21/04/09 (B495) LDDH : Personne n’est mieux en placé pour évaluer la corruption que les Défenseurs des Droits de l’Homme en Afrique …
 Le Président |
DIFFUSION D’INFORMATION DU 20 AVRIL 2009 |
La LDDH participe à cette Conférence et ne manquera pas de vous tenir informés des résultats.
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Les Défenseurs des Droits de l’Homme en Afrique se mobilisent.
L’Impunité est à l’agonie.
Les Tribunaux Internationaux, Régionaux, mais aussi les Tribunaux à Compétence Universelle sont d’ores et déjà opérationnelles.
Les Djiboutiens n’ont qu’une seule issue, les manifestations quotidiennes, populaires et pacifiques !
NOEL ABDI Jean-Paul
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EAST AND HORN OF AFRICA
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS NETWORK
20th April 2009
EHAHRD-Net Index UGA 011/008/2009
KAMPALA: Johannesburg +10 All African Human Rights Defenders Conference opens today
Ten years on from the first All African Human Rights Defenders Conference held in Johannesburg in 1998 many of the challenges facing human rights defenders in Africa persist. Defenders continue to be harassed, intimidated, face increasingly restrictive legal obstacles and in some instances pay with their very lives for their commitment to the promotion of key rights in this continent.
The East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP) with a range of regional and international actors committed to the protection and promotion of the rights of defenders are therefore gathering this week in Kampala with over 100 activists from 41 African countries to review the achievements made since Johannesburg and the steps which lay ahead to ensuring the full implementation of the Johannesburg Declaration of 1998.
Mr Hassan Shire Sheikh, Executive Director of EHAHRDP, in his opening remarks, will highlight the important developments which have occurred since 1998 in the field of the protection of defenders “We have come a long way in the last ten years- both in terms of protection, collaboration, in terms of the development of the human rights movement in the continent and of the key gains made in the fight against HR violations and impunity. Nevertheless, in spite of this, I am sure that in the personal testimonies, regional overviews and discussions which will be heard and held in the next four days we will be listening to all too familiar and harrowing stories. Let us work together to ensure that these echoes won’t be heard ten years from now”.
The conference will seek to commemorate the achievements of the past 10 years and the key role played by defenders, to analyse the considerable developments in the field of protection for HRDs achieved at a regional and international level as well as to identify the shortcomings of the protection available to defenders in Africa. The conference hopes to enhance collaboration across the continent and to identify strategies aimed at creating an enabling environment for defenders by putting pressure on key actors to abide by their responsibility in the protection of HRDs.
In his keynote speech Carl Gershman, President of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), will seek to call on African human rights defenders to refresh the international human rights framework , given that the ceremony coincides with the opening of the UN Durban Review: “No one is better placed to counter this corruption than African human rights defenders. It is your alternative African voice that can begin to introduce truth and accountability into an international discussion that is otherwise sterile, mendacious, and even sinister. Your words and even more, the actions you take at great risk to your own safety and well-being, have the potential to resonate within the international system and encourage the representatives of democratic governments to show that they have the courage of their convictions.”
The conference will be officially opened by the Honourable Minister Katageya. Ugandan Minister of East African Affairs on the 20th April and will close on the 23rd April.
For more information please contact
Ms Laetitia Bader, Human Rights Officer
at EHAHRDP: advocacy@defenddefenders.org or +2…
Regional Coordination Office
EAST AND HORN OF AFRICA HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS PROJECT (EHAHRDP)
Human Rights House, Plot 1853, Lulume Rd., Nsambya
P.O. Box 70356 Kampala, Uganda
Phone: +256-312-265820/1/2/3/4
Fax: +256-312-265825
E-mail: program@defenddefenders.org, executive@defenddefenders.org, hshire@yorku.ca
Website: http://www.yorku.ca/crs/AHRDP/index.html