In the first months of 2019, Peru has seen an increase in the number of killings of human rights defenders, and at least four HRDs have been murdered since the beginning of the year. At the time of the killings, Peru had no specific laws or policies on the protection of human rights defenders, and the work of civil society organisations was being obstructed by political actors linked to the extractive industries.

According to ProtectDefenders.eu, the cases of Cristian Javá Ríos, Paul McAuley, Wilbelder Vegas Torres, and Claudia Vera illustrate the state’s failure to provide integral protection for human rights defenders at risk, as well as an increased need for a human rights based policy addressing this issue:

• On 17 April, in Urarinas, located in the Amazon region, indigenous rights defender Cristian Javá Ríos was killed in an ambush reportedly organised by gang members who were trying to expel indigenous communities from their lands by causing leaks from oil pipelines.

• On 2 April, British missionary and human rights defender Paul McAuley was killed and burned in Iquitos, in the Amazon region. His body was found by students from the Red Ambiental Loretana shelter, established by the defender himself.

• On 30 March, transgender rights defender and sex worker Claudia Vera was killed in Lima, while working on the street. The human rights defender had founded the human rights organisation Jóvenes Cambiando Vihdas, which brings visibility, education, empowerment and work opportunities to young HIV-positive persons.

• On 19 January, Wilbelder Vegas Torres, leader of the Frente de Defensa de la comunidad campesina San Sebastián de Suyo, was shot dead while travelling in the Ayabaca region. The environmental human rights defender had been protesting against illegal mining, and had requested protection from the state due to threats received prior to the attack.

On 25 April 2019, the Protocolo para garantizar la protección de personas defensoras de derechos humanos en el Perú (Protocol to guarantee the protection of human rights defenders in Peru) was approved by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. The Protocol establishes an official registry of security incidents against human rights defenders.

Peru is ranked 85th in the RSF 2019 World Press Freedom Index. Peru’s journalists risk harsh reprisals when they cover social or environmental conflicts, expose cases of corruption, or investigate the infiltration of state entities by drug traffickers. The main threat to media freedom in Peru comes from the defamation laws, which often lead to journalists being threatened, intimidated or prosecuted, especially in the more remote parts of the country.

ProtectDefenders.eu has supported Peruvian human rights defenders since the launch of the EU HRD mechanism through emergency grants to at least three HRDs at risk, five training and capacity-building programMEs conducted, 8 monitoring and advocacy actions, and two outreach missions.

The arrest of the human rights defenders in Algeria forms part of a pattern of ongoing retaliation against human rights defenders, journalists, student activists, trade unionists and lawyers, which has intensified since the start of massive protests in the country, according to ProtectDefenders.eu partners. Only in the past weeks:

• Kamal Eddine Fekhar, Mozabite minority rights defender, founder of Tifawt and member of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights, was arrested near his workplace along with his two minor children on 31 March 2019. On the same day, trade unionist and minority rights defender Hadj Ibrahim Aouf was also arrested. The human rights defenders were detained for attacking public institutions, namely the military, Parliament and judiciary, based on a complaint made by the general prosecutor of the city of Ghardaia. They declared an open-ended hunger strike to protest against their arbitrary arrest.

• Abdou Semmar, a journalist actively working on exposing corruption in Algeria, currently exiled in France, received threats on several occasions and on 10 April 2019, his wife’s car was burnt to the ground in front of her workplace in Oued Romen, Algiers. The human rights defender reports on corruption and abuse of power in Algeria through the Paris based media outlet Algeria Part.

• On 8 April 2019, Salah Dabouz, a lawyer, human rights defender and former President of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH), was arrested by security forces during a meeting in a restaurant in the capital. The human rights defender was taken to the city of Ghardaia where he was questioned about his posts on Facebook criticising the judiciary. He was released the next day but kept under “administrative observation”.

• On 7 April 2019, Meziane Abane, a journalist at Al Watan newspaper and human rights defender advocating for the rights of the Amazigh people in Algeria, was arrested while he was covering the protests. He saw members of the security forces chasing protesters and arresting those who resisted. When police officers ordered the human rights defender to leave, he refused, saying he was a journalist doing his job. They arrested him along with eight protesters and took them to the Rue Asslah Hocine police station, where they were held for hours.

