GENEVA (18 May 2021) – A UN expert today urged the Government of Peru to end the criminalisation of environmental human rights defenders and ensure the country s judiciary is not used as a means to silence them.
The Supreme Court of Peru recently confirmed the judgement against César Estrada Chuquilín (10 years imprisonment). Two human rights defenders were also sentenced to prison, Jaime Trinidad de la Cruz Gallegos (12 years and 4 months) and Jesús Mariano Cornejo Reynoso (7 years and 4 months).
Estrada, a journalist and human rights defender, had denounced forced evictions, harassment of people and environmental damage caused by an open-pit gold and copper mine known as Conga that is owned by Yanacocha S.R.L. He was sentenced for alleged extortion against a contractor of the Yanacocha S.R.L, and his appeal was rejected.
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East Jerusalem: UN experts deplore brutal police response to protests, urge eviction threats to be lifted
GENEVA (11 May 2021) - UN human rights experts today expressed grave concerns about Israel s aggressive response to protests in East Jerusalem, and called on Israel, as the occupying power, to immediately lift its threat to evict hundreds of Palestinian households from their legally-protected homes. Re-establishing calm in Jerusalem is important, but creating the conditions for justice and equality in the City are even more important, the experts said. Neither short-term calm nor long-term peace will be accomplished as long as the national and individual rights of the City s Palestinian population are routinely abrogated.
Iran: UN experts welcome release of Arash Sadeghi
GENEVA (11 May 2021) – UN human rights experts welcomed the release of Iranian human rights defender Arash Sadeghi, who was released from Raja i Shahr Prison this month after five-and-a-half years in detention.
Mr. Sadeghi received prison sentences totalling 15 years by a Revolutionary Court on multiple charges, including publishing lies in cyberspace , propaganda against the system and insulting the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Under Iranian law, he would have to serve seven-and-a-half years in prison, the longest of his sentences. UN experts say his peaceful human rights activism included social media posts and communications with journalists and human rights defenders abroad. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found in an opinion issued in 2018 that the deprivation of Mr. Sadeghi s liberty was arbitrary and called for his immediate release.