The UN listed 38 “shameful” countries including India, China and Russia in which it said had carried out intimidation against people cooperating with it on human rights, through killings, torture and arbitrary arrests. The 38 countries included 29 countries with new cases and 19 with ongoing or continuing cases.
Andrew Gilmour who is the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights will present the report to the Human Rights Council next week, said in a statement that the cases in the report were the tip of the iceberg.
Governments frequently charged human rights activists with terrorism or blamed them for cooperating with foreign entities or damaging the state’s reputation or security, the real global threat of terrorism notwithstanding, this issue must be tackled without compromising respect for human rights it said.
“We are also increasingly seeing legal, political and administrative hurdles used to intimidate and silence civil society, governments can do much more to stop reprisals, ensure that they do not recur, and hold those responsible to account for their actions,” Gilmour said.
[source_without_link]SIASAT NEWS[/source_without_link]