Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa: Human rights defenders more than ever at risk!

PRESS RELEASE - THE OBSERVATORY

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA AND NORTH AFRICA : Human rights defenders more than ever at risk!

Series of interviews of human rights defenders illustrating the obstacles to their activities on the African continent

Paris-Geneva, November 22, 2011. A series of interviews of human rights defenders from Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa is being released today by the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), in a context of increasing harassment and obstacles to civil society activities on the African continent.

Human rights defenders from Algeria, The Gambia and Guinea, interviewed on the occasion of the publication of the 2011 Annual Report of the Observatory in the framework of the 50th ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), report the main restrictions on the freedom of action of human rights non-governmental organisations in their respective countries.

Other interviews relate the obstacles faced by defenders of lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender (LGBT - Burundi, Uganda) or by lawyers involved in defending sexual minorities (Nigeria), confronted in many countries to all forms of prejudice, discrimination, and acts of intimidation or judicial harassment.

"As highlighted again this year in the 2011 Annual Report of the Observatory, in many countries, human rights defenders remain more than ever at risk. These videos aim to raise awareness about the emergency to provide them with adequate protection, both at the national and international levels", FIDH President Souhayr Belhassen said today.

"These testimonies are evidence of the multiple abusive restrictions of freedom of association and of a fundamental lack of protection of human rights defenders. Assassinations and other violations of the physical integrity of human rights defenders in contexts of impunity remain an unbearable reality. The defenders of LGBT rights and the persons they defend remain for their part confronted in many countries to all kinds of prejudice, intimidation and even criminalisation", OMCT Secretary General Gerald Staberock added.

The videos are available in English and French on the following weblinks:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xmhysi_gin-obs-interview-d-abdoul-diallo_news

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xmhy0y_dza-obs-interview-de-nassera-dutour_people

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xmhyhq_gmb-obs-interview-of-baboucar-ceesey_news

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xmi098_nga-obs-interview-of-tom-charles-nwoke_news

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xmi011_bdi-obs-interview-de-christian-rumu_news

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xmhz16_uga-obs-interview-of-pepe-onziema_news

For further information, please contact:

• FIDH: Karine Appy / Arthur Manet: + 33 1 43 55 25 18
• OMCT: Delphine Reculeau : + 41 22 809 49 39