In particular, the FIDH Congress firmly denounces the new acts of assassination of human rights defenders committed in several countries, in Guatemala, Russia and Colombia and in Honduras, where Jose Leonel Alvarez Guerra, leader of the Peasant Unified Movement of Aguán (MUCA) was killed on April 7, 2010 by a paramilitary squad.
The FIDH Congress calls for the release of all human rights defenders who are arbitrarily detained, often in inhumane conditions, following unfair proceedings. The Congress calls in particular for the release of activists and lawyers from associations who are affiliated or FIDH partners among which:
– 9 members of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan: Gaybullo Jalilov, Nasim Isakov, Norboy Kholjigitov, Khabibilla Okpulatov,Yuldosh Rasule, Azamjon Formonov, Jamshid Karimov, Zafar Rakhimov and Alisher Karamatov, arrested between 2005 and 2009, sentenced to heavy terms of prison and tortured;
– 3 members of the Human Rights Association of Turkey (IHD): Muharrem Erbey, General Vice Chairperson and Chairperson of its Diyarbakir Province Branch and Vetha Aydın, Chairperson of its Siirt Province Branch as well as the journalist, trade unionist and IHD member and former chairperson of the Riza Province Branch Gencaga Karafazli;
– 4 Syrian human rights defenders: Nizar Ristnawi, member of the Committee for the Defense of Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights detained since 2005, whose fate remains unknown since the bloody repression of the riot which took place in July 2008, and the 3 lawyers Anwar Al-Bunni, founding member of the Human Rights Association in Syria; Mohanad Al-Hassani, President of the association “Sawasiyah”, and Haytham El-Maleh, former President of HRAS, who are subjected to daily acts of reprisal in prison;
– and Firmin Yangambi, lawyer member of the Kisangani Bar Association, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and President of the NGO « Paix sur terre » detained since September 2009 and recently sentenced to the death penalty.
The FIDH Congress regrets the multiplication of acts of reprisal and threats faced by magistrates who work on criminal cases related to serious human rights violations and calls on States to take all measures necessary to ensure their safety and enable them to conduct their mission free of any hindrance.
The Congress hereby wishes to express its solidarity with notably:
– the Spanish Judge Garzon, who is subjected to judicial harassment after, in particular, attempting to open an investigation on the crimes against humanity committed in Spain during the Franco dictatorship;
– the Peruvian Prosecutor Cristina Olazabal prosecuted by President Garcia for charges of abuse of authority after she had him accused of genocide following the 1985 Accomarca massacre ;
– and Colombian judges sitting at the Criminal Chamber of the Cassation Court and their auxiliaries threatened to death following the investigation they conduct against members of the congress, who belong to the Coalition of President Alvaro Uribe Velez, who are involved in the promotion of paramilitarism and their crimes.
– and judges sitting at the criminal chamber of the Supreme Court of Colombia, like Ivan Gonzalez.
And the FIDH Congress wishes to recall that several member or partner NGOs are compelled to work from abroad due to the gravity of the situation in their home countries, like FIDH member organisations in China, Iran, Iraq, Vietnam, Laos, Burma, Libya and Sudan.
Having regard to the serious difficulties which associations who are members or partners of FIDH in the pursuit of their activities, the Congress calls on States to lift all de facto and legal obstacles placed on the defense of human rights and, for this purpose, it urges them, in the first place, to register or lift bans against human rights organisations, in particular:
– the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights;
– the Defenders’ Human Rights Centre;
– the Khartoum Centre for Human Rights and Environmental Development in Sudan;
– the National Council for Freedoms in Tunisia;
– the association SOS-Disparus in Algeria;
– the Human Rights Centre Viasna in Belarus;
– and the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan.
Due to the gravity of the situation, the FIDH Congress calls on Governments to comply with the Declaration on the protection of human rights defenders adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1998 and to recognize the role played by human rights defenders in the strengthening of the Rule of Law and the fight against impunity.