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بيانات صحفية
 Akifa Aliyeva, Gégé Katana, Jackeline Rojas, Radhia Nasraoui, Riza Fanilag
Front Line is pleased to announce the short list of nominees for the 2007 Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk. Bono will present the award on 01 May 2007 at a breakfast ceremony in Dublin’s City Hall. 
 Aini Abukar Ga’al, Ahmadjan Madmarov, Mohammed Abbou and Soraya Gutiérrez Arguello
2 May 2006
Front Line is pleased to announce its four nominees on the short list for the 2006 Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk. Mr Peter Sutherland, United Nations Special Representative for Migration and former EU Commissioner will present the award on Friday 16 June at a breakfast ceremony in Dublin City Hall. The four nominees are:
Soraya Gutierrez Arguello, Colombia
Brussels, 22 January 2007.
The King Baudouin Foundation has awarded the 2006-2007 King Baudouin International Development Prize to Front Line, the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (Ireland). Front Line is the only international NGO that is exclusively dedicated to the support and protection of human rights defenders, particularly those at risk.
Front Line’s specific aim is to work for the protection of human rights defenders at immediate risk and to provide practical means to improve their security. Since its creation in 2001, Front Line has worked on behalf of more than 600 human rights defenders in over 100 countries. Front Line combines “round-the-clock” practical support with international advocacy, which promotes visibility and the recognition of human rights defenders as a vulnerable group.
Front Line marked the 8th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders on Saturday 9 December, by hosting a talk by three leading human rights defenders. Kasinather Sivapalan, a lawyer and human rights defender from Sri Lanka, Abdujalil Boymatov, a human rights defender from Uzbekistan and Claudia Samayao, a human rights defender from Guatemala and author of a new Front Line report on Guatemala gave their personal testimonies of working at risk in hostile environments.
Front Line welcomes the long awaited decision by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), to grant consultative status to three lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) NGOs addressing human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender.
The three organizations include; the European section of the International Lesbian and Gay Association,the Danish National Association for Gays and Lesbians and the Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany. This consultative status will provide the NGOs with access to UN meetings, delivery of oral and written reports, contact with country representatives, and allows the organization of events to facilitate understanding of the abuse and discrimination that LGBT people face around the world.
The granting of consultative status to these three NGOs is illustrative of the UN’s recognition for LGTB organizations. LGTB defenders are very often subjected to various forms of reprisals because of their work in favour of homosexuals’ and transexuals’ rights and they often face obstacles to their freedoms of association and peaceful assembly in many parts of the world.
To mark the 8th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, Front Line, the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in association with FOUR will host ‘Stories from the Frontline” at 3.00 pm, Saturday 9, December.
Kasinather Sivapalan, a prominent lawyer and human rights defender from Sri Lanka and Abdujalil Boymatov, a leading human rights defender and nuclear physicist from Uzbekistan will give their personal testimonies of working at risk in hostile environments.
Sivapalan is the former President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka and Coordinator of Legal Aid Center; he is a lecturer in Law at the Eastern University in Sri Lanka and member of the Ceasefire Monitoring Commission.
Abdujalil is the vice – president of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan an organization with over 600 members. For over 15 years he has reported and documented the human rights violations committed by the Uzbek government.
26 October 2005
Human rights defenders, Irish government ministers, NGO workers and EU and UN officials gathered in Dublin from Thursday 13 October to Saturday 15 October to attend Front Line’s 3rd Dublin Platform.
Human rights defenders from over 70 countries around the globe, participated in workshops on Front Line’s Protection Manual for Human Rights Defenders, discussed ways of overcoming the numerous and varied threats they face and gave testimonies of their experiences.
