Issue No 21

January 2007

 

Welcome to Civil Society Watch Monthly Bulletin, an e-newsletter of updates and analyses concerning civil society's rights to freedom of association, assembly and expression around the world. The Bulletin is compiled by the staff at Civil Society Watch, a programme of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation. Please feel free to forward the Bulletin to friends and colleagues. We welcome your comments and contributions!

 

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

 

FRONT PAGE
Civil Society in Zimbabwe: Struggling for space

An interview with Primrose Matambanadzo, Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights

 

CIVICUS ALERTS!

Activists at WSF and WEF say War on Terror is Spiraling out of Control

 

ANALYSIS

ZIMBABWE: Solidarity team releases summary report

 

GOOD NEWS

ECUADOR: Government closes mine after citizen protest

UNITED NATIONS: LGTB organisations granted status

BELARUS: European Council withdraws trade privileges

 

COUNTRY UPDATES

BELARUS: Authorities threaten to evict only registered human rights group

BURUNDI: Civil society activists and journalists arrested

CHINA: Regulations restrict lawyers defending social activists

FIJI: Activists detained by military

EGYPT: Police again crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood

GHANA: Mining activists arrested

GUATEMALA: Environmentalists attacked

GUINEA: General strike violently repressed

IRAN: Women's rights campaigners under pressure

MALTA: Bill threatens NGO independence

NIGERIA: Groups call for end to electoral violence

PERU: Restrictive NGO law passed

RUSSIA: Human rights group forced to close

RUSSIA: Law limits freedom of assembly

SRI LANKA: Anti-terror law to be re-introduced

TURKMENISTAN: Environmental activist detained

PHILIPPINES: Human rights NGOs accused of propaganda

UZBEKISTAN: Human rights defenders honoured online

ZIMBABWE: Opposition members arrested

 

RESOURCES AND PUBLICATIONS

Asian Human Rights Commission: 2006 report released

Freedom in the World 2007: Year marked by Stagnation

CIVICUS: What do you think? Have your say on the CIVICUS Blog

 

FRONT PAGE

 

Civil Society in Zimbabwe: Struggling for space

An interview with Primrose Matambanadzo, Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights

Late last year, civil society leaders from across Africa went to Zimbabwe on a solidarity mission, co-organised by CIVICUS and Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition.  The team was shocked by the government’s apathy towards the spiralling poverty, as well as the continuing crackdown on fundamental freedoms for civil society. Primrose Matambanadzo of Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights met with the team while they were in Zimbabwe. In the following interview she describes the uphill battle faced by many in Zimbabwe.

The full interview, visit: http://www.civicus.org/csw/FRONTPAGE_Zimbabwe_01.07.htm

 

CIVICUS ALERTS

 

Activists at WSF and WEF say War on Terror is Spiraling out of Control

30 January 2007 - Across the globe, our civil liberties are being sacrificed in the name of the “war on terror,” warned activists at both the World Economic Forum and World Social Forum, during press conferences organised by CIVICUS. Actor Danny Glover, Nobel Peace Prize winners Jody Williams and Shirin Ebadi, as well as former UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson were among those who joined CIVICUS in calling for respect for human rights.

 

Full press release, visit:

http://www.civicus.org/new/media/CIVICUS-WSF-WEF-PRESSRELEASE_post-press-conference30January2007.doc

 

ANALYSIS

 

ZIMBABWE: Solidarity team releases summary report

Late November 2006, a courageous team of seven civil society activists from around Africa visited Zimbabwe to offer solidarity and discuss the challenges faced by civil society in the country. They spoke with local NGOs, trade unions, women’s movement, churches, students, and individuals in businesses and government. This "executive summary" report is a collection of their impressions. The final report will be published in mid February.

