Letter writing action for Chinese lawyer
On November 23, 2009, Chinese lawyer Huang Qi was sentenced to three years of imprisonment. He was convicted for illegal possession of state secrets. Human rights organizations, including L4L, assume that Huang Qi’s conviction is connected to his work for relatives of the earthquake victims in Sichuan, May 2008. This matter seems to be highly […]
Dutch ‘Human Rights Tulip’ 2009 awarded to Shadi Sadr
As a lawyer, journalist and researcher, Shadi Sadr has dedicated herself to the rights of women in Iran. “Shadi Sadr receives the Human Rights Tulip for her outstanding courage, firmness and work in a climate of very critical and repeated violations of human rights”, said Minister Verhagen (Foreign Affairs). As a lawyer, Sadr defends women’s […]
Meeting with Colombian lawyers
On 6 November 2009 L4L had a meeting with Colombian human rights lawyers Eduardo Carreño of the Lawyers’ Collective José Alvear Restrepo (CAJAR), and Agustín Jimenez of the Committee for Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSPP). Both have devoted themselves to the improvement of the situation of citizens in Colombia whose human rights are not respected. […]
Abdellatif Kanjaa reinstated as lawyer after court victory in Rabat
Recently, Abdellatif Kanjaa informed L4L that he has regained permission to practice as a lawyer. This is the outcome of a judgment of the Court of Appeal in Rabat on 29 October 2009. Kanjaa writes that “the Court agrees that I am again permitted to practice my profession as a lawyer.” He believes the judgment […]
Passport Abdolfatah Soltani confiscated
On 2 October 2009, the Iranian authorities confiscated Abdolfatah Soltani’s passport. At that moment Soltani was about to travel to Germany in order to receive the Nuremberg International Human Rights Award. He was also summoned at the Secretariat of the Iranian President. The incident is a new example of a lengthy series of intimidations against […]
Schrijfactie voor Santos Villalobos
In de regio Bagua in Peru heerst al meer dan een jaar hevige onrust onder leden van de inheemse plaatselijke bevolking. Deze onrust wordt veroorzaakt doordat de Peruaanse regering, die nieuwe wetgeving aanneemt waardoor in het leefgebied van de traditionele bevolking van Bagua olie kan worden opgepompt door buitenlandse investeerders. Als reactie op deze nieuwe […]
Human Rights First: “Strafrechtelijke vervolging als middel om voorvechters van mensenrechten te stoppen”
In februari 2009 heeft Human Rights First een rapport uitgebracht over de vervolging van voorvechters van de mensenrechten in Colombia. In dit rapport wordt verslag gedaan van onderzoek naar 32 zaken waarin personen die zich hard maken voor de mensenrechten worden vervolgd. Onder de onderzochte zaken bevindt zich een vijftal zaken tegen advocaten. Het betreft […]
Providing financial support to two Burmese human rights lawyers
In September 2009, two lawyers from Myanmar (Burma) asked L4L for financial support. After the both of them served a jail sentence of 4 months, they were informed that their lawyer’s license had been revoked. They were convicted to a four-year prison sentence during a hearing in a penal case, when they informed the judge […]
Vergunningen ingetrokken en arrestatie Wang Yonghang
Documentary about IVFFM
In November 2008 the International Verification and Fact Finding Mission (IVFFM), which consisted of lawyers and judges from the Netherlands and Belgium, investigated the extrajudicial killings on their collegues in the Philippines. The delegates concluded that the progress made by the Philippine authorities since an earlier mission in 2006 must be considered insufficient. Moreover, killings […]
Arnold Tsunga geïnterviewd tijdens Jaarcongres NOvA 2009
Tijdens het jaarcongres van de Nederlandse Orde van Advocaten op 25 september 2009 sprak L4L-voorzitter Phon van den Biesen met de Zimbabwaanse mensenrechtenadvocaat Arnold Tsunga. Zij spraken over de advocatuur in Zimbabwe en over wat het voor advocaten betekent om hun vak uit te oefenen in tijdens van crisis en ernstige overheidsoppressie. Aansluitend was er […]
Mugraby starts proceedings before European Court
On July 27th, 2009, the prominent Lebanese human rights lawyer dr. Muhamad Mugraby has initiated legal proceedings against the EU at the European Court of Justice invoking its obligations under Article 2 of the Association Agreement with Lebanon, commonly known as the ‘human rights clause’, in order to improve the human rights situation in Lebanon. […]
Gesprek met Chinese advocaat
L4L sprak op 29 juli 2009 met een Chinese advocaat (wiens naam om veiligheidsreden niet wordt genoemd) over de problemen waar hij en zijn collega’s tegenaanlopen en de mogelijke oplossingen hiervoor. De advocaat had talrijke voorbeelden van de druk die de overheid op hen uitoefent, maar was ook optimistisch over de toekomst. Hij vertelde dat […]
Wang Yonghang arrested
On July 4th, 2009, Chinese human rights lawyer Wang Yonghang was arrested. He has been held incommunicado since and reportedly has been beaten during his interrogation. Twenty plainclothes police broke into Wang Yonghang’s and took him and his wife to a detention centre. The police also searched their home and confiscated a computer, a camera, […]
Muhanad al-Hassani arrested
On July 28th, 2009, the Syrian human rights lawyer Muhanad al-Hassani was arrested by national security officials. Al-Hassani is charged with ‘weakening patriotic feelings’, ‘encouraging sectarian or ethnical division’ and ‘spreading false or exaggerated statements aimed at weakening the nation’, which constitute violations of art. 385 and 386 of the Syrian Penal Code. In reality, […]
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Supreme Court react to IVFFM-report
Prime Minister Balkenende, Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Verhagen and Minister of Development Cooperation Koenders have expressed their compliments about the report of the International Verification and Fact Finding Mission (IVFFM) on the extrajudicial killings of lawyers and judges in the Philippines. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Dutch government will continue to […]