Read on to remain up to date with the latest international human rights news, views and developments!
The NGO bill introduced in the Venezuelan National Assembly is a severe threat to civic space in the country, and will gravely limit defenders' ability to engage with international human rights mechanisms. Defenders should be supported and this bill withdrawn, write Calixto Avila (Provea) and Eleanor Openshaw (ISHR).
The Human Rights Council adopted a resolution extending the mandate of the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua for two additional years, strengthening its focus on Indigenous and Afrodescendant Peoples, reprisals, and political prisoners, following the sustained advocacy of Nicaraguan and international civil society organisations part of the Colectivo 46/2 coalition.
States at the UN Human Rights Council have approved a two-year extension of a monitoring and reporting mechanism tasked with investigating grave human rights violations that have taken place in Nicaragua since 2018.
During the General Debate 9 at the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council, held on 30 March, the Organización Negra Centroamericana (ONECA), ISHR, and Race & Equality presented a joint statement regarding the current situation of the Garifuna community of Honduras.
ISHR, Movimiento Socio Cultural de Trabajadores Haitianos (MOSCTHA) and Race and Equality delivered a joint statement on the Dominican Republic's institutional discrimination and law enforcement practices against nationals of Haitian descent.
Civil society spoke of the ongoing human rights crisis in Venezuela this week at the Council making evident that, despite Venezuela’s best efforts to denounce the Fact-Finding Mission, the Mission’s work and that of OHCHR are absolutely essential to victims of violations.
On 22 and 23 March 2023, the Human Rights Council held a general debate on human rights situations requiring the Council’s attention. States and NGOs spoke, and the High Commissioner spoke on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. They drew the Council’s attention to a number of country situations of concern. ISHR delivered a statement, highlighting the human rights situation in four countries: Burkina Faso, Colombia, El Salvador, and Saudi Arabia.
Olnar Ortiz Bolívar and Alexandra Lezama, human rights defenders from Venezuela, are attending the Human Rights Council 52nd session, where the Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela will present an oral update on the human rights situation in the country.
Human rights violations amounting to crimes against humanity have been carried out in Nicaragua, a group of UN independent experts have told the Human Rights Council. To investigate these crimes fully, the Colectivo 46/2 coalition calls for the two-years renewal of UN Human Rights Council resolution on Nicaragua.
ISHR and partners called for government-wide reforms in a third-party intervention in a case where the country’s highest court will analyse the general situation of human rights defenders in Colombia.
Two days before the arrival of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to Venezuela, the National Assembly held a first reading of a draft law that, if passed, would criminalise the work of defenders, further shrinking the space they have to operate. States must speak up for human rights defenders and against this initiative!
As protests continue across Peru and at least 50 lie dead, States have called on Peru to stop the use of excessive force to quell unrest and to respect the rights of those exercising fundamental freedoms.
