2013 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders
Dublin City Hall, 3 May 2013
A Fheara agus a Mhná: a Chairde Ghaoil.
Ta ríméad orm a bheith anseo ar maidin chun Duais na gCosantóirí Tosaigh do Chosantóirí Cearta Daonna a bhronnadh agus ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil le Mary lawlor as an gcuireadh a chuir sí chugam agus mo bhuíochas a ghabháil libhse go léir as an bhfíorchaoin fáilte a chuir sibh romham.
[Ladies and Gentlemen; dear friends.
I am delighted to be here this morning to present the 2013 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders and I would like to thank Mary Lawlor for her invitation to me and thank all of you for your warm welcome.]
Protecting human rights defenders and ensuring an enabling environment for their work is fundamental to ensuring the promotion and protection of all human rights and thus I was particularly pleased to welcome to the Áras last November Mrs Margaret Sekaggya, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Defenders to talk about her work and to wish her well in her role.
In 1998 the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. This landmark Declaration acknowledged the importance and legitimacy of the work of human rights defenders. This work is an essential part of the struggle to realise human rights worldwide. Human rights defenders work peacefully but courageously to create conditions of equity, justice and dignity for the communities to which they belong. They do so in a selfless and courageous way and often at great personal cost. Their common bond is a deep commitment to international human rights standards and a tireless devotion to equality and non-discrimination. Their work as human rights defenders includes both personal rights and communal rights.
In their refusal to remain silent and accept their fate as defined by oppressors, they challenge and inspire us. The space they create in their determination to resist fear gives others scope to imagine change and not to acquiesce in the denial of dignity and respect, in the curbing of freedoms and the reduction of human potential and flourishing.
We are very fortunate in Ireland that we can speak freely without fear or oppression. However, in many other countries people are not so fortunate; those who speak out in defence of human rights may face harassment, intimidation, stigmatisation, violence and persecution. Many human rights defenders work alone or in isolated situations. They deserve all the support we can give them; they deserve our unequivocal solidarity. International support and recognition is vital in ensuring their security.
That is why the work of Front Line Defenders is so important. I want to salute a remarkable organisation which, since it was founded twelve years ago, has been to the forefront in the efforts to promote and protect the contribution of human rights defenders worldwide. Front Line Defenders is doing extraordinary work and has acquired a formidable and deserved international reputation. We are proud of the role it is playing and of the impact it has had under the wise leadership of its Director, Mary Lawlor and her staff. And we are, of course, delighted that its headquarters are in Dublin.
Ireland has prioritised support for human rights defenders in its engagement with EU partners and in its work at the United Nations and in other multilateral fora. We are also now a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, a forum in which we are working to support human rights defenders and I am confident that we will use our membership of the Council to ensure the realities, the challenges and the hopes of all those for whom the United Nations was established can be heard.
The rise of mass protests during the Arab Spring and the effects of the financial crisis have had a profound impact on the work of human rights defenders and on the space in which they operate.
While 2011 was the year of protest, it was also the year in which many governments introduced or increased repressive measures that had the effect of restricting the space for civil society. Legislation inconsistent with international norms and the misapplication of legislation and misuse of the legal process has often had the effect of criminalising the legitimate work of human rights defenders. Allegations designed to discredit, defame or stigmatise NGOs, such as being labelled a “foreign agent” or “terrorist supporter” increases their vulnerability and weakens society as a whole.
In 2011, the United Nations General Assembly expressed grave concerns about the serious nature of risks faced by human rights defenders due to threats, attacks and acts of intimidation against them. Unfortunately, the situation has not improved. Against this background, in March this year the Human Rights Council responded with a clear message in its Resolution entitled, ‘Protecting Human Rights Defenders’. Ireland, I am glad to say, was the lead negotiator for the EU on that initiative which was presented by Norway. The consensus adoption of the resolution sent an important message of support to courageous people who are fighting against human rights violations all over the world.
