During three days, participants in the NGOs Forum held in Banjul, The Gambia, discussed key human rights and democracy issues affecting the continent, as well as the work of defenders, and proposed better ways to address them. This culminated in the adoption of resolutions and recommendations.
On 27 September, the Council debated the annual report of the UN Secretary-General on reprisals against persons or individuals working or seeking to work with the United Nations – which this year flagged incidents involving 32 States.
Experiences from China, Bahrain, India and Vietnam.
The UN Secretary-General’s annual report on reprisals showed that a dozen sitting members of the Human Rights Council and three States aspiring to join it have retaliated against individuals or groups who sought to engage with the United Nations.
The UN’s Fact-Finding Mission left the Human Rights Council in no doubt: The repression following the presidential elections in July was planned and an extension of an existing policy to induce fear in and silence the opposition.
German activist and researcher Johannes Rohr filed an individual complaint with the United Nations Human Rights Committee after being unlawfully expelled from Russia only weeks after he publicly criticised Russian authorities’ treatment of their Indigenous communities.
On 9 September the Secretary-General released his annual report on reprisals, in which he included three of four cases ISHR has been actively campaigning on, namely the cases of Khurram Parvez and Irfan Mehraj (India) and Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja (Bahrain).
A spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, issued today a rare public statement on his Office’s work on China, marking two years since the release of its groundbreaking report on the grave human rights situation in the Uyghur region (Xinjiang).
Pressure is increasing on the Venezuelan authorities as human rights bodies and States in the region and beyond denounce repression and call for respect of rights. At the upcoming Human Rights Council session, the push for the respect of rights must continue with the renewal of key mandates.
This report examines the troubling trend of reprisals against civil society actors by the People’s Republic of China, particularly those engaging with UN human rights mechanisms. It highlights the systematic measures taken by the Chinese government to suppress civil society's engagement with international bodies, under the guise of national security.
