Human Rights Updates
Egypt: Request that political prisoner be freed Two dozen Egyptian Human Rights organizations have called on the Egyptian government to reduce the punishment imposed on Dr. Ayman Nour, the former president of al Ghad Party and a former MP, who is now spending an imprisonment period of five years in Mazraat Tora Prison. Dr. Nour is in bad health and has not received adequate treatment in prison.
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The ACHR calls Maldives a "journalists' prison." Freedom of the press in the Maldives is practically non-existant. Journalists have been facing trumped up charges and are being harassed by police while foreign journalists are expelled without cause. A new defamation law loosely defines defamation as injures against a person's honor or reputation, and imposes heavy fines on those found guilty of defaming someone even if by a mere gesture. New press regulations, furthermore, will be issued by Presidential decree shortly.
For more information go to http://www.achrweb.org/Review/2007/151-07.htm
Maoists are recruiting children in Nepal. The OMCT issued an urgent action today about the recruitment of 3 15-year-olds into the Maoist army.
Meanwhile the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has called for an end to impunity in Nepal.
NGO monitor now tackles Amnesty International. NGO Monitor, an organization whose sole purpose is to try silence human rights organizations who speak about the human rights of Palestinians, has now found fault with AI's Secretary General Irene Khan's blog entry about her visit to Gaza.
http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article.php?viewall=yes&id=1275
An independent United Nations expert on freedom of opinion has added his voice to the chorus of condemnation over the murder of the editor of the Turkish Armenian-language weekly Agos, Hrant Dink, known for his critical work on a specific period of the history of Turkey. <"http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/7DACE63E3C15EA12C125726D002F55D0?opendocument">Statement by Ambeyi Ligabo
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about the alleged brutal killing of a young Christian pastor by the security forces in Jaffna on 13 January 2007. The army initially claimed that they killed a terrorist in self-defence. Now they have changed their version of the story claiming that the pastor was shot because he did not follow the soldiers' instruction to stop. However it is known that he is a well-known pastor in the area. No serious action has yet been taken to investigate the incident and no arrests have been made.
http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2007/2179/
Russia's Supreme Court has upheld a lower court decision to close a non-profit organization known for its harsh criticism of Kremlin policies toward Chechnya.The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society is a non-governmental organization monitoring human rights violations in Chechnya and other regions of the North Caucasus, which publicizes alleged disappearances, executions, and torture in the region, and is supported by global human rights watchdog Amnesty International.
Corporations and Human Rights. A diverse group of companies, academics, investors, technology leaders and human rights organizations announced today its intention to seek solutions to the free expression and privacy challenges faced by technology and communications companies doing business internationally. The process - which aims to produce a set of principles guiding company behavior when faced with laws, regulations and policies that interfere with the achievement of human rights – marks a new phase in efforts that these groups began in 2006.
http://cdt.org/press/20070118press-humanrights.php
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070123/59577944.html
Posted by marga at January 24, 2007 8:52 AM
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