Groups urge Boris Johnson to call for release of Nabeel Rajab

3 Feb 2017 | Bahrain, Bahrain Letters, Campaigns, Campaigns -- Featured, Statements

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Boris Johnson
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
King Charles Street
London
SW1A 2AH

3 February 2017

Dear Mr Johnson,

In light of recent developments in Bahrain, we write to raise our deep concern over the punitive trials of prominent human rights defender Nabeel Rajab, who is being prosecuted in three separate cases for exercising his right to freedom of expression. As Foreign Secretary you have re-committed your Office to counter the shrinking of civil society space and promote the work of human rights defenders. We therefore urge you to give effect to this commitment by calling for the release of Nabeel Rajab.

Index on Censorship Award-winning Nabeel Rajab is the President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, a member of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East Division advisory committee and a founding director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights. He faces up to 17 years in prison on several charges, all related to his free speech.

Nabeel Rajab, who has been in detention, largely in solitary confinement, since his arrest on 13 June 2016, currently faces two separate trials related to his right to free speech. In the first of these, he is charged with “spreading rumours in wartime”, “insulting a neighbouring country” (Saudi Arabia) and “insulting a statutory body”. The first two charges relate to Nabeel Rajab’s tweets published in March 2015 alleging torture in Jaw prison and criticising the killing of civilians in the Yemen conflict by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition. The verdict in his trial has been postponed several times suggesting that this is part of a deliberate strategy to harass him. His next hearing on this case is due to take place on 21 February.

On 28 December, during a hearing on the Twitter case, the high criminal court authorised Nabeel Rajab’s release on bail; he was then immediately rearrested for investigation into the charge of “spreading false news in media interviews”.  According to the prosecution, Nabeel Rajab’s charge relate to comments given to media outlets in which he stated that foreign journalists and international NGOs cannot enter Bahrain and that the imprisonment of opposition actors was political and illegal. However, multiple international NGOs including Human Rights First, and Reporters Without Borders, as well as academics and journalists, have been denied access since 2012. Amnesty International has also not been granted access to Bahrain since January 2015. Meanwhile, political and unlawful imprisonments are common in Bahrain: Bahrain was the subject of six UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention rulings in 2014. Amnesty International has also documented many prisoners of conscience in Bahrain. Nabeel Rajab’s next hearing on this case is scheduled for 7 February.

In addition, Nabeel Rajab has a third charge against him for “spreading false news” after he an Op-Ed written in his name was published in the New York Times in September 2016.

We note the UK Government’s statements in recent years relating to Nabeel Rajab. In 2014 for example, at the UN Human Rights Council the UK together with 46 other states, urged Bahrain “to release all persons imprisoned solely for exercising human rights, including human rights defenders, some of whom have been identified as arbitrarily detained according to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.” Also, since your appointment as Foreign Secretary, the Government has, through Parliament and the UN Human Rights Council, expressed concern at the re-arrest of Nabeel Rajab and confirmed that UK officials continue to raise his case with the Government of Bahrain and attend each of his hearings.  While such efforts are welcome, it appears that the UK Government has not yet called for his release.

Since your appointment, the human rights situation in Bahrain has further deteriorated. The recent resumption of executions and excessive use of force against protesters, contradict the Bahraini authorities’ rhetoric of progress being made.

We strongly believe that the UK, following your and the Prime Minister’s visit to Bahrain in December, and particularly now that the UK has regained a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, should review its current policy on the human rights situation in Bahrain, publicly condemn regressive measures and call for the release of Nabeel Rajab and others detained solely for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression such as Sheikh Ali Salman, the Secretary General of al-Wefaq National Islamic Society.

The UK’s significant historical, economic, security and political ties with Bahrain incur a responsibility to acknowledge and criticise negative human rights developments within the country. The UK’s voice is strongly heard in Bahrain, and we urge you to act publicly and promptly in support of Nabeel Rajab’s human rights work and call for his release.

