Issue Eighteen: May 21, 2009
This newsletter presents a mix of progress and setbacks. Since our last quarterly newsletter we launched a report on baseless prosecutions in Colombia that has already started to see results. At the same time, in recent weeks one Colombian activist was attacked outside his home, while others were falsely accused of being guerillas (take action here). Just yesterday a courageous anti-death penalty campaigner from Iran, Emad Baghi, was recognized with a prestigious international award, even as he and his colleagues continue to face prosecution and harassment.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. famously observed, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." These human rights defenders help move the world along that long arc in the face of unbelievable risk, while activists like you can play an essential role in helping to make sure that they can continue their work.
This is my last newsletter as director, and I would personally like to express my appreciation for your interest in and support for the defender cases we have brought to your attention. Although I am moving on, the program will continue to advocate on behalf of human rights activists around the world. Please keep informed on the countries and issues that interest you, and stay active though the Defender Alert Network and the many other ways you can make a difference.
Best Wishes,
Matt Easton
Director of the Human Rights Defenders Program
Innovative Report Calls Attention to Baseless Prosecutions of Human Rights Defenders in Colombia
In February 2009, senior associate Andrew Hudson traveled to Colombia to launch a new report, Baseless Prosecutions of Human Rights Defenders: In the Dock and Under the Gun. The report documents for the first time the systemic nature of baseless prosecutions of human rights defenders in Colombia. We held a standing-room-only launch event in Bogota and a follow-up event in Bucaramanga, an area where human rights defenders have been particularly targeted with false criminal charges. The report received extensive media coverage in Colombia, and an article in the LA Times reported on one of the cases we highlighted. We also held several events in Washington, DC, to introduce the report to US policymakers. Andrew Hudson and two Colombian activists were witnesses at a hearing of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission about the problem, chaired by Rep. Jim McGovern and attended by several other members of Congress.
We’ve started to see real change resulting from the report, with support for its recommendations from several branches of the Colombian government and from U.S. policymakers. Most importantly, we’re starting to see positive movement in some of the cases we featured in the report. For example, on May 13 Martin Sandoval was released from jail after being unjustly detained for six months. Sandoval, the President of the Permanent Committee of Human Rights in Arauca, had been falsely charged with rebellion. We released a statement hailing his release and calling for all other arbitrarily detained human rights defenders to be released as well. We’d previously written a letter raising our concern about his detention, and this week Andrew Hudson also gave an interview about the release to Colombian radio station Contagio Radio.
Watch a video about baseless prosecutions here.
Cuba's Human Rights Record Reviewed by UN Human Rights Council Body
In March 2009, Cuba’s human rights record was closely examined as part of the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The UPR, one of the most innovative human rights mechanisms at the UN, gives other governments the opportunity to question, voice concerns about, and praise aspects of the human rights situation in the country under review. This past September, we submitted a report on human rights defenders in Cuba that the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights cited extensively in its summary of stakeholders’ submissions. We worked with governments to make sure that our concerns about Cuban defenders such as the Ladies in White were raised during the session, at which NGOs could not make interventions.
At the session, Cuba’s allies overwhelmed the speakers’ list and took the opportunity to commend Cuba’s progress in health and education (see a write-up of the proceedings here). Only a few states were able to speak about the areas in which Cuba has not advanced: freedom of movement, freedom of association, and freedom of expression, among others. Cuba rejected recommendations that would increase Cubans’ enjoyment of these fundamental rights. We now have our work cut out for us urging Cuba to reconsider these recommendations and improve the situation on the ground for human rights defenders in Cuba.
See a slideshow of Cuba's Ladies in White here.
Defenders in Asia Participate in Regional Consultation
In January Matt Easton traveled to Bangkok to join FORUM-ASIA's Third Regional Human Rights Defenders Forum. Approximately 100 participants from across Asia discussed the situation of human rights defenders and the role of national human rights institutions in the region. There was also a day devoted to Women Human Rights Defenders. The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders was present and met with groups from every country represented. Human Rights First participated in the planning and follow-up to some of these meetings to help make them as effective as possible.
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COLOMBIA:
In May 2009, seven members of the army unit that killed Edwin Legarda, the husband of an indigenous leader, were arrested. Human Rights First had called for an impartial investigation into the murder. We continue to pressure the Colombian government to ascertain whether the army deliberately shot Legarda's car and whether his wife, renowned indigenous leader Aída Quilcué, was the intended target.
GUATEMALA:
In our last newsletter, we wrote to you about the possibility that the Guatemalan military would release important archives from the internal armed conflict. We conducted a wide-ranging campaign to get the archives released. We’re pleased to report that the defense ministry recently released military archives relating to two of the worst massacres. These archives contained information on the responsibility of senior police and military officials. Human rights defenders will use this information to seek accountability for past crimes, an important step in breaking the cycle of impunity plaguing Guatemala.
ZIMBABWE:
Jestina Mukoko, a prominent human rights defender in Zimbabwe who we have written to you about before, was ordered back into custody in early May 2009 after having been released on bail in February 2009. Ms. Mukoko disappeared for 92 days after being seen dragged off by policemen in December 2008. She reappeared in court to post bail and appeared to have suffered injuries while in custody. This week, a magistrate has charged her, along with 14 other democracy and human rights activists, with banditry, sabotage, and recruitment of others for banditry. See this alert from Media Institute of Southern Africa for more information.
THAILAND:
In a rare legal victory in Thailand, in December a court convicted the man accused of hiring the gunmen who killed Charoen Wataksorn, an environmental activist profiled in our 2005 report. Charoen was killed in 2004 after leading his community to oppose coal power stations near his coastal village. Human Rights First had previously observed a session of the trial and had been invited to submit a copy of the report to the judge.
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