Read on to remain up to date with the latest international human rights news, views and developments!
On 4 October 2022 during the General Debate Item 9 of HRC51, ISHR and LabJaca delivered a joint statement highlighting the disproportionate killing of Brazil's Black population, in particular the massacre in Jacarezinho last year.
During HRC51 General Debate Item 8, ISHR, Abahlali baseMjondolo, delivered a joint statement supported by 47 organisations, denouncing the killings of human rights defenders in South Africa, particularly those working to defend land, housing and environmental rights, as well as corruption activists.
More than two years since George Floyd's horrific murder, UN human rights bodies raise the alarm about the lack of progress on addressing police violence and systemic racism globally. We call on the Human Rights Council and States to fight entrenched and systemic racism against Africans and people of African descent.
On 22 September 2022, Fortuné Gaetan Zongo presented his first written report, in accordance with resolution 48/16 establishing his mandate as UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burundi.
ISHR joined a global coalition of civil society organisations and individuals to call on the Egyptian authorities to immediately drop all charges, close all cases involving them, and promptly release Mohamed el-Baqer and Alaa Abdel Fattah, Mohamed Oxygen and all others arbitrarily detained.
Two weeks before the UN General Assembly (UNGA) votes to elect 14 members of the Human Rights Council, 12 of its current members and eight of the 18 candidates running for election have been cited by a UN Secretary-General report for carrying out reprisals against human rights defenders engaging with the UN. We call on States to only vote for candidates that support the work of human rights defenders and their vital engagement at the UN.
In the last session of the current term of the NGO Committee, States continue to express concern over excessive politicisation of the Committee while some NGOs continue to be deferred for over a decade through arbitrary questions.
During HRC51 General Debate Item 4, ISHR, the Implementation Team in Spain for the Decade on People of African descent and the Elin Association, delivered a joint statement supported by 108 organisations in Europe, the Americas and Africa, denouncing the grave human rights violations against African persons at the southern borders of Spain and in particular in Ceuta and Melilla.
The 73rd Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights will be held in Banjul, The Gambia, from 20 October to 9 November 2022. The African Commission session will be preceded by the NGO Forum, which will be held in Banjul on 17 and 18 October 2022.
Ahead of COP27, ISHR joined the open petition led by 12 Egyptian human rights organisations, calling on the Egyptian authorities to open civic space and release all those arbitrarily detained in Egypt.
In Venezuela it is government policy to torture dissents, the UN mission of experts on Venezuela told the world two years ago. These violations, amounting to likely crimes against humanity, continue. In their latest report the experts dive deeper into the nature of the crimes, who the victims are and names perpetrators. This morning this report goes before the Human Rights Council.
ISHR joins organisations and individuals in calling on Egypt to immediately and unconditionally release human rights defender Sherif Al Rouby and the tens of thousands of others wrongfully detained.
