WUNRN
Annual Report 2010
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
Multiple Gender Dimensions of Report
Direct Link to Full 532-Page Report:
http://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/2010/OBS2009UK-full.pdf
13 September 2010
The
Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of
the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation
for Human Rights (FIDH), which supports, monitors and protects human rights
defenders throughout the year, is publishing today its 2010 Annual Report. The
report focuses on the year-round fight for human rights throughout the world.
One who speaks of
democracy and rule of law in contemporary societies immediately refers to the
right of peoples to choose freely their leaders by vote. A right explicitly
guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the implementation
of which requires the combination of different elements - respect for freedoms
of association and expression, transparency, freedom of information, freedom of
assembly - without which no election could be recognised as free and fair. If
many elections took place worldwide in 2009, many of these processes did not
meet these requirements. Drawing up a detailed inventory of the situation of
human rights defenders in the world in 2009, the annual report of the
Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, denounces the
increasing repression faced by rights defenders on all continents, with the
approach of elections. More generally, this report illustrates forcefully the
difficulty and danger of promoting the exchange of ideas, pluralism, protection
of fundamental freedoms and the democratic ideal.
Muzzling of the opposition, media subservience, constitutional amendments
designed to maintain in power current heads of states: during elections that
that took place throughout 2009, it appears that few leaders have agreed to
play the game of pluralism. “In this context, human rights defenders, who
strive daily to ensure that rights and freedoms are guaranteed, have been
subjected to considerable pressure, when they did not pay with their lives for
their commitment” declared Souhayr Belhassen, President of FIDH. “The role they
have played in these electoral processes accentuated an already pronounced
repression against them” she added.
“This Annual Report shows that even in the most accomplished democracies - or
those which consider themselves as such - vigilance must remain the order of
the day, and shows that the defence of fundamental rights can be questioned
anytime, for purposes of efficiency of questionable policies, or of a greater
control of social bodies. It shows how defenders, everywhere, play an important
role as a bulwark against arbitrariness and abuses, and that they remain, more
than ever, a cornerstone of the rule of law”, concluded Eric Sottas, Secretary
General of the OMCT.