PEN INTERNATIONAL IMPACT AND LEARNING REPORT 2015 - 2019 On the Frontline Defending Freedom of Expression and Promoting Literature Cover image: During PEN International Congress in Pune, India in 2018, delegates joined local students on a public wari travelling three kilometres over three hours in celebration of global languages. PEN is grateful to its many Overview 1 individual supporters and volunteers who make its 2015 to 2019 work possible including Swedish International 13 Development Cooperation Supporting Agency (Sida), PEN Writers at Risk Publishers, Writers and Readers Circles, International Cities of Refuge Network Challenging 29 (ICORN), the Norwegian Structural Threats Ministry of Foreign Affairs, United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), Clifford Strengthening 40 Chance, Fritt Ord and Evan Civil Society Cornish Foundation 55 PEN International Looking forward: Unit A - Koops Mill Mews 162-164 Abbey Street London SE1 2AN PEN International United Kingdom PEN International promotes literature and freedom of 2020 to 2023 expression and is governedby the PEN Charter and the principles it embodies: unhampered transmission of thought within each nation and between all nations. Founded in 1921, PEN International connects an international community of writers from its Secretariat in London. It is a forum where writers meet freely to discuss their work; it is also a voice speaking out for writers silenced in their own countries. Through Centres in over 100 countries, PEN operates on five continents. PEN International is a non-political organisation which holds Special Consultative Status at the UN and Associate Status at UNESCO. International PEN is a registered charity in England and Wales with registration number 1117088. http://www.pen-international.org/ Between 2015 and 2019, PEN International: Improved the lives of 283 writers Supported 143 writers at risk through solidarity, campaigning with emergency grants and protection work Returned 427expert assessments Supported 60 writers to the International Cities of Refuge through their asylum process Network (ICORN) Amplified the voices of 21 28 PEN Centres demonstrated persecuted writers at national and, improved engagement with duty regional and international bodies bearers leading to increased and continued advocacy 27submissions to the United Nation’s PEN Centres have contributed to Universal Periodic Review, leading to 346 progress on repealing criminal Between 2015 to 2019, PEN International, the world’s largest recommendations being made by States that defamation in countries association of writers, worked effectively and tirelessly to defend reflected PEN’s recommendations 4 freedom of expression and promote literature in an ever-deteriorating climate for freedom of expression. 3 amicus briefs, 2 before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the cases of Tulio Alberto Álvarez v. Venezuela & Julio Ernesto Alvarado v Honduras, This report will demonstrate the huge step forward PEN International 1 before the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of has taken in delivering impactful and inclusive international programmes Justice in the case of the Federation of African Journalists v The Gambia. Positive with the invaluable support of the Swedish International Development judgements in all three cases including successfully securing ‘precautionary measures’ for Julio Ernesto Alverado in a landmark ruling. Agency (Sida). It seeks to provide an overview of PEN International’s work over the last five years through a series of case studies spanning that period, reflecting on PEN’s achievements and on the challenges 26 third party interventions before the European Court of Human Rights onissues including Turkey, Hungary and the case of Khadija Ismayilova of working within a complex and deteriorating environment for free (Azerbaijan). Positive judgements in 2 cases where PEN headed interventions speech. PEN International’s organisational goals for 2015 to 2019 led to the release of Turkish writers Mehmet Altan and Sahin Alpay. were achieved in two phases: a one-year phase of consolidation and planning for growth, including building capacity for monitoring, 33 Centres from the evaluation, and organisation-wide learning, and a four-year phase global south participating in, 48,406 writers, journalists, and shaping the agendas of, academics, teachers, parents, community of coordinated programme expansion and capacity building. PEN’s regional networks and members, young people and more standing committees have benefitted from the Civil Society This report seeks to demonstrate the impact that PEN International programme, of which 22,921 are female has had over the last five years in improving the situation of writers PEN Centres estimate that a further and 25,485 are male. at risk, challenging structural threats to freedom of expression people have benefitted and creating spaces for literature and language to flourish. 