Race and Equality launches practical guide for requesting precautionary measures at the IACHR
Race and Equality launches practical guide for requesting precautionary measures at the IACHR
Washington, DC. May 8, 2020. The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) has released “Precautionary Measures at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: Function and Process,” a manual to assist activists and human rights defenders with the process of soliciting precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
“This educational tool can provide support to civil society organizations who face the risk of serious human rights violations when they prepare requests,” remarked Carlos Quesada, Race and Equality’s Executive Director.
The guide consists of two documents: one aimed at attorneys and legal experts, and an illustrated guide that follows four characters through the process of requesting and receiving precautionary measures, designed to explain the steps of the process to grassroots activists.
“We assembled this guide to ensure that activists who lack experience in the Inter-American legal system can access the precautionary measures process. For each step of the process, the guide provides the reader with a ‘theory review’ where the illustrated characters explain what each step implies and a ‘practical review’ that explains the steps of preparing and filling out each requirement. All the cases used as examples in the guide were created as educational examples; in no way do they correspond to real cases,” explains Christina Fetterhoff, Senior Legal Program Officer.
The guide, now available to download from Race and Equality’s website at www.raceandequality.org/publications, aims to build capacity among users of the Inter-American Human Rights System and in so doing strengthen the System as a whole.
According to Caitlin Kelly, Legal Program Officer for Latin America, “Precautionary measures are a vital tool for protecting human rights and for taking concrete steps to protect people at risk of fundamental rights violations. Race and Equality strives to make this tool and the Inter-American system as a whole more accessible to grassroots activists in the region, as part of our broader efforts to allow these activists to take the lead in demanding their own rights. We hope that it will be very useful to our partners.”
The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights is an organization that works with organizations and activists in Latin America to protect and promote the human rights of marginalized populations, particularly people suffering rights violations due to their race, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Race and Equality provides capacity-building to grassroots organizations so that they can become effective political actors and promote structural changes in their home countries.
International and National Civil Society Organizations call on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to rule on serious violations of the rights of trans women in Peru
Washington, D.C.
and Peru. April 1, 2020. The undersigned organizations and individuals turn to
the Honorable Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) because we are
deeply concerned that the National Police and Peruvian Armed forces are
violating the rights to integrity, gender identity, and dignity of trans
people. This is occurring in the context of the pandemic caused by the
coronavirus.
Recently, we have
seen with deep concern that, within the context of this emergency and the
pandemic caused by the coronavirus, the National Police and the Peruvian Armed
Forces are violating human rights such as the right to integrity, gender
identity, and dignity of trans people. We emphasize that according to Article
27 of the American Convention on Human Rights, State parties can restrict
certain rights in emergency situations; however, the right to life, personal
integrity, or name (identity) cannot be suspended.
Videos[1]
of trans women[2] have
been circulated through social networks showing them being discriminated
against because of their gender identity, being detained along with men,
harassed, and forced to shout “I want to be a man,” among other mistreatment
and humiliation.
We are deeply
concerned that the Public Force in Peru is not complying with the
recommendations of the World Health Organization, and thus putting all
detainees at risk of contracting the coronavirus. Furthermore, they are
violating Inter-American standards on the human rights of LGTBI people.
On February 24, 2018, in the merits report on the Case of
Azul Rojas Marín and other, the IACHR recommended that the Peruvian State
adopt non-repetition measures and train the Public Force in the prohibition against
acts of torture, sexual and other violence adverse to the LGBT population. The
IACHR also recommended that the Peruvian State issue a clear message of
rejection against these types of actions. Furthermore, Advisory Opinion
OC-24/17[3] from
the Inter-American Court of Human Rights indicated that State parties, the
Peruvian State among them, must refrain from carrying out and promoting
discriminatory acts against LGBTI persons.
We urgently call on the IACHR to ask the Peruvian State to uphold
its obligation to respect human rights and we stress that in emergency
situations in which certain rights are constitutionally restricted, the
obligation of States to guarantee the right to life, integrity, and identity of
people in the highest state of vulnerability intensifies.
The undersigned organizations and individuals request that
the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights publicly denouce these human
rights violations.
International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Right
(Race and Equality)
“The situation of violence against Afro-LGBTI people is invisible and systematic in Latin America” Activists warn the IACHR
Quito,
Ecuador. November 12, 2019. In the thematic hearing held during the 174 period of Hearings of the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Quito, Ecuador, LGBTI activists
and Afro-descendants from Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Peru
presented on the situation of violence, lack of protection, and lack of
knowledge of their prevailing rights in each of these States.
