Human Rights Foundation
Encyclopedia
The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a non-profit organization whose stated mission "is to ensure that freedom is both preserved and promoted" in the Americas. The Human Rights Foundation was founded in 2005 by Thor Halvorssen. Its head office is in New York City
, New York
, USA.
HRF's website states that it adheres to the definition of human rights
as put forth in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(1976), believing that all individuals are entitled to the right to speak freely, the right to worship
in the manner of their choice, the right to freely associate with those of like mind, the right to acquire and dispose of property
, the right to leave and enter their country, the right to equal treatment and due process
under law, the right to be able to participate in the government
of their country
, freedom from arbitrary detainment or exile
, freedom from slavery and torture
, and freedom from interference and coercion
in matters of conscience
.
HRF states that it operates transparently
. It states that it makes public all of its research
and that it is open to accepting new information
and criticism
s that might undermine its positions.
HRF's Board of Directors are Thor Halvorssen Mendoza (President and CEO), Ron Jacobs, Václav Havel
, Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Jr. and Robert A. Sirico.
It is guided and endorsed by an International Council that includes former political prisoner
s Vaclav Havel
, Vladimir Bukovsky
, Mutabar Tadjibaeva, Jacqueline Moudeina, Abdel Nasser Ould Ethmane, Park Sang-hak Palden Gyatso
, Ramón José Velásquez
, Elie Wiesel
, and Harry Wu
, as well as chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov
, former Estonia
n prime minister Mart Laar
, political commentator Álvaro Vargas Llosa
, and public policy professor James Q. Wilson
. Jurist and law professor Kenneth Anderson
is also on their International Council. Anderson was founding director of the Human Rights Watch
Arms Division and later general counsel to the Open Society Institute
/Soros Foundations.
HRF does not publish the names of their donors. Their website states the following reasons: "Some funders do not wish to be known due to fear of retaliation, others do not wish to be known because they do not want to be approached by other groups or organizations soliciting for donations, and still others do not wish to be known because they may, ultimately, disagree with the decisions and public statements of HRF."
In 2009 HRF received a $35,000 grant from the Bradley Foundation
, as it had in 2007. In 2007, HRF received a grant from the John Templeton Foundation
for $171,600 toward a program called "The Nobility of the Human Spirit and the Power of Freedom", a grant from the Sarah Scaife Foundation
for $100,000 toward general operations and $20,000 from the Shelby Cullom Davis Foundation. In 2009 HRF organised a human rights event in Oslo, Norway, under the name Oslo Freedom Forum
. The event was supported by a grant for $34,000 from the government of Norway
.
HRF also produced several reports on political lynching
in Bolivia and the assault on freedom of speech.
on June 27, 2007. The documentary about human trafficking
of Haiti
ans in the Dominican Republic
drew protest from the Fanjul brothers, one of the largest beneficiaries of the human trafficking
depicted in the film, with a sugar empire that dwarfs the US Sugar Corporation
.
ian President Rafael Correa
asking for the release of the imprisoned, governor of the province of Orellana, Guadalupe Llori implying that the charges against her were politically motivated. Later in March Amnesty International
declared that governor Guadalupe Llori may be a prisoner of conscience
and a political prisoner
and in June HRF declared they considered her both. According to HRF Llori was imprisoned on trumped up terrorism charges by the government. She was sent to El Inca prison where she remained for about ten months. HRF filed a communication with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, pleading that it activate its urgent action procedure and send an appeal to the government of Ecuador for the immediate release of political prisoner Guadalupe Llori. HRF visited her in prison. She was eventually freed after an intense international campaign and credited HRF with her release. She was re-elected governor of Orellana in April 2009.
, a former Amnesty International
prisoner of conscience who served as the priest of the St. Clare's community. The HRF campaign included actors Kelsey Grammer
, Patricia Heaton
, Gary Sinise
, Angie Harmon
, and NFL cornerback Jason Sehorn
. The campaign aimed at providing 160,000 meals for children.
that deposed President Manuel Zelaya
, HRF requested to all member states of the Organization of American States
the application of the Inter-American Democratic Charter
and the suspension of the government that ousted President Zelaya. HRF chairman Armando Valladares resigned on July 2, 2009 in response to the HRF position on the Honduran coup. The new chairman of the organization is poet and former Czech president Vaclav Havel
.
