WUNRN
Report of the UN Special Rapporteur
on Human Rights Defenders to the UN Human Rights Council 2010 - Focus: WOMEN
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
_______________________________________________________________________
INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN
RIGHTS ESTABLISHES OFFICE OF
THE RAPPORTEUR ON THE
SITUATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
11
April 2011
Geneva-Paris,
April 7, 2011 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), welcomes the decision of the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to establish an Office of the
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.
The
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) concluded its 141st regular
session on April 1, 2011 during which it announced the establishment of an
Office of the Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. The
Rapporteur will be Commissioner José de Jesús Orozco Henríquez.
Different human rights organisations had requested the IACHR to establish an
effective mechanism to offer more protection to human rights defenders. Since
2008, the Observatory has pursued efforts to reinforce the interaction and
complementarity between international and regional mechanisms and institutions
for the protection of human rights defenders through “inter-mechanism”
meetings, in which IACHR has been actively participating.
The Office of the Rapporteur will foster a greater support and visibility to
the work and the contribution of human rights defenders and justice operators -
who are also included in the mandate - in constructing a democratic society.
The IACHR decided to establish a Rapporteur in view of the number of complaints
received, denouncing the difficult situation of human rights defenders in
different Latin American countries. According to the information presented by
the civil society during the hearings in Washington D.C., aggressions and cases
of harassment against human rights defenders committed or tolerated by state
agents are numerous. The NGOs denounced, among other issues, the increase of
illegitimate state intelligence activities, as well as the emergence of new
forms of harassment against human rights defenders committed by the organised
crime and companies with economic interests in the region.
Likewise, the Observatory has been documenting killings, acts of harassment,
threats, arbitrary detentions, attacks against the physical and psychological
integrity, information thefts, judicial harassment, and other violations
against human rights defenders in Latin America.
The Observatory welcomes the IACHR decision to establish an Office of the
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, and hopes it will
contribute to encourage states to take action for guaranteeing the safety of
human rights defenders according to international law and through effective
measures of prevention, protection, and investigation, in order to improve the
conditions in which human rights defenders in Latin America have to carry out
their work.
Website for Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights: