Press Release Feb 1, 2017 Zimbabwe Arrests Evangelical Pastor on Return from New York Human Rights Foundation (HRF) condemns the arbitrary arrest of human rights activist and civil society leader Evan Mawarire in Zimbabwe.
Press Release Sep 9, 2016 Venezuela: HRF Condemns Imprisonment of Opposition Leader Over Picture-Taking Drone Pugila was arrested after he brought a small commercial drone for aerial photography to a mass pro-democracy demonstration that took place in Caracas on September 1.
Press Release Aug 31, 2016 Venezuela: HRF Condemns Arbitrary Arrest of Opposition Leader HRF calls on Venezuela’s government to stop fabricating absurd evidence on prodemocracy activists, to provide information on Goicoechea’s whereabouts and to release him immediately.
Press Release Aug 30, 2016 HRF to Bahrain: Stop Shutting Down the Internet Last week, Human Rights Foundation (HRF), as part of a coalition of 30 organizations from around the world, called on Bahrain’s authoritarian regime to restore the country’s internet service, which has been disrupted since June 2016.
Press Release Aug 29, 2016 HRF Welcomes UN Special Rapporteur’s Opinion Curbing Broad “Hate Speech” Prohibition On August 15, the Special Rapporteur condemned the government of Singapore for prosecuting 17-year-old blogger Amos Yee on charges of “wounding religious or racial feelings.” Mr. Yee published several videos that contained language disparaging devotees of Islam and Christianity, as well as their religious beliefs.
Press Release Aug 24, 2016 HRF to Angola: Withdraw Secret Social Media Bill Human Rights Foundation (HRF) strongly condemns Angola’s obscure Statute of Journalists Bill and calls on the National Assembly to both make it public and reject it immediately.
Press Release Jul 18, 2016 Zimbabwe: HRF Welcomes Dropped Charges Against Mawarire; Urges Authorities to Stop Arbitrary Arrests Human Rights Foundation (HRF) welcomes the release of civil society leader Evan Mawarire and the court’s ruling that his rights were violated. Mawarire is a popular evangelical pastor who started the “#ThisFlag” movement to protest against police brutality and the destruction of the economy under President Mugabe’s rule.
Press Release Jun 21, 2016 Cuba: Activists Arrested After Meeting With OAS Secretary General Both activists were detained for six hours last week at José Martí Airport in Havana when returning to the country after taking part in meetings with the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro.
Press Release May 11, 2016 HRF to Azerbaijan: Drop Criminal Investigation Into Independent Media Human Rights Foundation (HRF) condemns the criminal investigation launched against Meydan TV, an independent digital news outlet known for its critical reporting on the government of Azerbaijan.
Press Release Apr 21, 2016 Venezuela: HRF Condemns Prison Sentence Against Journalist Who Denounced Corruption Natera Febres was sentenced to four years in prison and fined $20,000 for reporting on a corruption case linked to the state-owned company CVG Ferrominera Orinoco and to Venezuela’s Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence.
News Mar 28, 2016 HRF to Nigeria: Withdraw Social Media Bill Targeting Free Speech The vaguely drafted bill, officially called “An Act to Prohibit Frivolous Petitions; And Other Matters Connected Therewith,” seeks to prevent “false” and “abusive statements,” published through “text message, tweets, WhatsApp or through any other social media post,” against any person or “institutions of government.”
Press Release Mar 28, 2016 Angola: HRF Condemns Convictions and Demands Release of Youth Activists HRF calls on the Angolan government to vacate the convictions and release the activists immediately.
Press Release Feb 11, 2016 HRF to Turkey: Free Journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül On November 26, Dündar, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Cumhuriyet, and Gül, the Ankara bureau chief, were arrested based on a criminal complaint filed against them by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Press Release Jan 13, 2016 HRF to Saudi Arabia: End Harassment and Drop Charges Against Samar Badawi Badawi is a prominent Saudi human rights advocate and the former wife of the arbitrarily imprisoned human rights lawyer Waleed Abu al-Khair.
Press Release Oct 20, 2015 HRF Chairman Visits Kazakh Dissident in Prison; Calls on French President Today, the chairman of the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), Garry Kasparov, visited Kazakh dissident Mukhtar Ablyazov in the Paris detention center where Ablyazov is detained pending the outcome of extradition proceedings that have dragged on for more than two years.
Press Release Oct 8, 2015 Ecuador: HRF Welcomes Dismissal of Case Against Fundamedios One month ago, Ecuador’s National Communications Secretariat (SECOM) notified Fundamedios that it would be forcibly dissolved for publishing and promoting “political” content.
Press Release Sep 24, 2015 HRF Releases Report at UN Security Council on the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda This October marks the 15th anniversary of the UN Security Council’s Resolution 1325, which called for the adoption of a gendered perspective to reinforce the special needs of women and girls during post-conflict reconstruction, repatriation and resettlement, rehabilitation, and reintegration.
Press Release Sep 16, 2015 Inter-American Court: HRF Welcomes Judgment in Favor of RCTV The court’s decision holds that the Venezuelan state violated the freedom of expression of RCTV’s shareholders and employees, as well as that of the “Venezuelan people, who were deprived of access to RCTV’s editorial line.”
Press Release Jul 17, 2015 Venezuela: HRF Condemns Targeted Twitter Data Collection by Political Police The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) strongly condemns the actions of the Venezuelan National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL), in collusion with the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN), that led to the arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of eight Twitter users between September and October of 2014.
Announcement Jun 1, 2014 Announcing OFF 2012 Speaker: Iyad el-Baghdadi Iyad el-Baghdadi is a Palestinian writer and expert on Islam and political liberties who was born and raised in the United Arab Emirates.