In November 2009, HRF published a report called "The facts and the law behind the democratic crisis in Honduras 2009", in which it concluded that the Organization of American States
had acted correctly in activating the Inter-American Democratic Charter
, and incorrectly in its diplomatic actions to revert the military coup. The report also concludes that the OAS behaved as an agent of Zelaya prior to the coup d'etat and that Zelaya had been eroding Honduran democracy.
and the John Templeton Foundation HRF organized the Oslo Freedom Forum
in May 2009, where freedom, democracy and human rights activists expressed their views about human rights in the world today. Participants included author Jung Chang
, holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel
, Buddhist monk Palden Gyatso
, North Korea escapee Park Sang-hak, author Greg Mortenson, former Prime Minister of Norway Kjel Magne Bondevik, former President of Romania Emil Constantinescu
, former Czech President Vaclav Havel
, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Rugees L. Craig Johnstone, Chechen leader in exile Akhmed Zakaev, Kurdish right activist Leyla Zana
, Amnesty International Norway Director John Peder Egnaes, former British royal Sarah, Duchess of York
and Harry Wu
.
Its 2010 event is supported by the Norwegian government Foreign Ministry, Amnesty Internacional Norway, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, and was endorsed by the Nobel Peace Center and Freedom House among several others. Participants included former Polish president and Nobel laureate Lech Walesa, Pakistani women´s rights activist Mukhtar Mai, Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez
, Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto, former deputy prime minister of Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim
, Ugandan LGBT rights activist Kasha Nabagesera
, Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer
, chess grandmaster and democracy activist Garry Kasparov
, former prime minister of Estonia Mart Laar
, and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales
.
. In January 2008, HRF researcher, Monica Fernandez, was shot and wounded in Caracas
, in what the police described as an armed robbery. In October 2007 HRF created a "Caracas Nine" blog to highlight "the plight of nine Venezuelans who spoke their minds and paid a price"; by January 2010, it had chosen six Venezuelans to be part of its "Caracas Nine" campaign. As part of its Caracas Nine campaign, HRF declared Francisco Usón as prisoner of conscience in December 2006. In November 2009, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
ordered Venezuela to annul the case against Francisco Usón, for violations to freedom of expression, and to due process. The court also ordered the Venezuelan State to pay +$100,000 in damages to Usón.
In 2007 HRF protested the refusal to renew RCTV
television station
's broadcasting licence by the government. HRF created a website that features information, and a video on censorship, in connection with this. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
expressed concern about the failure to renew the licence. The campaign against the refusal to renew the license—widely viewed by the human rights community as a "shutdown" included Amnesty International
, Human Rights Watch
, Freedom House
, the Committee to Protect Journalists
, the World Press Freedom Committee
and numerous other journalism and human rights organizations.
was established in 2007. None of HRF-Bolivia's directors appear on the board or council of the main HRF organization in the U.S. HRF-Bolivia has issued several reports on human rights abuses in Bolivia.HRF Bolivia is not related officially with the New York based Human Rights Foundation.
In spring 2009, Hugo Achá, the president of HRF-Bolivia at the time, was accused by Bolivian authorities of links with the alleged armed insurrectionist group led by Eduardo Rózsa-Flores
. Speaking from the United States, Achá denied any involvement and said he had merely met Rózsa because the latter had approached him in his function as a journalist, with a request for human rights-related information. Ignacio Villa Vargas, a key witness who had implicated Achá, later claimed he had been tortured and, under duress, had signed a statement prepared for him by the Bolivian official prosecuting the case. The prosecutor dismissed these statements as false. Juan Carlos Gueder, another witness who was said to have made statements linking Achá to the group, subsequently retracted them, claiming he had been tortured and forced to implicate the others. A Bolivian state ombudsman
found in January 2010 that Mario Tadic, a third associate of Rózsa-Flores' who had implicated Achá, had been tortured by police.
In June 2009 three of the seven founding HRF-Bolivia board members resigned. Subsequently a new board was formed naming as president Lidia Gueiler Tejada
, a former Bolivian president who was overthrown in a right-wing military coup d'etat
in 1980.
,http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x16155 Freedom House
, and other rights groups – has been called a CIA front by Jean Guy Allard writing for Granma
, the official organ of the Cuban Communist Party .
Writing as president of HRF in the American conservative magazine National Review
, Thor Halvorssen participated in NR's symposium on the death of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet
, and was noted as the only one of the six commentators to condemn Pinochet unequivocally, writing: "Augusto Pinochet took full control of Chile — by force. He shut down parliament, suffocated political life, banned trade unions, and made Chile his sultanate. His government disappeared 3,000 opponents, arrested 30,000 (torturing thousands of them), and controlled the country until 1990."
After a public letter released on the HRF website critical of the Bolivian government for alleged human rights violations and specifically naming government minister Sacha Sergio Llorenti Soliz as having manipulated facts and ignored due process, the minister referred to HRF as "right wing".
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, USA.
Organization
The Human Rights Foundation mission is to "unite people—regardless of their political, cultural, and ideological orientations—in the common cause of defending human rights and promoting liberal democracy in the Americas. Our mission is to ensure that freedom is both preserved and promoted".HRF's website states that it adheres to the definition of human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
as put forth in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 16, 1966, and in force from March 23, 1976...
(1976), believing that all individuals are entitled to the right to speak freely, the right to worship
Worship
Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. The word is derived from the Old English worthscipe, meaning worthiness or worth-ship — to give, at its simplest, worth to something, for example, Christian worship.Evelyn Underhill defines worship thus: "The absolute...
in the manner of their choice, the right to freely associate with those of like mind, the right to acquire and dispose of property
Property
Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...
, the right to leave and enter their country, the right to equal treatment and due process
Due process
Due process is the legal code that the state must venerate all of the legal rights that are owed to a person under the principle. Due process balances the power of the state law of the land and thus protects individual persons from it...
under law, the right to be able to participate in the government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
of their country
Country
A country is a region legally identified as a distinct entity in political geography. A country may be an independent sovereign state or one that is occupied by another state, as a non-sovereign or formerly sovereign political division, or a geographic region associated with a previously...
, freedom from arbitrary detainment or exile
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
, freedom from slavery and torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
, and freedom from interference and coercion
Coercion
Coercion is the practice of forcing another party to behave in an involuntary manner by use of threats or intimidation or some other form of pressure or force. In law, coercion is codified as the duress crime. Such actions are used as leverage, to force the victim to act in the desired way...
in matters of conscience
Conscience
Conscience is an aptitude, faculty, intuition or judgment of the intellect that distinguishes right from wrong. Moral judgement may derive from values or norms...
.
HRF states that it operates transparently
Transparency (humanities)
Transparency, as used in science, engineering, business, the humanities and in a social context more generally, implies openness, communication, and accountability. Transparency is operating in such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed...
. It states that it makes public all of its research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
and that it is open to accepting new information
Information
Information in its most restricted technical sense is a message or collection of messages that consists of an ordered sequence of symbols, or it is the meaning that can be interpreted from such a message or collection of messages. Information can be recorded or transmitted. It can be recorded as...
and criticism
Criticism
Criticism is the judgement of the merits and faults of the work or actions of an individual or group by another . To criticize does not necessarily imply to find fault, but the word is often taken to mean the simple expression of an objection against prejudice, or a disapproval.Another meaning of...
s that might undermine its positions.
HRF's Board of Directors are Thor Halvorssen Mendoza (President and CEO), Ron Jacobs, Václav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
, Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Jr. and Robert A. Sirico.
It is guided and endorsed by an International Council that includes former political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s Vaclav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
, Vladimir Bukovsky
Vladimir Bukovsky
Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky is a leading member of the dissident movement of the 1960s and 1970s, writer, neurophysiologist, and political activist....