Throughout the
space, the activists highlighted how Afro-descendants with sexual orientations
and non-normative gender identities are at greater risk of suffering from violations
of their rights, especially by the States’ general lack of knowledge on the
differentiated effects suffered by people living this reality.
Likewise, the activists presented a summary of different cases of murder and violence against transgender people and Afro-descendants, especially those committed with a high degree of cruelty and hatred; in addition to remaining completely unpunished.
Bruna Benavides, ANTRA activist
“In
January of this year, in Brazil, a trans woman had her heart torn out and then replaced
by the image of a saint. Her murderer was acquitted of the charge, even though
he narrated in great detail how he had killed her and kept her heart at home
with a smile on his face,” said Afro-Brazilian activist Bruna Benavides, a
member of the National Association of Transvestites and Transsexuals, or ANTRA in
Brazil.
According to
information given by Benavides, this year alone, 110 trans people were killed
in Brazil, 85% of them black. Likewise, the activist reported that 90% of the
population of transvestites and trans women in this country are engaged in
prostitution due to the lack of job opportunities.
Furthermore, she
pointed out that this group of people are recurring victims of different State
institutions due to the inaccessibility of appropriate healthcare services and
of fair employment opportunities and recognition, as well as having a lack of respect
for their identities. In this regard, Benavides added ,“… today we
are afraid to walk the streets again, and as a defender of human rights, I do
not feel safe despite the progress we have made because our leaders have common
policies of racist hatred , male chauvinism…”
In this order, the leader Justo Arevalo representative of the Colombian organizations Arco Iris de Tumaco, the National Conference of Afro-Colombian Organizations (CNOA), and Somos Identidad, highlighted that contexts of rejection, violence, and discrimination within these communities towards people who assume a non-normative sexual orientation or gender identity create other types of cyclical and systemic violence that threaten the integrity of AfroLGBTI people. An example of this is in Colombia, where there is forced displacement towards cities that sharpen the circles of violence in which these people live.
Justo Arevalo, Colombian activist
“In March
of 2019, a report on the realities experienced by Afro-LGBTI people was filed
in Bogotá before the Jurisdiction for Peace, whose main findings show that
documented violence and impact are blocked by very racial and class-particular
relations, typical of the sociocultural, economic, and political environment in
which they occur, prejudice as a factor of violence, and the responsibility of
illegal armed actors in the face of serious violations of rights against Afro LGBT
people, “Arevalo
added in his speech.
Belén Zapata, an
Afro-descendant trans activist from Peru, alerted the audience of the impact
that police abuse has on the lives of Afro-descendant and transvestite people,
highlighting that it sets a pattern of deep violence against their right to
personal integrity in countries like Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican
Republic, and Peru.
Likewise, the
activist referred to the access of healthcare services by trans-descendant
Afro-descendant women in the region, which is characterized in its generality
for not being efficient or worthy of use by this population.
In this regard,
the activist added: “There are still cases in which medical personnel
offer inadequate and/or improper care to Afro-descendant transgender women.
This pattern is particularly serious in cases of care for Afro-descendant
transgender women who perform sex work and are taken in for injuries as a
result of physical aggressions. But also, in cases where the request for other
services is related to reproductive health or HIV / AIDS. “
Violation of
the rights of Afro-LGBTI people is systematic
“As long
as we avoid highlighting the intersection between race and sexual diversity, we
will continue to perpetuate a system that makes the Afro-descendant LGBTI
community invisible; we will continue to have legal structures, public policies,
and government institutions that do not protect or guarantee the human rights
of the Afro LGBTI population,” added Katherine Ventura, representative of the American University Legal
Clinic. She also pointed out that there are patterns of violence that are
particular to the Afro-LGBTI population, naming three: 1) Absence of rights’
guarantees focused on the Afro-LGBTI community; 2) Lack of implementation of
existing laws and 3) Inadequate data collection, particularly in criminal
investigation processes against Afro-LGBTI people.
On this matter,
the Commissioners of the IACHR indicated the responsibility of the States to
collect data, generate policies, and promote processes that guarantee the reparation,
respect, and recognition of the rights of Afro-LGBTI people. In this regard, Commissioner
Margarette May Macaulay urged States to ratify the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination as an alternative that seeks to
address the issues of Afro-descendants with sexual orientations and
non-normative gender identities.
To finalize the hearing, the organizations requested that the IACHR to urge the States of Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Peru to:
1. Urgently investigate cases of homicide and police abuse that
involve Afro-LGBTI persons and, consequently, register and characterize them
properly.
2. Implement the recommendations of the Afro-LGBTI
population that this Commission has made since 2015, particularly those focused
on the development of public policies that explicitly include the Afro-LGBTI
population.
