Auhorities should stop targeting their citizens for complaining to the United Nations

ID Secretary General's report on reprisals 

28 September 2022     

Thank you.

We are alarmed by ongoing acts of reprisals against Ms. Glenda Ayala, a member of the National Preventive Mechanism against Torture of Honduras (NPM). In 2018, she faced intimidation and harassment following her participation in the examination of Honduras by the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances, as detailed in the 2019 Secretary General’s report. Since then, Glenda has faced obstacles in fulfilling her mandate and has been targeted for denouncing high-ranking officials who allegedly committed torture and ill-treatment against people deprived of liberty in the country. Honduras must adopt adequate measures to protect Glenda and all members of the NPM, duly and impartially investigate all allegations of torture and bring perpetrators to justice.   

We are concerned over the ongoing harassment of the Centre for Promotion of Social Concerns (CPSC) and its program unit People’s Watch under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), which has been increasingly used to punish Indian civil society organisations for their cooperation with the United Nations. We call on the Indian authorities to immediately put an end to all acts of harassment against CPSC and People’s Watch, drop all complaints against them and renew their registration under the FCRA to allow them to resume their human rights work. We call on the India’s National Human Rights Commission to promptly investigate the government’s refusal to renew the registration of the CPSC under the law and take all appropriate and necessary actions to protect human rights defenders and organisations, including their right to freedom of association and access to funding.   

I thank you.