We would like to request a meeting with the FCO to discuss our human rights concerns in Bahrain and Nabeel Rajab’s case and hear the FCO’s views on his case and what the UK government can do to uphold its commitment to reverse the shrinking civil society space in Bahrain.

 

Yours sincerely,

Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB)

Amnesty International UK

ARTICLE 19

Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR)

Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD)

Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights

Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE)

English PEN

European Centre For Democracy and Human Rights (ECDHR)

FIDH, under the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)

Index on Censorship

Lawyer’s Rights Watch Canada (LRWC)

No Peace Without Justice

PEN International

Rafto Foundation

Reporters Without Borders

The Bahrain Press Association

the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), under the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

 

Individuals

Clive Stafford Smith (OBE), director of Reprieve

Professor Damian McCormack[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1486118018001-8efe7b55-8d69-7″ taxonomies=”3368″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Groups urge UN to call on Bahrain to release human rights defender

20 Dec 2016 | Bahrain, Bahrain Letters, Campaigns -- Featured, Statements

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]H.E. Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Palais Wilson
52 rue des Pâquis
CH-1201 Geneva
Switzerland

CC: David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on Free Expression
Michele Forst, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders

Dear Mr. High Commissioner,

We, the undersigned human rights organizations, write to urge your office to urgently and publicly call on the Government of Bahrain to immediately and unconditionally release human rights defender Nabeel Rajab and drop the charges against him. His next, and likely final, trial date is scheduled for 28 December.

Nabeel Rajab’s trial is ongoing following the fifth extension of his court proceedings on 15 December. The further delay of Rajab’s trial to late December is additionally concerning due to the precedent established by the Bahraini government to take advantage of the time period around the end of year holidays to further violate human rights. For example, on 28 December 2014, the Government of Bahrain arrested and charged Sheikh Ali Salman, the Secretary General of the now dissolved Al-Wefaq political society, in relation to his free expression. Salman continues to serve a nine-year arbitrary prison sentence following his own lengthy trial.

This December, Nabeel Rajab could face up to 15 years in prison on charges regarding tweets and re-tweets from his account addressing torture in Bahrain’s Jau Prison, as well as criticizing Bahrain’s participation in Saudi Arabia-led military operations in Yemen. These military actions in Yemen, according to the United Nations, have so far been responsible for the deaths of more than 8,100 civilians, and include numerous unlawful airstrikes on markets, homes, hospitals, and schools. Rajab’s comments on Twitter about the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in Yemen led to his arrest on 2 April 2015. Bahrain’s penal code provides for up to 10 years in prison for anyone who “deliberately announces in wartime false or malicious news, statements or rumors.”

Since June 2016, Rajab has been held in pre-trial detention, including two weeks of solitary confinement following his initial arrest.

Bahraini authorities released Rajab on 13 July 2015 in accordance with a royal pardon for previous Twitter-related charges following extensive international pressure. However, the Public Prosecution maintained this second round of charges against Rajab following his release and ordered his re-arrest nearly a year later on 13 June 2016. Rajab is also facing charges of “offending a foreign country” – Saudi Arabia – and “offending national institutions” for his comments about the torture of inmates at Jau Prison in March 2015. In October 2016, after months of trial hearings, the court reopened his case for investigation rather than dismissing the charges against him due to the lack of evidence.

Moreover, the government brought an additional charge against Rajab in relation to an open letter published in the New York Times on 4 September 2016. The Bahraini authorities immediately responded by charging Rajab with “undermining the prestige of the state.”

Since June 2016, Rajab has been held in pre-trial detention, including two weeks of solitary confinement following his initial arrest. The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-Custodial Measures state that “pre-trial detention shall be used as a means of last resort in criminal proceedings, with due regard for the investigation of the alleged offence and for the protection of society and the victim.” The government’s use of pretrial solitary confinement against Nabeel Rajab while prosecuting him for free expression is clearly an additional form of reprisal for his work as a human rights defender and is in breach of the UN’s standards for detention.

