Posts Tagged ‘young’

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Mary Lawlor’s new report focusses on Youth Human Rights Defenders

March 7, 2024

UN Report Unveils Strategies to Shield Child, Youth Human Rights Defenders
UN Report Unveils Strategies to Shield Child, Youth Human Rights Defenders

Emmanuel Abara Benson, on 6 March 2024, unveils in BNN a new UN report which highlights the challenges faced by young activists, advocating for global support and legal frameworks to safeguard their rights and efforts:

Amnesty International heralds a new UN report as a significant advancement for young activists worldwide, set to be introduced by UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor during the 55th Session of the Human Rights Council on 12 March 2024. The document, titled “We are not just the future”: challenges faced by child and youth human rights defenders”, highlights the unique challenges faced by young activists, including oppression, age-based discrimination, and barriers to resources and legal aid.

The report by Mary Lawlor sheds light on the considerable obstacles child and youth defenders encounter, such as intimidation, threats, and attacks, both in physical and digital realms. Amnesty International’s Sara Vida Coumans emphasizes the overdue recognition of the distinct experiences and adversities young defenders face compared to their adult counterparts. The report also addresses the issue of “gatekeeping” by adult-led groups, which hampers the ability of young activists to access necessary resources and participate in decision-making processes.

Amnesty International has documented numerous instances of abuses against young human rights defenders. Examples include Fatima Movlamli from Azerbaijan and Mahmoud Hussein from Egypt, who faced intimidation and arbitrary detention, respectively, due to their activism. Moreover, the report mentions the plight of child climate defender Leonela Moncayo in Ecuador, who was intimidated with an explosive device outside her home, highlighting the risks young activists face. The organization calls for governments worldwide to heed the Special Rapporteur’s recommendations, particularly in providing legal aid and support for young defenders. See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2023/11/13/hrw-submission-to-special-rapporteur-focuses-on-child-and-youth-human-rights-defenders/

The document not only brings to the forefront the specific challenges faced by child and young human rights defenders but also underscores the importance of global support and legal frameworks to safeguard these individuals. By spotlighting the adverse impact of social media, the right to peaceful assembly, and the effects of climate change on young people, the report advocates for a more inclusive and supportive environment for young activists. Governments are urged to adopt the recommendations, recognizing the vital role of young defenders in advocating for human rights and democratic reforms.

This groundbreaking report marks a pivotal moment in the recognition and support of child and young human rights defenders. By highlighting the unique challenges they face and offering targeted strategies for protection, the UN and Amnesty International are paving the way for a more inclusive and equitable future for young activists. The global community’s response to these recommendations will be instrumental in ensuring that young voices are not only heard, but also protected in their brave efforts to defend human rights.

https://bnnbreaking.com/breaking-news/human/un-report-unveils-strategies-to-shield-child-youth-human-rights-defenders

https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-41349259.html

see also: https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/-/child-human-rights-defenders-want-to-be-heard-by-their-governments-council-of-europe-study

https://rightlivelihood.org/news/joint-statement-condemns-global-persecution-of-youth-activists

Posted in AI, Amnesty international, books, Human Rights Council, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
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Steven Kabuye, Ugandan LGBTQ activist, stabbed after death threats

January 5, 2024

On 3 January 2023 it was reported that a prominent Ugandan LGBTQ+ activist Steven Kabuye was stabbed by unknown assailants on a motorbike after receiving death threats. Steven Kabuye, 25, suffered knife wounds and was left for dead on the outskirts of the capital Kampala.

Human rights defenders have been warning about the risk of attacks on members of the LGBTQ+ community after Uganda last year adopted what is considered one of the harshest anti-gay laws in the world.

Kabuye told detectives investigating the incident that he had been receiving death threats, according to a statement issued by police spokesperson Patrick Onyango.

Richard Lusimbo, head of the community action group Uganda Key Populations Consortium, said: “All our efforts at the moment [are to ensure] that he gets the medical attention he deserves and also the perpetrators of this heinous act are held responsible.”