Irish minister for foreign affairs and Envoy of the UN Secretary General on UN reform, Mr Dermot Ahern praised the “idealism and courage” of human rights defenders in the opening session of the platform. He offered a special welcome to Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, winner of the inaugural Front Line Human Rights Defenders Award. Dr Mudawi was arrested in his native Sudan earlier this year only a few hours prior to his departure to Ireland to collect his award from the President of Ireland, Mary Mc Aleese
Mr Ahern spoke of the importance of a stronger UN for human rights defenders and stressed Ireland and the EU’s commitment to the UN reform process.
28 October
We the participants of the 3rd Front Line International Platform, taking into consideration the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, demand the immediate and unconditional release of the following human rights defenders, who are detained as a result of their peaceful and legitimate activities in the promotion and protection of human rights and expressing their views and opinions freely.
Afganistan:
Ali-Muhaqiq Nasab, Chief Editor of Hooq-e- Zan
China:
Zheng Enchong, lawyer Yang Youren, leader of a group of displaced farmers, Heibei,Province (currently under house arrest)
Colombia:
Isidro Alarcon Bohorquez, Laura Cristina Canonico, Ana Elba Galvis – Asamblea Permanente Morales Hernando Hernandez, FENSUAGRO, Envera Chami,Indigenous activist Jose Vicente Murillo Tabo; Martha Elvira Osorio, Caropresse; Samuel Morales; Maria Raquel Castro; Jose Guillermo Larios, CREHOS Oscar Arturo Correa, Comite Permanente Derechos Humanos and Comite Presos Politicos,
Frank Jennings
Front Line Head of Research Frank Jennings died on the morning of Saturday 1st October after a long and courageous struggle against cancer. Frank, who was 55 years old, will be sadly missed by all his many friends.
Frank made a huge contribution to the development of human rights activism in Ireland and internationally. He was for many years at the heart of the Irish Section of Amnesty International as Campaign Coordinator. He also served Amnesty internationally, providing training in campaigning for new Amnesty structures in Eastern Europe as well as helping to coordinate campaigning activities at the UN World Summits on Human Rights in Vienna and on Women in Beijing. He was also a longstanding activist for human rights in Burma and Tibet.
Frank made a huge contribution to the development of Front Line joining as Head of Research in February 2003. His drive and passionate commitment to the cause of human rights was an inspiration to all who knew him.
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), has published its annual report for 2004 highlighting an increasing number of attacks on human rights defenders. The report addresses the cases of 1,154 defenders and over 200 organisations committed to the defence of human rights (NGOs, trade unions, etc.) targeted by acts of repression in about 90 countries.
Front Line, in association with the TCD One World Society, held a special event on women human rights defenders in Trinity College Dublin on Monday 6th December. This event was organised as part of the international Campaign on Women Human Rights Defenders.
The event illustrated and discussed the specific challenges facing women human rights defenders and was addressed by three women who play a highly active role in defending human rights globally. Firstly, Ms Jennifer Williams who works in Zimbabwe with WOZA (Women of Zimbabwe Arise) to empower women to protect their human rights. Secondly, Ms. Fatima Nateson Burnad who works in India with Dalit women’s resistance movements in saying no to the caste system. And thirdly, Ms. Nadya Avsievich from Belarus who works in health promotion and human rights education. Mary Lawlor, Director of Front Line, chaired the event, which took place in the Arts Block in Trinity College, in Room 3074, on Monday 6th December, commencing at 7pm.
“In the last five years we have sadly seen an increase in the attacks on human rights defenders around the world,” said Mary Lawlor, Director of Front Line, at an event in Dublin to mark the 5th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.
In the last week we have seen an attempt by a group of 10 men in balaclavas and armed with machetes to kill human rights defender Victor Rosa in Guatemala. At the same time human rights defenders Madeleine Afite and Franka Nzounkekang were threatened and harassed by the authorities in Cameroon because of their work to expose torture.
In China Jiang Lijun is beginning a four year prison sentence for “incitement to subvert state power” because he posted political views in favour of democracy on the Internet. In Tunisia human rights lawyer Radhia Nasraoui is entering the seventh week of a hunger strike in protest against threats and harassment from the Tunisian authorities.
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