Brutal and corrupt dictatorships trying to use sport to improve their image is nothing new, as TheGuardiannoted in February when it compared club ownership and the Champions League to Mussolini and the 1934 World Cup.
A guest blog by Afro-Brazilian HRD Heloisa Helena Costa Berto, from correspondence to Front Line Defenders Americas Protection Coordinator (published at request of the HRD, translated from Portuguese)
Good morning, I know you have nothing to do with this, but I have to express myself. I need to make a complaint about how public bodies treat people who thinks differently. I am looking for rights, not only mine, but for a community, defending and denouncing injustices.
Palestinian HRDs Endure Israeli Military Assault on Land Day
The Israeli military is nearly 24 hours into a violent assault on tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians and human rights defenders demanding the return of their land in Gaza. Twenty-four hours or 70 years, depending on how you're counting.
Niober had been planning and looking forward to this trip for months. It took him almost two days to reach Havana international airport from his town in Guantanamo, Cuba, but he still arrived well before his flight. He'd budgeted in plenty of time, knowing security is tight and checkpoints are common across the island. At the airport, just before the final security line, an officer from the Ministry of Interior quietly took him to a side. The officer told Niober he could not board the plane.
Mariam Diallo Dramé milite depuis son enfance. Elle n'avait que 13 ans lorsqu'elle a créé le Parlement des enfants du Mali, pour protéger les droits des enfants. Aujourd'hui, elle est présidente de l'Association Femmes Leadership et Développement Durable (AFLeD) et elle continue à défendre les droits des femmes et des enfants à la santé, à l'éducation, et aux opportunités de leadership, dans un pays que le Forum économique mondial considère comme l'un des plus dangereux au monde.
Le bien-être est apparemment dangereux en Turquie. Lorsque mon amie Ozlem Dalkiran a assisté à une formation sur la sécurité holistique, on lui a demandé de dessiner quelque chose qui représente ce qui la préoccupe. C'est le genre de tableau et de post-it se voulant bien intentionnés qui perturbent mon degré de stress, mais Ozlem a joué le jeu et dessiné une carte de la Turquie avec des personnages représentant des personnes fuyant la guerre en Irak et en Syrie à l'est et des amis emprisonnés à Istanbul.
On 19 June, the New York Times published an in-depth article on the Mexican Government’s deployment of $80 million worth of spyware against lawyers, journalists and human rights defenders (HRDs).
