Mary Lawlor, Director, Front Line

From Paris to Dublin – the aims of the Platform

There are parts of your life frozen in time because of the intensity of the experience – where something lodges in your unconscious mind to irrevocably alter the course of your life.

The Paris Summit in 1998 did that to me – the courage and the spirit of everyone there intoxicated me. Listening to the stories of appalling suffering endured for no other reason than to make the world more civilised left an imprint that subconsciously led Denis and me to establish Front Line, because his moral and financial support for the summit developed into a deeper commitment which resulted in a $3 million donation to establish Front Line on behalf of you all.

1998 was the year of the adoption of the declaration on Human Rights Defenders. Nobody would have believed at the beginning of 1998 that this would be possible. States like Cuba, Mexico, China, Tunisia had always used their veto against this declaration.

1998 was the year of the celebration by states of the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). But even as they Celebrated, states continued to arrest torture and execute defenders.

1998 was also the year defenders celebrated the lives of their relatives, friends, mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers who had been killed by those who were supposed to protect them.

That’s why international NGOs decided to convene the first summit of Human Rights Defenders in Paris, where 50 years before the UDHR had been adopted.

The Paris Summit adopted a declaration and plan of action and a steering committee was elected with regional representatives to speed up the process of implementation of the plan of action. The steering committee divided the work among its members; and international organisations and regional representatives were assigned tasks. It was also decided that international organisations should continue to carry on and eventually reinforce their work on behalf of defenders, disseminate the declaration, elaborate new concrete initiatives and try to avoid duplication.

Since the Declaration was adopted, the UNSG has appointed a wonderful and brave Defender as Special Representative Ms. Hina Jilani to implement the declaration with the support of the committed UN High Commissioner Ms. Mary Robinson whose excellent record speaks fort itself. New initiatives are being developed by local and international organisations. The media, different constituencies of civil society and some governments have integrated the component of HRDs in their human rights strategies and have asked diplomats of different countries to do more to protect defenders in danger. Yet no real co-ordination and integration of strategies still exists between the international, regional and national organisations.

And since 1998, how many of our friends have been killed or “disappeared”?

One person missing today is Digna Ochea from Mexico. She was killed some weeks ago. She never made it from Paris to Dublin. In an interview in Kerry Kennedy’s beautiful book on HRDs “Speak Truth to Power” Digna says: - “I’ve always felt anger at the suffering of others. For me anger is energy, it is a force… It’s injustice that motivates us to do something, to take risks, knowing that if we don’t things will remain the same. Anger has made us confront police and soldiers… For years after my father was tortured, I wanted revenge. Then when I became the torture victim, the truth is that the last thing I wanted was revenge because I feared it would be an unending revenge. I saw it as a chain… If we don’t forgive and get over the desire for revenge, we become one of them. Yet you can’t forget torture, but you have to learn to assimilate it and to assimilate it you need to find forgiveness. If you don’t step up to those challenges what are you doing. What meaning does you life have?”

Many of you here have been tortured. Many of you who work in hostile environments could have spoken Digna’s words about anger at injustice motivating her to act - despite the huge personal cost you pay.

You are the people Front Line wants to support – defenders at risk for their non-violent work in upholding the UDHR. Our focus must remain sharp and not get dissipated. We want to try to provide practical effective help in protecting the physical and mental health of defenders and concentrate to creating a space in which they can carry out their legitimate human rights work.

We hope this platform will assist in developing strategies on protection of defenders of all human rights. We want to give you the opportunity to meet, exchange experiences and learn from each other. The Platform will reinforce the reality of the repression of HRDs as an attack on the universality, indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights – cultural, civil, economic, political and social.

The recommendations of this platform will inform the work of Front Line in its future support strategies so we must hear from you how we can be effective.

I am very conscious that this is our beginning with you and we are on trial. We hope in time you will come to recognise Front Line as impartial and independent, of both governments and interpersonal or interorganisational rivalry, that is there to defend the defenders, to be there for you and with you.

In doing so, we intend to work with any government or international organisation who can help create that safe physical and mental space that so many of you desperately need to help build a civil and just society.

We have all talked over time about how governments have hijacked the language of human rights – how they say the right words but are always ultimately driven by their political or strategic interests. No government applies objective, measurable, systematic criteria in its protection of human rights. It’s more a case of dump on your enemies and go easy on your friends.

I have many difficulties with the Irish government when it comes to the protection of human rights but equally I will always remember how in the week during which his beloved mother died, the Taoiseach worked tirelessly, night and day in order to get the Good Friday Agreement which was a milestone in the step to peace in Northern Ireland. Also, I confidently expect The Minister of Foreign Affairs to raise the case of Zhou Ming, the young student studying in Trinity who has been tortured and imprisoned in China for his peaceful expression of his practice of Falun Gong and his advocacy of the right of all Falun Gong followers to do likewise, when he meets with the Chinese government this week.

I would also like to stress that without the combination of the dedicated support of John Rowan, Tim Harrington, Deirde Ni Fhalluin and Karen in the Human Rights Unit of the Irish Foreign Ministry and the absolute determination of Khalid Ibrahim you would not be here today. Even though I’m quite sure they never want to see me again, I intend to continue to make their lives miserable!

Gathered in this room are some of the bravest and most noble people in this world. Those who have learned to step outside themselves and their lives, away from their baggage and their hurt to create a more just and civil society based on the rule of law. Those who daily live out Article 1 of the UDHR “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

I hope that our shared vision and the bonds of spirit and fun that develop between you at this conference will re-invigorate and re-energise you in your courageous, isolated and lonely work. It is and will always be for you a difficult way but it is the thing that is most deeply felt and the thing that drives you.

Let whatever it is that binds us make us reflect once again on Eleanor Roosevelt’s words when she proclaimed the UDHR:

“Where after all do human rights begin – in small places close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world? Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning elsewhere”.

It is such a privilege to be here with you in this room but it doesn’t stop here. What blows my mind is imagining all the rooms in 74 countries around the world that will be filled by you in defence of human rights when you go home.

As today got nearer and more manic for my 50 wonderful volunteers including my Trustees, the couple of temporary staff who have packed into one month what would normally take several – and the jewel in the crown, my colleague and only other staff member, Veronique Bassot, I had an absolute conviction that it would work despite the fact that nothing seemed to be coming together.

Last Monday, when I collected Jampa Monlam from Tibet, (who had temporarily gone missing in transit) and brought him to be reunited with his friends Chuye Kusang and Passang Lhamo from Drapchi prison, I learned from them that they had never before been in an aeroplane and that they had never before seen the sea. And I was so glad that Front Line was able to be the vehicle to show them new beauty after years of imprisonment and torture.

And I thought to myself: - What better way to start a conference than to rise high above the clouds.

Thank you – you are all so, so welcome.