[[ DDIISSPPAATTCCHHEESS ]] REPORTS FROM THE FRONT LINE TRUSTEES what does front Denis O’Brien (Chairman) Arnold Tsunga is Africa is Chairman of the Digicel Director of the International Group. He is one of Commission of Jurists. He line defenders do? Ireland’s leading entrepre - was Executive Secretary of neurs with extensive the Law Society of investments across several Zimbabwe and Executive Front Line, the International Foundation for the sectors. Mr. O’Brien was voted Ireland’s Director of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights. He was a joint winner of the Martin Protection of Human Rights Defenders, is an Entrepreneur of the Year in 1998 in the inaugural running of the worldwide Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders international non-governmental organisation (NGO) competition organised and sponsored by in 2006. established by charitable deed trust. It was Ernst & Young. Mr. O’Brien is also a director founded in Dublin in 2001 with the specific aim of of a number of private companies which hold some of his other business interests ADVISORY COUNCIL protecting human rights defenders at risk, people including Quinta do Lago SA and who work, non-violently, for any or all of the rights Communicorp Group Limited. In 2000 he Michel Forst is the United Nations Special Rappor- enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human established The Iris O’Brien Foundation to assist disadvantaged communities in teur on the situation of Rights (UDHR). Front Line Defenders addresses the Ireland and internationally. He is co-founder human rights defenders protection needs identified by defenders of Front Line Defenders. and Secretary General of the French National Con - themselves. Kieran Mulvey is Chief sultative Commission on Human Rights. He Executive of the Irish is a former Board member of Front Line Front Line Defenders provides rapid and practical Workplace Relations Defenders. He was the UN Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in support to at-risk human rights defenders Commission and Consultant with the Inter - Haiti from 2008 to 2013. He was Secretary including: national Labour Organisa - General of the Paris Summit of Human tion and the Rights Defenders and Director of the European Union. French section of Amnesty International. n grants to pay for the practical security needs of human rights defenders; Noeline Blackwell is Hina Jilani is an interna - n provision of training and development of outgoing Director of FLAC tionally known human resource materials on security and protection, (Free Legal Advice Centres) rights lawyer and advocate and incoming CEO of the for human rights including digital security; Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. defenders. She was the n international advocacy on behalf of human She is a Vice-President of The International UN Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). Special Representative of the Secretary rights defenders at immediate risk; General on the situation of human rights n rest and respite, including the Front Line David Sykes acts as an defenders from 2000 to 2008. She and her Defenders Fellowship; investment advisor to sister Asma Jahangir co-founded the first opportunities for networking and exchange Island Capital Ltd and all female legal practice in Pakistan and she n previously held positions in is also one of the founders of the Human between human rights defenders, including at banking and stockbroking Rights Commission of Pakistan. She is a the biennial Dublin Platform; which included Trinity Bank member of The Elders. the annual Front Line Defenders Award for Ltd and Dolmen Stockbrokers Ltd. n Maina Kiai is the United Human Rights Defenders at Risk; Jim Conway is the founder Nations Special Rappor- n an emergency 24 hour phone line for human and Chairman of the Print & teur on the rights to rights defenders operating in Arabic, English, Display Group, one of freedom of peaceful Ireland’s largest print assembly and of French, Spanish and Russian; companies. He also has a association. A lawyer trained at Nairobi and n temporary relocation of human rights number of other media Harvard Universities, he has spent the last defenders in emergency situations. interests in Ireland and Eastern Europe. twenty years campaigning for human rights and constitutional reform in Kenya – notably Maria Mulcahy is the CEO as founder and Executive Director of the Front Line Defenders promotes the protection of of the Iris O’Brien NGO Kenya Human Rights Commission, human rights defenders through its support for the Foundation and the Irish- and then as Chairman of Kenya’s National based Head of Philan - Human Rights Commission (2003-2008). work of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation thropy for the Digicel of human rights defenders and other international Group. She was involved James L. Cavallaro is the and regional mechanisms. Front Line Defenders with “People in Need” from 1988 to 2000. Founding Director of the She was International Human Rights promotes respect for the UN Declaration on Human responsible for organising the RTÉ and Conflict Resolution Rights Defenders. Front Line Defenders has special telethons, which raised €28 million. She Clinic at Stanford Law consultative status with the Economic and Social was Director of Fundraising for the 2003 School, where he is also a Special Olympics World professor of law. Prior to joining Stanford, Council of the United Nations, partnership status Games. he spent nine years on the faculty at with the Council of Europe and observer status with Harvard Law School, where he also served the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Mary Jane N. Real is a as executive director of the Human Rights founding member and Programme. In June of 2013 he was Rights. Front Line Defenders received the 2007 King former Coordinator of the elected to the Inter-American Commission Baudouin International Prize for Development. Women Human Rights on Human Rights (IACHR). Defenders International Coalition. A lawyer by profession, she was part of establishing Maryam Elahi is President the Alternative Law Groups network in the and CEO of the On the cover: Peruvian environmental rights Philippines. She is a long-time advocate of Community Foundation of campaigner Cesar Estrada survived an assassination women’s rights having worked with women’s Eastern Connecticut. For attempt on his way to the Dublin Platform for human rights and human rights organisations in Asia more than 25 years, she rights defenders at risk. He was on his way to the Pacific and internationally including as has served in positions of bus station to buy a ticket for the airport coach to fly Regional Coordinator of Asia Pacific Forum leadership in the international human rights to Ireland when two gunmen pulled up on a on Women, Law and Development. community as an advocate, teacher, and motorbike and aimed their guns at him. Cesar was grant-maker. She was previously the shielded by his wife and a friend. As they drove off director of the International Women's the gunmen shouted, “Next time we’ll get you when FRON TLINE Program at the Open Society Foundations. you are not alone”. DEF ENDERS Registered Charity Number CHY 14029 [DISPATCHES ] editorial: mary lawlor, front line defenders 3 a powerful collective testament Too many brave people working non-violently and legitimately for the rights of others are killed because of their work. They are sacrificed to the corrupt power of autocrats, the violence of armed groups and criminals, and the greed of extractive industries and other business interests. Front Line Defenders established that at least 156 HRDs were killed or died in detention in 25 countries in the first eleven months of 2015. This marked an increase in the number of countries where this occurred. Overall, 45% of the killings appear to be linked to the defence of environmental, land and indigenous peoples’ rights. Other targeted groups included HRDs working on corruption and impunity, and journalists and other HRDs using media to publicise and denounce abuses. This is not random violence. This is the calculated elimination of those who speak out for the rights of the most vulnerable. Sabeen Mahmud was murdered in Pakistan in April. Sabeen allowed us to use her cafe/art gallery ‘The Second Floor’ to meet human rights defenders when we were in Pakistan. It was an amazing place, buzzing with life. Sabeen was shot on her way home from a discussion she had organised on disappear - ances in Balochistan – a no-go area where suicide attacks, enforced disappearances by security forces, and sectarian violence are rampant. Sabeen had previously been forced into hiding following online death threats Mary Lawlor, Front Line Defenders. because of her work against the Blasphemy Law. This time, her killers made sure she had warned to leave the area or they would be those HRDs killed since the adoption of the nowhere to hide. killed. Around the same time another human UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders Francela Mendez was killed in May. Francela rights defender, Dionel Campos, who in 1998. Our idea is not just to build a list of was a human rights defender who worked for campaigned against large-scale mining on names, but to celebrate their lives and their the rights of the transgender community in El ancestral land in Surigao and his nephew Bello work on behalf of others. To build something Salvador. She continued her work despite the Sinzo, were murdered in front of hundreds of tangible to which their families and colleagues everyday discrimination and danger suffered residents of the village. can contribute. We want to resist the banality by the community. She was murdered by Governments and international organisations of statistics which mask the scale of the unknown assailants in the home of a friend that claim to stand for democracy, the rule of immense human suffering surrounding their who was also killed.