Nabeel Rajab is the co-founder and president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, the founding director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights, a Deputy Secretary General of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) from 2012 to 2016, and holds advisory positions with Human Rights Watch. Amnesty International considers him to be a prisoner of conscience. His human rights activism and his peaceful criticism of the Bahraini authorities have resulted in his imprisonment on two previous occasions, between May 2012 and May 2014, and between January 2015 and July 2015.

Mr. High Commissioner, your office has pursued and published a number of communications in relation to human rights abuses perpetuated against Nabeel Rajab. Yet with his likely final court appearance approaching, it is imperative, now more than ever, to use the weight of your office to publicly defend him. We therefore call on you to issue a public statement in defense of Nabeel Rajab as a human rights defender arbitrarily detained for his free and peaceful expression. We further urge you to publicly call on the Government of Bahrain to immediately and unconditionally release Rajab, and to drop all charges against him.

Sincerely,

  1. Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain
  2. Albanian Media Institute
  3. Amnesty International
  4. Article 19
  5. Association of Caribbean Media Workers
  6. Bahrain Center for Human Rights
  7. Bahrain Human Rights Society
  8. Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy
  9. Bahrain Press Association
  10. Brazilian Association for Investigative Journalism
  11. Cambodian Center for Human Rights
  12. Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
  13. Center for Media Studies & Peace Building
  14. CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
  15. Digital Rights Foundation
  16. Electronic Frontier Foundation
  17. English PEN
  18. European-Bahraini Organisation for Human Rights
  19. European Center for Democracy and Human Rights
  20. Foro de Periodismo Argentino
  21. Foundation for Press Freedom – FLIP
  22. Free Media Movement
  23. Freedom Forum
  24. Freedom House
  25. Free Media Movement
  26. Globe International Center
  27. Gulf Centre for Human Rights
  28. Independent Journalism Center – Moldova
  29. Index on Censorship
  30. International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
  31. International Press Institute
  32. International Service for Human Rights
  33. Journaliste en danger
  34. Maharat Foundation
  35. MARCH
  36. Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance
  37. Media Institute of Southern Africa
  38. Media Watch
  39. National Union of Somali Journalists
  40. No Peace Without Justice
  41. Norwegian PEN
  42. OpenMedia
  43. Pacific Freedom Forum
  44. Pacific Island News Association
  45. Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms – MADA
  46. PEN American Center
  47. PEN Canada
  48. PEN International
  49. Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
  50. South East European Network for Professionalization of Media
  51. Vigilance pour la Démocratie et l’État Civique
  52. World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers
  53. World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

Individuals:

Clive Stafford Smith OBE, Founder, Reprieve[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1482250766050-89540f7d-7e72-0″ taxonomies=”3368″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Contents: Fashion rules

16 Dec 2016 | Magazine, Magazine Contents, Volume 45.04 Winter 2016

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”Contributors include Lily Cole, Daphne Selfe, Linda Grant, Bibi Russell, Katy Werlin, Jang Jin-sung, Maggie Alderson and Eliza Vitri Handayani”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

The latest issue of Index on Censorship magazine looks at fashion and how people both express freedom through what they wear. But it also looks at how women in particular have their freedom of expression curtailed by rigid dress codes – whether they are women in Saudi Arabia who have to wear abayas by law or women in the UK and Canada whose employers insist they wear high heels shoes.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”82377″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]

Models Lily Cole and Daphne Selfe discuss why changes in society are reflected in the clothes we (are allowed) to wear. Maggie Alderson, former editor of Elle describes how she was arrested for being a punk rocker in the 1970s, while Eliza Vitri Handayani talks about how punks in Indonesia today are still persecuted for what they wear and how they look. Nigerian model and journalist Wana Udobang riffs on fashion in Nigeria and how she was snubbed by bouncers and waiters at a wedding for wearing the wrong clothes.

