Daily Archives: 07/12/2020

Iran/Germany: Human rights lawyering on the front line. Today 7:00 pm CET| Online

Sem categoria 07/12/2020 Leave a comment

07/12/20

A panel discussion with Başak Çalı, Professor of International Law at the Hertie School and Co-director of its Centre for Fundamental Rights,  Gollaleh Ahmadi, Bündnis90 / Die Grünen (tbc), Marcus Mollnau, President of the Berlin Bar Association and Stefan von Raumer, Chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the DAV.

This discussion is co-organised by the Centre for Fundamental Rights, in association with the German premiere of the highly praised documentary NASRIN by Jeff Kaufmann, about the Iranian human rights lawyer and women’s rights activist, Nasrin Sotoudeh.

As a lawyer and activist, Nasrin Sotoudeh fights for the rights of women, children, members of the LGBTQ+ community, artists, journalists and those receiving the death penalty in her country. In 2018, Nasrin was arrested for propaganda against the state and her human rights work, especially for her legal assistance to women who had violated the obligation to wear a hijab. The human rights lawyer, who denied the charges, was sentenced to 38 years in prison and 148 lashes. Since being jailed, Nasrin has constantly been fighting for fair and better conditions in prison. In order to ensure a safer environment during the Coronavirus pandemic, she went on a 50-day hunger strike that put her life at risk. After being temporarily released due to her medical condition in November 2020, Nasrin was arrested again on 2 December 2020.

Join us for a discussion on the challenges and dilemmas faced by human rights lawyers, in particular in authoritarian contexts.

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https://www.hertie-school.org/en/events/07-12-2020-human-rights-lawyering-at-the-front-line

https://www.voanews.com/middle-east/voa-news-iran/iran-rights-lawyer-sent-back-prison

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iran/031220202

https://www.freitag.de/autoren/der-freitag/anwaeltin-der-gerechtigkeit (DEUTSCHE)

https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/sotoudeh-alternativer-nobelpreis-101.html

Egypt/France: Historic opportunity for international community to halt crackdown on human rights movement

Sem categoria 07/12/2020 Leave a comment

06/12/20

Macron-Sissi : deux présidents, un même discours - Le Point

Today’s court decision to freeze the assets of three senior directors from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) demonstrates the urgent need for the international community to sustain pressure to halt the existential threat to the Egyptian human rights movement, said Amnesty International today. The development comes ahead of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s visit to Paris tomorrow to meet French President Emmanuel Macron. 

Today, an Egyptian court ruled to uphold the Public Prosecutor’s order to freeze the assets of the three EIPR directors Mohamed Basheer, Karim Ennarah and Gasser Abdel Razek – who were released from detention on 3 December in the wake of national and international pressure – pending investigations. This latest blow to EIPR leaves no doubt that the human rights movement in Egypt remains at critical risk amid ongoing arbitrary arrests, criminal investigations, asset freezes and travel bans against staff at civil society organizations.

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Egypt’s President to visit France as human rights movement in crisis


Amnesty International is calling on President Macron to act on his declared commitment to promote human rights in Egypt, and press President al-Sisi for the release of arbitrarily detained human rights defenders and the protection of the human rights movement.

In Egypt, at least 31 leaders of civil society organizations are subject to travel bans, while 10, in addition to the three recently released senior EIPR directors, are subject to asset freezes, including EIPR’s founder Hossam Bahgat; Mozn Hassan from Nazra for Feminist Studies; Mohamed Zaree from the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies; Azza Soliman, director of the Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance; Gamal Eid, director of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information; and Aida Seif el-Dawla from Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture. All these human rights defenders are facing a criminal investigation known as “Case 173” or the “foreign funding case” into their legitimate work and could be sentenced to long prison terms.

In 2020, judges in terrorism circuits of criminal courts have added human rights lawyers Mohamed el-Baqer and Zyad el-Eleimy; the Egypt coordinator of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement Ramy Shaath; and human rights activist Alaa Abdelfattah to “terrorists lists”, banning them from travel and freezing their assets for five years. All four remain arbitrarily detained over unfounded terrorism charges.

[…]

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/12/egypt-historic-opportunity-for-international-community-to-halt-crackdown-on-human-rights-movement/

https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20201206-several-ngos-denounce-france-s-red-carpet-to-egyptian-president-abdel-fattah-al-sisi-macron-libya

https://www.france24.com/fr/france/20201206-plusieurs-ong-d%C3%A9noncent-le-tapis-rouge-de-la-france-au-pr%C3%A9sident-%C3%A9gyptien-sissi (FRANCAIS)

https://www.lejdd.fr/International/emmanuel-macron-retrouve-le-president-egyptien-sissi-lundi-4010278

https://www.lepoint.fr/monde/macron-sissi-deux-presidents-un-meme-discours-06-12-2020-2404427_24.php

https://www.hrw.org/fr/news/2020/12/02/france-macron-sapprete-recevoir-al-sissi-sur-fond-de-repression-en-egypte

https://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/le-president-egyptien-sissi-en-visite-d-etat-en-france-recu-lundi-par-macron-20201203

https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1243800/sissi-macron-la-realpolitik-au-detriment-des-droits-de-lhomme.html

https://www.leparisien.fr/politique/le-president-egyptien-al-sissi-a-paris-une-visite-tres-critiquee-06-12-2020-8412801.php

https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2020/12/06/cooperation-bilaterale-et-droits-de-l-homme-le-president-egyptien-entame-une-visite-d-etat-a-paris_6062397_3212.html

Un tribunal égyptien confirme le gel des avoirs de 3 défenseurs des droits
Tribunal de Egipto ratifica la congelación de activos de tres trabajadores de derechos humanos
(ESPANOL)

https://jornaleconomico.sapo.pt/noticias/presidente-egipcio-em-visita-de-estado-a-franca-673300 (PORTUGUES)