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	Nominees for 2012 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders by Micheline Calmy-Rey Switzerland   Oct 2012   Recognizing the exceptional work in defence of human rights.   Venerable Luon Sovath, a Cambodian Buddhist monk and human rights activist, has been arrested, banned from his monastery and threatened with expulsion from his order for his activism in documenting and supporting cases of evictions and land-grabbing in Cambodia.   “Lands grabbed by companies and authorities affect my family and the entire community. The victims suffer dramatic injustice” he said. “When I see all these problems I really want this society to change”, he added.   Luon Sovath uses hidden recorders and camera phones to document the suffering of people who are forced to leave their homes. “We want to create independent news, accurate information and evidence,” he said.   In recognition of his work, on 2 October 2012, he was awarded the prestigious Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.   Named after the late British lawyer who became the first head of the human rights organisation Amnesty International, the Geneva-based Martin Ennals rights award is granted annually to a person who has an exceptional record of fighting against human rights violations.   “In speaking out on behalf of the poor, particularly those in rural areas who are currently facing evictions and land-grabbing, the Venerable has taken great risks,” said UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kyung-wha Kang at the award ceremony. “Our Office has provided him with protection on a number of occasions: intervening with the authorities, both religious and civil, when his rights to freedom of movement or of expression have been curtailed,” she added.   “Today,” she added “we also celebrate the Venerable’s wisdom and unwavering determination, which has been a source of courage for many in Cambodia, and we hope that he will continue to inspire others through his advocacy and activism.”   Award nominees also included Nasrin Sotoudeh, an Iranian woman, a lawyer and a prominent human rights activist who is in prison for her human rights work. UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay has pressed for Nasrin’s release many times with the Iranian authorities, both publicly and privately.   Nabeel Rajab, another nominee and Director of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights is also in prison, as a consequence of the criminalization of his human rights activities. Pillay has called for the release of Nabil Rajab while criticizing the harsh sentences against human rights defenders in Bahrain.   The Martin Ennals award “recognizes the exceptional work of women and men who strive day-to-day for the defence of human rights and fundamental freedoms often at their own risk,” said Kyung-wha Kang.   April 2012   Former Swiss President and newly-appointed Chair of the Martin Ennals Foundation, Micheline Calmy-Rey, has announced the nominees for the 2012 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in Geneva, Switzerland.   The three nominees for the 2012 award are:   Venerable Luon Sovath, Cambodia. In March 2009, Luon Sovath, a Buddhist monk from Siem Reap, Cambodia witnessed his family and fellow villagers being forcibly evicted from their homes. Forced evictions remove families from their homes, often with no compensation.   Despite threats of violence, arrest and disrobing, the venerable Sovath, a non-violent Buddhist monk, uses videos, poems and songs to defend the right to housing, but his advocacy touches powerful economic interests. The threats against the venerable Sovath are very real.   Nasrin Sotoudeh, a woman lawyer from Iran, is currently serving an 11-year sentence on charges of ‘spreading propaganda against the State’, ‘collusion and gathering with the aim of acting against national security’ and ‘membership in an illegal organization’.   She is the former lawyer and member of the organization of the now-exiled Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, who declares Sotoudeh is ‘one of the last remaining courageous human rights lawyers who has accepted all risks for defending the victims of human rights violations in Iran’.   The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) is internationally recognized for its work on documenting human rights abuses in Bahrain. Despite harassment by the government, who warn of legal action against the Center’s members if they continue their activities, the BCHR provides information to international NGOs and the diplomatic community in Bahrain and advocates locally and internationally in support of demands for democratic change in the Gulf Kingdom.   The nominees were carefully selected by ten human rights organizations which make up the Martin Ennals Award Jury: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, the International Federation for Human Rights, the World Organisation Against Torture, Frontline, the International Commission of Jurists, German Diakonie, the International Service for Human Rights and HURIDOCS. Visit the related web page
	UN and regional experts urge countries to stop reprisals against rights defenders by United Nations News & agencies   A group of international experts on the situation of human rights defenders urged world governments to halt reprisals against individuals and groups seeking to cooperate with the United Nations and regional human rights systems. They also called on States to ease, rather than hinder, civil society’s access to the United Nations and regional human rights institutions.   “Reprisals have to cease immediately and credible investigations into pending cases of reprisals have to be carried out,” said the Rapporteurs on Human Rights Defenders from the United Nations, Margaret Sekaggya; the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Reine Alapini-Gansou; and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, José de Jesús Orozco.   “These reprisals against individuals and/or groups engaging directly with the United Nations, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, or otherwise providing information on particular countries’ human rights situations, take the form of smear campaigns, harassment, intimidation, direct threats, physical attacks and killings,” they said.   In an effort to safeguard the vital collaboration between civil society and the UN and regional human rights mechanisms, the three Rapporteurs appealed for enhanced monitoring and action to respect the United Nations, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights normative agreements and rules of procedure explicitly prohibiting acts of reprisals by States and non-State actors.   “Such steps towards full accountability for reprisals are an important preventive measure that should be combined with those that facilitate, rather than deter, civil society’s safe and unimpeded access to the United Nations and the regional human rights institutions,” stressed Ms. Sekaggya, Ms. Alapini-Gansou and Mr. Orozco.   The three international Rapporteurs also supported the recent initiative by the President of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Laura Dupuy Lasserre, calling on Governments to immediately put an end to harassment and intimidation of individuals and groups attending the on-going session of the Human Rights Council, taking place in Geneva, Switzerland.   Ms. Dupuy Lasserre expressed her concern about reports of State and other representatives using aggressive and/or insulting language against civil society representatives, and photographing and filming them without their consent on United Nations premises, including in the main Council’s chamber, with a view to intimidate and harass them. She announced that those accusations will be investigated. Visit the related web page
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