocco, Egypt, and more. I got to talk with them and learn the tactics they’ve used to overcome challenges and unite their communities. Fostering relationships and strategizing on campaigns together was the most valuable experience for me.
Building that cross-community solidarity is essential. We see dictators working together and it is of the utmost importance that we, human rights activists, are working together. Democratic backsliding is not an issue faced by one community alone; it is an issue faced by all communities under oppression.
Q: What have you recently been doing? What do you hope to achieve in 2024?
A: After the news about the HK bounty broke, I had several meetings with US congressional offices. I met with the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Chairman Mike Gallagher of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Sen. Jennifer Sullivan. Hopefully, these meetings will lead to legislation to combat transnational repression, but we require a coordinated and bipartisan effort in Congress. I hope to see something like the Transnational Repression Policy Act advanced and adopted in this Congress.
With the ongoing reports of the bounty on me and other activists, Jimmy Lai’s case, and the upcoming sentencing of the 47 activists in HK, we can hopefully take advantage of the momentum. We can push the US government and other democracies to take action.
Additionally, during the 2023 Freedom Fellowship retreat, I came up with the idea of the regional women’s network. In the upcoming months, I want to turn this idea into something concrete—start inviting people to be founding members and board members, start the registration process, and establish a financial foundation and fundraising plan.
Today, 9 December, marks 25 years of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders (HRDs). It provides for the support and protection of HRDs, and for many HRDs it’s been a useful marking in legitimizing and supporting their work.
The anniversary is a good time to reflect on what’s working and what isn’t for HRDs, and we discussed some of these issues on a Human Rights First webinar a couple of days ago.
In many ways it was a different world in 1998. Celine Dion and the Backstreet Boys were the big rock acts then. The internet, mobile phones, and digital surveillance of HRDs, were all in their infancy.
For HRDs, much has changed, and it’s possible to see 25 years of success as HRDs have achieved some great things. They’ve changed laws, won the release of people from prison, distributed humanitarian aid, exposed corruption, documented and publicized human rights violations.
For some HRDs just keeping going despite pressure and threats is success in itself. Hundreds are killed every year for their peaceful work on behalf of others, for embarrassing corrupt officials, for making good things happen.
But there is now a greater recognition of the value of the work of HRDs than there was in 1998, and a better understanding of who they are. The family of HRDs has expanded in the last 25 years – back then NGOs discussed whether those working on environmental rights, or those documenting corruption, or medics working in war zones, really counted as HRDs. Now we know they do.
We better understand too the responsibilities of businesses to protect HRDs, and that defenders working on certain issues face specific threats, that those working on land rights, indigenous rights or environmental rights away from big cities are most likely to be murdered. We know too that many defenders are targeted not just for what they do but for who they are.
Women Human Rights Defenders experience added layers of harassment. They’ve always lived with pressure from society in terms of what they should get engaged in and not, pressure from their families on what a woman should do or not, and since 1998 there’s now added pressures in the digital sphere. They are targeted more than other HRDs with digital harassment, which we see very often leads to physical attacks offline.
Our organizations share a similar approach to working with HRDs. The NHRF supports HRDs working for NGOs outside big cities, often formed by people from the community that they work in. It supports organizations where women are in leaderships roles, and provides resources over the long term. For instance, the NHRF works with an NGO in Thailand originally formed by young women to organize their community in the face of a mining company. Most of these women are now grandmothers, but still keep up their human rights work.
The NHRF also works with organizations of HRDs in Indonesia made up of family members of those killed and tortured in in the 1960s who are now seeking redress and working against impunity.
Human Rights First, meanwhile, continues its decades-long work on Northern Ireland, also working with bereaved families of those killed during the conflict in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s who are also looking for redress and working against impunity.
For many HRDs achieving success is a long road, requiring perseverance and allies. International standards and rules aren’t protecting them enough. Their work needs to be better understood, and better funded.
The picture for HRDs since 1998 is mixed, and no doubt will be for the next 25 years. HRDs will achieve more successes, but unless governments find the political will to implement the protections of the HRD Declaration, more defenders will be attacked, jailed and murdered.
So, what do the next 25 years hold for HRDs? The future is hard to predict, but one thing we can say for sure is that HRDs will continue to be, as the UN Special Rapporteur for HRDs Mary Lawlor says, ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
In these times, when many people from Gaza to Ukraine question the power of the human rights framework to actually protect people’s rights, everyone with power must ensure that HRDs can be funded, protected and supported. We will all be better off for it.
Anushani Alagarajah, human rights defender and executive director at the Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research. Illustration: UN Women Sri Lanka/Dinuk Senapatiratne
Anushani Alagarajah is a human rights defender who has worked closely with conflict-affected communities in the North and East of Sri Lanka. She is the Executive Director at the Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research, a non-profit research think-tank that works on public policy issues in Sri Lanka. On the occasion of the International Day for Women Human Rights Defenders, Ms. Alagarajah spoke about her work in post-conflict Sri Lanka.
