The latest conflict in Gaza was triggered by a chain of initially less noticed events in Jerusalem, which also sparked violence between Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel. Intercommunal incidents that started in Lod on May 10 were both unprecedented in scale and marked by a new level of brutality from the Israeli police. As the events unfolded, around 200 Israeli lawyers volunteered on the streets to document human rights violations and legally assist detainees. Participants included our SOS-Torture Network member the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI). Interview of PCATI’s Executive Director, Tal Steiner, who is also a member of the OMCT’s General Assembly.
25 Mai 2021 – According to recent reports, Myanmar
’s military junta uses torture and sexual violence against detained women. Victims complained about heavy beatings, sexual abuse during interrogations, misogynistic insults, and death threats.
Since the military coup on 1 February 2021, the junta has cracked down on protests and committed serious human rights violations including torture, arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. Myanmar’s army is also known for using sexual violence to crush minority communities at the border regions.
Despite the military’s threats, a nonviolent civil disobedience movement emerged nationwide, and millions started demonstrating in hundreds of townships. Myanmar is a conservative country with rigid gender roles and widespread gender-based violence. However, young women rose up and played a crucial role in the protests. They took to the streets and demanded the restoration of democracy.
Intimidation and attacks against human rights defenders have escalated in recent years, particularly since the beginning of the socio-political crisis in…
Open Letter on Counter-terrorism laws and civic space
25/05/2021
Paris-Geneva, 25 May 2021
Excellencies,
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), urges UN Member States to
urgently step up their action to ensure global counter-terrorism policies do not negatively impact civil society and human rights defenders.
Although human rights were given a central place in the UN Global Counter-Terrorist Strategy (GCTS), human rights organisations have extensively documented the minimisation and under-funding of human rights aspects of the strategy [1]. In addition, civil society and human rights defenders have remained sidelined in an overwhelming majority of processes within the UN Counter-Terrorist Architecture [2]. This situation has led to