Ugandan gay rights activist Hans Senfuma said in post on X that the attackers wanted to kill Kabuye. “Steven claims that these two guys’ intentions were to kill him, not robbing, and also claims that it seems they have been following him for several days,” Senfuma wrote.

Kabuye, who works with the Coloured Voices Media Foundation, which campaigns on behalf of LGBTQ+ youth, told investigators who visited his bedside that he had been receiving death threats since March 2023. He had returned to Uganda in December for Christmas after travelling abroad in June.

In May last year, Uganda adopted anti-gay legislation containing provisions making “aggravated homosexuality” a potentially capital offence and setting out penalties for consensual same-sex relations of up to life in prison.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/03/ugandan-lgbtq-activist-in-critical-condition-after-brutal-knife-attack

https://www.barrons.com/news/prominent-uganda-lgbtq-activist-injured-in-knife-attack-0796fbdf

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UDHR@75: how UNDP sees itself ensuring rights for all

December 11, 2023
Children smiling
Photo: UNDP Zimbabwe

On 8 December, 2023 the United Nations lead agency on international development, UNDP, posted its commitment to human rights:

..Protecting our rights to do so was enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 75 years ago, and it has been our North Star for human rights ever since.  The past three years have been defined by crises on a global scale. Conflict is at its highest since the Second World War. From Gaza to Ukraine, Sudan and Myanmar, people’s right to live without fear is being undermined. Climate change, brought about by humanity’s own actions, is stripping away the right of our children to a healthy and prosperous future. The COVID-19 pandemic brought to stark light the value of the right to health for all.  

Three-quarters of a century on, we are at an important inflection point, where we must recalibrate and reconnect with the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights if we want to shape a future that lives up to its vision.  Doing so will not be easy. It will require action across many different spheres of life. Recognizing this, UNDP is prioritizing seven key areas where it is working to strengthen human rights. 

Dignity and equality of rights is needed for all people and the rights of people living in crisis and conflict must be assured 

If we don’t invest in human rights, we won’t achieve the Sustainable Development Goals 

Ninety percent of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets align with the obligations outlined in international human rights frameworks.  However, halfway to the 2030 deadline, development progress and the realization of Agenda 2030 is under threat due to the combined impacts of climate change, conflict, overlapping energy, food and economic shocks, and lingering COVID-19 effects. Human rights can be part of proactive solutions helping to address contemporary development challenges and pushing progress towards Agenda 2030.  By adopting a human rights-based approach, UNDP is working to ensure that no one is left behind as we strive for sustainable development. For example, UNDP has worked to promote synergies between human rights and SDG systems in eight countries, including Sierra Leone, Uruguay and Pakistan, boosting both the efficiency and effectiveness of national efforts to advance human rights and sustainable development. 

Human rights defenders must be able to speak out without fear 

Human rights defenders face alarming threats, including intimidation and reprisals, in the pursuit of a goal that should be a shared aspiration for all – the creation of fair and peaceful societies.  In 2022, there was a 40 percent increase in the killings of human rights defenders, journalists, and trade unionists compared to 2021.  UNDP works with civil society, human rights defenders and national human rights institutions around the world to ensure those that want to speak out have the freedom to do so. In Thailand, UNDP conducted a study looking into the protection of human rights defenders at the request of the Ministry of Justice.  

Young people must be included in efforts to protect the rights of future generations 

There are 1.2 billion young people in the world today, and UNDP recognizes the important role they play as positive agents of change. 

Private sector has an important role to play 

Business can be a powerful driver of sustainable development, offering access to social and economic opportunities and a pathway to prosperity for many.  

Human rights and the environment are interconnected 

In the next 25 years, building resilience to biodiversity loss and climate change will be key to the realization of all human rights – including the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.  

