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Human rights defenders / Statements / 2017 / December

Human Rights Day: Our turn to make noise for human rights defenders

Human rights defenders (HRDs) put their lives at stake to defend our rights in court, on paper, on the street, before the powerful or behind closed doors. Today, on the occasion of the International Human Rights Day, OMCT celebrates, thanks them and makes noise around their plight and achievements to ensure their greater protection.


"We have decided to put up around our offices the portraits of all the fallen defenders," said Hina Jilani, OMCT's President, who is based in Pakistan."Now all the walls are covered."

 

An estimated 3,500 human rights defenders have been killed around the world because of their peaceful work defending the rights of others since the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders by consensus two decades ago. In many cases, these killings have been carried out by State agents or with the collusion of State officials. Most cases have not led to any charges or convictions. In recent years, the number of killings and the number of countries in which they take place have done nothing but rise. Many killings are not even legally documented. Yet pervasive impunity is precisely what normalizes the killings and perpetuates them. The repression of land and environmental rights HRDs continues to increase, and violations are especially serious or systematic in contexts of conflict, crisis or political transition. The fight against terrorism is an easy excuse for most States who do not hesitate to invoke security threats when in fact the real threat is opposition to the interests of the powerful.

 

The seven HRDs from Honduras, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Belarus, the Russian Federation, Guatemala that OMCT has interviewed in the framework of its #MakeNoise4HRDs social media campaign did not hesitate: they have taken considerable risks and made huge sacrifices for the sake of protecting the rights of others. It is our turn to defend HRDs by letting the world know how much they sacrifice for defending our rights and how much we owe them. The one thing that effectively protects HRDs is raising awareness about the risks they run for us. And if not, at least their message will still carry on being heard.


Join our campaign: watch these stories and post them using #MakeNoise4HRDs.


Ruki Fernando (Sri Lanka):


Yuri Melini (Guatemala):



Alberto Xicoténcatl Carrasco (Mexico):



Dina Meetabel Meza Elvir (Honduras):



Shahinda Ismail (Maldives):


Maksim Kurnikov (Russia):

 

Olga Karatch (Belarus):





OMCT wishes to thank the Republic and Canton of Geneva for its support. Its content is the sole responsibility of OMCT and should in no way be interpreted as reflecting the view(s) of the supporting institution.

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Date: December 11, 2017
Activity: Human Rights Defenders
Type: Statements
Subjects: Arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances, Human Rights Defenders, Indigenous peoples, Police, Military and Paramilitary, Summary executions, extrajudicial killings, Torture and violence, Women’s rights

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