Ismail Einashe describes how traditional dress can be life-threatening for Oromos in Ethiopa, while Magela Baudoin delves into class and ethnic gradations in Bolivia and reveals that the way some women dress means they are discriminated against. Novelist Linda Grant describes how her Jewish immigrant parents used the way they dressed to try and fit into middle-class British society. Meanwhile Katy Werlin gives a historical perspective as she discusses how the 18th century French revolutionaries,  known as sans-culottes, celebrated their peasant clothes as they overthrew the aristocratic regime.

Martin Rowson brings another perspective to fashion in his new cartoon which depicts a catwalk on which despots show off their latest costumes. Spot President-elect Donald Trump sporting a furry thong. Trump is also in US media expert Eric Alterman’s sights as he describes why journalists in the USA believe the new president will seek to challenge media freedoms guaranteed by the constitution. Turkish researchers Burak Bilgehan Özpek and Başak Yavcan investigate how the Turkish government is using state advertising to control the media.

We also publish an interview with Turkish intellectual, linguist and  founder of a mathematics village Sevan Nişanyan. Our reporter communicated with him using notes smuggled out from the prison where he is serving a 16-year sentence on charges connected with freedom of speech. The culture section includes poems from a former North Korean propagandist Jang Jin-sung who defected to the South and now runs a website smuggling news out of North Korea. We also carry poems about the extraordinariness of everyday life from Brazilian author Paulo Scott and a never before seen English translation of a short story by legendary Argentine writer Haroldo Conti.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”SPECIAL REPORT: FASHION RULES” css=”.vc_custom_1481731933773{margin-right: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;padding-top: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-color: #455560 !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”][vc_column_text]

Dressing to oppress: why dress codes and freedom clash

The censors’ new clothes, by Rachael Jolley: Freedom is not about the amount of clothing you put on or take off, but about having the choice to do so

Fashion police, by Natasha Joseph: Some feel the miniskirt is a threat to the state in Uganda and women are getting attacked for wearing it

Wearing a T-shirt got me arrested, by
 Maggie Alderson: Wearing punk clothes in 1970s London was dangerous, but now British teenagers can wear anything

Colour bars, by Magela Baudoin: Traditional clothing is still a sign of social status in Bolivia and wearing such clothes often leads to discrimination

Models of freedom, by Bibi Russell: Bangladeshi women are now vital to the economy but they are still restricted in their dress

The big cover-up, by Laura Silvia Battaglia: Women in Saudi Arabia and Yemen test how far they can customise what they are allowed to wear. Translation by Lucinda Byatt

Rebel with a totally fashionable cause, by Wana Udobang: A Nigerian model refuses to conform to stifling social expectations and sees the consequences

Stripsearch cartoon, by Martin Rowson: A fetching new range of despotwear

Ethiopia in crisis, closes down news, by Ismail Einashe The Oromo people use traditional clothing as a symbol of resistance and it is costing them their lives

Baggy trousers are revolting
, by Katy Werlin: The sans-culottes of the French revolution transformed peasant dress into a badge of honour

Muslim punks in mohawks attacked, by Eliza Vitri Handayani: Punks in Indonesia are persecuted but still manage to maintain a culture which stands up for difference

Design is the limit, by Jemimah Steinfeld: China is loosening up on personal freedoms including fashion, but designers still face some constraints

A modest proposal, by Kaya Genç: “Modest” dress codes are all the rage in Turkey as some turn their backs on the legacy of Atatürk

Uniformity rules, by Jan Fox: Prisoners often try to customise their uniforms but does stripping individuality make rehabilitation more difficult?

