women human rights defenders

• In Defence of Humanity: Women Human Rights Defenders and the struggle against silencing

  In recent years, combined with existing threats, the rise of right-wing and nationalist populism across the world has led to an increasing number of governments implementing repressive measures against the space for civil society (civic space), particularly affecting women human rights defenders (WHRDs). The increasingly restricted space for WHRDs presents an urgent threat, not only to women-led organisations, but to all efforts campaigning for women’s rights, gender equality and the rights of all people. In spite of these restrictions, WHRDs have campaigned boldly in the face of mounting opposition: movements such as #MeToo #MenAreTrash, #FreeSaudiWomen, #NiUnaMenos, #NotYourAsianSideKick and #AbortoLegalYa show how countless women are working to advance systemic change for equality and justice. More WHRDs across the world are working collectively to challenge structural injustices and promote the realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Their power has been in the collective, despite constant attempts at silencing them. Furthermore, there have been WHRDs recognized for their invaluable contributions to opening civic space and protecting human rights in India, Poland, and Ireland. In the United States, WHRDs have won awards for the environmental activism, and in Iraq for their work in calling for greater accountability for sexual violence during war time.

  This policy brief responds to this context and highlights how the participation of WHRDs in defending and strengthening the protection of human rights is critical for transforming traditional gender roles, embedded social norms and patriarchal power structures. WHRDs are leading actions to advance sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR), socioeconomic justice, labour rights and environmental rights. Moreover, WHRDs work to ensure that women are included in political and economic decision-making processes, making clear the disproportionate effects that socioeconomic inequalities have on women and gender non-conforming people.

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• India: Two more women activists arrested as crackdown on protesters continue

  Human Rights Defenders Alert – India and global civil society alliance CIVICUS call for the immediate release of two women activists who were arrested last week for their involvement in mass protests against the discriminatory citizenship law. These arrests highlight the escalating crackdown on dissent by the Indian authorities.

• India: Women human rights defenders still in pre-detention after 300 days

  

  Global civil society alliance CIVICUS and Front Line Defenders call for the immediate release of women human rights defenders Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal who have now spent 300 days in pre-trial detention.

  Devangana and Natasha were arrested on 23 May 2020 due to their peaceful campaign against the regressive Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The women human rights defenders have faced multiple cases (First Information Reports) including under the anti-terror law, aimed at prolonging their detention. Devangana and Natasha’s arrest and continued incarceration highlights the escalating crackdown on dissent by Indian authorities.

  Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal are founding members of the Pinjra Tod, a collective of women students and university alumni from across Delhi, who advocate on women’s rights, student’s rights and to lessen restrictions, placed on female students. The collective argues against using concepts of safety and security to silence and suppress women’s rights to mobility and liberty. Since the CAA was passed in December 2019, the women human rights defenders had played a critical role in peacefully protesting and mobilising against the law. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has described the law as ‘fundamentally discriminatory in nature’.

  On 23 May 2020, the Special Crimes Cell of the Delhi Police arrested Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal in connection with their alleged role in a sit-in protest against the CAA that took place at Jaffrabad metro station in Delhi in February 2020. Among the charges laid against them include obstructing a public servant in discharge of public functions, wrongful restraint, and assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty. The defenders were granted bail the following day (24 May) by the Metropolitan Magistrate Delhi. In the order granting bail, the judge noted that the defenders were merely exercising their right to freedom of expression by protesting and did not engage in any form of violence.

  Despite being granted bail, the defenders were never released. In what has become a familiar pattern for arrest of human rights defenders, Devangana and Natasha were rearrested on 26 May by a Special Investigation Team of the Crime Branch of the police and remanded in Tihar jail. The new charges include serious offences of murder, attempted murder, criminal conspiracy and ‘promoting enmity between different groups’ under the Penal Code; offences under the Arms Act and the Prevention of Destruction of Public Property Act.

  Natasha and Devangana were subsequently charged under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, (UAPA), India’s primary counter-terrorism law which has been increasingly misused by the government of Narendra Modi. The UAPA has become the weapon of choice to detain human rights defenders, journalists and protesters under catch-all charges. For Natasha and Devangana, each time they were granted bail by court, a further FIR with more severe charges was filed against them, preventing release. Multiple cases culminated in FIR 59/2020 which includes sections of the UAPA, under which Natasha, Devangana and several other human rights defenders are currently jailed.

  “The arbitrary detention of Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal for 300 days now, is aimed at punishing them for their human rights work. The Indian authorities must drop the baseless and politically-motivated criminal charges against them and release the women human rights defenders immediately and unconditionally” said Olive Moore, Deputy Director - Front Line Defenders.

  Human rights defenders across India have been arrested and detained for long periods for their involvement in protests or criticising the authorities. A series of vaguely worded and overly broad laws are being used by the Indian authorities to deprive activists of bail and keep them in detention. These includes the UAPA, section 124A on ‘sedition’ of the Indian Penal Code, the National Security Act (NSA) and the Public Safety Act (PSA), which applies only in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.

  “The Indian government must stop using restrictive national security and counter-terrorism laws against human rights defenders and critics. The laws are incompatible with India’s international human rights obligations and highlight the increasingly repressive civic space we have seen in India under the Modi government,” said David Kode, Advocacy & Campaigns Lead at CIVICUS.

  In December 2019, India’s rating was downgraded by the CIVICUS Monitor from ‘obstructed’ to ‘repressed’ owing to its increased restriction of space for dissent during 2019 and particularly following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s re-election in May 2019.

  For further information, please contact:

  CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation: Josef Benedict, Asia Pacific Researcher –

  Front Line Defenders: Adam Shapiro, Head of Communications & Visibility – - +1-202-294-8813

• Ladies European Tour community should #StandWithSaudiHeroes

  In December 2019, the Ladies European Tour announced that it would hold a tournament in Saudi Arabia from the 19^th to the 22^nd March 2020 in collaboration with Golf Saudi and the Saudi Golf Federation.

  While this announcement can be seen as an embedment of Saudi Arabia’s “Vision 2030” economic reform plan, it also contributes to “sports-washing”—hosting major events that seek to gloss over serious human rights violations committed by the Saudi authorities in recent years.

  Since the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, Saudi Arabia has faced increased international criticism over its human rights record; particularly its lack of a transparent investigation into the prominent journalist’s murder, the torture and detention of women’s rights activists and its role in war crimes committed during its military operations in Yemen.

  In June 2019, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions presented to the Council her investigation into Khashoggi’s murder, which found the State of Saudi Arabia responsible and highlighted that the killing reflected a broader crackdown against activists, journalists and dissenters, as well as a culture of impunity at the highest levels. The Special Rapporteur called on corporations to “establish explicit policies to avoid entering into business deals with business, businesspeople, and organs of the State that have had a direct or indirect role with Khashoggi’s execution or other grave human rights violations”.[1]

  The Saudi government has created a hostile environment for human rights defenders— applying a counter-terrorism framework to arbitrarily detain, torture and put on trial dozens of them for their peaceful advocacy. Among those who remain detained are notable Saudi women’s rights activists Loujain al-Hathloul,Nouf Abdulaziz, Maya al-Zahrani, Nassima Al Saddah and Samar Badawi, who advocated for women’s right to drive and an end to the country’s discriminatory male guardianship system.

  These women were among a dozen women’s rights defenders arrested in 2018 in retaliation for peacefully campaigning for the protection and promotion of women’s rights throughout the kingdom. It was reported that they were subjected to electric shocks, flogging, sexual threats and other forms of torture during interrogation. These women, who remain detained, along with other women’s rights activists temporarily released, are on trial on charges solely related to their activism. We remain concerned that they will not be able to exercise their right to a fair trial in accordance with the international human rights standards, which Saudi Arabia is obliged to adhere to.

  While Saudi Arabia adopted some positive measures, including permitting women to drive andremoving travel restrictions for women over 21,the authorities have yet to fully dismantle the male guardianship system, tackle severe lack of gender inequality, and end the arbitrary detention and prosecution of women’s rights activists and human rights defenders.

  The world’s top human rights body, the United Nations Human Rights Council (the Council) has unprecedentedly scrutinized the human rights record of Saudi Arabia in 2019. In March 2019, Iceland on behalf of 36 States delivered the first-ever joint statement on Saudi Arabia which, expressed serious concern over the continuing arrests and arbitrary detentions of human rights defenders and called for the release of ten named women’s rights activists from detention as well as accountability for the extrajudicial killing of Khashoggi. In September 2019, Australia delivered another joint statement that set out a list of measures that the Saudi government should take to improve its human rights record, which to this date the Saudi government failed to comply with.

  Lastly, we also draw your attention to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights which provide that businesses should seek to prevent (...) adverse human rights impact that they are directly linked to through their business relationships, even where they do not contribute to those impacts. The ability of civil society to operate where you hold or participate in events is essential to upholding your credibility.

  Take Action:

  In light of Saudi Arabia’s numerous and ongoing violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, the undersigned NGOs have called on Ladies European Tour organizers, players, and official broadcasters to urge the Saudi authorities to drop all charges against Saudi women’s rights activists and immediately and unconditionally release all those detained for their peaceful and legitimate human rights activism.

  Because you can genuinely make a difference in these activists’ lives and their struggle for freedom and gender equality, we are asking Ladies European Tour fans to help increase awareness and show solidarity by sharing on social media messages of support and solidarity with #StandWithSaudiHeroes.

  While official Ladies European Tour voices and players are important in pressuring Saudi authorities to act, it is important that fans of the sport around the world speak up, too. You too can help the activists get their freedom and continue their human rights struggle. In the lead up to the tournament, please add your voice to the campaign by sharing support on social media channels using the hashtag #StandWithSaudiHeroes, follow campaign developments online, and reach out to competitors representing your home country to participate.

  Signatories:

  1. ALQST
  2. Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB)
  3. CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
  4. Equality Now!
  5. Gulf Center for Human Rights
  6. International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
  7. MENA Rights Group
  8. Women’s March Global

  [1] See full recommendations to corporations on page 98- Section K: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session41/Documents/A_HRC_41_CRP.1.docx

• MEXICO: ‘The criminalisation of human rights defenders threatens the whole collective in order to deactivate it’

  CIVICUS speaks with members of the Collective for the Freedom of Kenia Hernández about the criminalisation of activism in Mexico.

  Kenia Hernández is an Amuzga Indigenous woman, defender of Indigenous peoples’ rights to land and territory. She coordinates the Zapata Lives Libertarian Collective, which promotes peaceful resistance to the extractivist development model imposed by the Mexican state. There are currently nine open legal cases against Kenia on fabricated charges linked to her activism, and she has been unjustly imprisoned since October 2020. She is part of the CIVICUSStand as My Witness campaign seeking her release.

  What’s the situation of Kenia Hernandez and the struggle for her release?

  Kenia’s work has always focused on denouncing and mobilising against serious human rights violations. Now she is experiencing firsthand the criminalisation of human rights and Indigenous rights activism that so many other activists in Mexico have gone through. The system seeks to keep her behind bars for as long as possible to prevent her continuing to do her work, and to this end prolongs the deprivation of her liberty by repeatedly opening new criminal cases against her.

  The campaign for Kenia’s release has two components: a legal struggle, led by a legal team that monitors the proceedings against her, and a political struggle, focused on raising the profile of her case. It is important that the whole country knows what is happening and that people continue to talk about Kenia’s case, and the injustice and impunity she is suffering. We cannot look the other way because her reality is the reality of many other criminalised activists.

  How many cases similar to Kenia’s do you estimate there are today?

