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IN NOVEMBER 2018, PROTECTDEFENDERS.EU PARTNERS REPORTED AT LEAST 30 NEW ATTACKS AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
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KILLINGS OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
REPORTED IN SYRIA AND THE PHILIPPINES
ProtectDefenders.eu partners condemn in the strongest terms the killings of human rights defenders reported in the Philippines and Syria, in November 2018:
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According to the information received, on November 6, 2018, human rights lawyer Mr. Benjamin Ramos, a founding member of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) and the Secretary General of its chapter in Negros Occidental Province was shot by motorcycle-riding gunmen in front of a store in Kabankalan City. Mr. Ramos was a well-known human rights defender who provided pro-bono legal aid to victims of human rights abuses, representing the most marginalized people in the Philippines, including peasants, political prisoners, and victims of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. Most recently, Mr. Ramos was representing the families of nine farmers who were killed after joining a protest on a sugarcane plantation in Sagay City. Extra-judicial killings of human rights defenders have been a long-standing problem in the Philippines. Since President Rodrigo Duterte took office on June 30, 2016, human rights defenders have been operating in an increasingly hostile environment and a large number of defenders, including land and environmental rights defenders, have continued to be killed as a result of their work.
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On 23 November 2018, human rights defender Raed Fares was shot dead by unknown assailants in Kafranbel, a town close to Idlib in northwestern Syria. Raed Fares was the founder of the Kafranbel Media Centre, an independent organisation that documents and organises protests in support of the respect of human rights, freedom and peace in Syria. The protests organised by the human rights defender and his colleagues in Kafranbel have gained widespread attention in recent years due to their creative banners and signs in English, which are designed to reach a wide audience.
- On the fifth anniversary of the disappearance of Syrian journalist and human rights lawyer Razan Zaitouneh and three of her colleagues, partner organisations are still calling for an investigation into their fate. Zaitouneh and her three colleagues – Samira Khalil, Nazem Hamadi and Wa’el Hamada – were abducted on 9 December 2013 from the Violations Documentation Centre in Douma, a Damascus suburb controlled by rebel forces at the time. Since then, no information has emerged about their fate.
Syria’s civil war has made it one of the world’s deadliest country for journalists (ranks 177th in the 2018 RSF Index) and frequent intimidation, arrests, abductions, and murders constitute a horrendous environment for the media. Philippines is Asia’s deadliest country for the media, (133rd in the 2018 RSF Index) with at least four journalists killed in the country in 2017. Private militias, often hired by local politicians, silence journalists with complete impunity. The government has meanwhile developed several methods for pressuring and silencing journalists who criticize Duterte’s notorious “war on drugs.” In Sryia, ProtectDefenders.eu has allocated more than 100 emergency grants, 15 grants to local human rights organisations and approved two temporary relocation programmes. In the Philippines, the EU Human Rights Defenders Mechanism has supported six defenders through emergency grants and funded four local human rights groups, as well as approved two temporary relocation initiatives.
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HUMAN RIGHTS CRISIS AND REPRESSION IN NICARAGUA
ProtectDefenders.eu is deeply alarmed by recent reports of acts of intimidation and attacks against representatives of civil society in Nicaragua. Social protests are strongly repressed by the authorities, causing a serious human rights crisis in the country:
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On 12 December 2018, the National Assembly, at the urgent request of the Ministry of Interior, canceled the legal status of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH). This decision is considered an example of a model of repression aimed at destroying independent civil society in Nicaragua. CENIDH is the fourth NGO to have been stripped of its legal status by the National Assembly in the last weeks, arguing that they are all part of a coup attempt to overthrow the Nicaraguan government.
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On November 26, Nicaraguan authorities deported woman human rights defender Ana Quirós. The deportation is part of a wider smear campaign against and repression of feminist movements in Nicaragua. Ana Quirós is a feminist woman human rights defender, an expert in public health and director of the non-governmental organisation Centro de Información y Servicios de Asesoría en Salud (Centre for Health Information and Advisory Services). She is a Costa Rican and naturalised Nicaraguan citizen, who has worked in Nicaragua for the past 40 years promoting socio-cultural rights and more specifically the right to health.
