New Revelations of Bangladeshi
Harassment of UN Trafficking Expert Sigma Huda
Geneva, June 7,
2007 — UN Watch released new details
confirming that the Bangladeshi government is blocking Ms. Sigma Huda,
the UN Human Rights Council's investigator of human trafficking, from
leaving the country to address a scheduled session in Geneva this
Monday. The human rights monitoring organization applauded a UN
official for heeding UN Watch's earlier appeal for action but urged
others to follow.
UN
Watch executive director Hillel Neuer today issued the following
statement:
We
welcome High Commissioner Louise Arbour's decision to pursue our call
to action. We urge other officials—Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,
Council President Luis Alfonso De Alba and the leaders of the
Council’s Asian and Islamic groups—to use their own considerable
influence to obtain Ms. Huda's immediate release.
By
preventing her from leaving the country, the government of Bangladesh
is in violation of Ms. Huda's internationally-protected right to
freedom of movement and expression. Bangladesh has no right to
deny a UN expert—or any citizen—her right to leave on the reported
basis that “she may give statements detrimental” to
it.
As
one of the 47 members of the Human Rights Council, Bangladesh is
obligated “to uphold the highest standards in the promotion and
protection of human rights [and to] fully cooperate with the
Council.” Restricting the right to travel and attempting to
muzzle free speech rights, seemingly for political reasons, of a
citizen who is also one of the Council’s human rights experts
blatantly violates both of these requirements.
If
Bangladesh refuses to comply immediately with its international
obligations and lift its restrictions against Ms. Huda, the ultimate
sanction against a Council member—removal by the General
Assembly—should be pursued.
Regrettably, Bangladesh's use of heavy-handed tactics against a
UN expert only underscores the paradox whereby many Council members
are themselves the worst violators of human rights, with a majority
expected to enact new measures next week to restrict the independence
of human rights experts and to outright eliminate those mandated to
report on country violations. Tragically, at the Human Rights
Council it often seems like the foxes are guarding the
chickens. Click
here for more on next week's
session.
Details on Sigma
Huda by Coalition Against Trafficking in Women International
(CATW)
UN Watch is releasing
the following new details as provided by a fellow NGO that has been in
close contact with Ms. Huda.
CONTACT PERSON: Janice Raymond, Co-Executive Director, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women International
(CATW).
The
following statement is by Janice Raymond:
"Janice Raymond, Co-Executive Director of the Coalition Against
Trafficking in Women, has been in constant contact with UN Special
Rapporteur on Trafficking, Sigma Huda. Raymond states that the
government of Bangladesh has recently issued a restraining order
preventing Sigma Huda from leaving the country to fulfill her duties
as Special Rapporteur and to deliver a key report on trafficking
before the Human Rights Council in Geneva on June 11, 2007. She
alleges that the government fears that Special Rapporteur Huda will
discredit the military-backed government and spotlight its recent
human rights abuses in detaining and torturing over 95,000
Bangladeshis. We join UN Watch and other NGOs in calling upon
governments and UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, to take action
against the Bangladeshi government's harassment of human rights expert
Sigma Huda and the illegal detention, torture and harassment of her
family members."
"The more recent prohibitions against Sigma Huda, including the
restraining order against her leaving the country to perform her UN
duties, is an outrage and a violation of her right to freedom of
movement and freedom of speech. The government's illegal actions are
now being imposed on more and more members of Sigma's family,
including her older
daughter."