A/HRC/30/29
14.
It should be recalled that the cases included in the present report are not exhaustive.
They are examples of a larger number of mostly invisible cases. In accordance with the
principle of do no harm, risk assessments were conducted on a case-by-case basis, resulting
in the exclusion of those cases where the risk to the safety and well-being of the individuals
concerned was deemed too high.
B.
1.
Summary of cases
Bahrain
15.
On 14 October 2014, a number of special procedure mandate holders raised
concerns over possible acts of reprisal against Nabeel Rajab, President of the Bahrain
Center for Human Rights, in connection with his arrest and detention on 1 October 2014, a
day after returning to Bahrain from Europe where he had met with representatives of
OHCHR (A/HRC/28/85, case BHR 13/2014). The Government, in its response dated 24
November 2014 (ibid.), stated that there had been no reprisals but that Mr. Rajab had been
charged with publicly defaming the Ministry of the Interior and security forces in relation
to statements that he had posted on his Twitter account, and that the court had ordered his
release pending trial but banned him from travelling. In its letter on reprisals of 13 May
2015, the Committee against Torture expressed its fear that Mr. Rajab might have been
rearrested and detained on 2 April 2015, this time in connection with the submission by the
Bahrain Center for Human Rights of an alternative report submitted to the Committee for
its fifty-fourth session. Following his arrest, Mr. Rajab was reportedly detained at the Isa
Twon detention centre and his house raided by government security forces. The Ministry of
the Interior reportedly subsequently announced that Mr. Rajab had been “captured” after
publishing information that would harm civil peace and insulting a statutory body. As
reported by the Committee in its letter on reprisals of 13 May 2015, on 11 May 2015, the
High Court of Bahrain reportedly extended Mr. Rajab’s detention by 15 days. At the time
of finalization of the present report, no response to the letter sent by the Committee had
been received from the Government.
2.
Burundi
16.
The Committee against Torture, in its letter on reprisals of 25 November 2014,
referred to allegations of serious threats against Pacifique Nininahazwe, President of Forum
pour la conscience et le développement, following his briefing to the Committee in relation
to its consideration of the second periodic report of Burundi at its fifty-third session
(CAT/C/BDI/2). On 28 November 2014, the Committee addressed a second letter to the
Government in which it stated that it had also been informed of serious threats against Mr.
Nininahazwe’s family. In its reply of 5 December 2014, the Government denied the
allegations, stating that while no one would be prosecuted for the legal exercise of their
human rights work, no one was above the law and the defence of human rights could not be
invoked as grounds for violating the law.
3.
China
17.
In its concluding observations on the seventh and eighth periodic reports of China,
the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women expressed concern that
some reports that it received from non-governmental organizations had been censored by
State agents and that some organization representatives feared reprisals by the State party as
a result of their submission (see CEDAW/C/CHN/CO/7-8, paras. 32-33); see also
CEDAW/C/SR.1251, paras. 21, 33, 58 and 61). The Committee also expressed concern at
reports of travel restrictions imposed on at least one woman human rights activist who
intended to brief the Committee, and recommended that the Government take all necessary
measures to protect women human rights defenders and to ensure that no such travel
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