, Mutabar Tadjibaeva, Jacqueline Moudeina, Abdel Nasser Ould Ethmane, Park Sang-hak Palden Gyatso
Palden Gyatso
Palden Gyatso is a Tibetan Buddhist monk who was born in Tibet in 1933. During the Chinese invasion of Tibet he was arrested for protesting and spent 33 years in Chinese prisons and labor camps, where he was extensively tortured. After his release in 1992 he fled to Dharamsala, in exile...
, Ramón José Velásquez
Ramón José Velásquez
Ramón José Velásquez Mujica is a Venezuelan political figure. He served as Acting president of Venezuela between 1993 and 1994. He is known as a historian, journalist, lawyer, politician and entertainer of companies for his knowledge of the "national life".Velásquez was born in Táchira,Venezuela...
, Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel
Sir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
, and Harry Wu
Harry Wu
Harry Wu is an activist for human rights in the People's Republic of China. Now a resident and citizen of the United States, Wu spent 19 years in Chinese labor camps. In 1992, he founded the Laogai Research Foundation. In 1996 the Columbia Human Rights Law Review awarded Wu its second Award for...
, as well as chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
, former Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
n prime minister Mart Laar
Mart Laar
Mart Laar is an Estonian statesman, historian and a founding member of the Foundation for the Investigation of Communist Crimes. He was the Prime Minister of Estonia from 1992 to 1994 and from 1999 to 2002, and is the leader of the conservative party Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica...
, political commentator Álvaro Vargas Llosa
Álvaro Vargas Llosa
Álvaro Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian writer and political commentator on international affairs with emphasis on Latin America. He is also the writer and presenter of a documentary series for National Geographic on contemporary Latin American history that is being shown around the world.Vargas Llosa...
, and public policy professor James Q. Wilson
James Q. Wilson
James Q. Wilson is an American academic political scientist and an authority on public administration. He is a professor and senior fellow at the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy at Boston College....
. Jurist and law professor Kenneth Anderson
Kenneth Anderson (jurist)
Kenneth Anderson is a law professor at Washington College of Law, American University, a research fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and a blogger....
is also on their International Council. Anderson was founding director of the Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
Arms Division and later general counsel to the Open Society Institute
Open Society Institute
The Open Society Institute , renamed in 2011 to Open Society Foundations, is a private operating and grantmaking foundation started by George Soros, aimed to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform...
/Soros Foundations.
Funding
HRF states that donations are accepted "with a categorical understanding that the foundation is free to research and investigate regardless of where such investigations may lead or what conclusions HRF may reach." They also add: "If an individual or foundation has contributed to HRF’s work, this does not mean HRF necessarily endorses said individual or foundation’s views or opinions. In plain language: We are grateful, privileged, and proud that we receive support; it means our mission and work are being endorsed. This does not, however, mean we endorse the views of those who support us."HRF does not publish the names of their donors. Their website states the following reasons: "Some funders do not wish to be known due to fear of retaliation, others do not wish to be known because they do not want to be approached by other groups or organizations soliciting for donations, and still others do not wish to be known because they may, ultimately, disagree with the decisions and public statements of HRF."
In 2009 HRF received a $35,000 grant from the Bradley Foundation
Bradley Foundation
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is a conservative foundation with about half a billion US dollars in assets. According to the Bradley Foundation 1998 Annual Report, it gives away more than $30 million per year...
, as it had in 2007. In 2007, HRF received a grant from the John Templeton Foundation
John Templeton Foundation
"The John Templeton Foundation is a philanthropic organizationthat funds inter-disciplinary research about human purpose and ultimate reality. It is usually referred to simply as the Templeton Foundation...
for $171,600 toward a program called "The Nobility of the Human Spirit and the Power of Freedom", a grant from the Sarah Scaife Foundation
Sarah Scaife Foundation
The Sarah Scaife Foundation is one of the American Scaife Foundations. It is controlled by Richard Mellon Scaife. The foundation does not award grants to individuals. It concentrates its efforts towards causes focused on public policy at a national and international level...
for $100,000 toward general operations and $20,000 from the Shelby Cullom Davis Foundation. In 2009 HRF organised a human rights event in Oslo, Norway, under the name Oslo Freedom Forum
Oslo Freedom Forum
Oslo Freedom Forum is a conference about human rights first held in May 2009 in Oslo, Norway. Founded by the Human Rights Foundation. According to Thor Halvorssen , "the Oslo Freedom Forum is an intimate gathering where leaders who are transforming the world present effective solutions and...