3. As part of the fulfillment of the objectives proposed in
the Decade of Afro-descendants 2015-2024, the Afro-LGBTI population should be
included as a beneficiary of justice and development-oriented measures in the
region, and it should be requested that all states comply with the
recommendations of the Inter-American Commission regarding the importance of
providing differentiated data on sexual orientation and gender identity.
4. Suggest the ratification of the Inter-American Convention
against Racism, Racial Discrimination and Related Intolerances and the
Inter-American Convention against All Forms of Discrimination and Intolerance
to all States.
5. That the Inter-American Commission publish the report of the on-site visit to Brazil in 2018 and the rapporteur on the rights of Afro-descendants and racial discrimination visit Brazil to better know the situation of the Afro-LGBTI population, with effective participation of civil society organizations.
Civil society organizations expose the lack of independence of the Nicaraguan judicial system to IACHR Commissioners
Quito, Ecuador, November 11, 2019. During the 174th period of sessions of the IACHR,
nine civil society organizations exposed the deep deterioration of judicial
independence in Nicaragua, where the courts have failed to guarantee the rights
of Nicaraguans to access to justice, due process and judicial guarantees in the
context of the democratic crisis that began on April 18, 2018.
During the hearing “Challenges for judicial autonomy
and independence in Nicaragua”, the organizations highlighted how the
Nicaraguan judiciary was brought into the government’s scheme to violate human
rights, facilitating the criminalization of protest and the work of human
rights defenders and generating conditions that guarantee impunity for human
rights violations perpetrated by regime officials.
“In Nicaragua, there is no independence or autonomy of
powers. The co-optation of the judiciary by the Ortega-Murillo regime has led
to its acting under party control, built through tarnished selection processes
and appointments, with the absence of publicity, transparency and citizen
participation; privileging political affinity over appointment according to
merits and professional capacities that guarantee a judiciary that is
objective, independent and subject to the rule of law,” said Georgina Ruiz, of
the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH, for its initials in Spanish).
The culpability of the National Police, the National
Prosecuting Authority and the Institute of Forensic Medicine for not complying
with their obligations, allowing the commission of human rights violations and
facilitating impunity for violations committed by the State or paramilitary
groups was also denounced.
An absent state
As usual during recent IACHR hearings, the Nicaraguan state
did not attend the appointment. For the organizations, this exemplifies how the
Ortega regime continues to deny its responsibility in the serious human rights
crisis that the country is facing, as well as its obligation to guarantee the
autonomy and independence of the justice institutions.
“Once again, we regret the absence of the State of
Nicaragua, which did not send any information to justify it, as has happened
before,” said Commissioner Antonia Urrejola at the beginning of her speech.
Urrejola especially greeted the mothers of murdered youth and the victims who
attended the hearing, recognizing the hard work they do in pursuit of justice
and non-repetition.
By the end of the hearing, the organizations requested
that IACHR urge the State of Nicaragua to:
Cease
repression and criminalization; and guarantee the full exercise of human
rights, including access to justice for victims of murder, torture and rape.
Restore
the full constitutional guarantees for the exercise of citizens’ rights.
Return
seized or stolen property to all victims of repression.
Resolve
the amparo appeals presented by
the organizations that were repressed during the crisis (an amparo
procedure is a request for a legal ruling that protects basic rights)
Guarantee
the autonomy and independence of the judicial institutions their adherence to
the procedures established in the Constitution of the Republic of Nicaragua and
international human rights treaties, as well as the ratification of specific
international instruments, including those related to the administration of justice.
The hearing was convened by CENIDH, the Center for
Justice and International Law (CEJIL), the Nicaragua Never+ Human Rights
Collective, the Mesoamerican Initiative for Women Human Rights Defenders
(IM-Defenders), the Nicaraguan Initiative for Human Rights Defenders (IND), the
International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality),
JASS Mesoamerica, the Autonomous Movement of Women-Nicaragua (MAM- Nicaragua)
and the Legal Defense Unit of Nicaragua.
Nicaraguan journalists denounce continuous violations of freedom of expression and press during the IACHR’s 173rd period of sessions
Washington D.C., September 25. Three Nicaraguan media directors, speaking today to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), denounced the Nicaraguan state, saying it has not complied with the precautionary measures given by the commision to protect them, their families, and their staff, but has instead escalated persecution, threats, and reprisals against their journalistic work.
