The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights is bringing back our monthly newsletter with a new format to keep you up-to-date on human rights initiatives, webinars, articles of interest and more. |
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RWCHR/Canadian Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center |
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The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights has entered into a partnership with the Canadian Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center. Both organizations were established in tribute to two individuals who were recognized as Heroes of Humanity during the Holocaust. We are committed to preserving Holocaust remembrance, combatting racism and antisemitism, and engaging in the struggle for human rights and the protection of freedom.
Read more about our new partnership here. |
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Parliamentarians for Global Action |
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Earlier this year, the RWCHR began a partnership with Parliamentarians for Global Action, a non-partisan international network of approximately 1,300 legislators in over 140 elected parliaments around the globe, which aims to promote peace, democracy, rule of law, human rights, and gender equality by informing, convening, and mobilizing parliamentarians to realize these goals.
Through this partnership, the RWCHR provides strategic cooperation to PGA's Parliamentary Rapid Response Team (PARRT), a team of "first responders" in cases of urgent action. This unique cohort of diverse democracy champions across the political spectrum can respond nimbly, intervening when parliamentarians and human rights defenders are at risk.
To commemorate the International Day of Democracy on September 15th, the RWCHR and PGA cohosted a webinar on Magnitsky-type sanctions as a tool for parliamentarians to address human rights abuses wherever they may occur. You can watch the full webinar by clicking here. |
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International Coalition for Democratic Renewal |
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| The RWCHR partners with the International Coalition for Democratic Renewal (ICDR) and partakes, with them, in the World Movement for Democracy, Forum 2000 and its Prague Declaration for Democratic Renewal, and a host of initiatives to combat democratic backsliding and promote democratic resilience. Recently, the ICDR released statements of solidarity with the people of Belarus, and with Taiwan. Click below to read those statements. |
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| Political Prisoner Advocacy |
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Political Prisoner Released |
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 Narges Mohammadi, a leading Iranian human rights defender, was released after severing over five years of a 16-year prison sentence following a sustained international advocacy campaign (see our press release here). In May, RWCHR published an op-ed calling for her release. Professor Cotler first took up Ms. Mohammadi's case while a parliamentarian upon her first unjust imprisonment in 2009, and when international advocacy secured her release in 2013.
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New Political Prisoner Case |
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On October 22, the RWCHR and PEN America partnered to submit a joint complaint before the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of the unjustly detained Chinese civil rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong. We will continue to work closely on this case with PEN America to secure Xu's release.
Read our joint press release here. |
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Heroic Iranian Political Prisoner Nasrin Sotoudeh |
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On November 5th, at 5:30 (ET), the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, alongside its partners, the RWCHR, Floating World, and the Scholars at Risk Network are hosting an important film screening and panel discussion on a newly finished documentary titled, NASRIN.
This timely and important webinar will begin with the film screening followed by a discussion by distinguished speakers:
The Honourable Irwin Cotler - Chair of the RWCHR and former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
Homa Hoodfar - Professor emerita at Concordia University and once prisoner of conscience in Iran's notorious Evin Prison
Vrinda Narain - Associate Professor at McGill University
Registration is required. Click here to register. |
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In September, Professor Irwin Cotler was hosted by PEN America to speak on Nasrin Sotoudeh's urgent condition after her near 50-day hunger strike. The panel was moderated by RWCHR Senior Fellow Sherman Teichman, and included panelists Karin Deutsch Karlekar, Amir Soltani, Roya Boroumand, and Ladan Boroumand, calling for the immediate release of Sotoudeh and discussing the dire conditions she faces as a result of her hunger strike.
To read more about it, click here. |
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| Upcoming Events & Webinars |
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Sowing the Seeds of Peace: Commemorating the Historic Visit of President Sadat to Jerusalem |
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The RWCHR is pleased to co-sponsor a webinar with the Consul General of Israel and the Consul General of Egypt to commemorate the 43rd anniversary of Former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's historic visit to Jerusalem.