. The event was supported by a grant for $34,000 from the government of Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
.
Bolivia
HRF participated as international observers during the controversial Santa Cruz autonomy referendum, 2008Santa Cruz autonomy referendum, 2008
A referendum to approve the autonomy statute of Santa Cruz Department of Bolivia was held on 4 May 2008. The vote resulted from strains between the Prefecture of Santa Cruz and President Evo Morales. The referendum was declared illegal and unconstitutional by the National Electoral Court. Final...
HRF also produced several reports on political lynching
Lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
in Bolivia and the assault on freedom of speech.
Dominican Republic
HRF produced and provided the funding for the documentary film "The Sugar Babies: The Plight of the Children of Agricultural Workers in the Sugar Industry". It was first screened at Florida International UniversityFlorida International University
Florida International University is an American public research university in metropolitan Miami, Florida, in the United States, with its main campus in University Park...
on June 27, 2007. The documentary about human trafficking
Human trafficking
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery...
of Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
ans in the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
drew protest from the Fanjul brothers, one of the largest beneficiaries of the human trafficking
Human trafficking
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery...
depicted in the film, with a sugar empire that dwarfs the US Sugar Corporation
US Sugar Corporation
U.S. Sugar Corporation is a large privately owned agricultural business based in Clewiston, Florida.. The company farms over of land in the counties of Hendry, Glades and Palm Beach. It is the largest producer of sugarcane in the United States, producing over 700,000 tons per year...
.
Ecuador
In March 2008 HRF wrote to EcuadorEcuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
ian President Rafael Correa
Rafael Correa
Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado born is the President of the Republic of Ecuador and was the president pro tempore of the Union of South American Nations. An economist educated in Ecuador, Belgium and the United States, he was elected President in late 2006 and took office in January 2007...
asking for the release of the imprisoned, governor of the province of Orellana, Guadalupe Llori implying that the charges against her were politically motivated. Later in March Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
declared that governor Guadalupe Llori may be a prisoner of conscience
Prisoner of conscience
Prisoner of conscience is a term defined in Peter Benenson's 1961 article "The Forgotten Prisoners" often used by the human rights group Amnesty International. It can refer to anyone imprisoned because of their race, religion, or political views...
and a political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
and in June HRF declared they considered her both. According to HRF Llori was imprisoned on trumped up terrorism charges by the government. She was sent to El Inca prison where she remained for about ten months. HRF filed a communication with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, pleading that it activate its urgent action procedure and send an appeal to the government of Ecuador for the immediate release of political prisoner Guadalupe Llori. HRF visited her in prison. She was eventually freed after an intense international campaign and credited HRF with her release. She was re-elected governor of Orellana in April 2009.
Haiti
Following the 2010 earthquake that took place in Haiti, HRF began a fundraising campaign among Hollywood and sports celebrities for a food program devoted to the children of the St Clare's community of Port-au-Prince. The program was started in 2000 by American author Margaret Trost and by the late Gerard Jean-JusteGérard Jean-Juste
Fr. Gérard Jean-Juste was a Roman Catholic priest and rector of Saint Claire's church for the poor in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He was also a liberation theologian and a supporter of the Fanmi Lavalas political party, the largest in Haiti. In 1978, Father Jean-Juste founded the Haitian Refugee Center...
, a former Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
prisoner of conscience who served as the priest of the St. Clare's community. The HRF campaign included actors Kelsey Grammer
Kelsey Grammer
Allen Kelsey Grammer is an American actor and comedian. He is most widely known for his two-decade portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the sitcoms Cheers and Frasier...
