This week at Index: UN declares Nabeel Rajab’s imprisonment unlawful

NEWS

From Bahrain to Equatorial Guinea to the UK, these are the issues that Index has been working on this week.

17 Aug 2018

BY INDEX ON CENSORSHIP

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Friday 17 August 2018

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BAHRAIN

UN declares Nabeel Rajab’s imprisonment unlawful, warns arbitrary detention in Bahrain may amount to “crimes against humanity”

Index on Censorship welcomes finding that Bahrain’s detention of activist Nabeel Rajab is unlawful and say it violates his right to freedom of expression. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has issued a formal decision declaring Bahrain’s imprisonment of Rajab unlawful. Rajab – who was arrested on 13 June 2016 and later sentenced to a total of seven years in prison for tweets and media appearances – is arbitrarily detained under eight articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and seven articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, according to the Working Group.

ARTISTIC FREEDOM

Cuban artists arrested ahead of anti-censorship concert

Cuban authorities arrested artists Yanelyz Nuñez and Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara from Otero Alcantara’s home sometime before 6:30am on Saturday 11 August for their role in organising a concert against Decree 349, a law allowing the government to sanction what art can be displayed or exchanged.

The pair are members of the Cuban artists collective the Museum of Dissidence, winners of the 2018 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards Fellowship for Art.

We're looking for free expression champions. Have you made a nomination yet? #IndexAwards2019

Ramón Nse Esono Ebale: Drawing to create change in Equatorial Guinea

Ramón Nse Esono Ebale draws out of a desire to create a world that is different from the one he can see with his eyes. It was that desire that led to his arrest and detention in September 2017.

Ebale’s cartoons take aim at Teodoro Obiang, Equatorial Guinea’s long-time dictator, who has been in power since 1979, just two years after Ebale was born. Drawing under the pseudonym Jamon y Queso, his cartoons lambast Obiang for his corruption and the absurdities of his rule.

Also read: 50 years after Theatres Act, censorship has evolved

Anti-social behaviour legislation allows for the arbitrary silencing of voices

During her time as director of the Manifesto Club, Josie Appleton has dealt with many Community Protection Notice and Public Space Protection Orders being served for non-criminal reasons. She has dealt with PSPOs for rough sleeping, begging, annoying dogs and even people moving rocks. In her view, these are cases that should be dealt with by the interested parties without the involvement local government or police. “Once you give the state power, you do not defend victims, you make people victims of the state and that is what happening now.”

Index on Censorship defends people's freedom to express themselves without fear of harm or persecution. We publish censored writers and artists, monitor and campaign against censorship, and encourage debate.

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