Sergio León, director of La Costeñísima in Bluefields; Aníbal Toruño, director of Radio Darío in León and Carlos Fernando Chamorro, director of the digital outlet Confidencial and the television news program Esta Semana, exposed their situation during the hearing “Implementation of Protective Precautionary Measures in Favor of Independent Journalists in Nicaragua,” held within the framework of the 173rd period of sessions of the IACHR.
Ana Bolaños, on behalf of the Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality), also participated in the hearing. She lamented that the State of Nicaragua did not attend the hearing, which demonstrates a lack of willingness to be accountable before international bodies. On the same subject, Commissioner Joel Hernández, Vice President of the IACHR, considered that this absence represented a missed opportunity and a breach of the State of Nicaragua’s obligations before the IACHR.
The speakers agreed that censorship, attacks and repression against independent journalism persist to this day in Nicaragua: media outlets Confidencial and 100% Noticias remain closed, newspapers face a state-imposed blockade of paper, and according to the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation (FVBCH), a total of 1,318 cases of attacks against independent journalists have been reported through August.
Situation of La Costeñísima
Sergio León explained that La Costeñísima radio’s coverage includes the Southern Caribbean region of Nicaragua, and that directing an independent outlet has resulted in constant intimidation, threats and harassment. For this reason, Leon and his family received precautionary measures on June 15th, 2019.
“The precautionary measures are aimed at protecting me and my family’s life and safety; however, they (the authorities) have not complied with them, since the police and armed civilians acting as parastatals continue to besiege and threaten me, seeking to silence my voice and the voices of those who we echo on La Costeñísima radio,” said León. To date, the State of Nicaragua has not carried out any action to protect León or investigated the threats he has received.
In addition, León denounced that the party structures of the FSLN prohibit the population from listening to the station; that the political operators of the regime convinced the second journalist on Leon’s team to resign, which took the station’s main news program “After the News” off the air for a few days; that the station has recorded computer attacks against their website and that Sandinista Youth groups have marked the walls of the station’s office and of the alley leading to his home with threats.
Situation of Radio Darío
Aníbal Toruño, director of Radio Darío, explained that on April 20, 2018, a group of armed parastatal agents set fire to the radio station he owns, yet fortunately, 11 people who were inside the station were able to escape. Given these facts and other acts of harassment, Toruño, his family and 9 other employees received precautionary measures in July 2018.
According to Sergio Leon, the government’s refusal to respond to these aggressions “motivates other fanatics to harm our business and its workers,” threatening the community’s human right to freedom of expression.
The next speaker is Anibal Toruño, director of Radio Dario. Anibal was granted precautionary measures in July 2018, but the state took no action to implement them and he was forced to flee the country by threats and harassment.
However, Toruño has not received protection from the State; rather, he had to go into exile at the end of August 2018 and only managed to return in August of this year. “On my return to Nicaragua, I found a regime that continues to persecute independent media and journalists,” he denounced. Later, he narrated how on September 7th of this year, the station suffered new attacks, how a government-aligned group surrounded his house and painted threats on the walls and the armed attack on a caravan of which he was part.
“Radio Darío is still on the air and fighting for freedom of expression, but there is clear evidence (to prove that) the regime tries to silence the station. The exposure by the station’s workers of the state’s failure to comply with the measures and their accompanying duties is imperative,” added Toruño.
Situation of Confidencial and Esta Semana
Carlos Fernando Chamorro, director of Confidencial y Esta Semana, stated that on December 13, 2018, the National Police stormed and ransacked the facilities of both outlets, and then on December 14 permanently occupied the property. Given these facts, at the end of December 2018 the IACHR granted precautionary measures to Chamorro, his family and thirteen members of his team.
Chamorro also had to go into exile in January of this year. Subsequently, eight other members of his team left the country. To date, the offices are still occupied by the Police and, despite several legal remedies and complaints, the Nicaraguan judicial system has not acted on the case and the statutes of limitation have expired.
“Despite television censorship and official intimidation, and the restrictions on freedom of expression represented by all the abuses narrated here, Confidencial, Niú, Esta Semana and Esta Noche keep on informing, challenging the persecution, from Nicaragua and from exile, through digital platforms and social networks,” said Chamorro.
Petitions
The Nicaraguan media directors asked the IACHR to request provisional measures from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for those who have already received precautionary measures that the State has not complied with, and also to extend precautionary measures to benefit other journalists from Confidencial and Esta Semana facing serious risks.
In addition, they asked the IACHR to demand that the State of Nicaragua cease its censorship, harassment, intimidation and physical attacks against journalists and their families, as well as the immediate return of illegally confiscated property. They urged the Nicaraguan state to guarantee the physical integrity and rights of journalists returning from exile, so that they can exercise their profession in freedom.