On November 19th at 10:00AM, join us as Professor Irwin Cotler, Mr. Hossam Moharam and Mr. David Levy discuss the importance of President Sadat's 1977 trip as he was the first Arab leader to visit Israel and address the Knesset with a call for peace.
Registration details to follow. Be sure to check our social media platforms next week for the details. Links to our social media platforms can be found at the end of this newsletter. |
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International Justice: Responsibility to Protect Magnitsky Laws |
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On October 21st, the Embassy of Venezuela to Canada hosted an important webinar titled "International Justice: Responsibility to Protect Magnitsky Laws". This event featured world leading subject experts including Bill Browder, Juan Guaido, RWCHR Senior Fellow Jared Genser, and Chair of the RWCHR, Professor Irwin Cotler.
Watch the full event here. |
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Authoritarianism and Democratic Decline |
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On October 8th, Professor Irwin Cotler joined Michael Abramowitz of Freedom House for a conversation on the resurgent authoritarianism and global decline in democracy. This important webinar was moderated by the Washington Post's Anne Gearan.
Watch the full webinar here. |
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In June, the RWCHR hosted a panel with the Montreal Institute for Gencoide and Human Rights Studies to discuss China's attempt to contain the truth about COVID-19 and its increasing threats against journalists and media personnel. The panel talked extensively about the CCP's mishandling of COVID-19 and how it ultimately led to a widespread pandemic.
The panelists included RWCHR Chair Irwin Cotler, RWCHR Executive Director Judith Abitan, RWCHR Senior Fellows Terry Glavin and Carl Gershman, Hong Kong politician Emily Lau, Chinese journalist Sheng Xue, and more. To view the webinar, click here. |
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Canada Should Name and Shame the Iranian Leaders Repressing Human-rights Advocates like Nasrin Sotoudeh |
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As the heroic Nasrin Sotoudeh, known as Iran's Mandela - defender of women's rights, children's rights, journalists rights, and rights of all - languishes in critical condition in a COVID high-risk prison. The world must name and shame the Iranian leaders repression of human-rights activists like Nasrin. Read more about her plight in a Globe and Mail piece written by Professor Irwin Cotler and International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute's Director and RWCHR international legal advisory board member Baroness Helena Kennedy.
Click here to read more.
The op-ed followed a months-long worldwide campaign, led by the RWCHR, PEN America and the International Bar Association, bringing international attention to her cause during her hunger strike, including an urgent submission to the UN, a webinar and featured articles in TIME Magazine, the UK Independent and the Canadian Press. |
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The Chinese Communist Party and the Pandemic of Impunity |
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RWCHR Chair, Irwin Cotler, and Executive Director, Judith Abitan, published an article on the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP). In it they discuss the CCP's suppression of information and cover-up of COVID-19, the targeting doctors and dissidents, and the culture of impunity.
"In a word, the denial, disinformation, and coverup surrounding COVID-19- underpinned by the use of harassment and intimidation of dissidents abroad and the repression of medical heroes, whistleblowers, and dissidents at home- have become standard operating procedure for the CCP. Immunity and impunity incentivize repression."
Click here to read more.
The article followed a series of legal and public initiatives by the RWCHR, including those of the McGill Law Wallenberg Advocacy Group, on behalf of Dr. Wang Bingzhang, founder of the Chinese Overseas Democracy Movement. Including an open letter, a white paper, a webinar, and an op-ed. |
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For Irwin Cotler, Neither a Pandemic nor Retirement from Politics Can Slow his Fight for Human Rights |
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In homage to his diligence and dedication in the fight for human rights, the Globe and Mail dedicated a 2-page spread to Professor Irwin Cotler.
In the words of Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella, Honourary Chair of RWCHR: "We say in the legal profession that the constitution is a living tree – a concept we got from the Privy Council in England in 1929 that guides Canadian jurisprudence," she says. "Irwin is probably one of the best waterers of that tree we've had in this country."
Click here to read more. |
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| This is a brief snapshot of the domestic and global reach of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. For ongoing updates and special alerts, follow us on social media! |
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