PHA-Exchange> Women on the Frontlines of Defending Freedoms

Marcy Bloom marcybloom at comcast.net
Wed Dec 13 13:19:46 PST 2006 

Women on the Frontlines of Defending Freedoms


 <http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/> Human Rights First
<http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/defenders/hr_defenders.htm> Defender Alert
Newsletter 	



 
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 From the Director
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director-sctn.gif> 




Issue Nine: December 13, 2006

Dear Marcy,

Women who defend human rights often face gender-specific attacks, in
addition to the threats commonly endured by human rights defenders because
of the work they are doing. These threats and attacks come from governments
as well as from paramilitaries or other groups not directly connected to the
state. Attacks on women defenders often go uninvestigated and unpunished.

 <http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/ct/x7ecWES1mBzJ/> Women are engaged in
promoting and protecting all kinds of human rights. Human Rights First is
part of a pioneering effort to educate policy makers at the international,
regional and national levels about the need to recognize and protect the
rights of women defenders. We are also participating in a project to produce
a practical manual to help women defenders begin to document the
gender-specific violations against them.  

Addressing specific attacks against women defenders is only one part of the
solution.  In addition, the broader environment in which women work should
not foster discrimination or impunity. For example, in recent years in
Guatemala, an alarming number of women have been brutally murdered and that
number continues to increase. Human Rights First is pushing the Guatemalan
government to investigate and prevent these gender-based killings. We are
also working with Congress in the United States to adopt a
<http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/ct/2decWES1mBzo/> resolution condemning
these killings and putting forward measures to combat the problem. 

November 29 marked the first annual international celebration of women human
rights defenders. We participated in festivities to mark this occasion and
made commitments to develop our work in support of women's rights to protect
the rights of others. We hope that we will have your support as we continue
this project in the years to come.

 <http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/ct/x7ecWES1mBzJ/> Learn more about the
important work of women human rights defenders and take action to support
them >>


With best wishes for the New Year,

 Neil
Hicks
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-sgntr.gif>  

Neil Hicks
Director of the Human Rights Defenders Program



 Spotlight On
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ight-on-sctn.gif> 
 
<http://img.getactivehub.com/dawn/custom_images/human_rights_first/mega-offi
cial-hudson.jpg> Update from the Field: Colombia

Andrew Hudson of HRF's Human Rights Defenders Program recently traveled to
Colombia. He met with a number of human rights defenders in danger,
including those who have been imprisoned on spurious rebellion charges and
those who have family members assassinated or received death threats, such
as  <http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/ct/wpecWES1mBzR/> Berenice Celeyta.
He also met with Colombian, U.S. and U.N. authorities to raise our central
demand that the best form of protection would be for the Colombian
government to publicly recognize the legitimacy and importance of the work
performed by human rights defenders. 

Upon his return, Andrew met with senior State Department officials to
discuss whether U.S. aid to Colombia should be certified as complying with
legislatively defined human rights conditions. He argued that given the
widespread attacks on human rights defenders those conditions were not being
met. He also met officials at the Colombian embassy urging them to intervene
in a range of cases where defenders are at risk. 

Thanks to the approximately 1,000 DAN members who wrote to their
Congressional Representatives, the
<http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/ct/21ecWES1mBz9/> McGovern-Pitts letter
on Colombian human rights defenders received over 60 signatures. It will
send a strong message to the Colombian government that it must do more to
protect defenders.
<http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/campaign/ColDearColleagueThanks/8g67wxw4
l556dki?> Click here to find out if your Representative signed and, if so,
thank him or her for supporting human rights activists in Colombia. 




  _____  


 
<http://img.getactivehub.com/dawn/custom_images/human_rights_first/dan-ruiz-
100w.jpg> Several Cuban Activists Released from Prison 

Over the past few weeks several Cuban activists have been released from
prison, including two who have been the focus of sustained advocacy
campaigns by Human Rights First and our supporters:
<http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/ct/3decWES1mBzZ/> Hector Palacios and
<http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/ct/31ecWES1mBzK/> Oscar Mario Gonzalez.
Palacios, a leader of the Varela Project and an independent librarian, was
detained during the crackdown on civil society in Cuba in the spring of 2003
and has been suffering from serious health problems since his imprisonment.
Gonzalez is an independent journalist detained during a second crackdown in
July 2005 and had been held without charges or trial. Both men were detained
as punishment for criticizing rights violations by the government and
calling for democratic and human rights reforms.    

