OMCT celebrates Human Rights Defenders worldwide from OMCT / SOS-Torture Network on Vimeo.
Geneva, December 2016 (OMCT) – On the International Day of Human Rights, the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) launched a ten-day tribute to the human rights heroes the world is indebted to for their life-long dedication to defending the rights of all.
“December 10 is a bit like the birthday of all human rights defenders,” said OMCT Secretary General Gerald Staberock. “It serves to remind us that we actually owe them a celebration every day of the year.”
For human rights defenders who like OMCT President Hina Jilani are sharing their story today, usual treatment includes imprisonment, incarceration and torture. OMCT is until 23 December profiling 10 human rights defenders fighting against torture from Colombia to Burundi to share their plight and commend their achievements. Michael O’Flaherty, Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, rightly called them the “heroes of human rights”.
No human rights violation is uncovered without them. They provide information to put an end to impunity to international mechanisms such as the Committee Against Torture (CAT). They protest and speak out when no one wants to hear. They trigger change. For us all. And yet defending human rights has a very personal cost – more than two lives every month for the past 15 years, with some 200 human rights defenders killed this year alone. What is more OMCT documented cases of harassment against 1,066 human rights defenders and 116 organizations.
Every year, OMCT protects more than 600 human rights defenders at risk around the world by alerting the international community about their plight, mobilizing support for them, and offering training, legal advice, material assistance, and relocation to safety.
Complaining is taking responsibility
As her fellow activists, Ms. Hilani believes one cannot complain about violations occurring unless one is willing to take the responsibility to undo what one does not want to see happen. The existence of torture is like the tip of the iceberg, serving as a revealer of pervasive and grave human rights violations that slow economic development, hinder social cohesion and exacerbate inequality. It is an occurrence some people find intolerable and act upon in the name of humanity.
“I think torture goes to the very core of human dignity. This is perhaps one of the reasons why torture has become one of the most serious human rights violations but also an international crime,” she said in an interview.
Amidst a political rhetoric challenging human rights in the name of security, Jilani pledged to convince the world that it should never use torture, with as immediate objective for her four-year term to boosting the SOS-Torture network’s cohesion to raise its voice. An award-winning lawyer from Pakistan with more than three decades of hands-on experience in promoting peace and human rights, Ms. Jilani has litigated several cases in her home country that have become landmarks in setting human rights standards.
Ms. Jilani believes it is particularly important today to make the commitment of human rights defenders visible globally to eradicate torture, and to end violations and impunity. She points out an emerging challenge of today’s work as some Governments, in the name of security threats, are heightening the risk of torture and undermining some of the universally recognized principles.
An outspoken woman in Pakistan

Pakistan’s first all-women law firm and co-founded Pakistan’s first legal aid centre in 1986. In 1991, Ms. Jilani helped set up a shelter for women fleeing violence and abuse and presented one of the first cases of domestic violence in the country and created Pakistan’s Women Action Forum, a prominent women’s rights group whose campaigns have been at the heart of the democracy movement in the country.
“Gender-based violence can sometimes be ignored and especially when a situation of torture occurs, rape as a method of violating a person’s dignity and also undermining work that they do, is something that we have to understand,” she said.
Ms. Jilani has also been recognized as an authoritative figure at the international level thanks to her broad experience. She was for instance the first United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the situation of Human Rights Defenders, and was the first woman to hold this post in office, from 2000 to 2008.
About OMCT
OMCT is short for the World Organisation Against Torture – in French, as the organization created in 1985 is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
On top of protecting human rights defenders and promoting NGO participation before the CAT, OMCT works for, with and through an international coalition of over 200 non-governmental organizations – the SOS-Torture network – fighting torture, summary executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, and all other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment in the world.
For more information, please visit: www.omct.org
For our latest campaign #HumansAgainstTorture: www.joinhat.org.
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For all media inquiries: Lori Brumat, OMCT Head of Communications: lb@omct.org
OMCT wishes to thank the Republic and Canton of Geneva and the OAK Foundation for their support. Its content is the sole responsibility of OMCT and should in no way be interpreted as reflecting the view(s) of the supporting institutions.

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