The IACHR Commissioners Antonia Urrejola, Rapporteur for Nicaragua; Margarette May Macaulay, Rapporteur on the Rights of People of African Descent and Joel Hernández, Vice President of the IACHR, reiterated their commitment to continue monitoring the situation, and pledged to study the requests made by the petitioners. Edison Lanza, Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, said that in Nicaragua there is a systematic government plan to close all spaces of independent journalism and congratulated journalists for continuing to do journalism in such a hostile environment.
“Despite the constitutional reform, human rights continue to be violated systematically in Cuba”: Cuban activists testify before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
During the 173rd Period of Sessions of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), held in Washington, DC from September 23 through October 2, human rights defenders, activists and independent journalists from Cuba brought the concerning situation for human rights in their country to the Commissioners’ attention.
Alongside journalists from the outlets Diario de Cuba, Cubanet and Tremenda Nota and activists from Cubalex and the Cofradía de Negritud, Race and Equality’s Legal Program Officer Caitlin Kelly reported that despite a constitutional reform supposedly meant to ensure Cubans’ rights and the ascension of a new President from outside the Castro family, concerning levels of persecution, harassment and repression persist. A lack of political will to guarantee rights for those who dissent from the Cuban government’s dictatorial policies prevents these abuses from being addressed.
“We are concerned with the Cuban regime’s use of the Penal Code to criminalize dissenting voices. Crimes such as ‘contempt,’ ‘affront,’ ‘resistance’ and ‘disobedience,’ along with the legal label of ‘dangerousness,’ are the most frequently-used tools of criminalization,” stated Kelly.
This thematic hearing also raised the fact that between 2016 and 2018, approximately 171 arbitrary detentions and over 700 cases of state-imposed domestic and international travel restrictions were recorded against journalists. According to Pablo Díaz, director of the independent media outlet Diario de Cuba, travel bans are one of the main forms of repression used by the Cuban state, which frequently forbids journalists from leaving the country in order to prevent them from carrying out their work:
“At this moment in Cuba, travel restrictions against independent activists, artists and journalists are the main tool of repression used by the regime, in violation of the migration policies established in 2013.”
#CIDHAudiencias "En este momento en #Cuba las restricciones de viaje a activistas, artistas y periodistas independientes es la principal herramienta de represión que utiliza el régimen en contraposición a la política migratoria de 2013 establecida por el Estado" @diariodecubapic.twitter.com/piFdUIw56m
Tremenda Nota journalist Carlos Alejandro Rodríguez stated that the government continues to block and censor those channels of communication that it cannot control. “Our outlet went from operating outside the law to being illegalized with the recent decree that outlaws media channels that do not agree with the regime’s policies,” he added.
Rodríguez also spoke out about the abuses, arbitrary detentions and confiscations that independent journalists suffer in Cuba, stating that Cuban journalists are subjected to coercion by government forces seeking to frighten them into abandoning their work, becoming informants or fleeing the country.
Cubalex director Laritza Diversent spoke out about the violence and repression that female journalists and rights defenders suffer, including constant threats and humiliating treatment at the hands of state forces. According to Diversant, “many arrested female journalists are strip-searched and subjected to cavity searches. They are also repressed through actions against their family members.” IACHR Commissioner Margarette May Macaulay, who is also Rapporteur on the Rights of Afro-Descendants and Rapporteur on the Rights of Women, requested additional information and documentation about these particular abuses.
Afro-Cuban rights activist Norberto Mesa Carbonell, director of the Cofradía de Negritud, described the various forms of repression and violence that he has suffered at the hands of Cuban authorities in retaliation for his activism:
“We have been victims of a violent regime that makes attacks against activists’ rights. The prohibition of peaceful meetings or assemblies and short-term arbitrary detentions are tactics the government uses to silence our voices.”
Speaking in regard to the discrimination and racism that is prevalent in Cuba but covered up by the government, Diversant added: “Legally, there are no initiatives or even efforts by the government to recognize that racial discrimination exists in Cuba. Racial discrimination is not found in the Penal Code as an offense, making it impossible for Cuban society to demand justice through such channels.”
Finally, IACHR Commissioner Antonia Urrejola, who is also Rapporteur for Cuba, lamented that grave human rights violations persist in Cuba despite the new constitution. She asked the assembled activists and journalists to continue submitting information as her office prepares the IACHR’s upcoming country report on Cuba.
Race and Equality continues our work defending, uplifting and promoting the rights of activists, independent journalists and human rights defenders in Cuba, conscious of the vulnerability in which they live and work on the island. We will continue to document cases of violence and report on the forms of repression used by the Cuban regime, calling upon the international community to remain attentive to the situation of human rights in the country.