 

Full press release, visit:

http://www.civicus.org/csw/African.Solidarity.Visit.to.Zimbabwe.pdf

 

GOOD NEWS

 

ECUADOR: Government closes mine after citizen protest

9 December - Violent confrontations between anti-mining citizens of the region (about 500 people) and pro-mining citizens (about 100) during early December convinced the national government to shut down all activities of Ascendant Copper Corporation in Junin, reports Global Response. In a letter to Ascendant’s general manager in Ecuador, the Deputy Minister for Environmental Protection of the Ministry of Energy and Mines reportedly said the violent conflict generated by the mining operation puts Junin citizens at risk. She said Ascendant must cease all activities until an Environmental Impact Assessment for the mining project wins government approval.

http://www.globalresponse.org/

 

UNITED NATIONS: LGTB organisations granted status

12 December - The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations has approved the application for consultative status of the European section of the International Lesbian and Gay Association , the Danish National Association for Gays and Lesbians and the Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany, reports the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders. This is reportedly the first time that LGTB organisations have been recognised at ECOSOC. Through granting the consultative status to these three NGOs, the UN shows strong recognition for LGTB organisations, whose members are often subjected to serious acts of repression.

http://www.protectionline.org/spip.php?article1519

 

BELARUS: European Council withdraws trade privileges

21 December - The European Council has decided to withdraw trade privileges from Belarus, in response to the government's failure to respect trade union rights, reports the International Trade Union Confederation. The trade union movement has reportedly been campaigning for this action, at international, European and national level, since 2003. An International Labour Organisation Commission of Inquiry in 2004 called on Belarus to stop the harassment of trade unions and guarantee freedom of association and the right to organise.

http://www.ituc-csi.org

 

CSW COUNTRY UPDATES

 

BELARUS: Authorities threaten to evict only registered human rights group

1 February  - After arbitrarily cancelling the lease of the last officially registered human rights organisation in Belarus, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC), the government has re-instated the group's rental agreement, reports Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty. On 19 December, BHC was reportedly notified by the Administrative Service of the President of Belarus that its rental contract would be cancelled in one month’s time. Eviction would have denied the BHC a registered address, giving the authorities a legal pretext to close the organisation. Both the European Union and the US State Department protested the initial announcement of the eviction.

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/01/31/belaru15229.htm

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/01/3-cee/cee-310107.asp

 

BURUNDI: Civil society activists and journalists arrested

13 December - The human rights situation in Burundi appears to be deteriorating, with a growing number of civil society activists and independent journalists arrested and harassed in recent months, report Human Rights Watch (HRW), Journaliste en danger, the International Federation of Journalists, Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists. Since May 2006, the government has arrested three journalists and two civil society activists on excessively broad and poorly substantiated charges, reports HRW.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200612130902.html

 

CHINA: Regulations restrict lawyers defending social activists

12 December - China has introduced new restrictions on lawyers handling collective disputes and representing protesters, reports Human Rights Watch. The “Guiding Opinions on Lawyers Handling Mass Cases," introduced in March 2006, reportedly allow local authorities to interfere in cases involving 10 or more plaintiffs, discourage lawyers from talking to domestic or international media, require that lawyers get their firms’ permission to take on such cases, and hold lawyers liable if disputes "intensify."

http://hrw-news.c.topica.com/maafrx3abvjitaBuzu6baeQyvL/

 

EGYPT: Police again crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood

18 December - In simultaneous predawn raids on 14 December, Egyptian police arrested 17 senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood and rounded up at least 140 students on suspicion of being linked to this banned non-violent organisation following a protest at Cairo's al-Azhar University, Human Rights Watch reports. The Egyptian authorities have arrested at least 1,000 members of the group in an ongoing crackdown that began in March.
http://www.solidarnizkuba.pl/en/aktualnosci.id_16

 

FIJI: Activists detained by military

26 December – Soldiers arrested six pro-democracy activists for questioning around midnight on 24 December, reports Fiji Times. The six included Fiji Women's Rights Movement executive director Virisila Buadromo and her partner Arshad Daud, businesswoman Laisa Digitaki, businessman Imraz Iqbal, youth activists, Jackie Koroi and Pita Waqavonovono. The group had reportedly been warned by the military to stay quiet after they actively voiced their concerns over the military takeover.
http://pidp.eastwestcenter.org/pireport/2006/December/12-26-f02.htm

 

GHANA: Mining activists arrested

4 December - Newmont Ahafo Gold Mines and the Ghanaian government have been condemned for the unlawful arrest of Ibrahim Aidara, the programme officer of the West African Regional Office of Oxfam America and six other activists of Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining, reports the Ghanian newspaper, the Daily Champion. They were reportedly arrested on 27 November, while meeting with the people of Yamfo, on violations of rights committed since the mining company began operation.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200612050779.html
 