  Kenia’s case is part of a pattern of criminalisation aimed at hindering the work of those defending human rights and the rights of Indigenous peoples in Mexico. The fact that Kenia is an Indigenous woman, a mother, a lawyer and a human rights defender is no coincidence: it is the very reason for her imprisonment.

  Other activists have suffered worse fates than prosecution and jail: they have been victims of assassinations, attempts on their lives and enforced disappearances.

  It is difficult to estimate how many criminalised activists and political prisoners there are in Mexico because there is no official body tracking them exhaustively. But it is a reality that we corroborate constantly. The main targets of this persecution are racialised activists, usually in a situation of poverty and vulnerability, who fight for a cause the government finds inconvenient. What those causes are depends on the context; each state is different. But they all fall victim to the same criminal system and are equally subjected to the violation of their rights and exposed to injustice and impunity.

  To what extent has Kenia’s criminalisation succeeded in silencing demands?

  Whenever a situation of criminalisation occurs, the group of activists accompanying or supporting the criminalised defender also fears for their own freedom. After all, what the criminalisation of defenders seeks to do is threaten the whole collective in order to deactivate it.

  Perhaps there was a moment when the group supporting Kenia was afraid to raise its voice. The mere fact of working to make Kenia’s situation visible and make demands on her behalf puts us all in a situation of vulnerability. But we have overcome this fear and have continued to put forward our demands and make visible the situation of this particular criminalised defender and the perverse functioning of a criminal justice system that is profoundly racist and classist.

  What are your demands to the Mexican state?

  President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in his ‘Mañanera’ – a daily morning meeting with media – on 30 December 2022, instructed the Secretary for Security and Citizen Protection, Rosa Isela Rodríguez, to follow up on the case of Kenia Hernandez, which was our request. We demand that Ms Rodríguez meet jointly with Kenia’s legal team and with Federal Roads and Bridges (CAPUFE) so that they can have a dialogue and reach an agreement for her prompt release with reparations. CAPUFE is the federal agency that brought charges against Kenia in eight federal criminal cases for the alleged crime of attacks on general communication routes.

  In view of the appeal made by United Nations rapporteurs and the fact that Kenia’s case was highlighted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights as an example of the criminalisation of protest in Mexico, we hope that all the documentation and support gathered will be taken into account and will result in Kenia’s prompt release, and the recognition that she has been criminalised for her work as a defender of human rights and Indigenous peoples.

  ---

  Civic space in Mexico is rated ‘repressed’ by theCIVICUS Monitor.

  Get in touch with the Collective for the Freedom of Kenia Hernández through itsFacebook page and follow@ParaKenia on Twitter andlibertad_para_kenia on Instagram.

• Mexico: Criminalisation and arbitrary detention of the human rights defender Kenia Hernández

  To:

  Mr. Andrés Manuel López Obrador

   President of the United Mexican States 

  Dr Adán Augusto

   Interior Minister  

  Ms. Evelyn Salgado Pineda

  Constitutional Governor of the State of Guerrero  

  Mr Alfredo del Mazo
  Constitutional Governor of the State of Mexico 

  Mr. Alejandro Gertz Manero

  Attorney General of the Republic 

   

   

  In Geneva-Paris, May 11, 2022

  Warm greetings from the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory), a joint program of the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) and FIDH; the Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders (IM-Defensoras); Front Line Defenders (FLD); CIVICUS; and the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Mexico (“Red Nacional de Defensoras de Derechos Humanos en México, RNDDHM”).

  On this occasion, the Observatory, IM-Defensoras, FLD, CIVICUS, and the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Mexico address you to express our deep concern about the continued criminalisation and arbitrary detention of Ms Kenia Inés Hernández Montalván, as well as the discrimination based on her gender and her belonging to the indigenous Amuzga people in the legal proceedings against her.

  The undersigned organisations have repeatedly called on the Mexican authorities to release Ms Kenya Hernández and halt the legal proceedings against her, believing that her detention is part of the criminalisation of social protest and human rights defenders in Guerrero throughout Mexico. 

  Kenia Hernández, an indigenous Amuzga woman and lawyer from Xochistlahuaca, Guerrero, advocates for women's rights, land rights, and indigenous rights. As coordinator of the Collective Libertarian “Zapata Vive”, co-founder and member of the Movement for the Freedom of Political Prisoners of the state of Guerrero (“Movimiento por la Libertad de Los Presos Políticos del Estado de Guerrero”, MOLPEG), Ms Kenya Hernández accompanies survivors of male violence and relatives of victims of feminicide, defends the rights of the unjustly imprisoned and of people affected by the activities of multinational extraction companies on Mexican territory. However, precisely because of her legitimate work in defence of human rights, Ms Kenya Hernández has been held in solitary confinement in the maximum-security prison in the state of Morelos since October 2020. To date, for bureaucratic reasons, she has been denied access to her legal representatives, as well as in-person participation in the hearings of the various legal cases pending against her, on the grounds that she is a maximum-security prisoner. In addition, Ms Kenya Hernández was denied the right to visit her relatives on the grounds of COVID-19 prevention. As a result of these facts, Ms Kenya Hernández went on hunger strike twice in May and October 2021 for two months, which exacerbated her vulnerability and risk. 

  The Observatory, IM-Defensoras, FLD, CIVICUS and the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Mexico have followed with great dismay the criminalisation processes that have been underway since June 2020 against Ms Kenya Hernández for the alleged commission of "attacks on public roads as a gang" and "robbery with violence using a weapon" to the detriment of Caminos y Puentes Federales (CAPUFE) and Autovías Concesionaria Mexiquenses. Of the nine criminal cases against her, two are being tried at the local level in the state of Mexico, and the other seven at the federal level in the states of Guerrero, Guanajuato and Morelos. Ms Kenya Hernández was sentenced to 11 years and 3 months and 10 years and six months in prison, respectively, in two of these cases. Both sentences are currently under appeal.

  These criminalisation processes, linked to multinational extraction companies, aim to punish and put an end to the legitimate work in defence of human rights of Ms Kenya Hernández, especially her peaceful participation in demonstrations demanding the appearance of the life of human rights lawyer Arnulfo Cerón, the release of human rights defenders and members of the Council of Ejidos and Communities Against the Dam of La Parota (CECOP), and the protection of women victims of male violence in the Costa Chica region of Guerrero.

  It should be noted that the status of Ms Kenya Hernández as a human rights defender has been recognised both by the Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, which she joined in 2019, due to death threats she received for her work and by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), which has repeatedly called for her right to due process to be respected.

  The organisations signing this letter express their concern about the discrimination to which Ms Kenya Hernández is subjected due to her status as an indigenous woman. Throughout the trial, the human rights defender repeatedly requested that she be provided with an interpreter for the Amuzgo language, which was denied by the judge in charge, who considered that translation was not necessary because she had studied and spoken Spanish, in violation of Article 2 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States. Also, Ms Kenia Hernández's request to apply a gender perspective throughout the judicial proceedings was rejected by the judge on the grounds that this only applied to "submissive women" or women who had been victims of gender-based violence in the domestic environment.

  Similarly, the arbitrary deprivation of liberty of Ms Kenya Hernandez, as a mother and sole provider for her minor children, violates the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners (the Bangkok Rules), specifically Rules 4, 26, and 64, which provide, that female prisoners be placed in detention facilities close to their homes, taking into account their care responsibilities; that they are allowed contact with their families, including their children, by all reasonable means; and that women with dependent children be given priority for non-custodial sentences. 

  The undersigned organisations note with concern the restrictions on the right to social protest and the misuse of criminal law against Ms Kenya Hernández and call on the Mexican authorities to take the necessary measures to end her arbitrary detention and the numerous criminalisation proceedings against her.  

  The undersigned organisations also hope that the right to a fair and impartial trial, with a gender perspective and taking into account the cultural specificities of Ms Kenya Hernández as an indigenous woman, will be guaranteed throughout the legal proceedings against her.

  We thank you in advance for your attention, and we are at your disposal for any further information.

  Yours sincerely,

  - World Organization against Torture, within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

  - FIDH, within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

  - CIVICUS

  - Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders (IM-Defensoras)

  - Front Line Defenders (FLD)

  - National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Mexico (“Red Nacional de Defensoras de Derechos Humanos en México”, RNDDHM)

  ---

  References:

  - IM-Defensoras Urgent Alert, February 10, 2022, available here; FLD Urgent Alerts available here; CIVICUS interview with Kenya Hernandez's attorney, Antonio Lara Duque, March 9, 2022, available here.

    

• Omani human rights activist silenced and pushed into exile

  CIVICUS interviews Habiba Al Hinai a human rights defender from Oman who had to leave the country for her own safety. She also elaborates the situation for human rights defenders in the country. She is currently living in Germany with her son after she felt that had become difficult for her to live in her home country due to her human rights activities.

  1. What are the restrictions you and other human rights defenders in Oman have faced after being active in the uprising in 2011?
  In 2011, and like in many suppressed Arab countries, Oman witnessed wide spread human rights demonstrations that triggered an extremely violent government reaction attempting to suppress such unusual public actions. Demands of Omani demonstrators were not something new to the authorities, especially with rampant corruption, unemployment, poverty, limited education, suppression of press freedom and freedom of expression, ignoring women and children's rights, conducting of false elections and enforced restrictions and monitoring of civic society associations. The protests resulted in the death of two innocent civilians, in addition to tens wounded by rubber bullets and hundreds detained from different parts of the country.

  As expected, the government responded with an iron fist to human rights movements such as teachers, doctors and workers strikes by imprisoning demonstration organisers along with many human rights defenders, activists, writers, bloggers and the educated elite. As a result of this oppression, many activists had to run away to other countries such as the United Kingdom, Spain and Australia and ask for political asylum, as it has been made impossible for them, facing all kinds of threats of detention and imprisonment, to conduct human rights activities within Oman.

  In 2012, I was arrested along with two of my colleagues during our coverage of a strike by more than 4 000 workers in the desert oilfield. In 2016. I had to pay a fine as I was convicted of two charges for “insulting the Omani people” and “disturbing the general order set by the government”. These charges arose over a post I wrote on my Facebook page. Because of this statement, I had to sign a statement written by the top security service stating that I will not continue with my human rights activities or otherwise I would be sent to prison. Our organisation’s website, Facebook account and Twitter account were hacked and I was kicked out of the Facebook group so that I cannot edit it anymore. The account is still running and all that’s being said on the site is that we are very happy and have no human rights complaints anymore. For this reason, it would not be safe to start another website, Facebook or Twitter account without having high levels of digital security as it can be hacked again.

  A lot of human rights activists in Oman have been sent to courts and faced long and costly trials over fake accusations. Many have served prison sentences of one to three years in prison for “defaming the Sultan” following Facebook and Twitter posts that criticised Sultan Qabos bin Sa’eed Al Sa’eed. This is part of a punishment method for activists who refuse to stop their work. The security services are using different kinds of tools as punishment, including judicial, religious or social pressure. Sadly many activists end up in prison, unable to work or are banned from travelling. Luckily, I was able to leave Oman before I could have been banned from travelling. The political situation in Oman is dire now since the Sultan is of advanced age and is quite sick, which has led to all the different political factions fighting over who will take over power. Unfortunately, the government is using this time to punish activists through prison sentences and other restrictions.

  2. What is the situation in general for civil society in Oman?
  The situation is that all independent civil society organisations (CSOs) are banned from carrying out their activities and CSO workers have been threatened to not even work online or even form WhatsApp groups. Making calls on Skype, Signal, Messenger and WhatsApp is also banned. All independent magazines and newspaper have been closed down and reports indicate that three journalists from the Al Zaman newspaper have been sentenced to three years in prison for publishing articles critical of the state. Six activists have fled to the United Kingdom where they have been granted asylum, which is a new phenomenon for us. Many of those human rights defenders who are not in prison right now in Oman are waiting for their cases to be finalised by the courts.

