24 Feb 2011

Silence is Not an Option!

The undersigned organisations urge the Human Rights Council to act urgently to respond to the violent repression of demonstrations currently underway in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. The Human Rights Council cannot be a passive bystander of such events, during which the lives of ordinary citizens have been taken or put at risk through violent and unlawful repression. Hundreds of thousands of people in several countries have taken to the streets to peacefully call for their fundamental rights and freedoms to be respected.

libya-street

Several hundred demonstrators have been killed. Protestors, journalists, human rights defenders, former political prisoners and humanitarian workers have been beaten or arbitrarily arrested. In the face of such wide-spread rights violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms the United Nations Human Rights Council can no longer remain silent.

Read what the Council should do on Fédération Internationale des ligues des Droits de l'Homme