From the Director

During the past few weeks we sent out our 100th Defender Alert Network appeal. Since beginning to build the network in June 2004 our appeals now reach over 9,000 participants. We always monitor carefully whether the demands we make in each appeal achieve the desired response, and we are pleased that in over 40% of cases we achieve some success.

Your appeals are making a difference, helping to free human rights defenders from prison or prompting progress in often sluggish official investigations into attacks on activists. But these types of successes are only part of the achievement of the DAN network over the past few years. One of the most important things we do through the DAN is to provide vulnerable activists at risk of persecution with the knowledge that people around the world care about their situation and are paying attention. Simply expressing this solidarity strengthens human rights defenders.

The DAN has also helped to raise public awareness at home and abroad about the work of human rights defenders featured in the appeals. This higher public profile often provides a degree of protection to activists, and it also provides opportunities for human rights defenders to have their voices heard in policy debates that affect human rights conditions in their countries.

Thank you for your continuing support of the Network.

Best Wishes,

Neil Hicks
Director of the Human Rights Defenders Program

Spotlight On…

RCFS Leader Visits United States

Following the shutting down of the Russian Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS) after losing an appeal against a closure order in the Russian Supreme Court on January 23, HRF invited Oksana Chelysheva, spokesperson of the RCFS, to New York and Washington, D.C. to draw attention to the mounting threats against independent human rights organizations in Russia.

Chelysheva told a forum on “Dissidents and the Fight for Freedom,” held in honor of former President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel, at The Library of Congress on February 20:  “As other democratic voices have fallen silent, NGOs have become the last advocates of democracy in Russia, and now have been drawn into conflict with the state, even against their own will.” Several leading Russian human rights defenders will be visiting HRF in the coming months as we seek to mobilize a strong, coordinated response from the U.S. government and its democratic allies in Europe and elsewhere to urge the Russian government to live up to its obligations to uphold human rights and basic freedoms.

Attacks Against Women HRDs in Colombia

The government delegation responded that every effort had been made to investigate and protect defenders. Unfortunately, reporting from within Colombia indicates that this is often not the case, and we will continue to advocate for the safety and freedom of women and all human rights defenders in Colombia.

Read HRF Submission on Women Human Rights Defenders in Colombia

Learn More about Women Human Rights Defenders

Do you know of a human rights defender or organization overseas who has made a significant impact in advancing human rights in their country or internationally? If so, consider submitting a nomination for The Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty Award for International Human Rights Defenders, which honors those outside the United States who have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to human rights advocacy. The award will be presented by Human Rights First during a ceremony in the summer of 2007 and the winner will receive a $25,000 prize.

Please note that nominations must be in English and are due no later than March 9, 2007.

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Case Updates

COLOMBIA:
In January almost 1,200 of you took action to call for the release of Gabriel Gonzalez, a human rights advocate unfairly imprisoned in Colombia. Gabriel is still in prison, but thanks to your support we have raised the profile of his case significantly. In meetings with Colombia’s Vice-President and Ambassador to the United States we raised Gabriel’s detention and they promised to review the case. We also sent a letter to Secretary of State Rice raising our concerns about his detention and urged the UN Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders to send an urgent action about Gabriel’s detention to the Colombian government.

INDONESIA:
There has been no concrete progress since the Christmas release of Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, the only person prosecuted for the murder of Indonesian human rights lawyer Munir. The Attorney-General’s office has not kept a pledge to request a Supreme Court review of the verdict by end of January, but is reportedly still working on this filing. The status of the new FBI analysis of evidence in the case also remains unknown.

THE PHILIPPINES:
As called for in your letters, the full report of the inquiry into the killings of hundreds of rights defenders and political activists is reportedly scheduled to be released this week. Philip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, recently visited the country, boosting attention given to the issue. After meeting with victims and their families, government representatives, and human rights groups, on February 21 Alston announced preliminary conclusions linking the increase in killings in part to the military’s counter-insurgency strategy. He also warned that the army was “in a state of almost total denial” about the problem.

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