The unstable political environment is increasing the threats to the freedom to inform in Algeria, ranked 141st in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index. The authorities continue to use frequent prosecutions of journalists to throttle the media, which struggle to perform their role. An unprecedented number of journalists were arrested in 2018 for allegedly defamatory reporting.

ProtectDefenders.eu, since the beginning of the implementation, has provided at least 5 emergency grants to Algerian defenders, and funded two local human rights organisations. Moreover, the EU HRD Mechanism has facilitated the temporary relocation of three HRDs, delivered two training programmes, and conducted three monitoring missions and three outreach initiatives in the country.

ProtectDefenders.eu partners condemn Turkey’s persecution of former senior staff members of the Cumhuriyet newspaper, who were returned to prison on 30 April, as a result of an appeal court decision in February upholding their jail sentences. Before being released conditionally, they had spent many months in preventive detention.

Five of the six – well-known cartoonist Musa Kart and former administrators Önder Çelik, Mustafa Kemal Güngör, Hakan Karasınır, and Güray Öz – were returned to Kandıra prison to serve the rest of their jail sentences of three years and nine months on charges of “assisting a terrorist organization.” The sixth former Cumhuriyet staff member, accountant Emre İper, was returned to the same prison to serve the rest of his jail sentence of three years, one month and 15 days on a charge of “terrorist propaganda”. Former Cumhuriyet colleagues Kadri Gürsel and Bülent Utku, who were sentenced to two and a half years and four and a half years in prison respectively, have yet to receive a summons to return to prison. The fate of six other former colleagues, who were sentenced to more than five years in prison, is still awaiting a decision by the court of cassation. 

A member of Academics for Peace, Prof. Zübeyde Füsun Üstel, whose 1 year and 3 months prison sentence was upheld on 25 February 2019, is due to begin her prison sentence by mid-May. Apart from her academic studies, she has a long history working in civil society organisations, particularly at Citizens Assembly and History Foundation in Turkey. The human rights defender was convicted based on charges of disseminating “terrorist propaganda” for signing a petition drafted in January 2016 by Academics for Peace, calling for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in the mostly Kurdish-populated southeastern provinces. She will be the first Academic for Peace to enter jail. 

Turkey is the world’s biggest jailer of professional journalists and is ranked 157th in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index. The witch-hunt waged by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government against its media critics has come to a head since the abortive coup in July 2016. 

ProtectDefenders.eu provides comprehensive support to Turkish human rights defenders, and the EU HRD mechanism has allocated at least 20 emergency grants, 6 grants to local organisations, and 17 temporary relocation grants to address the needs of HRDs in a very repressive context. In addition, ProtectDefenders.eu partners continue their monitoring and advocacy work in the country, through regular appeals and alerts, field missions, and trial monitoring.

COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN

• Honduras 7

• India 1

• Mozambique 1

• Uganda 1

• Kenya 2

• Colombia 1

• Venezuela 1

• DRC 2

• Nicaragua 4

• Indonesia 1

• Egypt 9

• Vietnam 1

• Iran 2

• Syria 4

• Mexico 2

• South Africa 1

• Yemen 1

• Afghanistan 1

• Chile 1

• Mauritania 1

• Brazil 1

• Bangladesh 2

• Pakistan 1

FIELD OF WORK
 

• Civil and political rights 12

• Women's Rights 3

• Land/Environment 6

• HR in armed conflict / child rights 1

• Student's rights / Justice 3

• Prisoners rights 3

• LGBTI Rights 1

• Freedom of Expression 15

• Religious Rights 1

• Minorities Rights 2

• ESC Rights 1
   

TYPE OF MEASURE

• Temporary relocation 14

• Legal support 4

• Permanent relocation 3

• ICT equipment 2

• Medical support 7

• Individual security 7

• Support during return after exile 1

• Psychosocial support 1

• Solidarity 4

• Family Support 1

• Humanitarian 1

• Basic Needs 2

• Safety 4

• Office security 1

• Expenses in prison 1

• Support for activities 1

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (an FIDH - OMCT partnership)
 

Front Line Defenders


Reporters Without Borders/ Reporters Sans Frontières