- On 26 October 2018, between 20 and 25 hooded men broke into the cell of Irlanda Jerez in “La Esperanza” prison in Tipitapa, Nicaragua, where she is currently held alongside woman human rights defender Amaya Eva Coppens and 17 other women political prisoners. The beatings began after Irlanda Jerez refused to be taken for an interrogation with unidentified armed men. Other cellmates imprisoned for political reasons were also injured. None of them received medical attention. Irlanda Jerez is a dentist, small business owner and human rights defender in Nicaragua. She was detained by the police on 18 July 2018 following the “civil disobedience” campaign she lead at the “Mercado Oriental” (Eastern Market), the largest trade market in the country. At the beginning of July 2018, merchants and traders had stopped paying taxes in protest of the human rights abuses and repressive policies of Daniel Ortega’s government.
Nicaragua is ranked 90th in the RSF World Press Freedom Index. In the country, journalism as a whole is stigmatized, and journalists are often the targets of harassment campaigns, arbitrary arrest and death threats. At demonstrations, reporters are treated as participants and are often physically attacked.
The police are undertaking direct, violent action against those regarded as overly critical of the government. Their targets have recently included Gustavo Jarquín, a journalist with Radio Corporación, Miguel Mora, the owner and director of the TV news channel 100% Noticias, and his wife, Verónica Chávez, who presents the programme “Ellas lo dicen” or Eddy López, a reporter for the Managua newspaper La Prensa. Carlos Salinas Maldonado, a journalist and editor for the website confidencial.com.ni who also writes for the Madrid daily El País, has been a repeated target of cyber-attacks and online harassment campaigns. Moreover, the telecommunications regulator TELCOR suddenly deprived 100% Noticias of its broadcast signal on 30 November without giving any reason, as happened to six other TV channels earlier this year. End of November, police invaded and trashed the property where Álvaro Montalván, the owner and director of Radio Mi Voz, had placed the radio station’s transmitters. Several members of the staff of Radio Dario were arrested arbitrarily by riot police on 23 November and were held for several hours before being released. The staff of Radio Vos in Matagalpa had a similar experience.
In Nicaragua, ProtectDefenders.eu has allocated 18 emergency grants, and supported a local human rights organisation at risk, as well as conducted capacity-building, advocacy, and outreach programmes.
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wave of detentions,
harassment and ill-treatment of human rights defenders
in iran
ProtectDefenders.eu partners have recently received alarming information from Iran on the deterioration of the human rights situation and the new wave of harassment faced by defenders, in particular human rights lawyers, since September 2018. The judicial system continues to be systematically used to repress the peaceful activities of human rights defenders in the country:
Currently, the situation of harassment of human rights lawyers remains, over the ongoing wave of arbitrary arrests, prosecutions, persecution and judicial harassment of human rights defenders in the country.
ProtectDefenders.eu partners are particularly concerned over the ongoing detention of Mr. Amir Salar Davoodi, Messrs. Mohammad Najafi and Arash Kaykhosravi, Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh, Mostafa Daneshju, and the recent arrest of Mr. Reza Khandan, human rights activist and husband of lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, as well as Ms. Rezvaneh Mohammadi, Ms. Hoda Amid, Ms. Najmeh Vahedi and Ms. Maryam Azad, four women’s rights defenders involved in various campaigns for the defence of women’s rights, including against the imposition of the hijab.
Moreover, Mr. Farhad Mayssami (a.k.a Meysami) has been kept in solitary confinement and administered intravenous fluid against his will, since he was forcibly transferred from Tehran’s Evin prison’s Section 4 to the prison’s clinic on September 26. Since August 1, Mr. Mayssami - a medical doctor who campaigned for women’s rights, including supporting a campaign against the imposition of the hijab on women and girls, and defending women’s rights to choose their own clothing - has been on a hunger strike to protest against his arbitrary detention and to call for the unconditional release of fellow human rights defenders Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh and Mr. Reza Khandan. His health has been rapidly deteriorating and he has lost 34 kg since his arrest.
In this context, 35 human rights defenders at risk have received emergency support from ProtectDefenders.eu, and six human rights defenders have been temporarily relocated within the Temporary Relocation Programme.
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in november 2018, protectdefenders.eu has allocated 35 EMERGENCY GRANTS TO HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS AT RISK
COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN
FIELDS OF ACTION
TYPE OF SUPPORT
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