, Patricia Heaton
Patricia Heaton
Patricia Helen Heaton is an American actress, comedienne, producer and model, best known for portraying Debra Barone on the CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond from 1996 to 2005, for which she won two Emmy Awards....
, Gary Sinise
Gary Sinise
Gary Alan Sinise is an American actor, film director and musician. During his career, Sinise has won various awards including an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1992, Sinise directed, and played the role of George Milton in the successful film adaptation of...
, Angie Harmon
Angie Harmon
Angela Michelle "Angie" Harmon is an American fashion model and television/film actress. She became a well-known model before gaining international fame for her roles in Baywatch Nights and Law & Order....
, and NFL cornerback Jason Sehorn
Jason Sehorn
Jason Heath Sehorn is a former professional American football defensive back in the National Football League.-Early years:Sehorn was born in Sacramento, California...
. The campaign aimed at providing 160,000 meals for children.
Honduras
Following the 2009 Honduran coup d'état2009 Honduran coup d'état
The 2009 Honduran coup d'état, part of the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis, occurred when the Honduran Army ousted President Manuel Zelaya and sent him into exile on June 28, 2009. It was prompted by his attempts to schedule a non binding poll on holding a referendum about convening a...
that deposed President Manuel Zelaya
Manuel Zelaya
José Manuel Zelaya Rosales is a politician who was President of Honduras from January 27, 2006 until June 28, 2009. The eldest son of a wealthy businessman, he inherited his father's nickname "Mel," and, before entering politics, was involved in his family's logging and timber businesses.Elected...
, HRF requested to all member states of the Organization of American States
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States is a regional international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States...
the application of the Inter-American Democratic Charter
Inter-American Democratic Charter
The Inter-American Democratic Charter was adopted on 11 September 2001 by a special session of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States, held in Lima, Peru. It is an inter-American instrument with the central aim of strengthening and upholding democratic institutions in the...
and the suspension of the government that ousted President Zelaya. HRF chairman Armando Valladares resigned on July 2, 2009 in response to the HRF position on the Honduran coup. The new chairman of the organization is poet and former Czech president Vaclav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
.
In November 2009, HRF published a report called "The facts and the law behind the democratic crisis in Honduras 2009", in which it concluded that the Organization of American States
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States is a regional international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States...
had acted correctly in activating the Inter-American Democratic Charter
Inter-American Democratic Charter
The Inter-American Democratic Charter was adopted on 11 September 2001 by a special session of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States, held in Lima, Peru. It is an inter-American instrument with the central aim of strengthening and upholding democratic institutions in the...
, and incorrectly in its diplomatic actions to revert the military coup. The report also concludes that the OAS behaved as an agent of Zelaya prior to the coup d'etat and that Zelaya had been eroding Honduran democracy.
Oslo Freedom Forum
With support from the city of OsloOslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
and the John Templeton Foundation HRF organized the Oslo Freedom Forum
Oslo Freedom Forum
Oslo Freedom Forum is a conference about human rights first held in May 2009 in Oslo, Norway. Founded by the Human Rights Foundation. According to Thor Halvorssen , "the Oslo Freedom Forum is an intimate gathering where leaders who are transforming the world present effective solutions and...
in May 2009, where freedom, democracy and human rights activists expressed their views about human rights in the world today. Participants included author Jung Chang
Jung Chang
Jung Chang is a Chinese-born British writer now living in London, best known for her family autobiography Wild Swans, selling over 10 million copies worldwide but banned in the People's Republic of China....
, holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel
Sir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
, Buddhist monk Palden Gyatso
Palden Gyatso
Palden Gyatso is a Tibetan Buddhist monk who was born in Tibet in 1933. During the Chinese invasion of Tibet he was arrested for protesting and spent 33 years in Chinese prisons and labor camps, where he was extensively tortured. After his release in 1992 he fled to Dharamsala, in exile...