Keeping up appearances, by Linda Grant: Linda Grant’s immigrant family were upwardly mobile and bought clothes that showed their aspirations

Sewing it up, by Rachael Jolley:  At 88 Daphne Selfe is Britain’s oldest supermodel. She talks about how fashion has changed in her lifetime

Style counsels, by Kieran Etoria-King: Model, activist and actor Lily Cole talks about how school girls customise their uniforms to give them a sense of individuality

Tall stories, by Sally Gimson: Wearing high heels is a way for some women to express freedom, while for others it’s a form of oppression

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”IN FOCUS” css=”.vc_custom_1481731813613{margin-right: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;padding-top: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-color: #455560 !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”][vc_column_text]

Challenging media, by Eric Alterman: If his campaign is anything to go by, President Trump is likely to restrict freedom of the press

Living in limbo, by Marco Salustro: A journalist reveals the challenges of reporting from inhumane migrant detention camps in Libya

Follow the money, by
 Burak Bilgehan Özpek and Başak Yavcan: The Turkish government is rewarding newspapers which favour its position with more state-sponsored advertising

Fighting for our festival
 freedoms, by Peter Florence: Mutilated bodies, petitions and a citizen’s arrest: the director of the Hay literary festivals describes the trials and tribulations of his job

Barring the bard, by Jennifer Leong:  Actor Jennifer Leong on confronting attempts to censor performances of Shakespeare around the world

Assessing Correa’s free
speech heritage, by Irene Caselli: The Ecuadorian president’s record on free speech is reviewed as his term in office comes to an end. He gave sanctuary to Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, in the country’s London embassy but brought in restrictive media laws at home

Framed as spies, by Steven Borowiec: South Korean journalist Choi Seung-ho hit a national nerve when he exposed the security services for framing ordinary citizens as North Korean spies

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”CULTURE” css=”.vc_custom_1481731777861{margin-right: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;padding-top: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-color: #455560 !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”][vc_column_text]

Back from the Amazon, by
 Paulo Scott: Newly translated poems from Scott’s acclaimed collection, Even Without Money I Bought a New Skateboard. Interview by Kieran Etoria-King. Poems translated by Stefan Tobler

A story from the disappeared, by Haroldo Conti: Jon Lindsay Miles introduces a poignant short story, published in English for the first time, by the award- winning Argentine writer who disappeared in 1976. Translation also by Jon Lindsay Miles

Poems for Kim, by Jang Jin-sung: North Korean propagandist poet turned high profile defector talks about life within the world’s most secretive country. Interview by Sybil Jones

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”COLUMNS” css=”.vc_custom_1481732124093{margin-right: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;padding-top: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-color: #455560 !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”][vc_column_text]

Global view, by Jodie Ginsberg: Face-to-face encounters are still important and governments worldwide know that restricting travel continues to be an effective way of stifling voices

Index around the world, by
 Kieran Etoria-King: Coverage of Index’s work over the last few months including exposing the difficulties of war reporting and our Mapping Media Freedom project

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”END NOTE” css=”.vc_custom_1481880278935{margin-right: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;padding-top: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-color: #455560 !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”][vc_column_text]

Where’s our president? by
 Kiri Kankhwende:  Malawi’s journalists tease their president as part of a campaign to make the government more transparent

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”SUBSCRIBE” css=”.vc_custom_1481736449684{margin-right: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-color: #455560 !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship magazine was started in 1972 and remains the only global magazine dedicated to free expression. Past contributors include Samuel Beckett, Gabriel García Marquéz, Nadine Gordimer, Arthur Miller, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, and many more.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”76572″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]In print or online. Order a print edition here or take out a digital subscription via Exact Editions.

Copies are also available at the BFI, the Serpentine Gallery, MagCulture, (London), News from Nowhere (Liverpool), Home (Manchester), Calton Books (Glasgow) and on Amazon. Each magazine sale helps Index on Censorship continue its fight for free expression worldwide.

SUBSCRIBE NOW[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Syria: Whereabouts of four abducted activists unknown

9 Dec 2016 | Campaigns, Campaigns -- Featured, Statements, Syria

Prominent human rights defenders Razan Zaitouneh, Samira Al-Khalil, Wa’el Hamada and Nazim Hammadi – the Douma four – should be released immediately, 32 human rights organisations said today, on the third anniversary of their abduction.

