News on the topic: human rights defenders
03.08.2018 Lars Bünger: I really hope changes can happen soon in Belarus
Viasna has talked to Lars Bünger, Chairman of Libereco – Partnership for Human Rights, one of our long-standing partners working on a number of crucial human rights issues in Belarus.
04.07.2018 Viasna observers arrested ahead of banned protest in Minsk
Five observers of Viasna and BHC’s joint monitoring service #ControlBY were briefly detained in Minsk yesterday afternoon ahead of a protest announced by opposition leader Mikalai Statkevich.
01.06.2018 HRDs set to monitor implementation of recommendations by UN Committee against Torture
Representatives of a coalition of human rights organizations, which in late April presented an alternative report to the UN Committee against Torture, have commented on the Concluding observations of the Committee following the 63rd session of the Committee.
15.05.2018 Save human rights defender who took over murdered Natalia Estemirova’s work
In a video released today, daughter of Natalia Estemirova, murdered in 2009 for her human rights work in Chechnya, calls FIFA and the international community to take action in saving Oyub Titiev.
10.05.2018 Charges Against Human Rights Defender Tatsiana Mastykina Must be Dropped
The trial against Belarusian human rights defender Tatsiana Mastykina came to an end in the afternoon of 8 May, but no final verdict has yet been given. Civil Rights Defenders calls on the Belarusian authorities to immediately drop the charges, and to comply with its international obligations to respect and protect the fundamental right to freedom of assembly.
07.05.2018 Authorities ignore observers’ appeal against arrest at Freedom Day protest
In early April, six observers of the monitoring mission co-run by the Human Rights Center “Viasna” and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee wrote to the Prosecutor's Office of the Saviecki district of Minsk and the city’s office of the Investigative Committee to complain about their illegal detention ahead of the Freedom Day demonstration on March 25 in Minsk.
03.05.2018 Stop harassment of human rights defenders for their legitimate human rights activities
Human rights defenders urge the authorities to drop the administrative charges against Tatsiana Mastykina and other observers who were arrested on March 25.
30.03.2018 Belarus: Human rights defenders arrested
On 25 March 2018, six human rights defenders Maxim Kovalev, Tatyana Mastykina, Andrei Krechko, Anna Sakhankova, Anastasia Vasilchuk and Nasta Loiko, all members of The Human Rights Centre “Viasna” and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, were arrested in Minsk near Yakub Kolas Square for observing a public event
29.03.2018 Belarus: UN expert calls for end to rights abuses and deplores State repression
A new wave of arbitrary arrests, the use of the death penalty and violations of media freedom in Belarus have prompted a UN expert to call on the authorities there to respect their human rights obligations and implement recommendations made over the past two decades.
28.03.2018 Belarus: Arbitrary arrest and subsequent release of seven observers of Viasna and BHC, and obstacles to the right to peaceful assembly
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Belarus.
27.03.2018 Enhance the process to select new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
In a letter to the UN Secretary-General, a coalition of more than 70 civil society organisations has put forward proposals to revitalise and enhance the process to select the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
12.03.2018 A Year for Human Rights Defenders
“At a time when human rights defenders are being attacked, harassed and stigmatised around the world… we should pay tribute to these thousands of men and women to whom we owe so much.”
22.02.2018 The price for speaking out: Nabeel Rajab sentenced to 5 years for tweeting in Bahrain
Beirut-Geneva-Paris, February 21, 2018 - Today in Bahrain, prominent human rights defender Nabeel Rajab, BCHR President and FIDH Deputy Secretary General, was sentenced to 5 years in prison under trumped-up charges in relation to tweets denouncing the torture against detainees at Jaw prison and exposing the killing of civilians in Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition.
05.02.2018 Miklós Haraszti: International scrutiny of the situation in Belarus has to be continued
The last report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Belarus will stress the need of renewing the country mandate, Miklós Haraszti said during a meeting with Belarusian and international human rights activists, which took place at the Belarusian Human Rights House in Vilnius on January 31.
29.01.2018 Leading Chechnya Rights Defender Framed for Drug Possession
Leading Chechen human rights defender Oyub Titiev is currently being held by Federal authorities in Chechnya.
