Urgent Actions

Minority Rights Group International said on Tuesday that it was deeply concerned about the attack on a mosque by Buddhist mobs in Dambulla, in north Central Sri Lanka, and the subsequent decision by the country’s government to relocate the mosque.

In just a matter of days, Honduras could become the only state in the world to punish the use or sale of emergency contraception with a jail term. But we have the power to stop this.

Plea for support of women's right to choose in Colombia

On 21 April, Alawiya Osman Ismail Kubaida, a 58-year old activist from the opposition party Sudan People’s Liberation Movement - North (SPLM-N), was arrested in her home by plainclothes agents of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS). She is being held incommunicado and is at risk of torture and other forms of ill-treatment. Please send appeals before June 14, 2012. 

Since the end of April 2012, sex workers in Greece are forced to be tested by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (KEEL). According to Kathimerini news, the police uploaded photos of 12 sex workers onto their website www.hellenicpolice.gr. Those who are tested HIV positive are to face a prosecutor on charges of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm, a felony. These practices are a violation of sex workers’ human rights, their right of freedom, privacy, and the confidentiality on their health condition.

On 28 April 2012 journalist and human rights defender Ms Regina Martínez Pérez was found dead in her home in the city of Xalapa, in Veracruz. Regina Martínez Pérez was a correspondent with the weekly publication Proceso in which she addressed issues relating to drug cartels and the links between organised criminal groups and government officials.

On 26 April 2012, Mr Chut Wutty was shot dead in Koh Kong province. Chut Wutty is the founder and director of Natural Resource Protection Group, a civil society organisation that works to protect environmental rights and monitors illegal logging. Chut Wutty advocated tirelessly against the ongoing destruction of Cambodia's natural resources.

Hungary has legalized home birth, yet midwives who attended home births before legalization have been harshly imprisoned.  On February 10th, 2012, the Budapest Appeal Court announced the verdict in the case of Dr. Ágnes Geréb (an OB/Gyn as well as a midwife) and four other Hungarian midwives. The terms of Ágnes Geréb’s sentence of two-year imprisonment were tightened, a ban on practicing doubled to ten years.

On 13 and 14 April 2012 human rights defender and lawyer Ms Alba Cruz was subjected to death threats received to her mobile telephone. Alba Cruz is a human rights lawyer with the Mexican organisation Comitè de defensa integral de derechos humanos Gobixha - Codigo DH (the Committee for the defence of human rights Gobixha).

On 29 March 2012, human rights defender and journalist Ms Luviana Ariyanti was dismissed after ten years of service as Producer's Assistant at Metro TV after promoting human rights at her workplace. Luviana Ariyanti has been active in trying to initiate a union at Metro TV and in calling for TV programmes that promote and respect human rights and gender equality to be broadcasted.