, North Korea escapee Park Sang-hak, author Greg Mortenson, former Prime Minister of Norway Kjel Magne Bondevik, former President of Romania Emil Constantinescu
Emil Constantinescu
Emil Constantinescu was President of Romania from 1996 to 2000.He graduated from the law school of the University of Bucharest, and subsequently started a career as a geologist...
, former Czech President Vaclav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Rugees L. Craig Johnstone, Chechen leader in exile Akhmed Zakaev, Kurdish right activist Leyla Zana
Leyla Zana
Leyla Zana , is a Kurdish politician, who was imprisoned for 10 years for her political actions which were claimed to be against the unity of Turkey. When she was a member of pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, she was banned from joining any political party for five years with the Constitutional...
, Amnesty International Norway Director John Peder Egnaes, former British royal Sarah, Duchess of York
Sarah, Duchess of York
Sarah, Duchess of York is a British charity patron, spokesperson, writer, film producer, television personality and former member of the British Royal Family. She is the former wife of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, whom she married from 1986 to 1996...
and Harry Wu
Harry Wu
Harry Wu is an activist for human rights in the People's Republic of China. Now a resident and citizen of the United States, Wu spent 19 years in Chinese labor camps. In 1992, he founded the Laogai Research Foundation. In 1996 the Columbia Human Rights Law Review awarded Wu its second Award for...
.
Its 2010 event is supported by the Norwegian government Foreign Ministry, Amnesty Internacional Norway, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, and was endorsed by the Nobel Peace Center and Freedom House among several others. Participants included former Polish president and Nobel laureate Lech Walesa, Pakistani women´s rights activist Mukhtar Mai, Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez
Yoani Sánchez
Yoani Maria Sánchez Cordero is a Cuban blogger who has achieved international fame and multiple international awards for her critical portrayal of life in Cuba under its current government....
, Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto, former deputy prime minister of Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim
Anwar Ibrahim
Anwar bin Ibrahim is a Malaysian politician who served as Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister from 1993 to 1998. Early in his career, Anwar was a close ally of Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad but subsequently emerged as the most prominent critic of Mahathir's government.In 1999, he was sentenced...
, Ugandan LGBT rights activist Kasha Nabagesera
Kasha Nabagesera
Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera is a Ugandan LGBT rights activist. She is the founder and executive director of an LGBT rights organisation called Freedom and Roam Uganda. She has publicly campaigned for an end to homophobia in Uganda, where homosexuality is illegal...
, Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer
Rebiya Kadeer
Rebiya Kadeer is a prominent Uyghur businesswoman and political activist from the northwest region of Xinjiang Autonomus Region of the People's Republic of China...
, chess grandmaster and democracy activist Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
, former prime minister of Estonia Mart Laar
Mart Laar
Mart Laar is an Estonian statesman, historian and a founding member of the Foundation for the Investigation of Communist Crimes. He was the Prime Minister of Estonia from 1992 to 1994 and from 1999 to 2002, and is the leader of the conservative party Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica...
, and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....
.
Venezuela
The Human Rights Foundation published four reports in November 2006, all case studies of human rights violations in VenezuelaVenezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
. In January 2008, HRF researcher, Monica Fernandez, was shot and wounded in Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
, in what the police described as an armed robbery. In October 2007 HRF created a "Caracas Nine" blog to highlight "the plight of nine Venezuelans who spoke their minds and paid a price"; by January 2010, it had chosen six Venezuelans to be part of its "Caracas Nine" campaign. As part of its Caracas Nine campaign, HRF declared Francisco Usón as prisoner of conscience in December 2006. In November 2009, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
Inter-American Court of Human Rights
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is an autonomous judicial institution based in the city of San José, Costa Rica. Together with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, it makes up the human rights protection system of the Organization of American States , which serves to uphold and...
ordered Venezuela to annul the case against Francisco Usón, for violations to freedom of expression, and to due process. The court also ordered the Venezuelan State to pay +$100,000 in damages to Usón.
