Front Line Defenders

According to a recent report by Human Rights in China (HRIC) the organisation has learned that Shanghai human rights defender Chen Xiaoming died on July 1, shortly after being released on medical parole. Numerous earlier requests by Chen's family for medical parole had been refused. 

Since the 18 May 2007 the building housing the offices of the National Council for Liberties in Tunisia (CNLT), has been surrounded by a large contingent of political police who are preventing the staff of the CNLT from getting into their offices. The CNLT has effectively been shut down following a joint Human Rights First and Front Line mission to Tunisia from 20-24 May 2007 to assess the human rights situation there. 

08 May 2007

Mary Lawlor Director, Front Line

Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam Chairperson of SUDO, the Sudan Social Development Organization

Gégé Katana President of SOFAD, the Solidarity Movement of Women Human Rights Activists (Solidarité des Femmes Activistes pour la Défense des Droits Humains)

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Eleanor Roosevelt gave the most powerful rationale for why the work of human rights defenders is so important and why it is so important to protect them.

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world”