Civil society from Cuba and Nicaragua will expose human rights violations at the 173rd period of sessions of the IACHR
During the 173rd Period of Sessions of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to be held from September 23 to October 2 in Washington, DC; the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) will participate in public hearings alongside multiple Cuban and Nicaraguan civil society organizations that will denounce the serious situation faced by activists, human rights defenders and independent journalists in their respective countries due to the repression, violence and harassment exercised by the regimes of Cuba and Nicaragua.
We invite you to join the public hearings through the IACHR website and our social media.
Monday, September 23, 2019
Hearing: “Serious human rights violations in Cuba”
Despite the adoption of a new Cuban Constitution, the fundamental rights of the Cuban people continue to be violated because of arbitrary and repressive practices that deter Cubans from truly and effectively accessing their rights. Throughout this public hearing, civil society organizations will expose the worrying situation of human rights violations on the island and the ways in which the Cuban state censors its citizens and curtails their freedoms. In addition, the organizations will present to the Inter-American Commission the multiple forms of violence that the Cuban state uses to suppress voices that dissent against the regime.
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Hearing: “Implementation of Protective Precautionary Measures in Favor of Independent Journalists in Nicaragua”
Given that the systematic violation of the right to freedom of expression and of the press has deepened in Nicaragua since the protests of April 18, 2018, this public hearing seeks to demand the immediate fulfillment of the precautionary measures granted by the IACHR to the media figures and independent journalists who are censored, harassed, arrested and repressed by the State of Nicaragua. To date, the state has not taken the necessary measures so that the beneficiaries can carry out their journalistic work without being subjected to acts of intimidation, threats or other acts of violence in the exercise of their work.
The National Press Club invites to the event: “Global Voices: Journalism Under Threat in Nicaragua”
On Wednesday, September 25 at 6:30 p.m., the NPC’s International Correspondents Committee (ICC) and Press Freedom Team invites you to join an event on media suppression in Nicaragua. Fresh from testifying at the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR), a delegation of four Nicaraguan journalists – three of whom remain in exile – will discuss the country’s recent descent into violence and repression.
In April 2018, proposed changes to Nicaragua’s social security system sparked a series of street protests. Heavy-handed moves to repress the protests had the opposite effect, fanning the flames of dissent and leading to calls for President Daniel Ortega to step down. As journalists moved in to cover the growing opposition movement, many found themselves directly in the firing line – facing arrest by police and violence at the hands of pro-government militias.
The delegation of Nicaraguan journalists will talk about their experiences of reporting from the front lines, the tactics the Ortega government has used to brand the press as part of the opposition movement, the current state of the country and their hopes for the future. The International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights is supporting each to attend the IACHR hearings and this special media event.
Panelists include:
Carlos Fernando Chamorro is founder and editor of Confidencial. Carlos is currently in exile in Costa Rica following a police raid on Confidencial in December 2018. Police confiscated documents, phones, computers, and TV cameras in a bid to disrupt the magazine’s reporting. Carlos Fernando fled the country in January this year amid threats against him.
Lucía Pineda Ubau is news director at 100% Noticias. Lucía was arrested in December last year, accused of “incitement and conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism and incitement of hate crimes.” She was released in June under the country’s controversial amnesty law and is now living in exile in Costa Rica.
Aníbal Toruño, who is currently in exile in Miami, is director and owner of Radio Darío. On April 20, 2018, pro-government mobs set fire to Radio Dario, badly damaging the station and forcing them to move to another location. Since then their offices have been raided several times by the Nicaraguan police.
Sergio León, owner and director of La Costeñisima, has remained in Nicaragua and has faced constant harassment, being detained by the Nicaraguan police on multiple occasions.
About the moderator:
Nicaraguan-born Maria Peña is a Digital Reporter for Telemundo, where she covers all issues affecting Hispanics, including immigration, trade, education, housing, voting, political empowerment, foreign policy, and, most recently, domestic terrorism at the border. She has worked in Washington journalism for more than 30 years but also travels abroad to cover major international stories such as Obama’s historic 2016 trip to Cuba. She is a frequent guest on major networks including Voice of America, Univision, CBC, CNN, and CGTN America. In 2017, she was named among El Tiempo Latino´s “100 Influential Latinos.” Maria is a member of the National Press Club.
Race and Equality: “The cuban State uses its penal code to criminalize voices that speak out against the regime”
In its most recent report, the human rights organization asserts that Cuban laws lack the necessary protections to ensure respect for due process and other human rights of persons accused of crimes. The guarantees that do exist are not respected by the authorities in cases of independent activists.