GUATEMALA: Environmentalists attacked

18 January - Environmental activists Carlos Albacete Rosales and Piedad Espinosa Albacete, a married couple, were the subjects of an apparent attempt on their lives in Guatemala City on 10 January, reports Global Response. Both work for the Guatemalan environmental organisation Tropico Verde (Green Tropic), which works to protect the Mayan Biosphere Reserve (a nature reserve in the Peten region in northern Guatemala). During the last four years Tropico Verde has reportedly been active in denouncing cattle ranchers' and alleged drug traffickers' usurpation of land inside the Reserve.
http://www.globalresponse.org/

 

GUINEA: General strike violently repressed

28 January - A general strike called by Guinea’s national trade union centres to put pressure on the Guinean President Lansana Conte on several economic and social claims and good governance issues, resulted in widespread repression, reports the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). From the beginning of the general strike on 10 January to its end on 28 January, at least 59 people were reportedly killed, including 49 on Monday 22 January alone, and numerous others were injured.
http://www.ituc-csi.org/spip.php?article624

 

IRAN: Women's rights campaigners under pressure

31 January - Women's rights campaigners have come under increasing government pressure over the last month, report the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights and Human Rights First. Three journalists at the forefront of a campaign launched in August 2006 on women's rights in Iran - Mansoureh Shojaei, Sedigheh Taghinia (alias Tal’at Taghinia) and Farnaz Seifi - were reportedly arrested at the airport, and prevented from leaving the country to attend a journalism workshop in India. They were released on bail on 28 January, but a hearing will take place in two months. The government has also reportedly blocked Internet access inside Iran to websites dedicated to women's human rights, including www.we-change.org.

http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/campaign/WeChange/iddbn53r453xied?

http://www.fidh.org/article.php3?id_article=3980

 

MALTA: Bill threatens NGO independence

14 January - Maltese non-governmental organisations fear that the new NGO Bill introduced on 8 January could stifle their independence, reports Malta Today. The Voluntary Organisations Bill is in its second reading in parliament but the government has ignored recommendations made by the NGO legislation working group in November to change the law, stated the group in a recent statement. The bill also reportedly gives the minister responsible for social solidarity, widespread discretionary powers to refuse registration applications.

http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2007/01/14/t2.html

http://www.mrc.org.mt/page.asp?n=newsdetails&i=8780

 

NIGERIA: Groups call for end to electoral violence

23 January - Amnesty International, human rights activists, and 28 civil society organisations, have decried a spate of extra-judicial killings, electoral violence and abuse of human rights in the country, ahead of the 2007 general elections, reports the Nigerian Newspaper, This Day. The groups issued a statement against a perceived culture of impunity amongst Nigerian security agencies, calling for an end to the political violence and human rights abuses during and after elections against human rights defenders, civil society activists, and journalists.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200701240046.html

 

PERU: Restrictive NGO law passed

12 December - On December 8, the government passed a law that will give them more control over non-governmental organisations, reports the website Upside Down World. The law was approved as a draft in the final days of October, but Congress continued to debate over amendments after warnings from international and national human rights organisations, who were concerned about the law's effects on civil liberties. After some changed vocabulary, the law was passed. Peruvian NGOs are reportedly collecting congressionalists' signatures to present a demand of unconstitutionality against the law.

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/543/1/

 

RUSSIA: Human rights group forced to close

24 January - The Russian Supreme Court ordered the closure of the Russian Chechen Friendship Society in a ruling on 23 January, reports the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders. The RCFS was originally ordered to close in October last year by a regional court on the basis of the new NGO law that made it illegal for an NGO to be headed by a person convicted of "extremist" activities. Stanislav Dmitrievsky, the RCFS Executive Director, had been sentenced to a two-year suspended prison sentence for “incitation to national hatred” in February 2006. RCHS reportedly plans to appeal the decision before the European Court of Human Rights.

http://www.omct.org/index.php?id=&lang=eng&actualPageNumber=1&articleSet=Press&articleId=6814

 

RUSSIA: Law limits freedom of assembly

26 January - A draft law submitted on 17 February threatens to further restrict freedom of assembly, reports the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders. The law, entitled “Amendments to some Federal Laws on demonstrations, protests, marches and meetings,” would bar those with criminal records from organising demonstrations, prohibit gatherings near military camps, and allow authorities to ban protests around the time of elections.

http://www.omct.org/index.php?id=&lang=eng&actualPageNumber=1&articleId=6819&itemAdmin=article

 

SRI LANKA: Anti-terror law to be re-introduced

13 December - The government recently announced that the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1979 was to be re-introduced, reports Tamilnet. The Colombo based Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), expressed serious concern regarding the new regulations, called the Prevention and Prohibition of Terrorism and Specified Terrorist Activities Regulations. The regulations reportedly give sweeping discretionary power to the government over the activities of civil society organisations including those committed to human rights, national reconciliation and also over the media.

