Issue Seventeen: February 20, 2009
Candidates make promises, during the campaign and right through the inaugural speech. Then the rubber meets the road and the hard work begins. And history shows that there's a good chance that human rights ideals become pushed aside by economic or security goals.
Because of our focus on defenders around the globe, we are watching the new administration's foreign policy particularly closely. This week we saw Hillary Rodham Clinton take her first trip as Secretary of State, to countries across Asia. We wrote to her before she left asking her to raise human rights issues in Indonesia and to encourage China to stop arms transfers to Sudan. (We also joined with other organizations to ask her to raise China's domestic human rights issues, including defenders.)
In Indonesia, she did something we liked a lot: on February 18 she met with Suciwati, wife of the murdered human rights defender Munir. Such a meeting recognizes the role of defenders and demonstrates support for their work. But important as they, symbolic measures must be backed by official policies that support accountability for past human rights violations and prevention of new ones.
There will be plenty of opportunities to support the work of defenders in the future. Will President Obama's first major speech from a Muslim country, or possible engagement with Iran, include concern for human rights defenders? Will defenders become part of the dialogue with strategically important countries like China (Secretary Clinton's next stop), Egypt, and Russia? Will the U.S. be willing to push for an end to impunity in countries like Guatemala? Will it engage fully and effectively with the U.N. human rights bodies?
We also know-because human rights defenders around the world tell us-how important it is for the United States to get its own house in order. The U.S. can then be a far better agent for advancing human rights in its relations with other countries. To this end, Human Rights First has issued a series of blueprints on closing Guantanamo, repairing the asylum system, ending torture, and other important areas.
Best Wishes,
Matt Easton
Director of the Human Rights Defenders Program
Time for the Guatemalan Military to Open Secret Archives
Guatemala has long suffered from a lack of justice and accountability for mass atrocities committed during the country's 36-year conflict, mainly by state forces. Human rights defenders and survivors of the conflict have urged the military to release documents that may shed light on the role of the police and the military in human rights violations during that period. In February 2008, President Alvaro Colom ordered that all military archives related to the conflict be opened, and in March 2008 the Guatemalan Constitutional Court also ruled that the documents should be released.
In January 2009, Major General Abraham Valenzuela Gonzalez was named new Minister of Defense. Six human rights groups joined with Human Rights First to call on him to abide by the orders of the President and the Court and release the archives. The previous Defense Minister, as well as other former military leaders, argued that the documents were state secrets and their release would undermine national security. Listen to Senior Associate Andrew Hudson combat their arguments on WBAI Radio Pacifica.
In February 2009 Human Rights First received heartening reports from Guatemala that our advocacy had paid off and that the military is preparing the archives for release.
Attacks on Nobel Prize Winner Herald Worsening Human Rights Situation in Iran
DOn December 18, 2008, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution expressing "deep concern" about human rights violations in Iran. Just three days later, dozens of plainclothes detectives and local police officers shut down the Center for the Defense of Human Rights in Tehran, a leading independent human rights organization led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi.
Then, on December 29, five security officers identifying themselves as tax officials stormed Ebadi's private office and demanded her computers and files. Citing client confidentiality, Ebadi initially refused, but in the end was forced to turn over the files.
The recent attacks on Ebadi are the culmination of a campaign of harassment and intimidation, including statements in government papers stigmatizing Ebadi as a "foreign agent." Such statements encourage private acts of aggression. On January 1, approximately 150 people came to Ebadi's home, chanting slogans against her, and vandalized her property. The police eventually forced the crowd to disperse.
We sent a letter to the Iranian authorities regarding the closure and the raid on her private office. The closure received attention in the press, prompting a letter to the editor in the Washington Post from Human Rights First.
In the past few weeks, more members of the One Million Signatures Campaign, a grassroots campaign to promote gender equality in Iranian laws were arrested, and a three-year sentence against an activist for participating in a peaceful demonstration for women's rights has been implemented. We will continue to monitor these cases and to pressure the Iranian authorities to allow this important non-violent activism in support of the rights of Iranian women. You can read our blog at the Huffington Post commenting on these cases.
Secretary Of State Meets with Suciwati, 2006 Human Rights First Award Winner
In our last newsletter, we described the atmosphere at the Jakarta trial of retired General Muchdi Purwopranjono, accused of masterminding the murder of the prominent human rights defender Munir in 2004. Following those courtroom visits, and just before the verdict, we raised concerns about witness tampering and other irregularities.
Then, on December 31, Gen. Muchdi was acquitted on all charges. It was major setback, but the case is far from over. Prosecutors have appealed the verdict directly to the Supreme Court. The Judicial Commission and the National Commission on Human Rights are reviewing the verdict, and Munir's wife Suciwati recently met with the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders in Bangkok.
