State control

Resettlement efforts are under way for thousands of displaced Muslims from Sri Lanka’s north who have been languishing in refugee camps for nearly two decades, officials say. The internally displaced people (IDPs) were forcibly evicted in October 1990 from the northern districts of Jaffna, Mannar, Kilinochchi, Mullaithivu and some parts of Vavuniya by the insurgent Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). About 75,000 Muslims are estimated to have fled, making their way towards government-controlled areas in Vavuniya and Anuradhapura, as well as to Puttalam District on the northwestern coast, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG).

بحث مجلس حقوق الإنسان بالأمم المتحدة أمس استخدام الحكومة المصرية لقانون الطوارئ لتبرير الاعتقال التعسفي والمحاكمات الاستثنائية، وذلك في إطار التقرير المقدم من جانب مارتن شينين المقرر الخاص للأمم المتحدة، المعني بتعزيز وحماية حقوق الإنسان والحريات الأساسية في سياق مكافحة الإرهاب، إلى الدورة الثالثة عشر لمجلس حقوق الإنسان والمنعقدة حالياً في جنيف. يعد هذا التقرير بمثابة أول تقرير يصدر عن هيئة رئيسية لحقوق الإنسان بالأمم المتحدة يتناول فقط حالة حقوق الإنسان في مصر. وقد حضر الجلسة ممثلين عن المبادرة المصرية للحقوق الشخصية ومركز القاهرة لدراسات حقوق الإنسان بصفة مراقبين، كما قاموا بتقديم مداخلات شفوية أثناء الجلسة أشادوا فيها بالتقرير، وطالبوا الحكومة بشرعة تنفيذ ما ورد به من توصيات. 

Egypt’s use of the Emergency Law to justify arbitrary detention and the use of exceptional courts was examined before the UN Human Rights Council today in a ground-breaking report presented by Martin Scheinin, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism. The report is the first issued by the main human rights body of the United Nations that deals exclusively with the human rights situation in Egypt. Representatives from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies attended the session in Geneva as observers and delivered oral interventions in which they supported the report’s recommendations and urged the government to implement them immediately. 

The Iranian Judiciary should immediately release six women arrested in January and early February 2010, apparently in connection with their peaceful activities on behalf of the Mourning Mothers, Human Rights Watch said today. Mourning Mothers is a civil society group established in June 2009 by mothers whose children lost their lives in state-sanctioned violence following Iran's disputed June 12 election. In recent months many Iranians have expressed support for the group.

Today on a daily basis, personal memoirs of ongoing encounters of dictatorship and resistance in Iran are being written in print and in cyberspace by countless Iranian civil rights activists, scholars and women human rights defenders, writes Elahi Amani. In the process of finding a new transitional global identity, Iran state authorities have steadily continued in the use of legislative delays, reversal of legal means and arrests of dissidents, activists and journalists. Younger, as well as older, women human rights defenders, are now finding themselves victim to increasing intelligence policies of non-disclosure, intimidation and repression.

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has warned that the international community’s inaction is 'a green light for hanging protesters'. An Iranian protestor, prosecuted in a post-Ashura trials on charges of Moharebeh, or “enmity against God”, is in danger of imminent execution, the Campaign has said in a recent press release. The Judiciary issued its verdict based on a fatwa by Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi. Women Living Under Muslim Laws joins other transnational civil society groups and organizations in calling for an immediate halt to the executions. Please register your protest by calling the office of the Grand Ayatollah.

Alors que le Sous-comité « Droits de l’Homme et Démocratie » - Union Européenne - Tunisie va se réunir le 25 février 2010 à Tunis, l'Observatoire pour la protection des défenseurs des droits de l'Homme et le REMDH s’indignent contre la multiplication des mesures vexatoires et des actes d’intimidation à l'encontre des défenseurs des droits de l'Homme engagés en faveur d'élections libres et pluralistes. Plusieurs défenseurs des droits de l'Homme font en effet l'objet depuis début février 2010 d'entraves à la liberté de mouvement et de mesures vexatoires visant à les empêcher de soutenir la tenue d'élections libres et pluralistes et de promouvoir les valeurs démocratiques dans le pays.

L’accès de mon domicile étant, à présent, interdit à toute personne en dehors de ma proche famille ; je suis dans l’obligation n’ayant aucun moyen de recours face à cette décision arbitraire, d’entamer samedi matin une grève de la faim illimitée. Depuis le mois d’Avril 2009, mon domicile est l’objet d’une surveillance policière arbitraire et ostensible. A la suite d’incidents répétés, et après avoir déposé plainte en vain auprès du procureur de la République , j’ai pris acte – de facto - de  l’abus de pouvoir qui m’a été imposé par cette intolérable atteinte à une de mes libertés fondamentales et à ma vie familiale et privée doublée de l’interdiction de recevoir chez moi six animateurs associatifs et / ou politiques : Mmes Sihem Ben Sedrine , Radhia Nasraoui et Azza ben Brick, l’épouse de Taoufik Ben Brick, ainsi que Mrs Omar Mestiri, Raouf Ayadi , Slim Boukhdhir, Zyed Doulatli et Ali Laaridh.

Based on the reports by Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran, many supporters of the Mourning Mothers are under medieval and excruciating solitary confinement conditions at ward 209 of Evin prison. Attacks by the Ministry of Intelligence against supporters of the Mourning Mothers began on Sunday February 7, 2010 at 10:30 pm and peaked on February 9th. It is reported that during these attacks at least seven mothers were arrested and taken to solitary confinement in ward 209 of Evin prison. Five Ministry of Intelligence agents participated in the extremely violent and barbaric attacks.

استدعى الابقاء على حالة الطوارئ منذ حوالى 29 عاماً في مصر، انتقادات مجلس حقوق الانسان التابع للأمم المتحدة خلال درسه الوضع في هذا البلد يوم أمس. وأعرب ممثل فرنسا أمام مجلس حقوق الانسان المجتمع في جنيف عن أسفه قائلاً: «إن قانون الطوارئ المطبق منذ عام 1981 يحمل تداعيات سلبية على حقوق الانسان»، مطالباً بوضع حد له «في أسرع وقت». وأفاضت بريطانيا وهولندا والولايات المتحدة وألمانيا بالكلام في هذا الاتجاه. وذكر رئيس الوفد المصري وزير الدولة للشؤون القانونية والبرلمانية مفيد شهاب أن القاهرة التزمت وقف العمل بقانون الطوارئ بعد تبني تشريع لمكافحة الارهاب وتهريب المخدرات. 

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