Press Release May 6, 2017 Red Bull Athletes Train Children of Pres. Maduro and Drug Kingpin Hugo Carvajal Celebrated professional skydivers from the Red Bull Athletic Team, Amy Chmelecki, Mike Swanson, Jon Devore, Filippo “Ippo” Fabbi, and global wingsuit champion Noah Bahnson are currently in Venezuela as contractors of Skydive Caribbean, a company owned by Pedro Trebbau-Lopez and Domingo Guzman-Lopez, to train the stepchildren and nephews of President Nicolas Maduro along with those of drug kingpin Hugo Carvajal.
Press Release May 5, 2017 Havel Prize Recognizes Efforts in Bahrain, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2017 Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent.
News May 4, 2017 Nicki Minaj in Angola The Human Rights Foundation is asking Nicki Minaj to reconsider her scheduled performance in Angola on Saturday, citing a list of abuses committed by the president of the oil-rich African nation.
Press Release Apr 24, 2017 HRF Condemns Post-Referendum Crackdown The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) strongly condemns the Turkish government for ordering the arrest of at least 38 activists on Wednesday for criticizing the results of the country’s recent referendum.
Press Release Apr 21, 2017 Venezuela: HRF Condemns Murders Carried Out by Paramilitary Groups Both Ramírez and Moreno were killed during anti-authoritarian demonstrations that have rocked Venezuela over the last few days.
News Apr 19, 2017 HRF writes on Zimbabwe election One year ago today, an advertising professional-turned-Evangelical pastor draped Zimbabwe’s flag over his shoulders, logged on to Facebook and delivered a passionate appeal to his fellow countrymen.
Press Release Apr 18, 2017 Chechnya: Terror Against Gay Men Could Amount to Crimes Against Humanity The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) calls on the international community to hold Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chechen head of government Ramzan Kadyrov accountable for the ongoing and systematic persecution of gay men in Chechnya, a territory controlled by the Russian Federation.
Press Release Apr 14, 2017 HRF to UN: Denounce Human Trafficking in Cuba The report was sent earlier today to coincide with Giammarinaro’s scheduled meeting with Cuban authorities to “determine the progress made and the challenges Cuba faces in addressing trafficking for sexual and labor exploitation.”
Press Release Apr 14, 2017 HRF to Cuba: End Brutal Assault on UNPACU Members During the raids, state agents confiscated all computers and cellphones they found and detained over a dozen activists and coordinators.
Press Release Apr 12, 2017 Cuban Dissident Artist El Sexto to Premiere Art Show in San Francisco On opening night, El Sexto will enter a replica of the cell in Havana’s maximum-security Combinado del Este prison where he was once jailed, and will remain there for three days on a hunger strike, consuming only water.
News Apr 7, 2017 LA Times reports on El Sexto’s Art in Protest exhibit At the tail end of 2014, Danilo Maldonado Machado, the graffiti artist known as “El Sexto,” was detained by the authorities as he made his way to a public park in Havana to stage a work of protest art.
Press Release Apr 5, 2017 HRF Calls for R2P After Assad Gasses Civilians, Again The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) condemns the latest wave of crimes against humanity perpetrated by Bashar al-Assad’s regime — this time against the civilian population in the northwestern province of Idlib, Syria.
News Apr 3, 2017 Radio Martí on HRF’s open letter on film censorship Radio Martí’s Roxana Romero discusses HRF’s open letter written to the Havana Film Festival New York criticizing the Festival’s decision to remove Carlos Lechuga’s award-winning film, Santa and Andrés, from competition after pressure from the Castro regime.
Press Release Mar 30, 2017 Coup in Venezuela: Maduro Regime Shuts Down Legislative Power Today, Venezuela’s Supreme Court has effectively shut down the democratically-elected (and opposition-controlled) National Assembly.
Press Release Mar 30, 2017 Open Letter on Cuba Censorship at the Havana Film Festival New York The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) writes to express profound disappointment about the censoring of the film Santa and Andrés from competition at the 18th Havana Film Festival of New York (HFFNY). HRF calls on you and the HFFNY to reconsider this decision and allow Santa and Andrés to compete at the festival.
Press Release Mar 28, 2017 HRF to launch Free Speech Unlimited at RightsCon Brussels The panel, “Free Speech Unlimited,” features U.N. Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression David Kaye; Bahraini free speech activist Maryam Al-Khawaja; Eritrean journalist Meron Estefanos; and two members of HRF’s legal team, Joy Park and Celine Assaf Boustani.
News Mar 28, 2017 Bloomberg quotes HRF on corruption in Latin America In Latin America, crooked business goes by many names. Coima, propina, the bite and — my favorite — “milk for the kids” are just a few. However you call corruption, people in 13 countries in the Americas agreed that it is one of the region’s biggest scourges, according to pollster Latinobarometro.
Blog Post Mar 17, 2017 HRF to OAS Members: Do Your Job, Apply Democracy Clause in Venezuela Almagro’s 75-page report further urged Venezuela to hold general elections that satisfy all international electoral observation standards without delay, to immediately release all political prisoners, and to return to the constitutional order with full respect for the separation of powers.
News Mar 15, 2017 Reason TV deems HRF the most disruptive at SXSW Reason TV published a video and article featuring HRF’s panel, “The Real Information Revolution,” at this year’s SXSW, an annual interactive festival held in Austin, TX.
Press Release Mar 14, 2017 Cuba: Female Activists Beaten, Stripped Naked By State Agents Benítez, a member of the pro-democracy network Red de Facilitadores Electorales (REDFE), was scheduled to conduct a workshop at her home in Santiago de Cuba to train prospective independent candidates for upcoming municipal elections.