  The result of this is fear of doing any human rights work. We don’t know who will rule Oman after the Sultan and many people in Oman are in general very afraid because they don’t know what will happen in the future. Additionally there is a lot of corruption and the unemployment rate is very high. 70% of the population are youth under the age of 30, meaning youth unemployment is very high. Omanis feel that the Sultan cannot solve these problems because of his age and illness and are unsure as to who will rule the country in the future.

  The crackdown on civil society has resulted in very little reporting on the human rights situation in Oman and most human rights defenders have completely stopped making posts online. The state security has managed to control and push the society back and to make civil society afraid. This has resulted in nobody recording the human rights violations publicly from inside Oman and only space left is for Omani human rights defenders who are abroad to publicly report about the situation.

  3. What specific restrictions have you faced as a woman human rights defender?
  In general, the environment for women human rights defenders in Oman is very unhealthy. The government uses its political power and pressures religious entities and our families to pressure us with the aim of breaking us down. Methods used to shame women human rights defenders include defamation and spreading bad news about women activists. This has resulted in many women human rights defenders being silenced.

  Almost all the women human rights defenders in Oman stopped their activism because they couldn’t take the pressure. The government has contacted over and over the families of women activists to pressure them to stop their female family member from activism. This and the other restrictions became too much for most women human rights defenders to handle. I worked on women’s rights, children’s rights and other human rights issues in Oman and I was punished for it. Besides the detention and paying a fine, I also underwent interrogations by the security forces and was told by the government that I didn’t have a permit to do any work on women and children’s rights.

  In my situation, the government sent my own family members to break me down. The government used them and some of our personal differences to come and detain me when I attended a protest in 2011. This creates terrible cracks in the family and I suffered a lot. Now some of my family members chose to abandon me or don’t talk to me. If they even support me financially, they will face a backlash from the government. The restrictions I faced are still causing me great problems. After I was imprisoned in the middle of the dessert in temperatures that could sometimes reach 50 degrees with my hands ties and with no air conditioning, I have a phobia of indoor spaces and this is still very stressful for me today. Currently I am seeing a psychiatrist in Germany for a treatment.

  4. What support is needed from international civil society and international actors?
  The international community must be aware of the human rights situation in Oman. Many people and governments around the world don’t think there is an issue with human rights in Oman including the European Union. This has a lot to do with us not being able to report on the situation from Oman. The government in Oman managed to scare us quickly before the international community knew what was happening.

  It is important to pressure the embassies of Oman around the world. Just recently, I saw that the Omani embassy in London had invited a big INGO for an event at the embassy. This is a sign of how good the Omani government is at networking and putting on a certain face to the outside world including human rights organisations worldwide. It is important that international human rights organisations do not accept invitations to events by the Omani embassies. If they do attend, they must pressure the government officials while at the events.

  The United States of America had previously started a Female Genital Mutilation campaign in Oman but when the US-Iran deal came into place with Oman being a key actor in the deal the US started being friendlier to the Omani government. In the United Nations Universal Periodic Review of Oman in March 2015, the United States was very gentle concerning the human rights situation in Oman. But the international community can do a lot through diplomacy. When UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to association and assembly, Maina Kiai, came to Oman, he met with activists. Luckily, international organisations supported Maina Kiai’s critical reports but this report must be collected and used as part of diplomacy at an international level. Unfortunately, the Omani government does very good diplomacy so governments need to be persistent.

  • Follow Habiba Al Hinai on Twitter @HabibaAlHinai
  • Oman is rated as ‘repressed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor

• Pakistan: Three years on, Prime Minister Imran Khan has overseen an assault on civic freedoms

  
  Three years after Imran Khan took office as Pakistan’s Prime Minister in August 2018, global civil society alliance CIVICUS has documented an ongoing assault on civic freedoms. Human rights defenders and critics have been harassed, criminalised and forcibly disappeared. There have been ongoing efforts to censor the media and to target journalists, and the crackdown on the Pashtun movement including enforced disappearances of activists has persisted. The culture of impunity in the country has meant that perpetrators of these abuses have not been held accountable.

  As a current member of the Human Rights Council, Pakistan has a duty to uphold the highest human rights standards. However, the documented violations are inconsistent with Pakistan’s international obligations to respect and protect civil society’s fundamental rights to the freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression, including those under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). These fundamental freedoms are also guaranteed in Pakistan’s Constitution.

  Human rights defenders at risk

  The Pakistani authorities have harassed, and at times, prosecuted activists for criticising government policies. Among those targeted since Imran Khan came to power include human rights defender Idris Khattak who was forcibly disappeared from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in November 2019 for seven months. Nearly seven months later, in June 2020, the Ministry of Defence finally admitted that human rights defender Khattak was being held in state custody. He is now facing prosecution in a military court. Women human rights defender Gulalai Ismail was forced to leave the country in September 2019. She and both her parents, activist Professor Mohammed Ismail and his wife Uzlifat Ismail, have been facing harassment for the last two years and are also facing trumped up terrorism charges.

  The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has raised concerns that women human rights defenders are frequently subjected to reprisals, harassment and threats. One stark example of this has been the response to the ‘Aurat March’, a march held yearly in towns and cities across Pakistan to mark International Women’s Day and for women to reclaim their space, speak up for their rights and demand justice. Women rights activists involved in the march have routinely been subjected to intimidation and threats. The Imran Khan administration has systematically failed to speak out or take action against the perpetrators. On the contrary, in March 2021, a court in Peshawar ordered the registration of a first information report (FIR) against the organisers of the march in Islamabad.

  NGOs shut down or expelled

  The government has shut down numerous civil society organizations over the last three years under the guise of combating terrorism, money laundering or for promotion of an ‘anti-state’ agenda. In December 2018, not long after the Prime Minister assumed power, Pakistan expelled 18 international NGOs from the country when their renewal of registration was rejected arbitrarily without reason. Local NGOs have had their funds frozen. The procedures for NGOs to obtain foreign funding lacks transparency, remains cumbersome and applied in a discriminatory manner.

  Assault on press freedom

  Press freedom in Pakistan has also continued to deteriorate under Imran Khan’s leadership. The military has set restrictions on reporting, including barring access to regions, encouraging self-censorship through direct and indirect methods of intimidation against both reporters and editors, and even allegedly instigating violence against reporters.

  In 2019, several journalists were placed on a “watch list” by the Pakistan Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Cybercrime Wing over criticism of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman during his visit to Pakistan. In October 2019, the head of the Committee to Protect Journalists' (CPJ) Asia programme, Steven Butler, was denied entry into Pakistan and deported because his name was on a “stop list of the Interior Ministry”. In 2020, government officials and supporters mobilised a cyber-harassment campaign against women journalists and commentators whose views and reporting have been critical of the government and more specifically its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

  Journalists have been criminalized and even abducted. Rizwan Razi was arrested in February 2019 in Lahore over a series of social media posts allegedly critical of the judiciary, government and intelligence services. In July 2020, Matiullah Jan was abducted by unidentified armed men from a busy street in Islamabad and released 12 hours later. Jan is known for his criticism of the country’s powerful institutions, including its military, and has been labelled “anti-state”. In May 2021, journalist Asad Ali Toor was assaulted by three unidentified men, believed to be agents of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency who forcibly entered his apartment in Islamabad. They interrogated, gagged and beat him.

  Crackdown on the PTM movement

  There has been a systematic crackdown against the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM). The PTM have mobilised nationwide against human rights violations against Pashtun people. They have demanded the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission to examine human rights violations committed by the state and non-state actors in Pashtun areas, including enforced disappearances allegedly perpetrated by the Pakistan army, and extrajudicial killings. Protesters also continue to call for equal rights for Pashtun people, as guaranteed by the constitution, and the restoration of peace in Pashtun areas and the region in general.

  Instead of addressing these concerns, the Imran Khan administration has arbitrarily arrested, detained and prosecuted on spurious charges scores of PTM activists since the beginning of the protests. These activists have been accused of sedition and other crimes under Pakistan’s Penal Code, and of terrorism charges.

  Some PTM activists have been killed. In February 2019, PTM leader Arman Loni died in police custody Loralai in Baluchistan. He had suffered blows to the head and neck when police officers physically assaulted him with rifle butts. Arman’s death was not registered by the police for another two months. In May 2020, Arif Wazir, a PTM leader, died in Islamabad following an attack by unidentified assailants outside his home in Wana, South Waziristan. He had been detained and charged for his activism, and had previously been considered ‘anti-national’ by authorities. No one has been brought to justice for these killings.

  Authorities have attempted to suppress the PTM by silencing media coverage of the movement. In December 2018, internet service providers blocked the website of Voice of America's (VOA) Urdu language service. An article by Manzoor Pashteen published in the New York Times in February 2019 was censored by its local publisher. Journalists covering protests have been targeted in a similar manner to participants.

  Enforced disappearances

  Enforced disappearances targeting human rights defenders, political activists, students, journalists and others have continued relentlessly under the Imran Khan administration. The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance has received 1144 cases of allegations of enforced disappearances from Pakistan between 1980 and 2019 with more than 731 cases pending at the end of 2019. According to human rights groups, in some instances, people are openly taken into custody by the police or intelligence agencies, and often authorities deny information to families about where their loved ones are being held. Many of those forcibly disappeared have been subjected to torture and death during detention.

  The government had committed to criminalising enforced disappearances when it came to power in 2018. However, the bill to do so languished at the draft stage for more than two years before it was finally introduced to the National Assembly in June 2021.

  Recommendations

  After three years in power, the current administration continues to fall far short of its human rights obligations.

  We urge the government of Pakistan to undertake the following as a matter of urgency:

  • Take steps to ensure that all human rights defenders in Pakistan are able to carry out their legitimate activities without any hindrance and fear of reprisals in all circumstances and conform to the provisions of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.
  • Drop all charges against human rights defender Idris Khattak and release him immediate and unconditionally. End all acts of harassment - including at the judicial level and restrictions on freedom of movement - against Muhammad Ismail, his wife Uzlifat Ismail and Gulalai Ismail.
  • Take measures to foster a safe and enabling environment for civil society, including by removing legal and policy measures that unwarrantedly limit the freedom of association. This includes removing all undue restrictions on the ability of CSOs to receive international and domestic funding, in line with international law and standards; refrain from acts leading to the closure of CSOs or the suspension of their peaceful activities and consult meaningfully with civil society in any review of these laws and regulations.
  • Ensure freedom of expression and media freedom, both online and offline, by bringing all national legislation into line with international law and standards and ensuring that journalists are able to work freely and without fear of retribution for expressing critical opinions or covering topics that the government may find sensitive. Any forms of harassment and attacks against journalists must be promptly and impartially investigated immediately and perpetrators brought to justice;
  • Put an end the harassment, stigmatisation, intimidation, unlawful surveillance, travel restrictions and arrest of peaceful PTM activists and ensure that they can freely express their opinions and dissent without fear of reprisals. Conduct a swift, thorough, independent and impartial investigation into the killing of PTM leaders and activists Arman Loni and Arif Wazir, and ensure that those responsible for his death are brought to justice;
  • Ensure efforts to criminalise enforced disappearance as an autonomous crime move swiftly and that the law in in line with international law and standards. The government must also ensure that all allegations of such acts are thoroughly investigated and those responsible brought to justice.

