CC: Senator Robert Menendez, Chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Senator James Risch, Ranking Member, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Representative Gregory Meeks, Chairman, House Committee on Foreign Affairs Representative Michael McCaul, Ranking Member, House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Dear Secretary Blinken:
We, the undersigned organizations, work to promote human rights, democracy, media freedom, environmental sustainability, and an end to corruption around the world. The protection of human rights defenders such as activists, lawyers, and journalists is critical to each of our missions.[1] We are deeply concerned by the unabated rise in reprisals against human rights defenders, both globally and within the United States, and the chilling effect that these attacks have on fundamental freedoms and civic space.
Danish-Bahraini
Swedish-Bahraini
Sheikh Mohammed Habib AlMuqdad, both of whom are considered prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International, having been prosecuted and sentenced to life imprisonment for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and subjected to torture and other ill-treatment including denial of medical care.
In April 2011, security forces violently arrested
Al-Khawaja and broke his jaw, leading to surgery for four broken bones in his face. Security officers tortured Al-Khawaja directly after his major jaw surgery, while blindfolded and restrained to a military hospital bed, which forced the doctor to ask the security officers to stop as it would undo the surgical work. Almost ten years later he still suffers from chronic pain and requires additional surgery to remove the metal plates and screws that were used to reattach his jaw.
Extend the mandate of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan
Format
AI Index Number: AFR 65/3638/2021
5 February 2021
Excellencies,
We, the undersigned non-governmental organisations, write to urge your delegation to support the extension in full of the mandate of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan (“Commission” or “CHRSS”) at the upcoming UN Human Rights Council’s (“HRC” or “Council”) 46th session (22 February-23 March 2021).
As the only mechanism currently collecting and preserving evidence of violations of international humanitarian and human rights law with a view to accountability and addressing human rights and transitional justice issues in South Sudan from a holistic perspective, the CHRSS remains vital. Two and a half years after the signature of the Revitalised Peace Agreement for Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS), the country faces major governance, security, humanitarian, and human rights is
February 8, 2021
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), has received new information and requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Belarus.
New information:
The Observatory has been informed by the Human Rights Center “Viasna” about the indictment and ongoing arbitrary detention of
Leanid Sudalenka, lawyer of the Homieĺ (Gomel) branch of Viasna[1], and the arbitrary detention of
Tatsiana Lasitsa, Viasna’s volunteer.
On February 1, 2021, Leanid Sudalenka was charged under Parts 1 and 2 of Article 342 of the Belarus Criminal Code (“organization and preparation of actions grossly violating public order and financing such activities”). If convicted, he could face up to three years of imprisonment. Mr. Sudalenka remains detained in pre-trial detention center No. 3 in Homieĺ.