Home News Right Livelihood highlights global rise in arbitrary detentions at UN Human Rights Council 

Right Livelihood highlights global rise in arbitrary detentions at UN Human Rights Council 

Right Livelihood highlights global rise in arbitrary detentions at UN Human Rights Council 

Right Livelihood’s Advocacy team raised concerns about the growing trend of arbitrary detentions targeting human rights activists worldwide during the 57th Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The statement highlighted the cases of Laureates imprisoned for their peaceful work in Belarus, Cambodia, and Saudi Arabia, urging the Council to intensify its efforts to protect activists globally.

You can read the entire statement here.

Human rights and environmental defenders across the world are being arrested and detained in concerning numbers for their peaceful activism. To bring awareness to this situation, Right Livelihood shared the story of 2023 Right Livelihood Laureate Mother Nature Cambodia.

In July, ten members of the movement were sentenced to six to eight years in prison on bogus charges of “plotting against the government” and “insulting the king”. 

“The unprecedented length of their sentences highlights a growing severity in the treatment of activists,” we told the Council. “[This] could be used to deter anyone expressing dissent.”

Similarly, five members of Belarusian Right Livelihood Laureate organisation Viasna are currently jailed for their human rights work, including Chairman Ales Bialiatski. The organisation has reported over 75,000 repressive acts by the government since 2020. 

The last country we brought the Council’s attention to was Saudi Arabia, where Right Livelihood Laureate Mohammad al-Qahtani has been forcibly disappeared since November 2022 following the completion of his ten-year prison sentence.

We concluded by emphasising that these Laureates’ cases are not unique but part of a broader pattern of arbitrary detention. To reverse this trend, we urged the Council to increase financial support for accountability mechanisms, such as the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

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