  The CIVICUS Monitor, an online platform that tracks threats to civil society in countries across the globe, rates civic space – the space for civil society – in Pakistan as Repressed.

• Philippines: Human rights defender Teresita Naul released after courts dismiss trumped-up charges

  CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance, welcomes the release of human rights defender Teresita Naul. Her arrest and prosecution highlight how activists in the Philippines are often vilified and criminalised for their activism under the Duterte regime.

• Poland: A Year On, Abortion Ruling Harms Women

  Anniversary Marks Ongoing Assault on Women’s Rights, Rule of Law

  Women, girls, and all pregnant people have faced extreme barriers to accessing legal abortions in the year since a Constitutional Tribunal ruling virtually banned legal abortion in Poland, 14 human rights organizations said today. Since the ruling, women human rights defenders have also faced an increasingly hostile and dangerous environment.

  Poland’s authorities should end efforts to undermine reproductive rights and weaken protections from gender-based violence. They should commit to protecting women human rights defenders who have faced ongoing threats and attacks since the October 2020 decision. Escalating death threats since October 9 against Marta Lempart, co-founder of Ognopolski Strajk Kobiet (All-Poland Women’s Strike) and a target of repeated threats for leading demonstrations supporting legal abortion and women’s rights, led to her police protection during public appearances.

  “The Constitutional Tribunal ruling is causing incalculable harm to women and girls – especially those who are poor, live in rural areas, or are marginalized,” said Urszula Grycuk, international advocacy coordinator at the Federation for Women and Family Planning (Federa) in Poland. “The dignity, freedom and health of pregnant people are compromised because their own government is denying them access to essential reproductive health care.”

  The organizations are Abortion Support Network, Amnesty International, the Center for Reproductive Rights, CIVICUS, Federa, FOKUS, Human Rights Watch, International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), International Planned Parenthood Federation-European Network, MSI Reproductive Choices, Le Planning Familial, Riksförbundet för sexuell upplysning/The Swedish Association for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, and Strajk Kobiet/Women’s Strike.

  Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, whose independence and legitimacy is profoundly eroded, is widely acknowledged as politically compromised. On October 22, 2020, it ruled that abortion on grounds of “severe and irreversible fetal defect or incurable illness that threatens the fetus’ life” was unconstitutional. The government brought the case to the tribunal after parliament failed to adopt legislation with the same effect. The ruling came into force on January 27, 2021.

  This eliminated one of the few legal grounds for abortion under Poland’s highly restrictive law. Previously, over 90 percent of the approximately 1,000 legal abortions annually in Poland were on these grounds. The ruling came as Covid-19 pandemic restrictions made travel for health care prohibitively difficult and costly. The ruling spurred the country’s largest public protests in decades, led by women human rights defenders.

  Activists and women’s rights groups reported that the ruling had a significant chilling effect as people seeking abortions and medical professionals feared repercussions. Abortion Without Borders, which aids women in European countries where abortion is illegal or access is highly restricted, reported that 17,000 women in Poland contacted them in the six months after the ruling for help accessing abortion, and that they continue to receive about 800 calls a month.

  Federa, a Polish reproductive health and rights organization, reported conducting approximately 8,100 consultations in the 11 months after the ruling, 3 times as many as during the same period in previous years. This included calls to its helpline and over 5,000 emails concerning access to abortion and other sexual and reproductive health services.

  Since the Law and Justice party came to power in 2015, Poland’s government has repeatedly moved to further curb sexual and reproductive health and rights, including by supporting a 2016 draft bill for a total abortion ban that parliament rejected following mass public protest. The government also supported a draft bill, introduced by an ultra-conservative group, to essentially criminalize comprehensive sexuality education. The bill has been in committee since April 2020. These bills are “civic initiatives,” which require public signatures to be considered.

  In September 2021, the same group introduced a new civic initiative “Stop Abortion” bill to parliament. It would consider abortion at any stage a homicide and would bring criminal penalties against women who have abortions, and anyone who assists them, with punishment of up to 25 years in prison. The bill is backed by Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture, an ultra-conservative, anti-choice, and anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) group.

  Women’s rights organizations and parliament members of the opposition Lewica party are collecting signatures for a civic initiative bill, “Legal Abortion Without Compromise,” which would permit abortion without restriction as to reason up to the twelfth week of pregnancy. It would permit abortion after 12 weeks in cases of risk to the person’s mental or physical health, a non-viable pregnancy, or pregnancy resulting from rape or incest.

  Evidence consistently demonstrates that laws restricting or criminalizing abortion do not eliminate it, but rather drive people to seek abortion through means that may put their mental and physical health at risk and diminish their autonomy and dignity. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has said that as part of the obligation to protect the right to life of pregnant people, states should not apply criminal sanctions against anyone undergoing abortion or medical service providers assisting them.

  In July, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) announced that it will address complaints from Polish women who may be victims of violations of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms due to the Constitutional Tribunal’s abortion ruling. Poland’s government has failed to effectively implement previous ECtHR judgments concerning access to lawful abortion despite repeated calls and a March judgmentby the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

  The Law and Justice government has also targeted women’s rights organizations and activists. Activists said that government rhetoric and media campaigns smearing them and their work foster misinformation and hate that can put their safety at risk. Several women’s rights defenders were detained or face what they describe as politically motivated criminal charges for actions during protests following the Constitutional Tribunal’s abortion ruling. Activists received multiple bomb and death threats in February and March for their support of reproductive rights but said that, in many cases, police minimized the security risks and either did not open investigations or failed to pursue them effectively. No one has been held accountable for these threats. Police launched investigations and arrested one man in connection with online death threats to Lempart ahead of her planned appearance at a protest on October 11, and are now providing her protection at public events.

  The government has undermined efforts to combat gender-based violence, including by initiating Poland’s withdrawal from a landmark European convention on violence against women, the Istanbul Convention. The government referred the convention to the politically compromised Constitutional Tribunal for review due to its definition of “gender.” Campaigns against gender equality have been used to target women’s and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex rights and those who support them.

  “Extreme restrictions on abortion are part of a broader assault by Poland’s government on human rights, including women’s rights and LGBTI rights, and the rule of law,” said Marta Lempart, co-founder of Strajk Kobiet. “It should alarm all Europeans that this is happening in their own backyard, even as European governments claim to be leaders on women’s rights and democratic values.”

  The anti-abortion ruling’s anniversary comes amid increasing tensions between Poland’s government and the European Union after an October 7 Constitutional Tribunal ruling rejecting the binding nature of EU law. It followed a series of EU Court of Justice rulings that the Polish government’s weakening of judicial independence breaches EU law. The European Commission said it “will not hesitate to make use of its powers” under EU treaties to ensure application of EU law and protect people’s rights.

  Poland’s government should reverse restrictions on reproductive rights and ensure that these rights are upheld in accordance with international law, including the right to access safe abortion. It should cease attacks on women’s rights and women human rights defenders and end moves to undermine the rule of law, democracy, and human rights.

  The European Commission and EU member states should urgently address rule of law breaches and their impact on women’s human rights, including reproductive rights, in Poland. The European Commission should trigger legal infringement proceedings for Polish authorities’ use of a politically compromised Constitutional Tribunal to erode the rights of people in Poland and undermine democratic checks and balances, in blatant violation of the EU Treaties.

  The Commission and EU member states should act to protect and support women’s rights defenders and organizations in Poland. Member states should actively support people in Poland seeking access to abortion.

  The Commission should urgently implement the mechanism tying access to EU funds to respect for EU values and continue its commitment to tie EU Recovery Funds to rule of law guarantees. EU member states should advance and expand scrutiny under Article 7.1 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) by adopting specific recommendations or voting to determine that there is a clear risk of a serious breach of EU values in Poland, as has been called foralso by European Parliament.

  “Despite fear and repercussions, people in Poland are fighting every day to protect rights that everyone in the EU should be able to exercise freely, including access to safe abortion,” said Hillary Margolis, senior women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Women’s rights are on a precipice in Poland, and unless the European Commission and Council act to defend democratic values, more and more women and girls will suffer the consequences.”

  For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Poland, please visit:
  https://www.hrw.org/europe/central-asia/poland

  For more information, please contact:
  For Human Rights Watch, in London, Hillary Margolis (English): +1-917-385-4107 (US mobile) or +44 (0)7733-486-524 (UK mobile); or . Twitter: @hillarymargo
  For Human Rights Watch, in Brussels, Philippe Dam: (French, English): +32-495-45-22-71 (mobile); or . Twitter: @philippe_dam
  For Human Rights Watch, in Budapest, Lydia Gall (English, Swedish, Hungarian): +36-702-748-328 (mobile); or . Twitter: @LydsG
  For Abortion Support Network (part of Abortion Without Borders), in London, Mara Clarke (English): +44 (0) 7913-353-530; or
  For Amnesty International, Alison Abrahams: +32-483-680-812 or +44-20-7413-5566; or ; or . Twitter: @amnestypress     
  For the Center for Reproductive Rights, in New York, Geraldine Henrich-Koenis (English): +1-703-314-1137; or . Twitter: @ReproRights
  For CIVICUS,in Johannesburg, Aarti Narsee: ; or . Twitter @ajnarsee
  For FIDH, in Brussels, Elena Crespi (English, French, Italian, Spanish): +32-484-875-964. Twitter: @ecrespi_fidh
  For FIDH, in Paris: Marc de Boni (French, English): +33-6-722-842-94. Twitter: @MarcdeBoni
  For Federa, in Warsaw, Urszula Grycuk (Polish, English): .
  For International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network,in Brussels, Irene Donadio (English, Italian): +32-491-071-93-90; or . Twitter: @ippfen
  For the Polish Women’s Strike, in Warsaw, Anna Styrańczak: +48-881-718-904; or .

  Civic space in Poland is rated as narrowed by the CIVICUS Monitor

• Poland: Escalating threats to women activists

  Investigate, Protect Rights Defenders, End Hateful Rhetoric

• Rights organisation calls for release of activist Sudha Bharadwaj on 2nd anniversary of her arrest

  

  • CIVICUS urges authorities to drop baseless charges against Sudha Bharadwaj 
  • There are concerns for Bharadwaj’s health in prison during COVID-19 pandemic
  • Bharadwaj is featured in international campaign #StandAsMyWitness calling for release of human rights defenders 

  August 28 2020 marks two years since the arrest and detention of Indian activist and human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj. Ahead of this second anniversary, global civil society organisation CIVICUS calls on the Indian government to immediately release Bharadwaj and drop all charges against her. 

  Bharadwaj has been in pre-trial detention since August 2018, when she was arrested under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and accused of having links with Maoist terrorist organisations. It is also alleged that she and ten other human rights defenders were conspiring to incite Dalits, a marginalised group, at a public meeting which led to violence in Bhima Koregaon village in the Pune district of Maharashtra in January 2018.

  Sudha Bharadwaj was initially held under house arrest until October 2018, when she was then moved to Byculla Women’s Prison in Mumbai. There are concerns that the 59 year old, who suffers from diabetes and hypertension, will be susceptible to COVID-19 in the cramped prison, where an inmate has already tested positive for the virus. A July medical report found that she is also now suffering from Ischemic heart disease.

  Despite her underlying health issues, last week Bharadwaj’s plea for bail to the Bombay High Court was opposed by the National Investigation Agency which claimed her condition is not serious. The treatment of Bharadwaj highlights the increasingly repressive measures used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to clamp down on dissent and silence human rights defenders.

  UN experts have expressed concerns about the terrorism charges laid against Sudha and about the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act’s vague definition of ‘unlawful activities’ and ‘membership of terrorist organisations’ which have been routinely used by the government to stifle dissent:

  “Sudha is a lawyer and activist who has spent her life defending Indigenous people in India and protecting workers’ rights. However, her human rights activities have put her in the firing line of the Modi regime, which is abusing the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and using it to round-up activists and human rights defenders on trumped-up charges,” said Josef Benedict, Asia-Pacific civic space researcher for CIVICUS.

  Sudha Bharadwaj is one of a group of leading human rights defenders who feature in CIVICUS’ global campaign #StandAsMyWitness. The campaign urges people to call for an end to the imprisonment and harassment of human rights defenders across the world. People are also encouraged to share the defenders’ individual stories on social media using the hashtag #StandAsMyWitness.

  ABOUT CIVICUS

  CIVICUS is a global alliance of civil society organisations dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society around the world. CIVICUS has 10,000 members worldwide.

  CIVICUS Monitor is an online platform that tracks the fundamental rights of freedom of assembly, association and expression in countries across the world. India’s civic space rating was downgraded from ‘obstructed’ to ‘repressed’ last year owing to its increased restriction of space for dissent and particularly following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s re-election in May 2019.

  INTERVIEWS

  For interviews with CIVICUS please contact:

  and   Phone/Whatsapp: +6010-4376376 

• Saudi activist, Loujain Al-Hathloul spends 1000+ days in prison: Masana Ndinga-Kanga

  Prominent Saudi female activist, Loujain al-Hathloul, who campaigned for women's right to drive, was sentenced to more than five years in prison in December 2020, after having already spent two years in detention. She is probably one of Saudi Arabia's most famous human rights defenders. She and other activists were detained in 2018 on charges including contacts with organisations hostile to Saudi Arabia. She was eventually convicted of various charges, including trying to harm national security and advance a foreign agenda. As she spends her 1000th day in prison activists from around the world are campaigning for her unconditional release. Masana Ndinga-Kanga the Middle East and North Africa Advocacy Lead at the global alliance of civil society organisations, CIVICUS, told SABC News that al-Hathloul's case is symbolic of the repression and silencing that women in Saudi Arabia face when they dare to speak out for their human rights.

• Saudi Arabia: Over 160 groups call for accountability following murder of journalist and widespread arrest of women’s rights defenders

  Francais | Espanol | العربية

  Saudi Arabia: Kingdom must be held to account for suppression of dissent, following murder of journalist and widespread arrest of women’s rights defenders

  Recognising the fundamental right to express our views, free from repression, we the undersigned civil society organisations call on the international community, including the United Nations, multilateral and regional institutions as well as democratic governments committed to the freedom of expression, to take immediate steps to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for grave human rights violations. The murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on 2 October is only one of many gross and systematic violations committed by the Saudi authorities inside and outside the country. As the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists approaches on 2 November, we strongly echo calls for an independent investigation into Khashoggi’s murder, in order to hold those responsible to account.

  This case, coupled with the rampant arrests of human rights defenders, including journalists, scholars and women’s rights activists; internal repression; the potential imposition of the death penalty on demonstrators; and the findings of the UN Group of Eminent Experts report which concluded that the Coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, have committed acts that may amount to international crimes in Yemen, all demonstrate Saudi Arabia’s record of gross and systematic human rights violations. Therefore, our organisations further urge the UN General Assembly to suspend Saudi Arabia from the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), in accordance with operative paragraph 8 of the General Assembly resolution 60/251.

  Saudi Arabia has never had a reputation for tolerance and respect for human rights, but there were hopes that as Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman rolled out his economic plan (Vision 2030), and finally allowed women to drive, there would be a loosening of restrictions on women’s rights, and freedom of expression and assembly. However, prior to the driving ban being lifted in June, women human rights defenders received phone calls warning them to remain silent. The Saudi authorities then arrested dozens of women’s rights defenders (both female and male) who had been campaigning against the driving ban. The Saudi authorities’ crackdown against all forms of dissent has continued to this day.

  Khashoggi criticised the arrests of human rights defenders and the reform plans of the Crown Prince, and was living in self-imposed exile in the US. On 2 October 2018, Khashoggi went to the Consulate in Istanbul with his fiancée to complete some paperwork, but never came out. Turkish officials soon claimed there was evidence that he was murdered in the Consulate, but Saudi officials did not admit he had been murdered until more than two weeks later.

  It was not until two days later, on 20 October, that the Saudi public prosecution’s investigation released findings confirming that Khashoggi was deceased. Their reports suggested that he died after a “fist fight” in the Consulate, and that 18 Saudi nationals have been detained. King Salman also issued royal decrees terminating the jobs of high-level officials, including Saud Al-Qahtani, an advisor to the royal court, and Ahmed Assiri, deputy head of the General Intelligence Presidency. The public prosecution continues its investigation, but the body has not been found.

  Given the contradictory reports from Saudi authorities, it is essential that an independent international investigation is undertaken.

  On 18 October, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on Turkey to request that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres establish a UN investigation into the extrajudicial execution of Khashoggi.

  On 15 October 2018, David Kaye, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, and Dr. Agnès Callamard, the UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions, called for “an independent investigation that could produce credible findings and provide the basis for clear punitive actions, including the possible expulsion of diplomatic personnel, removal from UN bodies (such as the Human Rights Council), travel bans, economic consequences, reparations and the possibility of trials in third states.”

  We note that on 27 September, Saudi Arabia joined consensus at the UN HRC as it adopted a new resolution on the safety of journalists (A/HRC/Res/39/6). We note the calls in this resolution for “impartial, thorough, independent and effective investigations into all alleged violence, threats and attacks against journalists and media workers falling within their jurisdiction, to bring perpetrators, including those who command, conspire to commit, aid and abet or cover up such crimes to justice.” It also “[u]rges the immediate and unconditional release of journalists and media workers who have been arbitrarily arrested or arbitrarily detained.”

  Khashoggi had contributed to the Washington Post and Al-Watan newspaper, and was editor-in-chief of the short-lived Al-Arab News Channel in 2015. He left Saudi Arabia in 2017 as arrests of journalists, writers, human rights defenders and activists began to escalate. In his last column published in the Washington Post, he criticised the sentencing of journalist Saleh Al-Shehi to five years in prison in February 2018. Al-Shehi is one of more than 15 journalists and bloggers who have been arrested in Saudi Arabia since September 2017, bringing the total of those in prison to 29, according to RSF, while up to 100 human rights defenders and possibly thousands of activists are also in detention according to the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) and Saudi partners including ALQST. Many of those detained in the past year had publicly criticised reform plans related to Vision 2030, noting that women would not achieve economic equality merely by driving.

  Another recent target of the crackdown on dissent is prominent economist Essam Al-Zamel, an entrepreneur known for his writing about the need for economic reform. On 1 October 2018, the Specialised Criminal Court (SCC) held a secret session during which the Public Prosecution charged Al-Zamel with violating the Anti Cyber Crime Law by “mobilising his followers on social media.” Al-Zamel criticised Vision 2030 on social media, where he had one million followers. Al-Zamel was arrested on 12 September 2017 at the same time as many other rights defenders and reformists.

  The current unprecedented targeting of women human rights defenders started in January 2018 with the arrest of Noha Al-Balawi due to her online activism in support of social media campaigns for women’s rights such as (#Right2Drive) or against the male guardianship system (#IAmMyOwnGuardian). Even before that, on 10 November 2017, the SCC in Riyadh sentenced Naimah Al-Matrod to six years in jail for her online activism.

  The wave of arrests continued after the March session of the HRC and the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) published its recommendations on Saudi Arabia. Loujain Al-Hathloul, was abducted in the Emirates and brought to Saudi Arabia against her will on 15 May 2018; followed by the arrest of Dr. Eman Al-Nafjan, founder and author of the Saudiwoman's Weblog, who had previously protested the driving ban; and Aziza Al-Yousef, a prominent campaigner for women’s rights.

  Four other women’s human rights defenders who were arrested in May 2018 include Dr. Aisha Al-Manae, Dr. Hessa Al-Sheikh and Dr. Madeha Al-Ajroush, who took part in the first women’s protest movement demanding the right to drive in 1990; and Walaa Al-Shubbar, a young activist well-known for her campaigning against the male guardianship system. They are all academics and professionals who supported women’s rights and provided assistance to survivors of gender-based violence. While they have since been released, all four women are believed to be still facing charges.

  On 6 June 2018, journalist, editor, TV producer and woman human rights defender Nouf Abdulaziz was arrested after a raid on her home. Following her arrest, Mayya Al-Zahrani published a letter from Abdulaziz, and was then arrested herself on 9 June 2018, for publishing the letter.

  On 27 June 2018, Hatoon Al-Fassi, a renowned scholar, and associate professor of women's history at King Saud University, was arrested. She has long been advocating for the right of women to participate in municipal elections and to drive, and was one of the first women to drive the day the ban was lifted on 24 June 2018.

  Twice in June, UN special procedures called for the release of women’s rights defenders. On 27 June 2018, nine independent UN experts stated, “In stark contrast with this celebrated moment of liberation for Saudi women, women's human rights defenders have been arrested and detained on a wide scale across the country, which is truly worrying and perhaps a better indication of the Government's approach to women's human rights.” They emphasised that women human rights defenders “face compounded stigma, not only because of their work as human rights defenders, but also because of discrimination on gender grounds.”

  Nevertheless, the arrests of women human rights defenders continued with Samar Badawi and Nassima Al-Sadah on 30 July 2018. They are being held in solitary confinement in a prison that is controlled by the Presidency of State Security, an apparatus established by order of King Salman on 20 July 2017. Badawi’s brother Raif Badawi is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for his online advocacy, and her former husband Waleed Abu Al-Khair, is serving a 15-year sentence. Abu Al-Khair, Abdullah Al-Hamid, and Mohammad Fahad Al-Qahtani (the latter two are founding members of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association - ACPRA) were jointly awarded the Right Livelihood Award in September 2018. Yet all of them remain behind bars.

  Relatives of other human rights defenders have also been arrested. Amal Al-Harbi, the wife of prominent activist Fowzan Al-Harbi, was arrested by State Security on 30 July 2018 while on the seaside with her children in Jeddah. Her husband is another jailed member of ACPRA. Alarmingly, in October 2018, travel bans were imposed against the families of several women’s rights defenders, such as Aziza Al-Yousef, Loujain Al-Hathloul and Eman Al-Nafjan.

  In another alarming development, at a trial before the SCC on 6 August 2018, the Public Prosecutor called for the death penalty for Israa Al-Ghomgam who was arrested with her husband Mousa Al-Hashim on 6 December 2015 after they participated in peaceful protests in Al-Qatif. Al-Ghomgam was charged under Article 6 of the Cybercrime Act of 2007 in connection with social media activity, as well as other charges related to the protests. If sentenced to death, she would be the first woman facing the death penalty on charges related to her activism. The next hearing is scheduled for 28 October 2018.

  The SCC, which was set up to try terrorism cases in 2008, has mostly been used to prosecute human rights defenders and critics of the government in order to keep a tight rein on civil society.

  On 12 October 2018, UN experts again called for the release of all detained women human rights defenders in Saudi Arabia. They expressed particular concern about Al-Ghomgam’s trial before the SCC, saying, “Measures aimed at countering terrorism should never be used to suppress or curtail human rights work.” It is clear that the Saudi authorities have not acted on the concerns raised by the special procedures – this non-cooperation further brings their membership on the HRC into disrepute.

  Many of the human rights defenders arrested this year have been held in incommunicado detention with no access to families or lawyers. Some of them have been labelled traitors and subjected to smear campaigns in the state media, escalating the possibility they will be sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Rather than guaranteeing a safe and enabling environment for human rights defenders at a time of planned economic reform, the Saudi authorities have chosen to escalate their repression against any dissenting voices.

  Our organisations reiterate our calls to the international community to hold Saudi Arabia accountable and not allow impunity for human rights violations to prevail.

  We call on the international community, and in particular the UN, to:

  1. Take action to ensure there is an international, impartial, prompt, thorough, independent and effective investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi;
  2. Ensure Saudi Arabia be held accountable for the murder of Khashoggi and for its systematic violations of human rights;
  3. Call a Special Session of the Human Rights Council on the recent wave of arrests and attacks against journalists, human rights defenders and other dissenting voices in Saudi Arabia;
  4. Take action at the UN General Assembly to suspend Saudi Arabia’s membership of the Human Rights Council; and
  5. Urge the government of Saudi Arabia to implement the below recommendations.

  We call on the authorities in Saudi Arabia to:

  1. Produce the body of Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi and invite independent international experts to oversee investigations into his murder; cooperate with all UN mechanisms; and ensure that those responsible for his death, including those who hold command responsibility, are brought to justice;
  2. Immediately quash the convictions of all human rights defenders, including women and men advocating for gender equality, and drop all charges against them;
  3. Immediately and unconditionally release all human rights defenders, writers, journalists and prisoners of conscience in Saudi Arabia whose detention is a result of their peaceful and legitimate work in the promotion and protection of human rights including women’s rights;
  4. Institute a moratorium on the death penalty; including as punishment for crimes related to the exercise of rights to freedom of opinion and expression, and peaceful assembly;
  5. Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders and journalists in Saudi Arabia are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities and public interest reporting without fear of reprisal;
  6. Immediately implement the recommendations made by the UN Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen; and
  7. Ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and bring all national laws limiting the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association into compliance with international human rights standards.

  Signed,

  Access Now
  Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT) - France
  Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT) - Germany
  Al-Marsad - Syria
  ALQST for Human Rights
  ALTSEAN-Burma
  Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB)
  Amman Center for Human Rights Studies (ACHRS) - Jordan
  Amman Forum for Human Rights
  Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI)
  Armanshahr/OPEN ASIA
  ARTICLE 19
  Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
  Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
  Asociación Libre de Abogadas y Abogados (ALA)
  Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE)
  Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia (AHRE)
  Association malienne des droits de l’Homme (AMDH)
  Association mauritanienne des droits de l’Homme (AMDH)
  Association nigérienne pour la défense des droits de l’Homme (ANDDH)
  Association of Tunisian Women for Research on Development
  Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID)
  Awan Awareness and Capacity Development Organization
  Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD)
  Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law - Tajikistan
  Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
  Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO)
  Canadian Center for International Justice
  Caucasus Civil Initiatives Center (CCIC)
  Center for Civil Liberties - Ukraine
  Center for Prisoners’ Rights
  Center for the Protection of Human Rights “Kylym Shamy” - Kazakhstan
  Centre oecuménique des droits de l’Homme (CEDH) - Haïti
  Centro de Políticas Públicas y Derechos Humanos (EQUIDAD) - Perú
  Centro para la Acción Legal en Derechos Humanos (CALDH) - Guatemala
  Citizen Center for Press Freedom
  Citizens’ Watch - Russia
  CIVICUS
  Civil Society Institute (CSI) - Armenia
  Code Pink
  Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic
  Comité de acción jurídica (CAJ) - Argentina
  Comisión Ecuménica de Derechos Humanos (CEDHU) - Ecuador
  Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos - Dominican Republic
  Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) -Northern Ireland
  Committee to Protect Journalists
  Committee for Respect of Liberties and Human Rights in Tunisia
  Damascus Center for Human Rights in Syria
  Danish PEN
  DITSHWANELO - The Botswana Center for Human Rights
  Dutch League for Human Rights (LvRM)
  Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center - Azerbaijan
  English PEN
  European Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (ECDHR)
  European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR)
  FIDH within the framework of the Observatory for the protection of human rights defenders
  Finnish League for Human Rights
  Freedom Now
  Front Line Defenders
  Fundación regional de asesoría en derechos humanos (INREDH) - Ecuador
  Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) - Uganda
  Groupe LOTUS (RDC)
  Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)
  Hellenic League for Human Rights (HLHR)
  Human Rights Association (IHD) - Turkey
  Human Rights Center (HRCIDC) - Georgia
  Human Rights Center “Viasna” - Belarus
  Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
  Human Rights Concern (HRCE) - Eritrea
  Human Rights in China
  Human Rights Movement “Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan”
  Human Rights Center Memorial
  Human Rights Sentinel
  IFEX
  Index on Censorship
  Initiative for Freedom of Expression (IFoX) - Turkey
  Institut Alternatives et Initiatives citoyennes pour la Gouvernance démocratique (I-AICGD) - DR Congo
  International Center for Supporting Rights and Freedoms (ICSRF) - Switzerland
  Internationale Liga für Menscherechte
  International Human Rights Organisation “Fiery Hearts Club” - Uzbekistan
  International Legal Initiative (ILI) - Kazakhstan
  International Media Support (IMS)
  International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR)
  International Press Institute
  International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
  Internet Law Reform and Dialogue (iLaw)
  Iraqi Association for the Defense of Journalists' Rights
  Iraqi Hope Association
  Italian Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
  Justice for Iran
  Karapatan - Philippines
  Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law
  Khiam Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture
  KontraS
  Latvian Human Rights Committee
  Lao Movement for Human Rights
  Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada
  League for the Defense of Human Rights in Iran (LDDHI)
  Legal Clinic “Adilet” - Kyrgyzstan
  Ligue algérienne de défense des droits de l’Homme (LADDH)
  Ligue centrafricaine des droits de l’Homme
  Ligue des droits de l’Homme (LDH) Belgium
  Ligue des Electeurs (LE) - DRC
  Ligue ivoirienne des droits de l’Homme (LIDHO)
  Ligue sénégalaise des droits humains (LSDH)
  Ligue tchadienne des droits de l’Homme (LTDH)
  Maison des droits de l’Homme (MDHC) - Cameroon
  Maharat Foundation
  MARUAH - Singapore
  Middle East and North Africa Media Monitoring Observatory
  Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers, International Association of People's Lawyers (IAPL)
  Movimento Nacional de Direitos Humanos (MNDH) - Brasil
  Muslims for Progressive Values
  Mwatana Organization for Human Rights
  National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists
  No Peace Without Justice
  Norwegian PEN
  Odhikar
  Open Azerbaijan Initiative
  Organisation marocaine des droits humains (OMDH)
  People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD)
  People’s Watch
  PEN America
  PEN Canada
  PEN International
  PEN Lebanon
  PEN Québec
  Promo-LEX - Moldova
  Public Foundation - Human Rights Center “Kylym Shamy” - Kyrgyzstan
  Rafto Foundation for Human Rights
  RAW in WAR (Reach All Women in War)
  Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
  Right Livelihood Award Foundation
  Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
  Sahrawi Media Observatory to document human rights violations
  SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights (SALAM DHR)
  Scholars at Risk (SAR)
  Sham Center for Democratic Studies and Human Rights in Syria
  Sisters’ Arab Forum for Human Rights (SAF) - Yemen
  Solicitors International Human Rights Group
  Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research
  Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM)
  Tanmiea - Iraq
  Tunisian Association to Defend Academic Values
  Tunisian Association to Defend Individual Rights
  Tunisian Association of Democratic Women
  Tunis Center for Press Freedom
  Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights
  Tunisian League to Defend Human Rights
  Tunisian Organization against Torture
  Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights (UAF)
  Urnammu
  Vietnam Committee on Human Rights
  Vigdis Freedom Foundation
  Vigilance for Democracy and the Civic State
  Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition
  Women’s Center for Culture & Art - United Kingdom
  World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA)
  World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) within the framework of the Observatory for the protection of human rights defenders
  Yemen Center for Human Rights
  Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights)
  17Shubat For Human Rights

• Saudi rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul spends 1000th day in prison

  

  Today,  as Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul spends her 1000th day in prison, global civil society alliance CIVICUS and the Free Saudi Activists coalition call for her immediate and unconditional release. 

• Standing in solidarity with Venezuelan human rights defenders

  The recent, ongoing and unwarranted detention of five members of the Venezuelan NGO ‘Azul Positivo’ is one more event in a series of threats, harassment, attacks, restrictions, reprisals and criminal proceedings against Venezuelan civil society organizations and human rights defenders, which has been intensifying since November 2020. In recent months and weeks, state agents have forcibly entered the offices of civil society organizations; public threats have been made against defenders who have been engaging with human rights mechanisms, NGO bank accounts have been frozen and arrest warrants issued for aid workers.

• Sudan: Free women detainees!

  CIVICUS joins civil society groups in calling for the immediate release of Sudanese women human rights defenders in detention, and accountability for the crimes committed against them.

• Syria: We remember Razan, Samira, Nazem and Wa’el five years after their kidnapping

  On 09 December, people around the world remember Razan Zaitouneh, Samira Khalil, Nazem Hamadi and Wa’el Hamada, kidnapped in Douma, Syria on this day five years ago. We, the undersigned human rights organisations, call on the United Nations, international and regional actors, and all parties to the Syrian conflict to actively facilitate an investigation into what happened to the four human rights defenders. They are among many Syrians who have been kidnapped, jailed, murdered or exiled for their peaceful human rights activities. We ask all friends and supporters to help remember Zaitouneh and her colleagues by sharing her work.

  On 09 December 2013, a group of armed men presumed to be connected to the Army of Islam, a large local rebel faction at the time, broke into the Violations Documentation Centre (VDC) office in Douma city, kidnapped the four human rights defenders and took them to an unknown destination. According to unconfirmed reports, the Army of Islam kept captives, including possibly the VDC staff, at Tawbeh Prison for some time, but it has since been abandoned following the armed group’s departure from Douma in 2017.

  Zaitouneh has published dozens of articles and reports on various websites and in newspapers about human rights including freedom of opinion and expression in Syria since 2004. In order to keep her work in the spotlight, her family has now published a website with a collection of her articles, as well as testimonies from people who admire her and worked with her.

  Zaitouneh is one of the most prominent human rights defenders in Syria and along with other activists established the VDC, among several human rights NGOs that she helped found. She has played a key role in the promotion and protection of human rights through her brave work as a lawyer, human rights defender and journalist.

  She was awarded the 2011 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and the 2011 Anna Politkovskaya Award of Reach All Women in War (RAW in WAR). In 2013, the then-U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama honoured her as an International Woman of Courage. In February 2016, Zaitouneh was named prisoner of the month for the “Their freedom is their right” campaign by Maharat Foundation, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) and the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), with support from IFEX and its regional members. Zaitouneh was also a finalist for the 2016 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.

  At the beginning of the popular protests that spread across Syria in 2011, Zaitouneh was forced into hiding owing to her media activism and her reporting on what was happening on the ground to various media outlets. Zaitouneh’s home in Damascus was raided in May 2011 by the government’s Air Force Intelligence, which then detained her brother-in-law and her husband Wa’el Hamada for three months. A few months before her abduction in 2013, Zaitouneh wrote about the threats she had been receiving and reported to human rights organisations outside Syria that the threats were from local armed groups in Douma.

  “Creating this website was my way of coping with her kidnapping,” said her sister Rana Zaitouneh, who lives in Canada with other family members. “I felt that there were people who did not understand or were not aware of her important work. Razan has done so much for so many people, and yet never felt it was much at all. Her courage and determination are why we have to make her case a priority in these difficult times.”

  “Razan and Wael and their friends need to be found and released. I know my sister wants the whole world to know what has been happening in Syria and since she cannot currently tell people herself, I have to. My daughter and I decided to collect her articles and translate them to English so that they can be more widely accessible. It is also very important that the information be available to everyone who wishes to read it,” she said.

  Visit: http://www.razanwzaitouneh.com/. Please share her work and help the world remember Razan Zaitouneh, Wa’el Hamada, Samira Khalil and Nazem Hamadi.

  In solidarity,

  Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI)

  CIVICUS

  English PEN

  Front Line Defenders

  Global Fund for Women

  Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)

  International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)

  Maharat Foundation

  Martin Ennals Foundation

  PEN International

  Reach All Women in War (RAW in WAR)

  Reporters Without Borders (RSF)

  Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM)

  Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights

  Women's March Global 

• Take Action: 16 campaigns tackling women’s rights and gender inequality

  Across the world, brave and resolute women rights defenders are taking action on everything from advocating for equality, access, and justice, to standing up to corruption, environmental violations, and even persecution of fellow activists. For many, the COVID-19 pandemic made already difficult operating environments even worse: an increasing number of governments have used COVID-19 as a smokescreen to implement repressive measures that strangle civil society, as well as roll back progress made for gender equality and reproductive rights. Yet, the fightback continues. Here are 16 people-powered movements and campaigns to add your voice to this 16 Days of Activism.

  1. #Lifeinleggings

  #Lifeinleggings is one of the winners of this year’s Nelson Mandela - Graca Machel Innovation Awards. This campaign was founded in 2016, speaking to gender-based issues and discrimination faced by women and changing the mindset and the lives of women in the Caribbean. The campaign started with the hashtag #LifeinLeggings in virtual spaces as a safe space for women who experienced sexual harassment and sexual assault. It was a call of solidarity and empowerment to speak across social media platforms. While the hashtag spread in the Caribbean and the diaspora, they transferred the conversations to the physical spaces. They transformed it into a grassroots movement called for social transformation and committed to dismantling the rape culture within the Caribbean through advocacy, education, empowerment and community outreach and forward to dismantling the patriarchal system that affects both men and women.

  Be part of the transformation and spread the word about#Lifeinleggings

  2. #OrangeTheWorld Campaign 

  Are you ready to #OrangeTheWorld during the #16Days of Activism and stand united against gender-based violence?
  
  Here's all the info you need: https://t.co/Gu7P7gpXt5 pic.twitter.com/ZSEFpT6oqs

  — UN Women 🧡 (@UN_Women) November 24, 2021

  Each year, the United Nations invites people to Orange the World, in support of ending Violence Against Women. Civil society and women's rights organisations, governments, schools, universities, the private sector and individuals host orange themed events - film screenings, exhibits, radio shows, etc - to raise awareness and get people talking. The campaign helps share knowledge and innovations, amplify stories, and promote women and girls' leadership. COVID-19 has triggered a rise in gender based violence and women's rights violations,  making this campaign more important than ever.

  Join the movement, take action and orange the world. 

  3. Drop Case 173 

  In Egypt, Case 173 of 2011, also known as NGO Foreign Funding Case, continues to undermine women’s rights and civil society organisations working towards defending human rights. After a decade of the systematic targeting of organisations and persecuting activists, women human rights defenders, and feminists, Egypt refuses to close the case entirely and stop the judicial harassment of women’s rights defenders like Magda Adly, Suzanne Fayyad, Aida Seif ElDawla and Azza Soliman. 

  #DropCase173,a campaign led by regional and international feminists, women’s rights and human rights organisations, calls on the Egyptian state to dismiss cases against civil society activists and organisations persecuted under Case 173 and immediately drop the charges and lift any travel bans and asset freezes against them. 

  Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) in Egypt should not be silenced and harassed for carrying out their work, call on the government to #DropCase173 

  4. GHANA: Reject the anti-LGBTI+ bill

  While some progress has been made in a number of countries towards LGBTI+ rights, the rights of this community continue to be under threat in many parts of the world. Ghana, is one such example. The government of Ghana has brought forward the “Family values” draft bill that would criminalise the country’s LGBTI+ community and its allies. If passed the bill will amongst many other things discriminate LGBTI+ community and criminalise the promotion and funding of their activities.

  This bill and many others that criminalise rights of people based on their gender stands to reverse the remarkable gains made over the years in LGBTI+ equality. In order to achieve equality and inclusivity we need to step up the struggle for LGBTI+ rights, especially in countries like Ghana. Here’s a first step you can take, show solidarity by signing a petition calling lawmakers to reject this bill

  5. Stand As My Witness 

  High numbers of women human rights defenders are facing persecution for their activism, making the global Stand As My Witness campaign mportant to support right now.

  Launched in 2020, the campaign calls for the release of human rights defenders jailed as a result of their work and who they are.  The campaign  is currently calling for the release of Teresita Naul- an advocate for the rights of poor and marginalised people,  María Esperanza Sánchez García - a Nicaraguan human rights defender targeted for her civic activism, and Sudha Bharadwaj - a human rights lawyer who defends Indigenous people’s rights, and many more.  The #StandAsMyWitness campaign urges people to write letters on behalf of the defenders, sign a petition rallying for their freedom, and share the defenders’ individual stories on social media using the hashtag #StandAsMyWitness

  Find out more about the campaign and how you can get involved here. 

  6. Free Saudi Activists

  The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a long history of forcefully silencing men and women who dare to stand up to the country’s unjust laws and patriarchal gender norms. The crackdown on freedom of expression, association and assembly in Saudi Arabia continues to worsen, with the CIVICUS Monitor rating the state of the country’s civic space as closed.

  On 15 May 2018, a few weeks before Saudi Arabia lifted a ban on women driving, authorities launched a large-scale coordinated crackdown against women human rights defenders in the kingdom. Tens of prominent WHRDs, among many others, have since been arrested. Saudi authorities targeted WHRDs who fought to lift the country’s driving ban on women, and those calling for an end to the male guardianship system, which requires women to get permission from a male relative to travel, marry or work. While some women's rights activists, including Loujain al- Hathloul,  who spoke against this system have been released, some remain in jail and others continue to have travel bans and asset freezes imposed against them. 

  Stand in solidarity with women human rights defenders in Saudi Arabia, sign this petition today. 

  7.FAIR SHARE of Women Leaders

  What does #FeministLeadership mean? What can it look like?
  
  We spent eight weeks exploring this question with a vibrant community of experienced and curious Feminist Leaders from across the sector. Here's a glimpse into the conversations we had. 👇🏾https://t.co/lD9fSkCyy5

  — FAIR SHARE of Women Leaders (@fair_wl) November 19, 2021

  Women are under-represented in leadership positions in many sectors including the social impact sector. FAIR SHARE of Women Leaders is an initiative established to advocate for Feminist Leadership and accelerate gender equity in the social impact sector by monitoring the proportion of women in leadership and advocating for Feminist Leadership. Recently, FAIR SHARE of Women Leaders hosted 8-week-long series where they explored many topics around Feminist Leadership, from accountability and authenticity to collective leadership and sisterhood.  With the belief that “true and lasting transformation is not a matter of checking boxes, but rather the sum of small changes we live and breathe in our everyday life”, the initiative continues to take tremendous strides towards ensuring that more women are in places of leadership. 

  Join the movement and be an advocate for Feminist Leadership.

  8. #JusticeForFikileNtshangase

  On 22 October 2020, Fikile Ntshangase, a grandmother in her sixties, and an activist from the Mfolozi Environmental Justice Organisation (MCEJO) who resisted and spoke out against the activities and expansion of the Tendele anthracite mine on her community's doorstep, was murdered in her home in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. Despite many public outcries from civil society actors and world leaders, her family are still waiting for her murderers to be apprehended. Fikile joins a long list of environmental defenders who have been brutally killed for defending their community’s land and environment. 

  This campaign draws our attention to the plight of many environmental women human rights defenders who are killed with impunity around the world. Sign this open letter calling for #JusticeForFikileNtshangase

  9. She Changes Climate 

  From the sinking small islands to drought-stricken villages, women bear the lion’s share of the burden of the climate change crisis. It is for this reason and many others that now more than ever, women, women’s rights activists and organisations are calling for meaningful inclusion in climate decision making processes. #SheChangesClimate was launched in November 2020 with a #5050 vision to address women leadership in decisions and policymaking related to the climate crisis. 

  The campaign calls for greater representation of women, in all their diversity, at the top levels of all future climate delegations. In the lead up to and during this year’s COP meeting, #SheChangesClimate actively ensured that gender imbalance of decision-making didn’t go unnoticed. There is no denying that we need urgent solutions to the climate change crisis, for #SheChangesClimate, the need for women's voices and insights in the climate discussions is equally important.

  Together, let’s call for women’s participation in climate decision making processes : She Changes Climate 

  10. #FreeViasna Campaign

  Tatsiana Lasitsa and Marfa Rabkova, the two WHRDs among other members from the Viasna group in Belarus, are currently in prison. Since 2003, the Belarusian authorities have been harassing Viasna because they have been actively monitoring and documenting human rights violations. The reprisals against Viasna are a part of the broader repression and the systematic silencing of the civil society in Belarus. More than 200 civil society organisations have been shut down or in the process of being closed down. 

  The #FreeViasna Campaign was launched in September 2021 by a group of international human rights organisations. They demand the release of Viasna members and hundreds of the victims of politically motivated prosecutio. Further to this, the campaign calls on the government to respect and protect human rights defenders' work and ensure the rights to freedom of association, peaceful assembly, and expression of all people in Belarus.

  The members of Viasna and other human rights defenders need your action, support #FreeViasna

  11. #TurkeyTribunal

  Erin Keskin, a lawyer and a human rights activist in Turkey, who dedicated her life to amlifying the voices of women and exposing abuses happening to them in Turkish prisons. Keskin has been among many other activists and human rights defenders, arrested, imprisoned, and subjected to numerous lawsuits related to her human rights activity and now she is one of the leading witnesses in the Turkey Tribunal.

  The Turkey Tribunal was founded in 2020 to document and investigate the increasing number of human rights violations committed by the Turkish government towards activists, lawyers, journalists and human rights defenders. This tribunal aims to break the silence by providing information, raising awareness towards the issue, and mobilising the international community. 

  Learn more about this campaign here.

  12. #FreeNasrin Campaign

  Nasrin Sotoudeh, an Iranian lawyer and a human rights defender, has been sentenced to 33 years of prison and 148 lashes for defending women’s rights in Iran. Sotoudeh, PEN America’s 2011 Freedom to Write Award honoree and a co-winner of the European Parliament’s 2012 Sakharov Prize, is one of Iran’s most prominent voices. She has been harassed and targeted by the Iranian government, imprisoned multiple times. In June 2018, she was incarcerated on national security-related charges levied after advocating on behalf of women detained for protesting Iran’s compulsory hijab law. 

  This campaign calls on Iranian authorities to drop all charges against Sotoudeh, release her and stop their harassment of her family, allow their access to their finances and drop charges against her daughter. It also calls for the release of all political prisoners currently held in Iranian prisons on unjust charges. 

  Amplify the voice of Nasrin and hundreds of WHRDs in Iran, sign the petition.

  13. #StrajkKobiet

  Around the world, women and girls face extreme barriers to accessing legal abortions. This is no different in Poland. In October 2020,  Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal imposed a near total ban on abortion, sparking mass protests, most of which were organised by the Strajk Kobiet (Women’s Strike) movement. Strajk Kobiet has worked relentlessly to stop the various initiatives proposing an almost complete ban on abortion in Poland. A year on, many women human rights defenders who took part in the protests continue to face an increasingly hostile and dangerous environment. Among many others, Marta Lempart, co-founder of Strajk Kobiet has become a target of repeated threats for leading demonstrations supporting legal abortion and women’s rights. Despite this, Strajk Kobiet continues to bravely campaign for women’s rights in Poland.

