A dozen perpetrator States take part in Human Rights Council debate on reprisals

As she presented the report before States at the Council, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ilze Brands Kehris reminded participants that the UN relies on the voices of defenders and grassroots activists.

‘Restrictions on rights globally, combined with restrictive legal frameworks, continue to shrink civic space and lead to increased fear of reprisals, narrowing how individuals are willing to engage [with the United Nations],’ she stressed.

Heeding the message of ISHR’s campaign to #EndReprisals, various States stepped up and spoke out for accountability, calling out individual States cited as perpetrators and raising specific cases. 

In a statement on behalf of the BENELUX States, Belgium raised the cases of Bahraini-Danish human rights defender Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and Vietnamese journalist Pham Doan Trang, as well as those of Chinese women’s rights activist Li Qiaochu, Nicaraguan defender Felix Maradiaga, Djiboutian journalist Kaddar Ibrahim, and the staff members of Belarussian organisation Viasna.

Speaking on behalf of Australia and New Zealand, Canada raised the case of Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai and expressed concerns for women human rights defenders in Afghanistan, non-governmental organisations in Russia and Indigenous women activists in Nicaragua. The United Kingdom also spoke out for Jimmy Lai, for his son Sebastian Lai and their legal team, and also raised Trang’s case as well as those of Viasna and the Russian organisation Man and Law.

Czechia’s representative raised the case of the organisation Human Rights House Foundation, targeted by Russia, while Liechtenstein called for action on the case of Chinese woman human rights defender Cao Shunli, Egyptian human rights lawyer Ibrahim Metwally Hegazy and Saudi woman human rights defender Loujain Al-Hathloul. 

Moreover, Denmark’s representative called for the immediate release of Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and all political prisoners in Bahrain’s Jau prison, and Germany took the floor to raise the cases of Chinese human rights defenders Yu Wensheng, Xu Yan, Chow Hang Tung and two of their Vietnamese colleagues, including environmental activist Dang Dinh Bach. 

Published on 9 September, the Secretary-General’s report included three of four cases of arbitrary detention that ISHR has been actively campaigning on: Khurram Parvez and Irfan Mehraj, targeted by Indian authorities, and Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, who has been detained in Bahrain since 2011.

However, the document did not include the case of Pham Doan Trang, a Vietnamese blogger, journalist, and democracy activist, whose case was documented in the Secretary-General’s 2022 report and followed-up in last year’s report. 

‘We are appalled that Doan Trang was left out of the report. Arbitrarily detaining a human rights defender for engaging with the UN is an ongoing violation, and this mandate should be doing everything possible to end it,’ ISHR Advocacy Coordinator Nada Awad said in a statement to the Council. ‘Including Trang’s case in the report is the bare minimum.’ 

We are also troubled that ten sitting members of the Council are named in this year’s report and that three other States listed as perpetrators are running for a Council seat at its upcoming elections, on 9 October.

ISHR urges States to continue raising specific cases of reprisals at the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly and to pressure governments and other perpetrators to resolve and to end intimidation of individuals or groups seeking to work with the UN.