Digital technology must unite, not divide 

Technology can be a great enabler of equality and development by improving connectivity, financial inclusion, and public services, positively impacting the realization of human rights.  But it can also have a dangerous downside, exacerbating existing inequalities and vulnerabilities. While over 80 percent of developed countries have access to the internet, only 36 percent of individuals in least-developed countries are online.  UNDP puts human rights at the centre of its Digital Strategy, and supports countries to harness digital technology as a means to advocate for, protect, access, report on, and exercise human rights…

https://www.undp.org/stories/ensuring-rights-all-rapidly-changing-world

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Young human rights defenders from China (Uyghur, Tibetan and Hong Kong) trained on the UN’s human rights bodies.

October 6, 2023

ISHR and Freedom House hosted a group of young defenders from the diaspora for a training on UN human rights mechanisms and joint advocacy meetings in Geneva.

Eight activists working on Uyghur, Tibetan and Hong Kong rights across six countries, including Canada, Germany, India, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States, participated in the United Nations Advocacy Training (UNAT) program to learn and strategise together on ways to hold the Chinese government accountable for its human rights violations at the international level.

Why a training for youth diaspora activists?

Young activists play a critical role in diaspora movements to address and counter the Chinese government’s persecution of peoples from the Uyghur region, Tibet, and Hong Kong. When capacity building and support are available to them, they can meaningfully engage their host governments and international institutions, like the UN, to hold the Chinese government accountable for its ongoing abuses against their communities inside the People’s Republic of China, and acts of transnational repression outside Chinese borders. Unfortunately, youth diaspora activists don’t have many opportunities to convene and collaborate in those international spaces. 

Working together as allies and partners, these groups can help increase the confidence in their efforts and improve impact and sustainability. Opportunities to network, train together, and work on joint advocacy efforts will help individual diaspora groups communicate and coordinate more effectively amongst themselves and with other relevant local and international groups to amplify and sustain pressure on the Chinese government for meaningful human rights change.

Aged between 19 and 28 years old, this was the first time that young activists from these communities came together in Geneva to work on cross-cutting community issues and build solidarity. Participants are engaged in rights advocacy through their work with established groups like the Hong Kong Democracy Council, Free Uyghur Now, and the Uyghur Human Rights Project or have founded impactful youth led organisations in their host countries, such as Students for a Free Tibet, Harvard College Students for Uyghur Solidarity, and Uyghur Youth Initiative. They are working toward better visibility and accountability towards violations outlined in the UN’s Xinjiang report published last August 2022, including the curtailment of free assembly and expression, mass surveillance, forced labour, and cultural and religious persecution.

During the interactive training programme, participants engaged with one another through peer check-in sessions, with human rights experts and advocates through live Q&As, discussions on the Human Rights Council, Special Procedures, Treaty Bodies and the Universal Periodic Review, and considered how to engage in advocacy activities at the UN in order to effect change for their communities.

The in-person training was designed to coincide with the 54th Session of the Human Rights Council so that the participants could attend the United Nations for the first time in their careers. As well as receiving additional advocacy training modules on all the UN human rights mechanisms from a range of experts, participants had the opportunity to build networks in Geneva and around the world, engage in meetings with UN member States and UN staff, and produce a powerful solidarity video statement which summarises their call to action to the UN States members.

All of the participants expressed they were satisfied with the training and  increased their skills and networks to engage in advocacy at the UN. Freedom House and ISHR will continue to support these participants as they develop joint advocacy initiatives and build solidarity among their communities. 

Participants in front of the flags of UN Member States, at UN Office at Geneva

Participants in front of the flags of UN Member States, at UN Office, Geneva

https://ishr.ch/latest-updates/young-uyghur-tibetan-and-hong-konger-defenders-share-their-priorities-with-the-uns-human-rights-bodies-in-geneva/

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Clips from young Human Rights Defenders

August 17, 2023
Mary Lawlor

Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, shows on her LinkedIn page young human rights defenders who are the ones who will carry the human rights movement into the future, and to who we need to listen now.

👉 e.g. meet Zeinab, a young WHRD from #Kenya who took part in the 2023 Vienna Youth & Children HRD conference:

#YouthForRights #InternationalYouthDay #YouthLead #InSolidarityAndHope

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13-year old HRD from Colombia cares for climate

July 19, 2023

Francisco Vera, is 13 years old and he has been advocating for human rights and climate justice since he was 9 years old.

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ASEAN Human Rights Advocacy Academy 2021: how to apply

August 20, 2021

What is the ASEAN Human Rights Advocacy Academy?

The ASEAN Human Rights Advocacy Academy is a 15-hour online capacity building workshop (spread into weekly sessions) for young activists and professionals in Southeast Asia on effective human rights advocacy in ASEAN.

Organised by FORUM-ASIA, the Academy will bring together the expertise of human rights practitioners and provide necessary tools to enhance participants’ knowledge on the role of ASEAN and its human rights mechanisms.

What will participants learn?

  • Human rights situation in ASEAN
  • ASEAN human rights framework
  • Best practices and case studies on human rights mechanisms
  • Advocacy strategy

Programme Duration: 2 to 30 September 2021, 2-5 PM every Thursday (GMT+7)

Platform: Zoom

Who can apply?

  • Southeast Asian and Timor Leste nationals in their junior and mid-level career (those with 2 to 5 years of relevant experience working in NGOs, Think Tanks, academic institutions, non-profit and social enterpreneurship collectives) and working in the fields of social justice, human rights, peace and conflict, and democracy in Southeast Asia (local, national, or regional level)
  • Those with two to five years experience in the above-mentioned fields;
  • Have prior knowledge and engagement with ASEAN and its human rights mechanism (can be in terms of activism, research, and other means of engagement);
  • Those who do not have prior knowledge and engagement with ASEAN (e.g. university students) will need to demonstrate how participating in  the Academy will contribute to their work or associated organisations towards advancing human rights in the region;
  • Excellent command of English, both spoken and written.
  • All qualified individuals regardless of age, race, colour, sex, gender orientation, religion, national origin, disability, or veteran status are encouraged to apply.

How can you apply?

To register for the workshop, kindly fill up the necessary information and submit your CV (maximum 3 pages) through this link: https://bit.ly/ASEANHRAcademy

Deadline of Submission

23 August 2021, midnight (GMT+7)

For inquiries about the Academy,  please email us at ea-aseanATforum-asia.org

https://www.forum-asia.org/?p=35520

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10 December: World Press Freedom Conference 2020

December 6, 2020

Journalism without fear or favour

Journalism without fear or favour
.unesco.org/news/visualizing-journalism-without-fear-favour (Image by UNESCO)

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has made even clearer the importance of being able to access reliable, unbiased information in a time of crisis – and of independent media as the source of such information. But freedom of the media is under attack in many countries all around the world and journalists are subject to harassment, repression and violence. The World Press Freedom Conference 2020 (WPFC) aims to stand up for a free, safe and independent media and protect journalism from new and existing forms of unwanted control, pressure and influence.

The WPFC is co-hosted by UNESCO and the Kingdom of the Netherlands and will take place on 9 – 10 December 2020 in a new, innovative format, merging digital and in-person elements. It will bring together journalists, media companies, human rights defenders, members of the judiciary, policymakers, academics, youth and NGOs from around the world and is open to anyone, anywhere, who is interested in press freedom. [see also https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/world-press-freedom-index/]


RNW Media will be hosting a session called PRESSure is ON: creating an inclusive and enabling online space for digital media communities. This session puts the spotlight on the marginalised voices of young media makers. Bloggers, vloggers and media makers from teams in Libya, the Democratic Republic of Congo and India will discuss their on-the-ground experiences in their local contexts, the challenges they face when it comes to digital rights (both access and content takedowns) and the possible solutions.

