27 Nov 13 | News and features, Politics and Society, United Nations
The UN has officially recognised 2 November as the International Day to End Impunity for crimes against journalists. As reported by Index, a draft resolution calling for this was put to a vote on 26 November. Co-sponsored by 80 organisations across 48 countries, it was passed by the Third Committee, which deals with human rights issues.
Index on Censorship, as part of the IFEX network, has welcomed the decision. Annie Game, IFEX Executive Director, stated: “There has never been a more dangerous time for journalists. They are being killed and imprisoned worldwide in record numbers. They face daily threats, attacks and intimidation from private individuals, non-state actors, and government officials who seek to silence them. The overwhelming majority of these crimes are committed with impunity.”
“We welcome the resolution’s call to proclaim November 2 as the International Day to End Impunity for crimes against journalists. With complete impunity in nine out of 10 cases of journalist murders worldwide, this decision does not come too soon. This is a crucial step toward guaranteeing that individual journalists can continue to work in the public interest without fear of reprisal, and that those who seek to silence them with violence are brought to justice.”
26 Nov 13 | News and features, Politics and Society, United Nations
The UN has been urged to officially recognise the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists as the Third Committee, dedicated to dealing with human rights issues, will today be asked to vote on a draft resolution.
The resolution, backed by at least 48 countries, is based on the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, approved on 12 April 2012, which saw United Nations agencies work with member states towards a free and safe working environment for journalists. If successful, the UN Secretary General will present a report on the implementation of the resolution at the next General Assembly 2014, with 2 November officially being recognised as the official UN International Day to End Impunity.
Co-sponsored by 80 organisations and backed by countries including the United States — and even Azerbaijan and Colombia — the draft resolution calls for the acknowledged ‘condemnation of all attacks and violence against journalists and media workers, such as torture, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention, as well as intimidation and harassment in both conflict and non-conflict situations’.
Index on Censorship as a founding member of IFEX has been supporting the International Day to End Impunity since its launch in 2010 which has seen the 23 November recognised as the day for campaign. Annie Game, IFEX Executive Director, stated: “This is a positive move forward because IFEX members acknowledged that making the International Day to End Impunity an official UN day can help to raise the global profile of the issue. Every year, a growing number of IFEX members and concerned individuals take part in this campaign that strikes at the very roots of the problem. Having the UN acknowledge the importance of this issue will help us broaden our reach and turn up the volume on the call to end impunity.”
The draft resolution also:
• acknowledges ‘the specific risks faced by women journalists in the exercise of their work, and underlining, in this context, the importance of taking a gender-sensitive approach when considering measures to address the safety of journalists’;
• the acknowledgement that ‘journalism is continuously evolving to include inputs from media institutions, private individuals and a range of organisations that seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, online as well as offline, in the exercise of freedom of opinion and expression, in accordance with article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights’;
• and ‘urges Member States to do their utmost to prevent violence against journalists and media workers, to ensure accountability through the conduct of impartial, speedy and effective investigations into all alleged violence against journalists and media workers falling within their jurisdiction, and to bring the perpetrators of such crimes to justice and to ensure that victims that access to appropriate remedies’.
The full draft resolution can be seen here.
This article was originally published on 26 Nov 2013 at indexcensorship.org
05 Jun 13 | News and features
Index on Censorship has joined Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda (HRNJ-Uganda) in writing a letter of protest to the country’s president President Yoweri Museveni, after the network’s national coordinator, Geoffrey Wokulira Ssebaggala was attacked and arrested by police, Padraig Reidy reports.
(more…)
03 May 12 | Middle East and North Africa
The Bahraini government has a funny definition of transparency. Despite flowery invitations made during my last visit to the troubled country, an IFEX-affiliated delegation following up on our trip has been denied entry. Not entirely promising for a country that insists it is committed to “reform”.
Last time we went, we were there for the presentation of report by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI).
Officials highlighted the importance of international cooperation, but I’m guessing they felt that a Grand Prix or Air Show is the only way to secure that one.
In meetings with officials, our delegation was promised transparency as long as we followed the rules.
Technically, we didn’t follow them this time around: it’s a hard thing to do when “new rules” are introduced with only days left to your mission. On 12 April, the Ministry of Human Rights wrote to the delegation approving our planned mission:
[W]e look forward to your delegations visit between 6th and 10th of May inclusive. The Ministry will also arrange any meetings with government officials if you so require.
Current regulations in the Kingdom of Bahrain for non-tourist visas issued to delegations of international organisations such as yours are granted five working day visas to the Kingdom. Also I will be requiring scanned copies of the details page of the passports of persons who are applying to visit the Kingdom in order to put forward their names to the special committee for revision and approval.
We sent in the information as requested, but now the Kingdom has now introduced a new rule that says that only one organisation can be in the country at a time — odd, as this hasn’t been a problem in the past. But this time, it was suggested that our delegation —consisting of Index, Freedom House, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, CPJ, PEN International and Reporters without Borders — might want to come one-by-one!
The sad part? This isn’t really shocking. Journalists, politicians and countless human rights workers have been kept out of the country. All of this from a country that allegedly values both press freedom and human rights.
We carefully followed what we were told by the Bahrani government were the rules, so Bahrain should hold up their end of the bargain. A nebulous visa process and sketchy attempts to whitewash human rights violations only makes me ask one question: what BICI report?
Sara Yasin is an Editorial Assistant at Index. She tweets at @missyasin
Bahrain-Letter to Courtney Radsch-30Apr2012
