Threats

Al-Khatim Adlan Center for Enlightenment is a non-overnmental organization reigestered and working in Sudan. Today, December 31, 2012, security forces and officials from the regulatory body the Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) ordered the Centre to be closed down and have confiscated all the assets of the organization. This is the second NGO to be closed down in less than a month and a few others are also being threatened with closure. 

To:
Margaret Sekaggya
Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders
c/o Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Office

17 October 2012

Dear Ms. Sekaggya,

I write to you from CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, an international alliance of civil society with members and partners in over a hundred countries. CIVICUS supports citizen’s rights and democratic freedoms across the globe, including the freedoms of expression, association and assembly.

Civil society concern at ban of newspaper in Tanzania

Article 19, CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, Committee to Protect Journalists, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, Legal and Human Rights Centre, Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition and the Media Institute of Southern Africa-Tanzania, are concerned about reports that, on Monday 30 July, the government of Tanzania indefinitely banned MwanaHalisi, a weekly Kiswahili newspaper.

8 August 2012 - Global civil society network CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation condemns the recent surge in restrictions on civil society in Russia and urges the international community to speak out against the Russian government's disregard for international norms on the treatment of civil society.

Johannesburg, 9 July 2012: Recent moves to curb freedom of expression in Ethiopia

represent a steep escalation in an ongoing campaign to silence dissent, says global

civil society network CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation.

 On 27 June, prominent blogger and human rights defender Eskinder Nega was convicted

along with five other exiled journalists for attempting to incite violence and

overthrow the constitutional order. Eskinder was arrested on 14 September 2011 after

Space for civil society shrinking in Uganda say national and global CSOs

Johannesburg, 25 June 2012. Civil society space in Uganda is rapidly shrinking, warn

global network CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation and Uganda-based

East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP). Independent civil

society organisations are being openly threatened and placed under excessive

scrutiny by senior government officials.

For example, on 18 June, a skills-building workshop for LGBTI human rights defenders

The military detained Alaa Abd El Fattah on Sunday, a high-profile blogger whose arrest by Mubarak's security forces in 2006 led one of the biggest campaign to release him in Mubarak's era.

Abd El Fattah refused to be questioned by military prosecutors over "inciting violence and sabotage" in connection with deadly clashes between the army and protesters on October 09, when more than 25 people were killed.

On 25 July 2011, Fr Inaldo Serejo, Coordinator of the Maranhão State branch of the Comissão Pastoral da Terra - CPT (Pastoral Land Commission), and Mr Diogo Cabral, human rights lawyer with the Comisão de Direitos Humanos da Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil – OABMA (Human Rights Commission at the Maranhão branch of the Bar Association) received death threats as they attended a preliminary hearing in the municipality of Cantanhede, in the State of Maranhão.

The United States has violated Egypt’s sovereignty by offering funding to Egyptian civil institutions, organizations and associations without properly consulting the government, said Egyptian Minister of Solidarity and Social Justice Gouda Abdel Khaliq on Wednesday.

In a press statement, Abdel Khaliq said that his ministry has managed to track the flow of US funds to Egyptian groups in violation of Egyptian law.

One of the greatest problems in Pakistan is the availability and access to clean water. This not only limits agricultural production and industrial growth, but it is also the leading cause of disease and child mortality in the country. People, particularly in the rural areas, do not have access to clean drinking water. By resorting to drinking from the locally available water sources, the poor people are plagued with water-borne diseases, which is an immense financial burden in health care costs and also results in the loss of poor household incomes.

ASTANA, 4 April 2011 – Yesterday’s presidential vote in Kazakhstan revealed similar shortcomings as those noted in previous elections in the country, international observers said in a statement issued today. They noted that reforms necessary for holding genuine democratic elections have yet to materialize.

While the election was technically well administered, the absence of opposition candidates and of a vibrant political discourse resulted in a non-competitive environment. A limited field of candidates did not seek to challenge the incumbent.

Amid a large presence of campaigners affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, thousands of voters streamed to the polls Saturday in Giza to vote on proposed amendments to the 1971 Constitution, marking rare fair elections in Egypt’s political history.

The Brotherhood, according to eyewitnesses, called for imams to speak in front of the polling stations about the benefits of voting “yes”.