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=20597

 

TANZANIA: Education NGO restricted by the government

30 January - The government has banned local education NGO HakiElimu from publishing its advertisements and has threatened to take strict legal action against the organisation's executive director, Rakesh Rajani, according to a statement by the organisation. Since late 2005, the government has reportedly restricted HakiElimu from conducting or publishing research on schools, developing films, participating in education forums and distributing publications to schools.

http://www.hakielimu.org/e.pdf

 

TURKMENISTAN: Environmental activist detained

29 January - Andrey Zatoka, a well-known Turkmen ecologist and environmental activist, was detained on 17 December, the same day he had planned to travel to Moscow to attend a meeting of the International Socio-Ecological Union, reports the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights. Zatoka was originally held on accusations of breaching the public order, however, he has now been charged on four separate counts. Zatoka has been involved in civil society activities aimed at improving environmental conditions in Turkmenistan for many years.

www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/20/asia/AS_GEN_Turkmenistan_Human_Rights.php

 

UZBEKISTAN: Human rights defenders honoured online

9 December - Human Rights Watch has published an online "facebook" of Uzbek Human Rights Defenders which  catalogues their courageous work and the multiple methods the Uzbek government employs to silence and punish them. In the past year alone, at least a dozen defenders have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms on politically motivated charges.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/eb6200da53106e4e0c95957d5a473049.htm

 

ZIMBABWE: Civil society activists arrested

30 January - State agents rounded up 40 men, women and youth who had gathered in a church for a meeting of Zimbabwe's opposition Christian Alliance in the small town of Kadoma on 26 January, reports Voice of America. Eight senior officials were detained but released 29 January. There are to reappear in court on 5 March on charges of holding a meeting without police authorisation.

http://www.osisa.org/node/7424

 

RESOURCES AND PUBLICATIONS

 

Asian Human Rights Commission: 2006 report released

Asian Human Rights Commission announces the release of its Human Rights Report for 2006, entitled "The State of Human Rights in Eleven Asian Nations". The report includes in-depth analysis of the situation of human rights in the following countries: Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

For more information, visit: http://material.ahrchk.net/hrreport/2006/AHRC2006HRReport.pdf

 

Freedom in the World 2007: Year marked by stagnation

The year 2006 saw little change in the global state of freedom in the world and the emergence of a series of worrisome trends that present potentially serious threats to the expansion of freedom in the future, Freedom House said in a major survey of global freedom released on 17 January.

For more information, visit: http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=70&release=457

 

CIVICUS: What do you think? Have your say on the CIVICUS Blog

Civil society must regularly confront controversial issues which affect both what we do and how we do it. Here is an opportunity to share your thoughts on these topics, to speak out and to make a difference! Help CIVICUS develop its vision of a global community of active, engaged citizens committed to the creation of a more just and equitable world.

Have your say, visit http://civicus.civiblog.org 

 

CONTACT US

We hope you enjoyed the Bulletin! If you would like to send an appeal or share information with us regarding issues affecting civil society in your region, please contact the Civil Society Watch (CSW) team at, cswatch@civicus.org

To subscribe or unsubscribe please e-mail , cswcommunity@civicus.org

CIVICUS House, 24 Gwigwi Mrwebi Street, Newtown, Johannesburg, 2001, PO Box 933, Southdale, Johannesburg, 2135, South Africa, tel +27 11 833 5959 / fax +27 11 833 7997, info@civicus.org

CIVICUS is an alliance of approximately 1000 members in 105 countries, dedicated to strengthening civil society and citizen action around the world. Civil Society Watch is a programme of CIVICUS, which seeks to expose, address and prevent threats to civil society's rights to freedom of association, expression and assembly. For more information, visit www.civicus.org and www.civilsocietywatch.org

www.civilsocietywatch.org

DISCLAIMER:

The views expressed in this bulletin are a reflection of those contained in the original reports to which they are linked here, and are not necessarily those of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation.