(français) GENEVA – A group of United Nations human rights experts today expressed serious concern that Mauritanian activists jailed for their alleged role in a protest against forced evictions in Nouakchott are being targeted by the Government for their anti-slavery advocacy. The human rights defenders were sentenced in August to prison terms ranging from three to fifteen years. The date for an appeal will be set later this week by the Appeals Court in Nouadhibou. Thirteen of the activists are members of the Initiative for the Resurgence of… Continue reading →
GENEVA – A group of United Nations experts today called on the Government of India to immediately release human rights defender Khurram Parvez, arrested last month for alleged activities against public order. Mr. Parvez is the coordinator of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCSS), and the chairperson of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD). “Mr. Parvez is a well-known and outspoken human rights defender who has had a longstanding and positive engagement with the UN human rights mechanisms,” the experts… Continue reading →
(NAIROBI/NEW YORK) – Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai has been chosen to receive the United Nations Foundation’s 2016 Leo Nevas Human Rights Award, and will travel to New York to accept the prize at the Foundation’s Global Leadership Dinner on Oct. 19. Fellow honorees at the event will include United States President Barack Obama – who will receive the foundation’s Champion for Global Change Award – and Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director of the World Food Programme. The Leadership Dinner is co-sponsored by the United Nations Association of… Continue reading →
GENEVA – The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, warned today about the growing restrictions imposed on civil society in Egypt and the targeting of human rights defenders and human rights organizations. On 17 September 2016, the Cairo Criminal Court froze the assets of five prominent human rights defenders and three NGOs named in “Case 173 on foreign funding”. The order places the frozen assets under government custodianship, meaning that the organizations and individuals can no longer make… Continue reading →
GENEVA – United Nations human rights experts today urged the Ethiopian authorities to end their violent crackdown on peaceful protests, which has reportedly led to the death of over 600 people since November 2015. They further called on the Government to allow an international commission of inquiry to investigate the protests and the violence used against peaceful demonstrators. “We are outraged at the alarming allegations of mass killings, thousands of injuries, tens of thousands of arrests and hundreds of enforced disappearances,” said the UN… Continue reading →