Then on February 18 she was invited to meet specially with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Jakarta. Clinton promised that the United States would continue to push for justice in the case. There is still a lot of work to do, and we may call on you again to take action soon.
The Anniversary of the Other Declaration: The Human Rights Defenders Declaration
While we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) on December 10 2008, another important milestone passed a day earlier with little fanfare: the 10th anniversary of the UN Human Rights Defenders Declaration.
After 13 years of negotiation, on December 9, 1998, the UN General Assembly adopted the groundbreaking Declaration by consensus. For the first time it explicitly recognized the right to peacefully promote or protect human rights and entered the concept of human rights defenders into the lexicon of international law. The Declaration reaffirms rights already contained in international treaties, such as the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, but articulates them in a way that is particularly relevant to the reality of defenders. The Declaration also contains unique rights, not protected by other agreements, such as the right to receive and obtain funding for human rights activities.
The Declaration and the protection movement it has spawned has improved the safety of defenders around the world. But realizing the full promise of the document remains the important task of governments, the U.N., defenders, and allies like you.
Read our full article on the importance of the Declaration.
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COLOMBIA:
In December over 1,500 of you took action expressing concern over the baseless detention of anti-paramilitary activist Carmelo Agamez in Northern Colombia. While Agamez remains imprisoned there have been two positive developments. First, as you had asked, prison authorities moved Agamez to a safer section of the prison away from the paramilitaries he had helped put behind bars. Second, the Inspector General appointed a Judicial Inspector to review the investigation and promised that the Inspector would "search for the truth" and uphold Agamez's fundamental rights.
GUATEMALA:
After our urgent action in January, Guatemalan LGBT activist Jorge Lopez had a court hearing. Lopez had been accused of attempting to murder one of the transgender sex workers whose rights he defends. We are pleased to report that his house detention was lifted and the attempted murder charges were dropped. An investigation continues against him for minor criminal charges but we are confident they too will be dropped shortly.
PAKISTAN:
In 2002, Mukhtar Mai was gang-raped on orders of a traditional village council as punishment for acts allegedly committed by her younger brother. Rather than to retreat into silence or commit suicide (the expected response when dishonor is brought to a family), Mukhtar Mai testified against the perpetrators. She used the compensation money she later received to build schools and a shelter for abused women.
The Supreme Court was scheduled to hear an appeal that might free her attackers in February 2009. We received reports that on December 28, 2008, a Federal Minister called Mukhtar Mai's uncle, advising him that she should not testify against her rapists. We sent a letter to Pakistani authorities, asking them to investigate this outside interference and insure Mukhtar Mai's safety before, during and after the hearing. In a reply, we were told that the Law Minister would assure that there is no interference in the case. On February 11, the hearing was postponed, and her attackers will continue to remain in prison. We will continue to monitor this case and provide updates.
THAILAND:
Following our alert of February 9, more than 1200 of you added your names to a letter to the Thai military authorities. The letter was a response to statements by a local commander linking human rights activists to insurgents, followed by a raid on a respected monitoring organization, the Working Group on Justice for Peace. Responding to the outcry from the human rights community, military authorities held a press conference, at which they stated that the local army commander “has no policy or any order to threaten the work of human rights activists but to respect them and cooperate closely.”
ZIMBABWE:
In December, we wrote to you about the disappearance of Jestina Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), after the release of a report in which ZPP documented ongoing human rights violations. On December 24, Ms. Mukoko appeared in court after having allegedly been dropped off at the Matapi police station by her abductors. She appeared badly beaten and was charged with attempting to overthrow the government of Robert Mugabe. She is being held in state custody and her case will be heard before the Zimbabwean High Court. Despite previous orders from the High Court, however, police are denying her medical treatment for alleged torture.
RUSSIA:
On February 20, just one day after a jury acquitted three men on trial for the murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the presiding judge ordered the case reopened. Politkovskaya fearlessly exposed human rights violations in Chechnya and the North Caucasus. She died in an execution-style killing in her Moscow apartment building in October 2006.
We have previously called upon the Russian authorities to conduct a prompt, thorough, and transparent investigation into her murder. Police and prosecutors have failed to investigate the case effectively, a problem that must be resolved if the reopened case is to have any chance of success. If no one is brought to justice in this case, the problem of impunity will continue in Russia, one of the most dangerous countries in the world for human rights defenders. Just in January, Stanislav Markelov, a human rights lawyer and Anastasia Baburova, a freelance reporter for Novaya Gazeta, were gunned down in the middle of the afternoon in downtown Moscow. Once again, we urged the authorities to bring the perpetrators of these murders to justice.
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