Despite these positive developments, severe repression of dissent and human
rights advocacy persists in Cuba. On December 10, a peaceful demonstration
to celebrate International Human Rights Day was violently broken up by
government supporters, who prevented the demonstrators from continuing. In
addition, hundreds of activists and journalists remain in prison in Cuba -
including 59 of the 75 detained in 2003 - simply for voicing opinions
contrary to government views. Several of those individuals, including Jose
Luis Garcia Paneque and Normando Hernandez Gonzalez, face serious health
problems and inadequate medical treatment.
<http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/campaign/Paneque/8g67wxw4l556dki?> Take
Action!





  _____  

 
<http://img.getactivehub.com/dawn/custom_images/human_rights_first/mega-case
-munir5.jpg> 
Some Progress in Efforts for Justice in Indonesia 

Just weeks after the Indonesian Supreme Court reversed the only murder
conviction in the case of slain human rights lawyer Munir, Human Rights
First presented its  <http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/ct/2pecWES1mBz0/>
annual award posthumously to the activist and to his wife Suciwati. As part
of the lobbying efforts that followed, Suciwati and Usman Hamid, Munir's
friend and successor as director of the human rights organization Kontras,
met with congressional staffers, State Department officials, and the U.N.
Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings. After Suciwati's briefing to
the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, four Congressmen wrote a
<http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/ct/NpecWES1mBzk/> letter to the
Indonesian president calling for action. 

Suciwati's discussions with U.S. government and U.N. bodies were widely
covered in the Indonesian press and drew promises to act at home. Since her
visit, the Indonesian police have requested the assistance of the FBI, and
an Indonesian parliamentary committee called in unusually strong terms for
the President to immediately create a new independent commission and release
the report of a previous fact-finding team. 

back to top <> 

 Case Updates
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updates-sctn.gif> 

 <http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/ct/w7ecWES1mBzQ/> COLOMBIA:
We would like to thank the over 1,000 DAN members who took action after a
series of  <http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/ct/wdecWES1mBzP/> community
and union leaders were killed by the Colombian army in Bolivar Department.
In response to your efforts, the Colombian Ombudsman notified us that they
had opened a formal investigation into the killings. This is a critical
first step to deter future attacks and constituted one of our key demands. 


HONDURAS: 
In early October, Honduras came before the U.N. Human Rights Committee, the
body charged with monitoring governments' implementation of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Human Rights
First used the occasion to submit a
<http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/ct/27ecWES1mBzl/> shadow report, drawing
attention to serious threats faced by Afro-descendant and indigenous rights
activists in Honduras. Human Rights First encouraged the committee to ask
specific questions regarding attacks against human rights activists and
measures being taken to protect them, during their meetings with the
Honduran representatives. In its
<http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/ct/3pecWES1mBzC/> final report, the
committee noted the dangerous challenges facing defenders in Honduras and
recommended that the state adopt the necessary measures to ensure their
protection and investigate attacks against them. 

 <http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/ct/27ecWES1mBzl/> Read HRF's Shadow
Report on Honduras


 <http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/ct/sdecWES1mBzT/> INDONESIA: 
On September 14 we asked you to express your concern to Indonesian
authorities about a  <http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/ct/s1ecWES1mBzY/>
defamation complaint filed against a team of lawyers based purely on
documents submitted to the court in defense of their clients, who were
accused of participating in a riot in Abepura, Papua, earlier this year. It
now appears that the police are not actively pursuing the case. While their
decision is due in part to the weak legal basis for the complaint, it is
likely that international pressure played an important role as well. 


 <http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/ct/x1ecWES1mBzF/> THAILAND: 
In September 2006 a non-violent coup changed the picture of human rights in
Thailand. The installation of an unelected government and the revocation of
the constitution raised fears of the erosion of democracy in Thailand. At
the same time the new government apologized to the victims of abuses in the
South and promised new policies. There was a possible breakthrough in the
<http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/ct/xdecWES1mBz-/> Somchai case as the
head of the Department of Special Investigations, an agency criticized in
several of our alerts, was replaced and newly discovered human remains are
now undergoing DNA testing.  In late November the coup group lifted martial
law in many, but not all provinces, as called for in a Human Rights First
appeal. 


back to  <> top 

  _____  


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 In this Issue
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sue-clmn.gif> 

Spotlight On...

Update From the Field: Colombia <> 

Several Cuban  <> Activists Released from Prison

Some Progress in Efforts for Justice in  <> Indonesia

Case Updates

 Take Action
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action-updates.gif> 

Window
<http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/campaign/Tanyeeno/8g67wxw4l556dki?> of
Opportunity for Human Rights in Thailand

Colombian
<http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/campaign/Celeyta/8g67wxw4l556dki?>
Activists Targeted by Government Assassination Plot

Support
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ki?> the UN's Most Valuable Human Rights Protectors

 
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