reprisals

• Reprisals perpetrated with impunity risk weakening our human rights mechanisms

  Statement at 48th Session of the UN Human Rights Council

  Item 5: Interactive Dialogue on the Secretary-General’s report on reprisals

  Delivered byLisa Majumdar

  Thank you, Madame President, and thank you Secretary-General for this important report. Civil society engagement is fundamentally necessary to ensure adequate reporting to these mechanisms and to promote human rights, in and outside the UN, and acts of reprisal threaten to weaken this engagement.

  Acts of reprisals by members of this Council are particularly egregious. There are multiple allegations against China of intimidation and reprisals against human rights defenders and civil society organisations that cooperated, or were perceived as cooperating, with the UN, in particular through their arbitrary detention. This must be addressed by this Council.

  A particularly disturbing trend highlighted in the report is that of legislation affecting the ability of civil society to engage with the UN, such as Nicaragua’s Law 140 on the Regulation of Foreign Agents, which means that organisations now risk their registration for receiving technical assistance or funding for service provision, research, reporting or advocacy. It is essential that a resolution by the Human Rights Council to address reprisals addresses this concerning pattern.

  An act of reprisal perpetrated by Cambodia against prominent Cambodian human rights defender and monk, Venerable Luon Sovath, during a debate held in the Human Rights Council’s 45^th Session serves to illustrate the lack of political will of Cambodia to engage meaningfully with the Council. We urge States to ensure that this is reflected in any action taken by the Council on Cambodia.

  We further urge Member States to go beyond refraining from such acts of intimidation and reprisals, to addressing them. The time is overdue to impose a real political cost for the deliberate weakening of our collective human rights mechanisms.

  We thank you.

• Resolution on cooperation with the United Nations, its representatives and mechanisms adopted

  UN Human Rights Council adopts resolution on cooperation with the United Nations, its representatives and mechanisms in the field of human rights 

• States must ensure civil society engagement with the UN and its mechanisms without fear

  Statement at the 51st Session of the UN Human Rights Council

  Item 5 General Debate

  Delivered by Junwoo Yang, CIVICUS

  Thank you, Mr President.

  We thank the Secretary-General for the important report on reprisals, which concludes that such acts seriously affects civil society actors’ cooperation with and submission of information to the United Nations.

  In India, Khurram Parvez, has reportedly been subjected to travel bans, ill-treatment, arbitrary arrest and has been detained since November 2021 on trumped up counter-terrorism charges in relation to his cooperation with the UN over the years. We call for his immediate release and charged dropped.

  In the Philippines, CIVICUS member Karapatan, and its Secretary-General Cristina Palabay, are longstanding inclusions on the reprisals report owing to red-tagging, harassment, arbitrary arrests and charges in connection with their engagement with the UN. While the government of the Philippines responded with allegations of false characterisation of government action, we note that the report documents that ‘Ms. Palabay continues to suffer online threats, harassment, and legal action.’

  In Indonesia, Papua activist Victor Yeimo has been in detention since May 2021 in connection to his calls for self-determination of the Papuan people, including at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

  We call for all States to cease acts of reprisals, including laws regulating NGOs and their access to funding, including foreign funds and donations, and imposing onerous reporting and tax requirements, which placed additional obstacles on the engagement of civil society with the UN, as we have seen in India, Russia, Zimbabwe, and numerous other countries.

  We further call for States to ensure a political cost on acts of reprisal, which make the UN less responsive and less effective. It is incumbent on all States – members of this Council in particular – to ensure that civil society can engage with the UN and its mechanisms without fear.

  We thank you.