Side Event at the 51st Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva under the “Recognize to reconcile” initiative – 6th October 2022

Side Event at the 51st Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva under the “Recognize to reconcile” initiative – 6th October 2022

Normally, it is the States and their governments that are the deciders and practitioners of conflicts as well as finding the solutions, the role of the civil societies is often invisible in such development. NGO organisations tirelessly work to create the conditions that pushes international institutions and States to set aside their entrenched views in conflicts and move towards peace through give and take process.

Oral statement at the UN 51 Human Rights Council Session Massacres of and attacks against Amharas

Oral statement at the UN 51 Human Rights Council Session Massacres of and attacks against Amharas

CAP Liberté de Conscience and Human Rights Without Frontiers welcome the work of the Commission but remain deeply concerned about the massacres and attacks on Amhara civilians as in last June in Gimbi County of Oromia Region, thousands of OLA and OLF-Shene militants attacked Amharas in 10 villages with the collaboration of local ethnic Oromo residents and the passive complicity of the Oromia Region government.

Oral statement at the UN 51 Human Rights Council Session Massacres of and attacks against Amharas

HRC 51st Session Oral Statement : Heavy prison sentences for political opponents Reckya Madougou and Joël Aivo in Benin

End of last year, Joël Aivo, a law professor who challenged President Talon in the last election, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly plotting against the state and laundering money.

In May 2021, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted a Resolution in which it declared to be deeply concerned by the restrictions on civic space and the crackdown on demonstrations by the army resulting in loss of lives, abuses and violations.

HRC 51st Session : Germany, Propaganda, Fake News, and Discrimination of a Peaceful Religious Minority

HRC 51st Session : Germany, Propaganda, Fake News, and Discrimination of a Peaceful Religious Minority

While Scientologists have had to fight (and win in court) against discrimination from German officials since 50 years [1] , it is since nearly 30 years, and still today in 2022, German citizens are in general life contexts required to sign declarations that they did not and will not participate in any Scientology-related activity before obtaining some public and private jobs, or before getting a municipal grant for the purchase of an eBike and so contribute to the city’s efforts on protecting the environment, as it has been happening with the City of Munich. This type of hidden coercive measure is backed up by government funded and promoted propaganda, that dehumanizes individual Scientologists, their beliefs and twists their real aims.

HRC 51st Session :  Persecution of Religious Minorities Through Tax Harassment and Seizure of Property, and Reactions by International Scholars

HRC 51st Session : Persecution of Religious Minorities Through Tax Harassment and Seizure of Property, and Reactions by International Scholars

In the Russian Federation, premises of the Jehovah’s Witnesses continue to be confiscated. Following similar decisions in other jurisdictions, on July 22, 2022, the District Court of Volgograd turned a building and a land plot belonging to the Jehovah’s Witnesses into state ownership. The fact that the European Court of Human Rights recently declared the “liquidation” of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Russian Federation and confiscation of their properties as contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights was ignored.

HRC 51st Session : About the 18 June 2022 mass massacres of Amharas at Gimbi (Western part of Ethiopia)

HRC 51st Session : About the 18 June 2022 mass massacres of Amharas at Gimbi (Western part of Ethiopia)

In 1990, Mohammed Yusuf, his wife and their children moved to Gimbi where they were given land to till and also engaged in farming.  On 18 June, Gimbi was invaded by armed men. Assuming that they would not kill women and children, Mohammed Yusuf went into hiding in a maze farm while his children and grandchildren stayed at home behind closed door.

HRC 51st Session : The Republic of Korea: The Jeongeup Murder Case and the Continued Persecution of Shincheonji

HRC 51st Session : The Republic of Korea: The Jeongeup Murder Case and the Continued Persecution of Shincheonji

on June 18 the Christian TV network CBS broadcast a statement of the murderer, who said he had committed the crime because his ex-wife was a member of a Korean Christian new religious movement, Shincheonji. It came out that in the days before the murder the assassin went though four counseling sessions with Pastor Oh Myeong-hyeon of the Heresy Research Center, an institution specialized in fighting Shincheonji and other groups it considers “heretic,” which also supports kidnapping and forced conversion (deprogramming). Obviously Pastor Oh did not suggest that the man killed his ex-wife, but he excited his hatred against Shincheonji. To deflect blame from himself, Pastor Oh later held a press conference where he claimed that Shincheonji was responsible for the crime and should be punished. If the wife had not joined Shincheonji the crime would never have happened, he said.

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