In 2007 HRF protested the refusal to renew RCTV
RCTV
Radio Caracas Televisión Internacional is a Venezuelan cable television network headquartered in the Caracas neighborhood of Quinta Crespo. It was sometimes referred to as the Canal de Bárcenas. Owned by Empresas 1BC, RCTV Internacional was inaugurated as Radio Caracas Televisión on 15 November...
television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
's broadcasting licence by the government. HRF created a website that features information, and a video on censorship, in connection with this. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States .Along with the...
expressed concern about the failure to renew the licence. The campaign against the refusal to renew the license—widely viewed by the human rights community as a "shutdown" included Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
, Freedom House
Freedom House
Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights...
, the Committee to Protect Journalists
Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent nonprofit organisation based in New York City that promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists.-History:A group of U.S...
, the World Press Freedom Committee
World Press Freedom Committee
The World Press Freedom Committee is a coordination group of national and international news media organizations.The WPFC set out global press freedom principles in the 1981 Declaration of Talloires , followed in 1987 by the 10-point Charter for a Free Press...
and numerous other journalism and human rights organizations.
HRF Bolivia
HRF-BoliviaBolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
was established in 2007. None of HRF-Bolivia's directors appear on the board or council of the main HRF organization in the U.S. HRF-Bolivia has issued several reports on human rights abuses in Bolivia.HRF Bolivia is not related officially with the New York based Human Rights Foundation.
In spring 2009, Hugo Achá, the president of HRF-Bolivia at the time, was accused by Bolivian authorities of links with the alleged armed insurrectionist group led by Eduardo Rózsa-Flores
Eduardo Rózsa-Flores
Eduardo Rózsa-Flores was a Bolivian-Hungarian mercenary, journalist, actor, and secret agent. Born in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, he was known in Hungary as Rózsa-Flores Eduardo or Rózsa György Eduardo...
. Speaking from the United States, Achá denied any involvement and said he had merely met Rózsa because the latter had approached him in his function as a journalist, with a request for human rights-related information. Ignacio Villa Vargas, a key witness who had implicated Achá, later claimed he had been tortured and, under duress, had signed a statement prepared for him by the Bolivian official prosecuting the case. The prosecutor dismissed these statements as false. Juan Carlos Gueder, another witness who was said to have made statements linking Achá to the group, subsequently retracted them, claiming he had been tortured and forced to implicate the others. A Bolivian state ombudsman
Ombudsman
An ombudsman is a person who acts as a trusted intermediary between an organization and some internal or external constituency while representing not only but mostly the broad scope of constituent interests...
found in January 2010 that Mario Tadic, a third associate of Rózsa-Flores' who had implicated Achá, had been tortured by police.
In June 2009 three of the seven founding HRF-Bolivia board members resigned. Subsequently a new board was formed naming as president Lidia Gueiler Tejada
Lidia Gueiler Tejada
Lidia Gueiler Tejada was the first female President of Bolivia, serving in an interim capacity from 1979 to 1980...
, a former Bolivian president who was overthrown in a right-wing military coup d'etat
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
in 1980.
Public perception
Los Angeles Times writer Patrick Goldstein refers to the organization as "respected", while HRF – along with Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
,http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x16155 Freedom House
Freedom House
Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights...
, and other rights groups – has been called a CIA front by Jean Guy Allard writing for Granma
Granma (newspaper)
Granma is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party.Its name comes from the yacht Granma that carried Fidel Castro and 81 other rebels to Cuba's shores in 1956 launching the Cuban Revolution.-Editions:...
, the official organ of the Cuban Communist Party .
Writing as president of HRF in the American conservative magazine National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
, Thor Halvorssen participated in NR's symposium on the death of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
, and was noted as the only one of the six commentators to condemn Pinochet unequivocally, writing: "Augusto Pinochet took full control of Chile — by force. He shut down parliament, suffocated political life, banned trade unions, and made Chile his sultanate. His government disappeared 3,000 opponents, arrested 30,000 (torturing thousands of them), and controlled the country until 1990."
After a public letter released on the HRF website critical of the Bolivian government for alleged human rights violations and specifically naming government minister Sacha Sergio Llorenti Soliz as having manipulated facts and ignored due process, the minister referred to HRF as "right wing".