Rights on the Line

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Mary Lawlor, the founder of Front Line Defenders, is currently the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders. This year marked 25 years of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. Mary shares invaluable insights into the achievements for human rights defenders over the last 25 years, how the landscape has changed and evolved in terms of the protection of HRDs. She also shares her story of how Front Line Defenders came into being, and special moments she has had through her career with HRDs, as well as what it means to be a Special Rapporteur to HRDs.

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We chat to the Media initiative for human rights, a prominent Ukrainian human rights organization working on the topic of civilian hostages, political prisoners and prisoners of war. Their recent investigation looked at secret prisons in Russia and Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine where civilian hostages from Ukraine are kept together with prisoners of war, subjected to torture and ill-treatment, all in violation of international humanitarian law. Media initiative for human rights documented more than one thousand cases of civilian hostages. Among those hostages are Ukrainian Human Rights Defenders and journalists who found themselves on Russian-occupied territories and abducted by the Russian army to silence civil society and cease any form of peaceful resistance. We chat to one of the founders of media iniative for human rights to find out more.

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In this episode, Salah tells us about how his upbringing inspired his human rights work, what the revocation of his residency means and other tactics being used to silence human rights defenders in Palestine. He gives us insights to the inhumane tactics which Israeli authorities use to break the spirit of political prisoners, systemic neglect of healthcare in prison, his own experience of hunger strikes in prison and more.

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Hiba sheds light on the situation for human rights defenders in Syria in the aftermath of the recent earthquake - expressing how HRDs have been detained and harassed by authorities for speaking out about the corruption with humanitarian aid to Syrians, as well as how WHRDs have been absurdly blamed for the earthquake.

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A special storytelling episode - follow Bidya Shrestha Maharjan's story with sound effects as she narrates her story of being a woman human rights defender and defending the rights of the Newa Guthi indigenous people.Bidya is a teacher by profession, as well as the women’s president of the World Newa Guthi, an indigenous community organization. Bidya has long been leading the movement to stop illegal road expansions in the valley of her hometown. She has been threatened several times, physically attacked and arbitrarily detained as a result of her work.

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We hear from HRD Prof. Colin Harvey on advocating for human rights in Northern Ireland, and what a united Ireland means to him in the context of human rights. He also shares his experiences being targeted and harassed as a human rights defender for his work over the last few years.

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AGE networks Matina Ebri (Head, Administrator), Esther Odiong (Finance Officer) and Margeret Oyigeya (Operation officer) share the challenges they face in their work advocating for womens rights, the nuances of advocating for womens rights within a patriarchal society, and their own experiences and stories as women regarding the work they carry out at AGE network in Nigeria.

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We hear from Palestinian land rights defender Hafez Huraini, a farmer from at-Tuwani village in Masafer Yatta, Hebron, Occupied Palestinian Territory. He speaks about the context of Masafer Yatta, and his most recent experience being brutally assaulted and harassed by settlers and Israeli authorities on his own land.

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On this episode of rights on the line, we talk to Olena Schevchenko, the chairperson of Insight, an NGO that focuses on promoting and protecting the rights of LGBTQI + persons in Ukraine. This year, amidst a crisis of war, pride month was different for LGBTIQ defenders in Ukraine. While Olena and Insight would usually be organising pride events around this time, this year they are providing support and protection to the LGBTQI+ community during the war in Ukraine. Olena shares insights on the situation for HRDs on the ground during the war, how it has affected the LGBTIQ and Human rights community, and how Insight and other lgbtqi + groups have adapted their work to support the current needs of the war crisis.

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Abahlali baseMjondolo is a grassroots movement of poor shack dwellers in Durban and other parts of South Africa, advocating for the rights of people living in shacks, including access to decent housing, services and education. Since their inception, leaders of the fast growing movement – with a member base of up to 100,000 – have been targeted and sadly, killed. In the last two weeks, two leaders were again murdered, bringing the number of HRDs killed in the movement to over 20. 30-year old activist Ayanda Ngila was gunned down while tending to a communal garden in Cato Crest. He was a branch chairperson at the time of his murder. Shortly after, Bongumusa Manqele was killed in eNkanini informal settlement during a raid by a large police contingent. We chat to one of Abahlali’s prominent leaders, Sbu Zikode, to hear more about the situation.

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