I don’t know if I ever consciously decided to become a human rights defender. But when I was seven, there was a gang rape of a girl from our school. Her classmates held a sit-in protest. I didn’t know what rape meant, but children living with conflict grow up fast. I wanted to protest too. If I see injustice, I want to speak up.
As a child, it was horrible to live in bunkers [during the conflict], to come out and see ashes. I’ve been in survival mode my entire life. Seeing what’s happening in other countries, I worry that children will spend their entire lives trying to make sense of it, trying to be okay.
Grief is not only for people, it’s also for a place you called home, that belonged to you. For me, it was always about the childhood I didn’t have. I will probably be grieving that for the rest of my life.
I left Sri Lanka in 2009 to study in Bangladesh. I never wanted to come back. But from the time I left, I knew I had to return. I came home every summer, to conduct workshops with orphanages and conflict-affected communities.
I couldn’t run away. Afterall, I am from this community.
I was displaced thrice. I couldn’t sleep peacefully knowing I could have done something, and I didn’t do it. I thought, “I can try to make things better.” So, I returned after finishing my studies in 2014. Since then, I have been living my purpose in the community.
Whether it is the economic crisis or a lack of opportunities, a lasting political solution requires the political will for change.
It’s difficult when you come from a history of violence, conflict and trauma. During the conflict, a range of violent acts were committed against women.
Women bear the brunt of any damage, and are also expected to be the ones to rebuild, protecting the family unit, community and culture. Yet, particularly in the global South, women are not afforded resources.
Patriarchy is the norm.
Men can take a job in different places, access resources, work with men, divorce, remarry. Women cannot. They must provide out of nothing. Even though they suffered tragic, unspeakable experiences, they are still shackled by stereotypical expectations.
My own work is considered unfitting. I’m expected to be a good woman and get married. We are very far from being inclusive.
In the early days, I would try to talk to older activists about mental health, saying “I’m not doing okay”. But as a human rights defender, you’re almost expected to be superhuman. I think being sensitive helps me do my job better because I look out for others.
For the last four years, when my office researches something difficult, we check in with everyone about how they feel. Whenever one of us needs support, the community will hold them, providing a safe space to be vulnerable or angry. It took a long time for me to find this community.
You cannot heal on your own.
With my colleagues, I run practical workshops to create the next generation of activists, training people in small communities and villages to advocate for their rights. We have participants pick an issue, ideate a solution and work with relevant stakeholders. For example, we have young participants who want to reclaim an occupied land in their village. They met the parliamentarian and the Divisional Secretary’s Office and are now drafting a lease. If they have the courage and knowledge to do that at 20 years old, there is so much we can do. I’m always looking for a few people to take our struggle forward.
Sometimes, it only takes one person.
A wise woman once told me: “You will not see the changes you work for in your lifetime.” This helps put things in perspective. We can only chip at the corners so that one day, hopefully, things will be different. Giving up is not an option. We can’t stop now.”
Cyrine Hammemi is a human rights defender and a project manager at the Association for the Promotion of the Right to Difference (ADD) in Tunisia. Her work focuses on the human rights of persons belonging to minority groups, through alerts on discriminatory situations and the violence they suffered.
Speaking to ISHR, Cyrine discussed her journey into activism and her vision for an inclusive future. She shared the personal triggers that led her to become an activist and emphasised her hopes for a world where every individual can fully enjoy their rights without discrimination based on identity, gender, religion, or sexual orientation.
The award ceremony took place on at the Palace Cultural Center in St. Gallen.
Paula Weremiuk from Narewka on the Polish-Belarusian border works as a teacher during the day and as a refugee aid worker in the Bialowieza forest at night. According to the Paul Grüninger Foundation, a refugee drama of enormous proportions has been taking place there since 2021.
Paula Weremiuk searches for people in need in the inaccessible areas of Bialowieza, providing them with clothing, food, sleeping bags and the most basic necessities, writes the Paul Grüninger Foundation. The Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenka is forcing thousands of refugees from the Middle East and Africa across the border to Poland, where they are met with strong political rejection.
At the border, in the primeval forest of Bialowieza, there is often brutal violence, abuse, rape and repeated deaths. The refugees, including women and small children, are helplessly abandoned to their fate in the inaccessible terrain and are chased back and forth across the border by the authorities. Refugee helpers are being harassed and criminalized, the press release continues.
Ayşe Gökkan’s award was accepted by her lawyer, Berfin Gökkan. The lawyer read out a letter from Ayşe Gökkan written in Kurdish: “I greet you with the warmth of the sun and the enthusiasm of Jin-Jiyan-Azadî. As a member of the Movement of Free Women, I accept this award on behalf of thousands of struggling Kurdish women. There are many fighting women in prison in Turkey.”
The foundation justified the awarding of the recognition prize of 10,000 francs to the Kurdish feminist and human rights defender Ayşe Gökkan for her civil society commitment and her criminalization:
“Ayşe Gökkan has particularly distinguished herself as a journalist and as an activist for women’s rights. For almost forty years, she has been writing newspaper columns against racial and gender discrimination, speaking at national and international podiums and seminars, leading workshops on the topic of gender inequality and taking part in peaceful demonstrations in this context.