  Check their website to know more about their work of defending women’s rights:Ogólnopolski Strajk Kobiet 

  14. Justice forMarielle Franco

  Berta Cáceres and Marielle Franco were human rights defenders in one of the most dangerous regions in the world for such activities.
  
  Fighting for human rights is a human right, and it is the state’s responsibility to protect activists https://t.co/VznbHQ9UEj

  — openDemocracy (@openDemocracy) November 15, 2021

  It has been 3 years since the murder of one of Brazil's most courageous social leaders, Marielle Franco and to this day no one has been brought to book. On 14 March 2018, Marielle was brutally assassinated on the streets of Rio de Janeiro shortly after leaving a gathering of young Black activists.  

  We remember Marielle for bravely mobilising for social and economic change in the lives of people living in Rio’s favelas and for unapologetically advocating for women and LGBTI+ rights.

  Recognise the work of Marielle, remember her story and call for her justice.

  15. #StandWithThe6 

  Shatha Odeh, a prominent Palestinian healthcare expert, and the Middle East and North Africa regional coordinator of the People’s Health Movement (PHM) was detained by Israeli security forces on July 2021. The Israeli campaign against Shatha extended to further criminalise 6 prominent Palestinian civil society organisations by targeting and labelling them as "terror organisations". Among the targeted is the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees (UPWC), a feminist grassroots organisation which has been defending women's rights since 1980. 

  The decision puts at risk the legitimate and fundamental work of hundreds of human rights defenders, activists and organisations documenting human rights violations, conducting advocacy campaigns for freedom, justice and equality and providing tools for protection as well as legal social and health/medical support for Palestinian citizens. 

  #StandWithThe6 is launched to build solidarity with the Palestinian civil society, pressure the international community, policymakers, and representatives to take the needed measures, and stand with the Palestinian civil society against the Israeli assaults on human rights and human rights defenders.

  Stand with Palestianian civil society, #StandWithThe6

  16.Write for rights Campaign

  Write For Rightsis a campaign run by Amnesty International yearly over the months of November and December. The campaign encourages individuals to write messages of solidarity to activists, organisations and movements that have suffered injustice and abuse. 

  This year, the Write for Rights campaign is asking that you stand in solidarity with 10 human rights defenders and activists. Among them, 15-year-old Janna Jihad who is facing death threats and intimidation for her work speaking up for human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, 22-year-old Rung who is is facing life in prison for speaking out for freedom and democracy in Thailand and Ciham Ali who has been missing for over 8 years and was last seen taken by the Eritrean authorities while trying to leave the country.

  Follow this link: Write a letter, sign a petition and protect their rights today.

• Vietnam: Immediately release journalist and human rights defender Pham Doan Trang

  

   

  Ahead of her upcoming trial on 4 November, the undersigned 28 human rights and freedom of expression organizations today condemn the ongoing arbitrary detention of independent journalist and woman human rights defender Pham Doan Trang. We call on the Vietnamese authorities to immediately and unconditionally release and drop all charges against her. The persecution of Doan Trang and other human rights defenders, including independent writers and journalists, is part of the worsening assault on the rights to freedom of expression and information in Vietnam.

  Pham Doan Trang was arrested more than a year ago in Ho Chi Minh City, on 7 October 2020, and initially charged under Article 88 of the 1999 Penal Code and its successor provision, Article 117 of the 2015 Penal Code, which both criminalize ‘making, storing, distributing or disseminating information, documents and items against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.’ She is now being charged under Article 88 of the 1999 Penal Code, according to the indictment made public on 18 October 2021.

  A month before her arrest, Doan Trang was the subject of a joint communication issued by five UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteurs (independent experts) responding to mounting harassment against her and other independent writers and journalists. In its December 2020 response, the government of Vietnam denied all allegations of wrongdoing and, without providing evidence, justified Doan Trang’s arrest as a response to her alleged abuse of the internet to overthrow the State.

  It is clear that Pham Doan Trang is being persecuted for her long-standing work as an independent journalist, book publisher, and human rights defender, known for writing about topics ranging from environmental rights to police violence, as well as for her advocacy for press freedom. Vietnamese authorities have regularly used Article 88 (and later Article 117) of the Penal Code to punish human rights defenders, independent journalists and writers, and others who have peacefully exercised their human rights.

  International human rights experts have repeatedly called on Vietnam to amend the non-human rights compliant provisions of its Penal Code and bring them into line with international law. In 2021, four UN Special Rapporteurs noted that Article 117 is ‘overly broad and appears to be aimed at silencing those who seek to exercise their human right to freely express their views and share information with others.’ In 2019, the UN Human Rights Committee called on Vietnam ‘as a matter of urgency’ to revise vague and broadly formulated legislation, including Article 117, and to end violations of the right to freedom of expression offline and online.

  In June 2021, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, responding to the detention of an Independent Journalist Association of Vietnam member, pointed to a ‘familiar pattern of arrest that does not comply with international norms, which is manifested in the circumstances of the arrest, lengthy detention pending trial with no access to judicial review, denial or limiting of access to legal counsel, incommunicado detention, prosecution under vaguely worded criminal offences for the peaceful exercise of human rights, and denial of access to the outside world. This pattern indicates a systemic problem with arbitrary detention in Vietnam which, if it continues, may amount to a serious violation of international law.

  Since her arrest, Doan Trang has been held incommunicado, until 19 October 2021, when she was finally allowed to meet with one of her lawyers after having been denied access to her family and legal representation for over a year. Prolonged incommunicado detention is a form of prohibited ill-treatment under international law under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Vietnam has ratified. As a result of this denial of her rights to a fair trial, liberty, and security, she has faced increased risk of torture and other ill treatment.

  On 30 August 2021, following the conclusion of the police investigation, the Hanoi Procuracy Office issued its formal indictment against Doan Trang. Alarmingly, her family did not learn of this until more than a month later, on 7 October, and only after having requested information from the authorities. The family and lawyers were again denied visitation. Authorities at the time also refused to provide Doan Trang’s lawyers with a copy of the indictment or access to the evidence they had prepared against her. This undue delay in the proceedings and refusal to grant access to a lawyer of her choosing amounts to a violation of her right to a fair trial under Article 14 of the ICCPR.

  According to the indictment, which was only made public on 18 October—more than a year after her arrest—Doan Trang is being charged under Article 88 of the Penal Code, for alleged dissemination of anti-State propaganda. The authorities dropped the similar charge under Article 117 of the amended Penal Code.

  The indictment calls attention to three specific pieces of writing. It mentions a book-length report Doan Trang wrote with Green Trees, an environmental rights group, about the 2016 Formosa Ha Tinh Steel disaster; a 2017 report on the freedom of religion in Vietnam; and an undated article titled ‘General assessment of the human rights situation in Vietnam.’ The indictment also accuses her of speaking with two foreign media, Radio Free Asia and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), to allegedly defame the government of Vietnam and fabricate news. These publications highlight Doan Trang’s vital work as an author, journalist, and human rights defender who has worked tirelessly for a more just, inclusive, and sustainable Vietnam. Her peaceful activism should be protected and promoted, not criminalized, in line with the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the undersigned organizations said.

  The use of human rights reports as evidence in a criminal prosecution sends a chilling message to civil society against engagement in human rights documentation and advocacy, and increases the risk of self-censorship. In light of the fact that Doan Trang’s report on Formosa was also part of direct advocacy with the UN Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights in 2016, its inclusion as evidence against her may constitute an act of intimidation and reprisal for cooperation with the UN and consolidate an environment of fear, as already noted by several UN actors.

  Ahead of her 4 November 2021 trial, Doan Trang was only granted her first meeting with her lawyer on 19 October 2021. While the lawyer noted Doan Trang’s overall positive attitude, he also recounted several serious medical concerns. Doan Trang’s legs, which were broken by the police in 2015, have been in greater pain as a result of the denial of adequate medical care during her detention. She has not been allowed to visit a doctor to treat other preexisting conditions, including low blood pressure, and as a result she has lost 10 kilograms.

  We denounce this unacceptable denial of her rights to a fair trial and freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment and call for an immediate end to her arbitrary detention, and for all charges against her to be dropped.

  Doan Trang’s background as an independent journalist and human rights defender

  Doan Trang is among the leading voices and best-known independent writers in Vietnamese civil society and recognized internationally for her human rights advocacy. She is the author of thousands of articles, blog entries, Facebook posts, and numerous books about politics, social justice, and human rights.

  She is the co-founder of the environmental rights group Green Trees, and the independent media outlets Luat Khoa Magazine, The Vietnamese Magazine, and the Liberal Publishing House. Doan Trang is the recipient of the 2017 Homo Homini Award presented by Czech human rights organization People in Need and the 2019 Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Award Prize for Impact. In 2020, the International Publishers Association awarded her organization, the Liberal Publishing House, with their Prix Voltaire Award.

  Pham Doan Trang is no stranger to harassment and intimidation by the State for her writing and human rights advocacy. This has included torture and other ill-treatment, including physical assault. In 2015, she was beaten so badly by security forces that she was left disabled and has since often needed crutches to aid her mobility. In 2018, she was hospitalized after being subjected to torture in police custody. For three years preceding her arrest, she was forced to move constantly and lived in fear of intimidation and harassment by police and other State authorities.

  In view of the above, we call on the government of Vietnam to:

  • Immediately and unconditionally release and drop all charges against Pham Doan Trang and all other human rights defenders currently imprisoned solely for the peaceful exercise of their human rights and fundamental freedoms;
  • Pending her immediate and unconditional release, guarantee humane treatment and conditions, and ensure prompt access to medical attention;
  • Guarantee Doan Trang unrestricted access to and regular communication with her family and confidential access to legal assistance of her choosing;
  • Ensure that her chosen lawyers are promptly provided with timely access to all relevant legal documentation and granted unrestricted communication and access in confidentiality with Doan Trang and adequate time and facilities to prepare for her defense;
  • Ensure the trial is open to the public, including diplomatic and human rights civil society observers and the media, and refrain from any arbitrary restriction on travel or interference of trial observers, media, and civil society preceding and during the trial;
  • Repeal or substantially amend the Penal Code and other non-human rights compliant legislation, used to harass and imprison individuals—including independent journalists and human rights defenders—for the exercise of their fundamental rights, and bring them in conformity with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Vietnam has been a State Party since 1982, and other applicable international law and standards.

  Signatories

  1. Access Now
  2. ALTSEAN-Burma
  3. Amnesty International
  4. ARTICLE 19
  5. Asia Democracy Chronicles
  6. Asia Democracy Network
  7. Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
  8. Boat People SOS (BPSOS)
  9. CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
  10. Committee to Protect Journalists
  11. Defend the Defenders
  12. FIDH - International Federation for Human Rights
  13. Front Line Defenders
  14. Green Trees
  15. Human Rights Watch
  16. International Commission of Jurists
  17. International Publishers Association
  18. Legal Initiatives for Vietnam
  19. Open Net Association
  20. PEN America
  21. People in Need
  22. Que Me - Vietnam Committee on Human Rights
  23. Reporters Without Borders
  24. Safeguard Defenders
  25. The 88 Project
  26. Vietnam Human Rights Network
  27. Vietnamese Women for Human Rights
  28. World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)

  Civic space in Vietnam is rated 'closed' by theCIVICUS Monitor.