307,868 from projects indirectly 1 2 On the Frontline: Defending Freedom of Expression and Promoting Literature PEN International is made up of 135 Centres, a network of writers across the globe, that together work to defend Centres Network freedom of expression and promote literature. Centres New and revitalised Centres Europe Polish Malawi Latin America Argentina Gambia Mali Perth Portuguese Mali Cape Verde Guinea Bissau Mauritania St. Petersburg Albania Argentina Romanian Mauritania Chile Iraq Moscow Togo Armenia Bolivia Russian Morocco Austria Brazil Cuban Malaysia South India Zimbabwe Sardinian Nigeria Basque Chile Scottish Senegal Belarus Colombia Serbian Sierra Leone Belgian (Dutch) Cuba * Slovak South African Belgian (French) Cuban Writers in Exile Civil Society Programme Centres Slovene Togo Bosnia-Herz Guadalajara St Petersburg Tunisia Bulgaria Guatemala Afghan Guinea Myanmar Uganda Suisse Romand Uganda Catala Haiti Afrikaans Guinea Bissau Nicaragua Wales Cymru Swedish Zambia Chechen Honduras Argentina Haiti Nigeria Zambia Swiss German Zimbabwe Czech Jamaica Swiss Italian & Retoromanch Bosnia and Herzegovina Honduras Philippines Zimbabwe Croatia Nicaragua Trieste Cambodia Kurdish Sierra Leone Cyprus Asia Pacific Panama Turkey Central Asia Lebanon South Africa Danish Paraguay Ukraine Afghan Eritrea Malawi The Gambia English All-India Peru Wales Ghana Mexico Togo Esperanto Bangladesh Puerto Rico Estonia Cambodia San Miguel de Allende Central Asia Finnish Chinese Uruguay French Central Asia Hong Kong Chinese Speaking Venezuela PEN Centres with Residencies for Writers at Risk Galicia Kazakh Hong Kong English Speaking Georgia Mongolia ICPC Middle East German Tatar Japan Iranian in exile Canada English PEN Norway German Writers Abroad Korean Iraq Catalan Flemish PEN Swedish Hungarian Malaysia Africa Israel Croatia German Uganda Icelandic Melbourne Jordan Irish Afar Myanmar Lebanon Italian Afrikaans Nepal Palestine Kurdish Cape Verde New Zealand Langue d‘oc Egypt North Korean Writers in Exile North America Liechtenstein Eritrea in Exile PEN Delhi Canada Lithuania Ethiopia PEN South India America Macedonia Gambia Philippines Canada Moldova Ghana Perth Monaco Guinea Syndey USA Montenegro Guinea-Bissau Taipei Chinese Quebequois Moscow Ivory Coast Tibetan Writers Abroad *The CSP offers a flexible framework for PEN Centres to identify and propose locally relevant projects that promote and strengthen Netherlands Kenya Uyghur civic spaces for expression through access to literatures, and linguistic and cultural rights – see page 40 for more information. Norwegian Liberia Vietnamese Writers Abroad 3 4 On the Frontline: Defending Freedom of Expression and Promoting Literature This is just a snapshot – more detailed information can be found in PEN International Timeline 2015 – 2019 reports of each year and throughout this report PEN International Changes in the situation of writers at risk Changes in structural threats, protecting and enhancing Freedom of Expression Timeline 2015 – 2019 Changes in space for literature, language, debate, dialogue, ideas and opinions Egyptian novelist and PEN main case, Ahmed Naji, is released, following PEN’s Day of the Imprisoned Writer campaign - “I would like to thank you for all the support you gave me, and for all what you did to help my case. The award-winning writer, activist and PEN Main Case, The letters that you collected and sent to me are so warm 19,915 young people, writers, indigenous A ruling by the Economic Community of West Enoh Meyomesse is released from Kondengui Prison in and show the strength of literature brotherhood. Thank language speakers and marginalised groups African States (ECOWAS) Regional Court of Justice Yaounde, Cameroon, following more than three years in you for that and for what you do.” participate in Centre projects across the globe finds that draconian media laws on sedition, false prison. On his release Meyomesse said: ‘I don’t have the under PEN’s Civil Society Programme news and criminal defamation violate the right to words to thank you for your unswerving support over all Ngugi Wa Thiong’o writes preface to report about freedom of expression in Gambia. PEN International these years’ publishing in African National languages Culture’s PEN International provides direct assistance in and PEN Centres including PEN Afrikaans, PEN oxygen and expresses support for PEN International’s the form of asylum support and emergency grants America Centre, PEN Eritrea in Exile, PEN Ghana, Following a PEN International-led appeal to the Inter- work on translation and linguistic rights in Africa