GENEVA (AN) — The world's top forum for human rights heard evidence of threats and retaliation against organizations and people in 42 countries across all regions – including a quarter of its own members.
An annual report from the U.N. secretary-general's office documented recent threats and retaliation faced by 25 organizations and more than 220 people due to their cooperation with the world body.
Many of the victims are human rights defenders and journalists. Ilze Brands Kehris, a U.N. assistant secretary-general for human rights, told the U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday that many more cases haven't come to light.
“This report once again shows the extent to which people are pursued and persecuted for raising human rights concerns with the U.N.," she said. "Shocking though this number is, many cases of reprisals are not even reported."
Some were detained, targeted by restrictive legislation, or surveilled online and offline. In a third of the 42 countries where the incidents occurred, people and groups were too scared to cooperate or would only agree to speak anonymously.
One of the trends seen in the report is the use of restrictive legislation that prevents and punishes cooperation with the U.N., leading to cases of people being sentenced to long prison terms or placed under house arrest.
Many of the threats and reprisals disproportionally affected Indigenous peoples, minorities and advocates for environmental and climate-related issues, and followed discriminatory patterns based on age, sexual orientation and gender.
The 'do no harm' approach
The report covers people and groups who cooperated with U.N. human rights bodies or used U.N. procedures to share information and prompt action between May 2021 and April 2022.
Among the 42 nations cited in the report, Bangladesh, Cameroon, China, Cuba, India, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Mexico, Morocco, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam hold seats on the U.N. Human Rights Council.
Other nations the report cites are Afghanistan, Andorra, Bahrain, Belarus, Brazil, Burundi, Congo, Cyprus, Djibouti, Egypt, Guatemala, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Laos, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Palestine, Philippines, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Yemen.
The Geneva-based council, with 26 seats for nations in Asia and Africa and 21 seats for those in Europe, the Americas and other regions, relies on a system of peer pressure to improve human rights in all 193 U.N. member nations.
The problem of retaliation against human rights defenders is hardly new.
But to solve the problem, the U.N. says in its report that it has begun encouraging principles of 'do no harm' – an attempt by humanitarian workers to monitor the intended and unintended impacts of their actions – and putting into practice more victim- and survivor-oriented human rights approaches.
"That includes respect for confidentiality of information, the privacy of the victim, action based on informed consent and risk mitigation, and integrating a gender and youth perspective with an intersectional approach," the report says.