As a part of the event “Weaponizing Justice: Rule of Law and Cuba’s New Constitution” that took place Wednesday, September 11 at the Inter-American Dialogue, the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Race and Equality) officially launched its most recent report, entitled “Premeditated Convictions: Analysis of the Situation of the Administration of Justice in Cuba.”
In the report, Race and Equality documents and analyzes the patterns of criminalization, repression, and harassment used by the Cuban state against independent activists, a group that encompasses any activist, human rights defender, political leader, journalist or press outlet that opposes Cuba’s dictatorial policies that deny its citizens their fundamental civil and political rights.
“Although many changes have taken place in Cuba in recent years, the repression of independent activists has not ceased,” the report states, insisting that despite the adoption of a new constitution and the first non-Castro president in nearly sixty years, persecution and violence against the opposition continue, aided by laws that criminalize civil society activities.
Our investigation allowed us to document and analyze the government’s actions in criminal proceedings, and how the government uses the Penal Code and other laws to criminalize the work of the opposition,” explained Caitlin Kelly, an attorney and Program Officer at Race and Equality.
The report investigates cases of repression against activists by state authorities, to describe and explain the Cuban government’s behavior and to establish a pattern of systematic violation of Cubans’ rights to freedom of expression, association and due process in court. The case of Dr. Eduardo Cardet is highlighted in the report as an example of the violations that occur in every stage of the criminal process. These abuses aall violate Cuba’s international human rights commitments and obligations.
“My brother was detained late at night on November 30, 2016 by several persons in civilian clothing, but they were actually from the political police. These men attacked him in front of his family and friends, beating him from head to toe. He was arrested for no reason, and later they fabricated a case against him for a crime that never happened. My brother will serve his sentence until September 30, he has been released conditionally from prison but he is still serving his sentence.” -Miriam Cardet, sister of political prisoner Eduardo Cardet.
Race and Equality’s investigation found that although some human rights and due process guarantees exist in Cuban law, they are disregarded by authorities when dealing with human rights defenders, activists and independent journalists.
Meanwhile, the state utilizes the Penal Code to criminalize people who express opinions against the government, particularly through the use of vaguely-defined crimes such as “contempt” and “disobedience” or the legal label of “social dangerousness,” all of which can be used to impose lengthy sentences without due process.
“When my brother made his statements after the death of Fidel Castro, he was not in Cuba. They called his wife and told her that it was better for him never to return to Cuba because if he did, he would disappear, and eventually he was violently arrested and held in life-threatening conditions. When they detained him, they kept him ‘disappeared’ for five days, with no medical attention despite the terrible beating he suffered. We could only visit him in a dark hallway; we could see how badly he was doing. His trial was held behind closed doors, where they fabricated crimes and kept him in horrible conditions that continue to affect his health today. -Miriam Cardet
Other findings from the report include violence against activists when they are arrested, the use of travel restrictions to prevent activists from leaving the island and deplorable conditions in jails and prisons.
“They kept my husband in a cell, a 2-by-3-meter hole. Although it is against regulations to keep someone in a solitary cell for more than three days, he was there for eight or nine months of inhumane treatment. When I went to visit the prison, he came out with injuries all over his body, accompanied by two men carrying huge guns and chained around his waist, ankles and feet; he was treated as if he was a terrorist.” –Dolia Leal, founding member of the Damas de Blanco and Cuban exile
SANKOFA: “Back to the past to resignify the present”: The reality of Black transgender and travesti women in Brazil
The SANKOFA Forum, which brought Afro-Brazilian, trans and travesti (a term used to describe a variety of feminine gender expressions) women together with the female public defenders of Brazil, was held from August 15-16 in Rio de Janeiro. The Forum was a space for exchange and dialogue about struggles and successes in the fight for racial and gender justice. “Sankofa”, an African word for a symbolic two-headed bird, was chosen as the name of the forum to capture its mission of looking “back to the past to resignify the present.”
The Forum was organized by the Transformar Institute, ANTRA, CEJIL, Criola, Núcleo de Direitos Humanos da Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Forum Justiça, Fórum Estadual de Mulheres Negras, Defensoria Pública and the Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights. Race and Equality also invited Commissioner Margarette May Macaulay, Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons of African Descent and against Racial Discrimination of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), to the event.