The session on 10 December 12:15 – 13:15, will be led by Melody Patry, Advocacy Director at the digital rights NGO Access Now. The audience will be able to use a chat function to share their thoughts on the topics discussed and will be asked to respond to questions that will pop up on their screens throughout the session. These questions are designed to gather the audience’s opinions on such issues as what poses the biggest threat to freedom of speech and whether or not governments should have the right to censor media content they consider harmful to society.

The RNTC media training centre has joined forces with UNESCO and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs to hold an online competition in the run-up to the conference offering the chance to win a two-day online Masterclass in Investigative Journalism. People are invited to submit a short story, picture or 10-second video message explaining what press freedom means to them or how they’ve contributed to it, via direct messaging @UnescoNow. A total of 20 winners will be selected to take part in RNTC’s masterclass which will take place in January.

The on-line training will introduce key concepts and tools for investigative journalism and strengthen participants’ capacity to identify and research issues of governance, accountability, corruption, and misuse of power. In order to publicise the competition, RNW Media has been sharing videos on its social media channels of journalists from around the world explaining what press freedom means to them

Journalism without fear or favour

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‘Amnesty Academy’ launched to educate young human rights defenders

October 30, 2020

On 29 October 2020, Amnesty International launched Amnesty Academy, a free human rights learning app which aims to educate the next generation of human rights defenders on a host of topics including freedom of expression, digital security, and Indigenous Peoples’ rights.

Learners around the world will be able to access courses ranging from 15 minutes to 15 hours in over 20 languages, including Urdu, Bangla, Hungarian, Korean, Russian, Thai, Czech and Turkish. All courses can be downloaded within the app, which is available on iOS and Android devices, allowing for offline learning.

“This app has been designed to empower and encourage everyone everywhere to learn about human rights. Sharing knowledge is a vital way to help us stand up for our own and for each other’s rights, and to struggle for justice and equality all over the world,” said Julie Verhaar, Amnesty International’s Acting Secretary General. This app has been designed to empower and encourage everyone everywhere to learn about human rights. Sharing knowledge is a vital way to help us stand up for our own and for each other’s rights, and to struggle for justice and equality all over the world.

Among Amnesty Academy’s key features is a flexible self-paced approach to learning, allowing users to start courses as and when it suits them. Learners who complete some of the longer courses will be awarded an official certificate signed by Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

The courses available on Amnesty Academy have been developed and fine-tuned over the past three years as part of Amnesty International’s human rights learning website. They have now been optimized for mobile use, making human rights learning more accessible than ever.

“Human rights education is the foundation of Amnesty’s work. Our overall goal is to ensure that people worldwide know and can claim their human rights. The Amnesty Academy app brings us closer to this goal by providing a simple and accessible platform for millions of people to access quality human rights education,” said Krittika Vishwanath, Head of Human Rights Education at Amnesty International.

Amnesty Academy will be regularly updated to accommodate learning in many more languages and with new course offerings in the months and years to come.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/10/amnesty-launches-human-rights-learning-app-to-equip-next-generation-of-activists/

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TRANET-Africa reports attacks increasing on youth human rights defenders

May 12, 2020

Deo Wasswa stated on 11 May 2020 on Capital Radio in Uganda that “Attacks on human rights defenders have become rampant in Africa”. He bases himself on a report dubbed “African youth defenders perspectives 2019 from rhetoric to action” launched by Transformative leaders Network-Africa, which says these attacks are carried out by a range of state and non-state actors, including armed militant and extremist groups, police and military forces, government authorities and off campus groups among others.According to Fredrick Ekakoro Etoori, head of secretariat at Transformative Leaders Network -Africa (TRANET-Africa), the report, provides a general situation of youth human rights defenders in 2019, the category of the youth human rights defenders at most risk, the country and or region that recorded the most cases of youth human rights defenders at risk among others.

The report documented 70 cases in Uganda, 25 cases in South Sudan, Kenya 25, Sudan 16, Tanzania 2, south Africa 5 Among others.

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