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LI HRC Annual Report Liberal International Human Rights Committee 2012 Annual Report Liberal International: 2012 Human Rights Report Table of Contents Overview of LI Human Rights Committee...........................................................2 Priority Work Areas.............................................................................................8 LGBT Rights..........................................................................................................8 Women’s Rights.................................................................................................12 Responsibility to Protect...................................................................................14 Target Countries................................................................................................19 LI HRC at the UN Human Rights Council............................................................21 Liberal International: 2012 Human Rights Report Foreword from the Chair of LI Human Rights Committee Dear Reader, t is a pleasure for me to present the first Annual Report of Liberal International’s Human Rights Committee. This document covers the activities of the Committee for the calendar year of 2012, which was the first operational year of the Committee following its renewed mandate at LI’s 187th Executive ICommittee Meeting in London in October 2011. This past year we have witnessed several important developments in the field of human rights, not least because of the individual efforts of the members of the LI HRC for which I would like to wholeheartedly commend them. The role of Liberal International within the framework of the United Nations Human Rights Council has flourished as the Committee advanced numerous issues of particular importance to both LI members and the organisation as a whole. Some of the main topics addressed included the on-going humanitarian crisis in Syria, the intensification of repression against human rights defenders, the deteriorated state of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender rights around the world, the universal abolition of the death penalty, and the declining state of human rights in the Republic of Belarus. The Committee has also worked hard to promote awareness of key areas under the LI human rights roadmap: from launching a campaign aimed at tackling human rights violations in Belarus to organizing the first LI LGBT Rights seminar in Africa. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to our financial donors, without whom the work of the Committee would not have been possible: ALDE Group, ALDE Party, Centerpartiet, DPP, and Llibertat i Democràcia. Your support for, and belief in, the importance of sustaining Liberal International’s human rights record will ensure that liberals from around the world will continue to voice their concerns in a unified and coordinated way. I hope that you will enjoy this report and that you will keep updated on our planned activities for 2013. Yours sincerely, Abir Al-Sahlani MP 1 Liberal International: 2012 Human Rights Report Overview of the LI Human Rights Committee The LI Human Rights Committee acts as an executive body, illuminating human rights issues and promoting human rights worldwide. The Committee aims at promoting the adoption of international human rights standards, using human rights as a measure for policy approaches in all areas, and campaigning on behalf of individuals and groups around the world where their rights are being transgressed. Chairperson: Abir Al-Sahlani MP, Vice President on Liberal International Bureau Abir Al-Sahlani was born on May 18, 1976 in Baghdad, Iraq. Ms Al-Sahlani has been a member of the Parliament of Sweden since 2010, representing Centerpartiet. She has a Master’s degree in computer system science from Stockholm University. Her studies included Arabic language and history, political science and psychology at both Stockholm University and Södertörn University College in Stockholm. After graduation Abir Al-Sahlani volunteered as a language teacher at Nacka School in Stockholm in 2002-2003, assisting migrants' children in their studies. In 2003 she returned for four years to Iraq, where she worked as Liaison officer for the Governing Council of Baghdad in 2003-2004, coordinating relations between the council and Iraqi ministries. During her years in Bagdad she arranged seminars on women's rights and successfully promoted the founding of a centre for democracy and a youth parliament. In 2004 Ms Al-Sahlani was appointed Secretary General of the National Democratic Alliance (DNA), an Iraqi liberal party, a position she held until 2007 when she was recruited as Political Adviser on foreign affairs and migration for the Centre Party in Sweden. She entered the Swedish parliament in 2010 and is a member of the Foreign affairs committee and the Labour market committee. 2 Liberal International: 2012 Human Rights Report Honorary Patron: Lord Alderdice, Immediate Past President of Liberal International John Thomas Alderdice, Baron Alderdice (born 28 March 1955) is a Northern Ireland politician. He was Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly 1998-2004, leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland 1987-1998, and since 1996 sits in the House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat. He was elected President of Liberal International in 2005 and served until Liberal International's Cairo congress in 2009. He was educated at Ballymena Academy and the Queen's University of Belfast (QUB). He worked part-time as a consultant psychiatrist in psychotherapy in the NHS from 1988 until he retired from psychiatric practice in 2010. He also lectured at Queen's University's Faculty of Medicine between 1991 and 1999. The Alliance Party was formed in 1970 as an alternative to sectarian politics. Alderdice was on the Executive Committee of the party between 1984 and 1998, the Chair Policy Committee between 1985 and 1987, the party Vice-chair in 1987 before becoming the party leader ahead of the 1987 general election and contested Belfast East for the party. He received 32.1% of the vote, the highest percentage achieved by Alliance in an individual seat in a Westminster election until Naomi Long's historic victory for the party in Belfast East in the 2010 general election. In 1988, in Alliance's keynote post-Anglo Irish Agreement document, "Governing with Consent", Alderdice called for a devolved power-sharing government based on a voluntary coalition elected by a qualified majority vote. Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, Alliance's vote stabilised at between 6% and 8%. He was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly for Belfast East in 1998 and became the Assembly's first speaker, serving until 2004. Alderdice was a Belfast City Councillor from 1989 until 1997. He resigned as party leader to take the position of Speaker. He has been a member of the Independent Monitoring Commission since 2004. Alderdice was created a life peer in 1996 as Baron Alderdice, of Knock in the City of Belfast; he was one of the youngest ever life peers. He sits in the House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat. On 10 June 2010, he was elected to the new position of Convenor of the Liberal Democrat Peers, a role in which he chairs the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party in the House of Lords. 3 Liberal International: 2012 Human Rights Report Member: Hon. Irwin Cotler MP, Liberal Party of Canada Law Professor, Constitutional and Comparative Law Scholar, International Human Rights Lawyer, Counsel to prisoners of conscience, NGO Head, Public Intellectual, Peace Activist, Member of Parliament, and Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada – Irwin Cotler has been variously described in these roles and responsibilities as being “at the forefront of the struggle for justice, peace and human rights.” Irwin Cotler is presently a Canadian Member of Parliament first elected in a by-election in November 1999 with 92% of the votes, in what was characterized as “the most stunning electoral victory in this century by any standard”. He was re-elected in the general elections of November 2000, June 2004, and January 2006, with the highest Liberal majority in the country, October 2008, and, most recently, in May 2011. On December 12, 2003, the Prime Minister appointed him Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. He was reappointed following the General Election of June 2004 and served in that office until the general election of January 2006, when the Liberal government was defeated. He is currently serving as Liberal Critic for Human Rights, is a member of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Human Rights, and Chair of the All-Party Save Darfur Parliamentary Coalition. A leading public advocate in and out of Parliament for the Human Rights Agenda, he headed the Canadian Delegation to the Stockholm International Forum on the Prevention of Genocide. Mr. Cotler is currently on leave as a Professor of Law at McGill University, where he is Director of its Human Rights Programme, and Chair of InterAmicus, the McGill-based International Human Rights Advocacy Centre. He has been a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Yale Law School, and is the recipient of nine Honorary Doctorates, including from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, whose various citations refer to him as “a scholar and advocate of international stature.” A leader in the struggle against impunity and the development of international humanitarian law, Professor Cotler served as Counsel to the Deschênes Commission of Inquiry in the matter of bringing Nazi
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