Front Line News Archive

In a statement issued by the the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, human rights defenders in the region demanded that "the Ethiopian parliament should reject Draft Anti-Terrorism Proclamation and end legislative affront on independent civil society". 

On 24 June 2009, the Agadeer Appeal Court confirmed the 15 year sentence against human rights defender Mr. Yahya Mohamed el Hafed. According to the information received, the day after the court session, Yahya Mohamed el Hafed was subjected to physical assault by the guards at the Ayat-Melol prison, where his head was hit against the wall. 

According to the statement "Official Iranian news agencies have published a letter claiming to be from lawyers, university professors, and families of veterans and martyrs, which requests the Justice minister, Gholam-Hussein Elham, to prosecute Iranian Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi for allegedly violating Islamic and constitutional law through her human rights advocacy". 

On 25 June 2008, the Supreme Court of Russian Federation overturned the acquittal of the for men accused of involvement in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya. The decision to conduct a new trial highlights the difficulties faced by the Russian judicial system in investigating the murders and attacks on human rights defenders and journalists and the failure of the authorities to bring the intellectual and actual authors of such crimes to justice. 

The Observatory (a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) andthe World Organisation Against Torture) has learned of the acquittal of Mr Walid Al Bunni, a member of the Association of Human Rights in Syria and member of the National Council of the Damascus Declaration for Democratic National Change (NCDD). The Observatory remains deeply concerned by Mr. Al Bunni's ongoing arbitrary detention and the continued judicial harassment he faces in prison, which seems intended to punish him for his human rights activities. 

The Annual Report 2009 of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders shows that "in inverse proportion to the fall of the stock exchanges, the inflation of freedom-killing practices and laws relating to the control of the social body was one of the significant characteristics of the problems encountered by human rights defenders in 2008". 

Front Line staff, members of the Iranian community in Dublin and representatives of human rights organisations took part in a demonstration outside the Iranian embassy to show solidarity with the human rights community in Iran.