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OHCHR Media Section
Read
the report (A/HRC/36/31) online at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session36/Pages/ListReports.aspx
__________________
Report
highlights rising reprisals against human rights defenders cooperating with the
UN
GENEVA (20 September 2017) - A
major new UN report warns that a growing number of human rights defenders around
the world are facing reprisals for cooperating with the UN on human
rights.
The report by the UN
Secretary-General says individuals and groups have suffered reprisals and
intimidation ranging from travel bans and asset-freezing to detention and
torture.
“It is frankly nothing short of
abhorrent that, year after year, we are compelled to present cases of
intimidation and reprisals carried out against people whose crime – in the eyes
of their Governments – was to cooperate with UN institutions and mechanisms,”
said UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour, the senior
UN official designated by the Secretary General to address the
issue.
“We should see these individuals
as the canary in the coalmine, bravely singing until they are silenced by this
toxic backlash against people, rights and dignity – as a dark warning to us
all,” Gilmour said, as he presented the report to the Human Rights Council in
Geneva.
“We are aware of cases where
individuals we are communicating with have been abducted, detained, held
incommunicado, or disappeared,” he added.
“There are
also many cases involving prolonged arbitrary detention, as well as torture and
ill-treatment, with some victims threatened, blindfolded and beaten. One case
involved forcible psychiatric treatment; others have involved solitary
confinement, sexual assault and rape in detention, against both men and women,”
Gilmour said.
The report, the eighth of its
kind, names 29 countries* where cases of reprisal and intimidation have been
documented – significantly up on the previous highest number of 20. Eleven
of the States are current members of the Human Rights Council. Some have
featured in the annual report on reprisals nearly every year since it was
instituted in 2010.
The cases are of “grave concern”,
the report says, highlighting that many are perpetrated or condoned by State
officials. Many other incidents go unreported due to fears of further
repercussions, while details of some known cases have been withheld so as not to
place victims at further risk.
“People engaging with the United
Nations experienced intimidation, harassment, threats online and offline,
derogatory media campaigns, travel bans, arbitrary arrests and detention,
enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment, disbarment, and dismissal
from their posts, amongst other measures,” the report says.
“Beyond the
grave impact on the life of persons concerned and their relatives, intimidation
and reprisals also systematically undermine United Nations action on human
rights and shake partners’ trust in the organization,” it adds.
All
the cases highlighted in the report occurred from June 2016 to May 2017 and
involved individuals and groups which have cooperated with UN human rights
mechanisms, used UN procedures, submitted communications under procedures
established by human rights instruments, or provided legal or other assistance
to other people. It also covers families or supporters of
victims.
Gilmour told the Human Rights
Council that the report was by no means exhaustive and the problem was much more
widespread.
“Since this report is limited to
reprisals against people cooperating with the UN, the cases covered in it
represent only a small portion of a far more generalized backlash against civil
society and others challenging State authorities, especially human rights
defenders,” Gilmour said.
He highlighted a number of recent
cases which took place after the finalisation of the report, including that of
Egyptian lawyer Ebrahim Metwally, detained at Cairo airport on 10 September en
route to meet the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances in
Geneva, who was reportedly tortured and is still being detained. Allegedly
a letter from the Working Group was itself included in the case filed against
him.
Gilmour also noted that since June 2016 members of Bahraini civil society attempting to cooperate with the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms have been interrogated, intimidated, subjected to travel bans, and even arrested or detained, causing an atmosphere of fear. Civil society representatives coming directly from Bahrain have significantly decreased over the last year, which is noted in the current session of the Council.
Gilmour also expressed
deep concern over the ongoing situation of a Bahraini human rights defender, Ms.
Ebtesam Abdulhusain Ali Alsaegh, who after returning from Geneva,
“was interrogated at length at Bahrain airport, had her passport confiscated,
and a few weeks later was beaten and sexually assaulted”.
The report
urges all States to stop reprisals, investigate existing allegations, provide
effective remedies and adopt and implement measures to prevent recurrence.
It says governments which have been challenged about the cases either did not
reply or failed to address the concerns in the responses they provided.
The patterns of cases suggest some States have a strategy to prevent
people cooperating with the United Nations on human rights, the report
adds.
Assistant Secretary-General
Gilmour was assigned to his role in October 2016 by the Secretary-General after
the UN noted an alarming increase in the number of cases of intimidation and
reprisals and decided a more comprehensive approach was needed to tackle the
problem.
*Countries named in the report (in
alphabetical order) are: Algeria, Bahrain, Burundi, China, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea,
Honduras, India, Iran, Israel, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Oman,
Pakistan, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tajikistan,
Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Venezuela.
ENDS
Read the report (A/HRC/36/31)
online at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session36/Pages/ListReports.aspx
For more information and media requests, please contact: Rupert Colville - + 41 22 917 9767 / rcol...@ohchr.org
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