Also in March, Ireland made an important contribution to ensuring that the UN Commission on the Status of Women recognised for the first time the particular risks faced by women human rights defenders. We must now ensure that these commitments are translated into concrete results on the ground and make a difference to the lives and work of human rights defenders.
States have a key responsibility for creating the conditions that enable civil society to grow and flourish. This includes the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and the right to freedom of expression. Freedom of association is central to this work and legal, administrative and funding restrictions placed on civil society organisations working for the purpose of defending human rights violate that right. Restrictions on funding and unnecessarily complicated and arbitrary registration processes also undermine access to the important UN human rights system, including treaty-bodies, Special Procedures, Universal Periodic Review and, of course, the Human Rights Council.
When Hannah Arendt wrote of ‘the right to have rights’ she was asserting both the rights and duties of ‘care’. The duty to care and the right to care are what is contained in the concept of solidarity. The UN human rights system is enriched and strengthened by the participation of civil society actors through their contributions of expertise, awareness-raising, monitoring and reporting, development of new standards, mechanisms, and institutions as well as mobilisation of public support. Furthermore, access to any organ of the United Nations should always be without fear, intimidation or reprisal.
I would like to congratulate all of today’s nominees. Each of them has shown considerable courage, resilience and dedication. The stories of Mam Sonando, Mansoureh Behkish, David Rabelo Crespo, Ruth Mumbi, Biram Dah Abeid, Bahtiyor Hamraev remind us of what Arthur Miller has termed “the indestructible will of man to achieve his humanity”. There will always be, thankfully, people who believe that the way things are is not the way it was supposed to be; that things not only could be different but must be.
In the past I have been made familiar with the contemporary work on modern slavery by such as Professor Kevin Bales, co–founder and future President of Free the Slaves and Professor of Contemporary Slavery at the Wilberforce Institute at the University of Hull. Every day brave people are needed to combat slavery and Biram Dah Abeid is such a person. He refuses to accept a flawed or failed society where many live in fear as inevitable. Instead, he has the courage to envisage an equitable world free from intimidation where everyone has the right to participate in his or her future. Biram’s work is addressed to an issue which is illegal in every country in the world but which continues to persist and fester – not because it is lawful, but because it can. It is little less than a scandal which speaks to the heart of human freedom: modern-day slavery.
The International Labour Organisation has estimated that nearly 21 million people worldwide are victims of forced labour. The faces behind that figure are men, women and children trapped in a nightmare of bonded labour and human trafficking. That figure means that three out of every 1,000 persons worldwide are in forced labour at any given point in time; trapped in debt bondage, forced into prostitution or coerced or deceived into jobs which they cannot leave, often physically, psychologically and sexually abused or exploited. This is a gross perversion of human dignity and it is compounded if social structures, traditional practices or religious precepts are invoked to tacitly legitimise such outrage. Undermining the universality of human rights compromises all rights and while human rights are achieved and protected best taking account of cultural contexts, culture and religious belief must never be used to negate human rights.
Through his work as President of the anti-slavery NGO, Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement in Mauritania (IRA), Biram Dah Abeid has worked tirelessly and at great personal cost to ensure the voices of those enslaved are heard and liberation becomes a reality. In his own words: “we refuse to ask for provisional freedom and we do not ask for mercy”.
Is cath móralta é an saoirse ó phionós a chomhrac. Chun cabhrú leis an saothar de chosantóirí de leithéid Biram, ní mór dúinn bheith teann ar chearta dúchasacha agus dínit gach n-aon.
[Combating impunity is a moral battle. To support the work of defenders like Biram, we must all insist on the inherent rights and dignity of every individual.]
In order to protect the rights of one, there must always be consideration of the rights of others, so that those who would seek to treat another human being as property have no moral authority and that a young woman, kidnapped, sold five times and kept behind barred windows in a cramped brothel might imagine a different life. And a man, born in poverty and bonded for life to his employer, does not have to see his children suffer the same fate.
Ladies and Gentlemen: it gives me great pleasure to present the 2013 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk to Biram Dah Abeid.