ISHR NEWS
Here you will find the latest on human rights topics and events from the worldwide network of the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR), as well as the ‘ISHR Newsletter’. Photo: UN Photo/Marie Frenchon
ISHR Newsletter • April 2021
Great events are coming up – next year our International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) will celebrate 50 years of existence – a great anniversary. I would like to take this as an opportunity to call on all national sections and actors of the ISHR in this newsletter to review on these decades of working for human rights as well as look forward for ways to strengthen and expand the ISHR even further.
Blockade of the soup kitchen lifted – Hunger strike ended
On April 9, officials of the Ministry of the Interior ended the 26-day blockade of the soup kitchen of the civil rights movement UNPACU in Santiago de Cuba. As a result, 30 civil rights activists ended their hunger strike, which had been going on for 21 days, according to the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR).
EU-Cuba Council to take position on human rights violations
No happy Easter for regime critics: As the Frankfurt-based International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) has learned, Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was arrested on Easter Monday in the San Isidro neighborhood of Havana.
Report from Guatemala
San Pedro Carchá, Guatemala. At the end of 2020, hurricanes ETA and IOTA doubly hit Guatemala and its villages, leaving more than 900,000 children without homes and schools. It is estimated that today, more than 3,000 children and teenagers are living in shelters. The International Society for Human Rights Guatemala Chapter, Cofraternidad Carcelaria de Guatemala (Prison Fellowship Guatemala) joined forces to help the victims of this terribly affected area.
Swiss Human Rights Award
The Corona pandemic has affected the lives of many people. However, the Corona pandemic has also affected the International Society for Human Rights - Swiss Section (IGFM-CH). For the first time in decades, the Swiss Human Rights Award could not be presented in 2020. The awarding of the prize to the already chosen laureate had to be postponed to 2021. However, the board of IGFM-CH has now decided to award a special prize. The prize is to go to an organization that has been particularly active in preserving human rights during the Corona pandemic.
“Tell me about the war” – Audience responses
The joined video project "Tell me About the war", that was created by various ISHR sections and published for the 75 years end of the Second World war has gained considerable attention. After being showcased in our last newsletter, the project has been picked up in international newspapers and shown several times on Belarusian television in a 7-minute feature that is still available in the media library..
Human rights are made for times of unrest
The International Society of Human Rights connects sections of human rights defenders from many countries on all continents. On UN’s Human Rights Day 1993, December 10, 1993 25 Ukrainian human rights activists – members of the International Society for Human Rights globally – established the international public organization “International Society for Human Rights – Ukrainian Section” (ISHR-US). Today ISHR in Ukraine has more than 3,500 members.
To a 50th anniversary of the ISHR with brave representatives from a free Belarus!
Next year the ISHR will be 50 years old, half a century full of painful and cruel human rights violations all over the world, but also half a century full of courageous human rights activists working for human rights. How did it all start? The founder of the SHR was the exiled Russian Ivan Agrusov, who was threatened with the death penalty in his homeland, the former Soviet Union under Josif Stalin.
The Right to a Fair Trial in Ukraine
The International Society of Human Rights connects sections of human rights defenders from many countries on all continents. On UN’s Human Rights Day 1993, December 10, 1993 25 Ukrainian human rights activists – members of the International Society for Human Rights globally – established the international public organization “International Society for Human Rights – Ukrainian Section” (ISHR-US). Today ISHR in Ukraine has more than 3,500 members.
NEWS FROM THE PRESIDENT
Guest lecture on human trafficking at the University of Cologne
The President of the International Council of the International Society for Human Rights, Thomas Schirrmacher, gave a lecture on “Human Trafficking – The Return of Slavery” in Lecture Hall XII of the University of Cologne at the invitation of the student association ‘campus connect’.
The President of the ISHR meets with human rights defenders in Moldova and in Transnistria
The purpose of the visit was to support Moldovan human rights activists, including the members of the Moldovan Section of the ISHR, as well as on-site study of the state of human rights in the Republic of Moldova, including the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Transnistria).
Human Trafficking Experts visit Brick Factory Slaves in Lahore
The President of the International Council of the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) and author of the book ‘Human Trafficking’ has sought out brick factories near Lahore, Pakistan where slaves working under the most degrading conditions are producing bricks.
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