 On 09 December 2013, a group of armed men stormed into the office of the Violations Documentation Centre in Syria, a local human rights monitoring group in Douma, in Damascus Countryside, and abducted Razan Zaitouneh, the head of centre, her husband, Wael Hamada, and colleagues- Samira Al-Khalil and Nazem Hamadi. There has been no news of their whereabouts since then.

The armed groups exercising de facto control over Douma include the Army of Islam, which is part of the Islamic Front, a coalition of armed groups. The groups should immediately release the four human rights defenders if they are in the groups’ custody, or work toward ensuring they are released unharmed and without delay. Countries that support these groups, as well as religious leaders and others who may have influence over them, should also press for the immediate release of the four activists and for an end to abductions of civilians.

Razan Zaitouneh defended political prisoners in Syria since 2001 and has played a key role in the promotion and protection of human rights through her brave work as a lawyer, activist and journalist. Since the beginning of the crisis in 2011, Razan Zaitouneh has played a key role in efforts to defend human rights for all and protect independent groups and activists in Syria. Along with a number of other activists, she established the VDC, which monitors human rights violations and records casualties in Syria, and co-founded the Local Coordination Committees, which coordinates the work of local committees in various cities and towns across Syria. She also established the Local Development and Small Projects Support Office, which assists non-governmental organisations in besieged Eastern Ghouta. As a result of her work, she received threats from the Syrian government and armed opposition groups in Douma several months before her abduction.

Samira Khalil has been a longtime political activist in Syria. The Syrian government had detained her between 1987 and 1991 for her activism. She later worked in a publishing house before shifting her efforts to working with the families of detainees and writing about detention in Syria. Before her abduction, she was working to help women in Douma support themselves by initiating small income generating projects.

Wael Hamada was also an activist before the 2011 uprising in Syria. When peaceful protests first broke out in the country in 2011, the government detained and later released Hamada. He is an active member and co-founder of the Local Coordination Committees and the VDC. Before his abduction, Wael Hamada was working to provide desperately needed humanitarian assistance to the residents of besieged Eastern Ghouta.

Nazim Hammadi, a lawyer and poet, was one of the most prominent volunteer defenders of political prisoners before and after the 2011 uprising in Syria. He contributed to founding the Local Coordination Committees and also worked to provide humanitarian assistance to residents of Eastern Ghouta.

Razan Zaitouneh and her colleagues appear to have been abducted and arbitrarily deprived of their liberty as punishment for their legitimate activities as human rights defenders. Such actions are prohibited by international humanitarian law and are contrary to international human rights standards. The armed groups in control of the area and the governments who support them should do everything in their power to facilitate the release of Razan Zaitouneh, Wa’el Hamada, Samira Al-Khalil and Nazem Hamadi.

List of signatories:

  1. Amnesty International
  2. Association for Women’s Rights in Development 
  3. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies 
  4. Digital Lighthouse
  5. English Pen
  6. El Nadim Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence
  7. FIDH, within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
  8. Front Line Defenders 
  9. Foundation to Restore Equality and Education in Syria 
  10. Gulf Centre for Human Rights 
  11. Hivos International
  12. Human Rights Watch 
  13. Index on Censorship
  14. Institute for War and Peace Reporting 
  15. International Service for Human Rights 
  16. Iraqi Al-Amal Association
  17. Iraqi Journalists Rights Defense Association
  18. Iraqi Network for Social Media 
  19. Justice for Life observatory in DeirEzzor – Syria
  20. Kvinna till Kvinna
  21. Lawyers for Lawyers 
  22. Lawyer’s Rights Watch Canada
  23. Metro Centre to Defend Journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan
  24. Pax
  25. Raw in War 
  26. Reporters Without Borders
  27. SKeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom
  28. Syrian Centre for Democracy and Civil Rights
  29. Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Researches
  30. Syria Justice & Accountability Center
  31. Syrian Network for Human Rights 
  32. Syrians for Truth and Justice 
  33. World Organisation Against Torture, within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
  34. Umammu Organisation in Syria
  35. Vivarta
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