Mary Lawlor tells the stories of some of the human rights defenders who have continued their struggle throughout 2010
“EVERY YEAR, we promise to meet at Christmas in the family home, where I keep the Christmas decorations, which I never put up because nobody comes. I don’t want them to come, as the situation of the state keeps getting more violent.
“We all know that there won’t be any meeting, but we fool ourselves in order to keep living in hope and make our separation more tolerable. Irma, the nanny of my children who has lived in our house for 28 years, asks me: ‘Madam, won’t we decorate the house for Christmas this year?’ and I always respond: ‘No, but definitely next year if we’re together.’”
Lucha Castro is a human rights defender in Chihuahua, Mexico. She provides legal support to the families of the more than 400 young women who have been killed in Chihuahua and Ciudad Juarez since 1993. She has paid a high price for her work to get justice for the victims and closure for the families.
At a security training organised by the human rights organisation Front Line, Lucha said: “As a human rights defender, the risk to my family, the price I pay is very high. My children and grandchildren live far away from me for security reasons.
“Not a day passes without homesickness seizing me, thinking that I won’t be there when they take their first steps, or when they say their first words, or at their birthday parties.”
Many human rights defenders in Mexico have been killed. The latest killing took place on December 16th, when Marselina Escobedo Ortiz was shot while protesting outside the state governor’s office to demand an investigation into the murder of her daughter Ruby. Despite this latest killing, Lucha Castro will not give up.
Lucha Castro is just one of the human rights defenders around the world who have worked in their villages and communities to change life for the better, to keep hope alive.
Across Africa armed official and unofficial groups vie for control of the gold, diamonds and valuable minerals that should change lives but instead line the pockets of the powerful.
In the diamond fields of Marange in Zimbabwe, a vicious struggle for control is under way. Farai Maguwu is the director of the Mutare Centre for Research and Development. His offence was to publish a report on unlawful detentions, torture and extra-judicial executions by the police, army and security services, who seek to control the diamond fields. Farai Maguwu was arrested on June 3rd, 2010, and charged with publishing falsehoods against the state. On October 21st, 2010, with legal support provided by Front Line, the charges were dropped.
Ajeet Singh and the GURIA organisation work to end the trafficking and forced prostitution of women and children in India. He organises protest marches and has carried out raids on the brothels to rescue children.
The pimps and the brothel owners and the police who protect them see him as a threat to their profits. On March 25th, 2010, a group of people entered the centre and said that they would break the legs and hands of anyone who attempted to continue teaching the children there.
Ajeet Singh was one of the shortlisted nominees for the 2005 Front Line Award, which is given each year to a human rights defender who has shown exceptional courage.
The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo shone an intense spotlight on China, but away from the media glare other Chinese human rights defenders are risking everything to stand up for human rights.
Zhao Lianhai’s child was one of 300,000 children made sick by milk formula that had been laced with the industrial chemical melamine to give it a high protein-content reading. Six of the children died. He set up a website to help the families campaign for an investigation. Even though he was acting within the Chinese legal system, he was charged with inciting social disorder and sentenced to 2½ years in prison.
Azimjan Askarov was arrested in Kyrgyzstan during the recent inter-ethnic violence and charged with involvement in the murder of a policeman. In fact, he had been documenting human rights abuses and trying to use his influence to calm the situation.
Azimjan Askarov is serving a life sentence and appeared in court during the trial with clear signs of having been beaten. When Front Line’s Andrew Anderson visited Azimjan just before Christmas, he expressed his thanks for all the support he had received from Ireland.
She was told by her interrogators that she would receive a sentence of at least 10 years – before the judge had a chance to consider his verdict.
Three days before Christmas, Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, chairman of the Sudan Social Development Organization, and winner of the 2005 Front Line Award, was imprisoned in Sudan.
He had previously been charged by the authorities with financial mismanagement but the prosecution was unable to bring any evidence against him and the judge acquitted him. The authorities ordered the same judge to hand down a new judgement on December 22nd. There was no new evidence and no judicial process, but the judge announced that Dr Mudawi was now convicted and sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of 3,000 Sudanese pounds.
Dr Mudawi’s case is typical of the many human rights defenders who choose every day to challenge injustice, to stand up for the rights of their community, despite the danger to themselves.
The words of Dr Mudawi capture that spirit of courage and commitment.
“I think we have no choice. If we want to live a decent life in our own country, we have to continue working with the people, struggling with them. We are struggling to make a change.
“We need the support of the people.
“We need people to recognise our work.
“We need to feel that there are people behind us.
“It is a moral support. It is not tangible but it has a deep meaning in the heart.
“It has something, even when you close your eyes, you see people who you haven’t seen, you imagine their shapes, but they are holding your hand continually”.
Mary Lawlor is the executive director of Front Line, the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders.