intimidation

Ecuador - Criminal charges, intimidation and defamation against human rights defender Lina Solano

Front Line is deeply concerned following reports of criminal charges, intimidation and defamation against human rights defender Lina Solano. Lina Solano is a founding member of the Popular Peasants Association, a member of the executive committee of the National Co-ordinating Committee for the Defence of Life and Sovereignty (NCCDLS), a member of the Women Defenders of Mother Earth (WDME), and a founding member of the Women’s Latin American Union, a regional network of women defenders of environmental rights.

Ecuador

Sudan: Osman Ibrahim and members of the Kajbar Dam committee subject to ongoing harassment

Osman Ibrahim is Secretary of the Kajbar Dam Committee, who are protesting at the construction of dam, which will flood their villages resulting in forced displacement of local communities. Local people are particularly concerned at the lack of any adequate consultation on the plans to build the dam.

Sudan

West Papua: Human rights defender, Yan Christian Warinussy followed and threatened

“You want evidence of people being killed? I will kill your tribe, your family and your children will become only bones..........”. Yan Christian Warinussy is Executive Director of the Institute of Research, Analysis and Development for Legal Aid in Manokwari, West Papua which documents human rights abuses. In recent months Yan Christian has received repeated death threats because of his work.

Asia Pacific

Uganda: Arbitrary detention of George Oundo and Kiiza Brendah and intimidation of other human rights defenders

Front Line is deeply concerned following reports that human rights defenders George Oundo and Kiiza Brendah were arbitrarily detained from 10 to 18 September 2008 and that Pepe Juliana Onziema, David Kato, Victor Julie Mukasa and Kasha Jacqueline have been subjected to intimidation by police and the authorities in Uganda.

Uganda

Honduras: Break-ins at the offices of COFADEH and intimidation and surveillance of COFADEH Coordinator Bertha Oliva

Front Line is deeply concerned following reports that the premises of the Committee of Families of Disappeared-Detainees in Honduras (Comité de Familiares Detenidos-Desaparecidos de Honduras – COFADEH) have been broken into on two occasions and that Bertha Oliva de Nativí, General Coordinator of COFADEH has been followed. COFADEH is a non-governmental organisation which works in defence of the rights of the disappeared and prisoners and also on the issue of land rights in Honduras.

Honduras

India: Intimidation and harassment of conveners of the International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice

Front Line is deeply concerned following reports that human rights defenders Dr Angana Chatterji and Advocate Parvez Imroz, conveners of the International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian-administered Kashmir have been subjected to intimidation and harassment. The International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian-administered Kashmir began on 5 April 2008 and was formed by the Public Commission on Human Rights in order to investigate charges of institutionalised violence and human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir.

India

Uzbekistan: Acts of intimidation against human rights defender Saida Kurbanova

Front Line is deeply concerned following acts of intimidation against human rights defender Saida Kurbanova. Saida Kurbanova is the head of the non-governmental organisation, the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan (HRSU), in the Pakhtakor district of the Jizak region. She is also a farmer and a campaigner for farmers' rights.

Uzbekistan

Tunisia: Record on human rights defenders remains “very poor”, reveals a Front Line and Human Rights First mission report

Tunisia

While Tunisia is commemorating this year the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the republican system and the 20th anniversary of the accession of President Ben Ali to power, its record with respect to the treatment of human rights activists remains “very poor”, reveals a mission report, released on 27 September in Brussels by Front Line, the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, on the occasion of the visit of Ms Sihem Bensedrine, Tunisian human rights defender and journalist, who is an emblematic figure of the fight for freedom and human rights in Tunisia. She is also a founding member and the spokeswoman of the National Council for Liberties in Tunisia (Conseil National pour les Libertés en Tunisie, CNLT).

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Front Line Sierra Leone: Murders Death Threats and Other Forms of Intimidation of Human Rights Defenders, 1997-2002

Sierra Leone

Human Rights work in Sierra Leone is a relatively new phenomenon. Before the military takeover in 1992, the country had been governed by a one party dictatorship for over twenty years. Verbal intimidation, unlawful imprisonment, unwarranted lawsuits, harassment, physical attacks, death threats or even murder were prevalent during this regime, and it was difficult for any group or individual to comment on or take any action against violations of Human Rights. Even after the end of this regime, Sierra Leone continues to see abuse of power and contempt for Human Rights by Governments, armed opposition groups and other segments of the society.

Front Line Sierra Leone: Murders Death Threats and Other Forms of Intimidation of Human Rights Defenders, 1997-2002

Front Line Rwanda: Disappearances Arrests Threats Intimidation and Co-option of Human Rights Defenders 2001 - 2004

Rwanda

Over the past three years, Rwanda’s increasingly authoritarian government has arrested political opponents, stifled independent journalists, targeted human rights defenders, failed to thoroughly investigate disappearances, and narrowed the space for independent civil society. It has justified those actions as necessary to prevent ‘ethnic divisionism’ and a possible resurgence of genocide. Two months after the tenth commemoration of the genocide in April 2004, a Parliamentary Commission made accusations of genocidal ideology – a highly charged allegation in a country still recovering from the 1994 genocide that killed at least 800,000 people – against several civil society NGOs involved in promoting human rights in the judicial and rural sectors. While the main targets were LIPRODHOR (Rwandan League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights or Ligue rwandaise pour la promotion et la défense des droits de l’Homme) and FOR (Forum of Rural Organisations or Forum des organisations rurales), the Commission also went after the only remaining independent newspaper, churches, schools, and even international development NGOs such as CARE and Trócaire.

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