Marcelino Santiago Pacheco, member of Organización de Pueblos Indígenas Zapotecos (OPIZ), Organization of Zapotec Indigenous Peoples has not been seen since leaving his residence in Oaxaca City on April 27, 2003. The spokesman for OPIZ, and member of the National Movement for the Freedom of … [Read more...]

Martín Barrios Hernández is the president of the Human ad Labour Rights Commission of Tehuacán Valley (Comisión de Derechos Humanos y Laborales del Valle de Tehuacán) in the state of Puebla. His campaign for the rights of maquiladora (assembly factory) workers in the region has been hampered by … [Read more...]

Sergio Dante Almaraz, a lawyer for Victor Javier Garcia who was detained, along with Gustavo González Meza, for the murder of eleven women in Ciudad Juárez, maintains that his client had been tortured while in custody and forced to make a false confession. AMR 41/006/2003 On February 2, 2002, … [Read more...]

Human rights lawyer Dante Almaraz was shot dead by unknown men in the center of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua State, on 26 January 2006. A passenger in the car, reportedly Mr. Almaraz’s brother, was seriously wounded. Dante Almaraz carried out legal defence work on a number of cases involving women who … [Read more...]

ABOUT KARPAL SINGH On January 14, 2000, Mr. Singh was arrested on a charge under Malaysia's Sedition Act. The sedition charge against Mr. Singh was unprecedented in that it was based on words alleged to have been spoken by Mr. Singh in court while conducting the defence of his client, Anwar … [Read more...]

At approximately 7:15 p.m. on May 10, 2004 Ponnusamy Uthayakumar was en route from his office on Jalan Medang Tandok road in the Bangsar area of Kuala Lumpur to his home when he was attacked by three unidentified persons. Uthayakumar reported that at least three cars blocked the road preventing him … [Read more...]

Tian Chua is a long time political activist and member of the human rights group Suaram. He has campaigned for greater political freedom in the wake of the conviction of former Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim. On April 10th 2001, Tian Chua was arrested under the Malaysian Internal Security Act … [Read more...]

Lawyer Zainur Zakaria was summarily convicted of 'contempt in the face of the court' on November 1998 and sentenced to 3 months in jail. As defense counsel for former Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, he was bringing an application to have two of the prosecutors removed from the case on the … [Read more...]

Tiawon Gongloe, a leading Liberian human rights lawyer was arrested without charges on April 24 and believed to have been beaten while in custody. Amnesty International believes that his treatment was precipitated solely by his human rights advocacy. Constance Marlatt (Toronto) wrote asking the … [Read more...]

On May 25, 2004, the Observatory was informed by the Lao Movement for Human Rights (LMHR) of the death of Khamphouvieng Sisa-At, one of the leaders of the “Lao Students Movement for Democracy of 26 October 1999,” a group that organized a peaceful march on October 26, 1999, in Vientiane, to denounce … [Read more...]