From 2009 to 2014, Ayşe Gökkan was mayor of the Kurdish city of Nusaybin, which lies on the border between Turkey and Syria. When Turkey began to build a wall against refugees between Nusaybin and the neighbouring Syrian town of Qamishlo, the mayor protested against this “wall of shame” with, among other things, a sit-in strike.
Because of her civil society commitment, Ayşe Gökkan has been arrested in Turkey more than eighty times, subjected to more than two hundred investigations and, in 2021, sentenced to more than 26 in a grotesque court case based on the statements of a single “secret witness” for membership in a “terrorist organization”.
She is a victim of the criminalization of the political opposition in Turkey. Ayşe Gökkan is in prison, her sentence has not yet been confirmed by the Turkish Court of Cassation, and proceedings are also pending before the European Court of Human Rights.”
On 21 November, 2023 the Martin Ennals Foundation, joined by HRW and the ISHR, issued the following statement:
The Martin Ennals Foundation condemns the harassment of Soltan Achilova and her daughter by government authorities at Ashgabat airport and calls for Turkmen authorities to stop their reprisals against journalists for their human rights work.
In the early hours of November 18th, 2023, Mrs. Soltan Achilova and her daughter were stopped by Turkmen government officials from boarding their flight for Switzerland. A customs official took their passports, wet them with a damp rag and declared the passports to be ruined, effectively obstructing Soltan from traveling to Geneva where she would feature as a keynote speaker at the University of Geneva’s Human Rights Week 2023.
This act of harassment and denial of freedom of movement is particularly reprehensible in that it comes only a few days after Turkmenistan’s 4th Universal Periodic Review, during which high-level government representatives expressed their “support for …the promotion and protection of fundamental freedoms and human rights“, giving multiple examples of their progress in terms of respect for freedom of expression.
Soltan Achilova believes she was not allowed to leave the country because of the authorities’ fear that negative information might be heard during the Human Rights week in Geneva. Yet, the obstruction from travel of an internationally recognized human rights defender is more striking evidence of the lack of freedoms in the country and the bad faith with which the Turkmenistan government engages with the Human Rights Council.
Turkmenistan is one of the most repressive and isolated countries in the world, ranking 176th out of 180 countries in terms of press freedom and working conditions for journalists. Soltan has been reporting about her country for more than a decade. Her pictures of daily life are one of the few sources of documentation of human rights violations occurring in this most secretive nation. In 2021, Soltan was recognized by the Martin Ennals Award for her documentation of land grabs and forced evictions of ordinary citizens in Ashgabat.
Soltan has not been allowed to travel freely outside of her country on several occasions. She is under constant surveillance by Turkmen authorities and has suffered numerous incidents of harassment, intimidation, and threats. Despite the challenges, Soltan persists in her human rights work, regularly sending information and pictures outside of the country so that government authorities are held to account.
We renew calls for Turkmenistan to fully implement their human rights obligations, including, inter alia, allowing human rights defenders and journalists to conduct their work peacefully. We invite Member States accompanying the 4th Universal Periodic Review of Turkmenistan to strongly sanction the silencing of Soltan Achilova and other Turkmen journalists.
The World Press Freedom Index ranked Turkmenistan one of the five most repressive regimes globally in 2023. Martin Ennals Award Finalist Soltan Achilova is a 74 years-old photojournalist who captures the lives of ordinary people in Turkmenistan with her camera. Soltan’s pictures describing food insecurity, forced and illegal evictions, lack of adequate healthcare and the discrimination faced by people with disabilities, are an invaluable source of information on human rights violations endured by the people of Turkmenistan. In collaboration with the University of Geneva Human Rights Week this event will explore how independent journalism can push back on the denial of freedom of expression in the toughest authoritarian contexts.
In response to the news that the court granted former Philippine Senator Leila de Lima bail for the third and last drug-related charge against her, Butch Olano, Amnesty International’s Philippines Director, said: “This is a welcome development and a step towards justice.
As a human rights activist and former Senator, she has been one of the staunchest critics of the human rights violations under the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte. Since her arrest, Amnesty alongside many other organisations have repeatedly said that the charges against her were fabricated and that the testimonies by witnesses against her were manufactured. See: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/35cd51c0-93fb-11e8-b157-db4feecb7a6f
The authorities arrested de Lima after she sought to investigate violations committed in the context of the so-called “war on drugs” under the former Duterte administration, including the extrajudicial execution of thousands of people suspected of using or selling drugs, which Amnesty has said may amount to crimes against humanity. As in the case of de Lima, there has been almost no justice or accountability for the victims of these abuses and their families.
Court proceedings against de Lima in the last six years have been marked by undue delays, including the repeated failure of prosecution witnesses to appear in court and changes in judges handling the cases against her. In 2018, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that the detention of de Lima was arbitrary because of the lack of legal basis and the non-observance of international norms relating to the right to a fair trial.
The arbitrary detention of de Lima reflects the broader context of increasing impunity for human rights violations in the Philippines. These violations include killings, threats and harassment of political activists, human rights defenders, members of the media and other targeted groups.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 