“The SANKOFA Forum is a space of (de)construction that was organized with the Office of the Public Defenders and with the support of Race and Equality, which made it possible to include various agencies and institutions, especially the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in the person of Commissioner Margarete May Macaulay. Your presence allows us not to feel helpless and to feel that we can collectively build a narrative that can cross territorial barriers and borders and bring to light the importance of international insertion and the struggle of people who have always been in resistance, ”said Bruna Benavides of the National Association of Transvestites and Transsexuals (ANTRA, in Portuguese).
The forum drew on the voices and stories of activists, academics, human rights defenders, Quilombola communities and travesties, sex workers and trans people from two favelas in Brazil, who forcefully exposed the current situation of their human rights in light of the wave of violence that the country and especially these historically marginalized groups are facing.
“Giving access to justice must mean giving dignity to lives”
During the meeting days, the attendees discussed the existing possibilities for the full guarantee and exercise of their rights, highlighting that a constant state of racism, discrimination and extreme violence persists in Brazil. They also discussed that socially accepted “whitening” policies minimize the lives of black people and naturalize a state of white privilege in the country, making it impossible for the Afro-Brazilian and LGBTI community to participate in spaces of power. “Whites and cisgender people need to give space for Blacks and trans people to occupy the spaces of power,” said one activist.
“A state of exception has always existed in Brazil, because it has always been legitimate to kill black bodies and trans bodies,” Fatima Lima, a teacher of ethnic-racial studies.
During the Forum, Bruna Benavides from ANTRA officially submitted to Commissioner Macaulay the latest report on violence against the trans and travesti population in Brazil. This report shows a shocking number of murders, invisible in the national media, which continues to rank Brazil as the country with the most murders of trans people annually.
Regarding that report, Mariah Rafaela, a member of the Instituto Transformar e Conexão said: “There is a system that allows the death of trans and black people. The notion of justice must arise from the experience of people who have no minimum dignity to live. Giving access to justice must mean giving dignity to lives.”
On the other hand, Alessandra Ramos of the Transformar Institute raised the need to advance a resignification of what it means to be an Afro and “transgender” woman based on the experiences and representations of the people who inhabit these bodies. Furthermore, she expressed the need to overcome the characterizations of Afro and trans women that are assigned by white people, precisely because these women have historically been affected by the differentiated impacts of race and identity. She also warned that 38% of trans and travesti women in Brazil are estimated to live with HIV and that the group with the highest percentage of HIV-positive members is the trans community.
“Please, work with us!”: Margarette Macaulay, IACHR
During the Forum, Race and Equality facilitated private meetings between activists and Commissioner Macaulay. Carlos Quesada, the executive director of Race and Equality, and the organization’s Consultant for Brazilian LGBTI issues Isaac Porto also participated in these private meetings and heard first-hand about the violence that human rights activists are facing in the country’s most marginalized places.
Throughout the testimonies of the attendees, topics such as the mutilation of intersex children, the HIV situation among young people in Brazil, the increase in the murders of lesbian women and the difficulties of LGBTI people in accessing health, education, decent work and participation spaces were constantly referenced.
“I am not only black: I am a travesti, I am poor, I live in a favela. My activism began since I was born, because ever since then I have fought to survive,” said an Afro-Brazilian activist.
Commissioner Macaulay referred to the historical debt that the Brazilian State has to the Afro-descendant people victimized by slavery, a victimization that persists in today’s social structure due to the socio-racial hierarchies that prevent Afro-Brazilians from accessing and enjoying their rights. She also recalled the responsibility and obligations of the State as guarantor of people’s rights, regardless of their condition.
Addressing the civil society activists, Commissioner Macaulay pointed out the importance of submitting detailed accounts of cases of violence to the IACHR in order to illustrate the situation of human rights violations experienced by the Afro and LGBTI communities. She emphasized the importance of working together to overcome the serious rights crisis that Brazil is facing.
During the meeting spaces, Carlos Quesada reiterated his organization’s commitment to denouncing and documenting human rights violations, as well as the importance of technical strengthening of organizations to participate in international human rights spaces.
The SANKOFA forum is a space created to provoke dialogue between the Brazilian Public Defender’s Office and the black, trans and travesti women leaders of social movements and organizations. Its goals are to strengthen state institutions committed to the agenda of the country’s social movements, to expand the opportunities for training and articulation of leaders at the national level and finally, to serve as a resource to provide information to activists about international mechanisms for the protection of rights.
Statement: Race and Equality is committed to the accompaniment of social organizations in Brazil and their work documenting, denouncing and publicizing human rights violations within the Inter-American and Universal Systems, especially violations of the rights of Afro-Brazilian people and people with diverse sexual expressions and gender identities. Race and Equality recognizes that these people are victims of discrimination, marginalization and violence because of social structures that prevent the full enjoyment of their rights.
