Nie Shubin's story

"Mr and Mrs Nie... are a couple I met last month at their little brick house in a village three hours south of Beijing.

They perched on a couple of old stools in their tiny courtyard. Both are in their mid 50s, but Mr Nie looks much, much older.

He can barely hobble, with the aid of a stick, pain etched on his face with every step.

Ten years ago, Mr Nie drank pesticide to try to kill himself. He was driven by madness and depression brought on by the death of his only son Nie Shubin.

Nie Shubin was barely 20 when he was killed by an executioner's bullet to the back of his head. While in police custody, he had confessed to the murder of a young woman.

"They beat him," Mr Nie tells me, tears now glistening in her eyes. "They beat him until he confessed. They did not care about the truth. They say you are guilty, so you are guilty."

China carries out the death penalty on an industrial scale. As many as 8,000 to 10,000 people are executed here every year.

Mrs Nie got to see her son only once before he went to his death.

"I found out which day he would be in court and fought my way in," she told me.

"The police did not want to let me in, but I pushed and screamed until they let me through."

"Then I saw him. In shackles, he was being led away. 'Shubin,' I called. He turned and saw me. 'Ma,' he shouted, tears flooding down his cheeks."

Mrs Nie rushed towards her son, but the police held her back. There would be no last goodbye.

Ten years after Shubin was executed, another man came forward and admitted he had murdered the young woman. Mrs Nie has appealed to the police to review her son's case. They do not want to know.

The reason I tell you this story is that Mr and Mrs Nie are far from being alone. Across China there are tens, even hundreds of thousands of people with similar stories to tell - stories of brutality and injustice at the hands of those in power."

Reproduced from BBC News Online. You can read the entire article here

Zhisheng's story

Gao Zhisheng is a rare breed in China - he is a human rights lawyer.

This year, he organised a protest. The protest was allegedly against police brutality against certain activists.

According to BBC News online, Zhisheng has represented members of Falun Gong, members of an underground church and others who had complained that they lost land to the Chinese authorities.

In August this year, Zhisheng was detained in Beijing. On 21st September 2006, Zhisheng was formally arrested "on suspicion of inciting subversion of state power".

According to his lawyer, Mo, he had to go personally to the prosecutors to learn of the charges against Zhisheng. Mo had also told Reuters that the police investigation could take several months before a decision is made on whether to charge Zhisheng or not.

For now, Zhisheng is detained indefinitely and his family members are not allowed to see him.

Source: BBC News online

Guangcheng's story

Last year, Guangcheng made several accusations against the local health workers in Linyi. He alleged that they were coercing women to have late term abortions or sterilisation. This is in order to keep in line with the (IMHO ridiculous and a violation of human rights) one-child policy in China.

This year, Time Magazine named him as one of the 100 most inlfuential people in the world for exposing the problem.

It did not come without a price.

Guangcheng was detained in September 2005. He was subsequently charged for "damaging property and organising a mob to disturb traffic".

His trial, which was schedued last week brought concern to many who feared for him. Their fears were not unfounded.

Before the trial, Guangcheng's lawyers were arrested.

Guangcheng was subsequently represented by 2 state-appointed lawyers - against his will, of course.

The proceedings were held behind closed doors.

The trial took only 2 hours!

Guangcheng has been found guilty sentenced to 4 years and 3 months in prison.

Source: BBC News Online

Xiancai's story

Fu Xiancai was fighting for the rights of the people who were affected by the Three Gorges dam in China.

The said dam is the world's largest hydro-electric project. Unfortunately, more than a million people have ben displaced from their homes. Many farmers were relocated on inferior land. Others were not adequately compensated. These are the people whom Xiancai were speaking out for.

Unortunately, his act has resulted in a big price on him. According to Human Rights in China, Xiancai had been subject to a series of threats, attacks and harassment in the past year. The Zigui County Public Security Bureau (PSB) are purportedly involved in the harrasment.

It did not stop there. On June 8, Xiancai was summonned to answer some questions posed by the PSB. On his way home, he was beaten up severely. A blow to the back of his neck broke his spine and left him paralysed.

The subsequent investigations on the assult was conducted by none other than the Zigui County PSB!!!!!!!!

The official investigation has recently completed and the conclusion held was that the injuries sufferred by Xiancai was self-inflicted! Yes, he beat himself up until he was paralysed.

Xiancai can appeal against the outcome of the investigation. But he has been told not to.

Source: BBC News Online; Human Rights in China

Samaira's story

Samaira Nazir got to know Salman Mohammed in 2000. He came over to the UK from Afghanistan and he bacame a family friend.

Soon friendship developed into something more. But they had to keep their feelings for each other a secret as Samaira's family would not approve of it. They would want her to marry someone who is a Pakistani, just like they are.

But the secret could only be kept for so long. Samaira and Salman decided to come clean. As expected, her family reacted angrily. Her mother refused to talk to her about it. When Samaira returned home one day, she was attacked by her brother. She tried to flee but was forced back into her house by her own flesh and blood.

Samaira was found dead subsequently. She was stabbed 18 times. She was murdered by her own brother.

As the prosecutor for the case said, she lost her life for loving the wrong man.

Honour killings like these still exist in today.

p/s - her brother had been found guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Source: BBC News Online - read report here.

Noor's story

Noor Jehan, a 14 year old girl, lived in Karachi, Pakistan with her parents.

One of her counsin took fancy of her and wanted to marry her. Her parents did not allow it. The cousin, along with other Noor's counsins came to Noor's house and beat up Noor's parents. Thereafter, they forcibly abducted her and drove her away to the suburb of Gadap.

They took her out of the car and started shooting her - they shot her in her legs, her left hand and her stomach. 5 shots altogether. Satisfied with their dastardly and cowardly act, they threw her into a ditch and left her to die.

Determined to live, Noor crawled out of the ditch and found help. She was taken to the Government Hospital in Karachi and treated. Armed guards were placed there to protect her.

She survived to tell her story. But not for very long. She died due to infection to her abdominal wounds.

Her parents have disappeared since the incident.

There was no one to claim little Noor's body from the hospital.

Source: BBC News Online - read report here.

Raihon's story

Raihon Hudoyberganova was an undergraduate student at the Islamic Affairs Department of the Tashkent State Institute in Uzbekistan. She is a Muslim and she dresses in the manner that she believes is prescribed by her religion. She wears a "hijab" - a headscrarf.

In her thrid year at the Institute, she along with other students who wears the hijab were given a special invitation by the Institute. It was an invitation to leave the Institute and to study at the Tashkent Islamic Institute instead!!!!

The invitation was declined.

2 months later, her father was invited to the Institute and he was told that Raihon was in touch with a dangerous religion group that that she wore a hijab to the Institute. Raihon was taken home by her father.

But she returned less than a month later - and this prompted the University authorities to call her parents and complained about her attire.

Raihon alleges that subsequently, she was threatened and there were attempts to prevent her from attending classes.

The following month, a new regulation was adopted where students in the institute had no right to wear religious dress. Raihon signed it under protest. She was summoned into one of the Deputy Dean's office and was asked to take off her hijab.

In the following month, the Islamic Affairs Department was closed and Raihon was told that it may reopen if the students ceased to wear the hijab.

Finally, on 25th March 1998, Raihon was informed of an Order by the Rector which excluded her from the Institute based on her alleged negative attitude towards the professors and on a violation of the provisions of the Institute's regulations. She was also informed that if she ceased wearing the hijab, the order would be annulled.

She refused to give in and betray her faith and believes. She was thus refused to be allowed to continue her studies.

The UN Human Rights Committee on 5th November 2004 found that there was a violation of Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which prohibits any coercion that would impair the individual's freedom to have or adopt a religion. Uzbekistan was held to therefore provide Raihon with an effective remedy and is under an obligation to take measures to prevent similar violations in the future.

p/s - you can read the Human Rights Committee's decision here.

Henry's story

Henry Giovanni Contreras, 18 years of age had some pretty good mates - Federico Clemente Figueroa Túnchez, 20 years of age; Julio Roberto Caal Sandoval, 15 years of age, Jovito Josué Juárez Cifuentes, 17 years of age.

They lived on 18th Street, between 4th and 5th Avenues in Zone 1 of Guatemala City in the Republic of Guatemala; in this general area they particularly frequented the sector known as “Las Casetas”, where there were kiosks selling food and drinks.

The area of “Las Casetas” at that time was notorious owing to the high rate of crime and delinquency; it also sheltered a large number of “street children” – youths like Henry and his mates who basically live on the streets. They lived in extremely precarious socio-economic conditions and who fought to survive alone and fearful of a society that did not include them, but rather excluded them.

Rosa Trinidad worked in one of the kiosks in Las Casetas. She hated the children who hung around that area, to the point that she threw hot coffee at them so that they would keep away from the PEPSI COLA kiosk, where she worked.

So, it was to Henry and his mates’ pleasant surprise when Rosa one day assembled all the street children outside the kiosk and gave them soup, telling them “eat a lot I will be back in a moment I am only going to the washroom”.

Ten minutes later a vehicle parked in front of this kiosk and two individuals dressed in civilian clothes and carrying firearms got out. They threatened the youths and used force to round them all up into the vehicle. All this was done in broad daylight in public. Henry and his 3 friends were among those rounded up.

The two men were in fact members of the National Police Force - Néstor Fonseca López and Samuel Rocael Valdez Zúñiga.

They however did not make a report on the detentions, did not present the youths before the competent judicial authority and, therefore, did not allow them to file a petition for habeas corpus.

They were however held captive for some long hours – believed to be somewhere between 10 and 21 hours. The treatment they received was extremely agrressive.

They were young, defenseless and extremely frightened. They knew that their ives were in danger – and who would care? They were Street Children! One can only imagine the psychological suffering they had to endure. Unfortunately, that was not the only sufferring they had to endure.

On June 16 and 17 the bodies of Henry and his 3 friends were located in the San Nicolás Woods, zone 4 of the Municipality of Mixco. Cause of death was due to bullet wounds to the head – the forensic expert said that it was inflicted by a close range shot. Some of the boys had at least 3 shots to their heads, all fired from close range.

An Amnesty International report which was not contested by the State, mentions that:-

"...the bodies presented signs of torture: the ears and tongues had been cut off, and the eyes had been burned or extracted. Furthermore, it appears that some kind of burning liquid had been thrown on the chest and chin of Caal Sandoval. According to the Prosecutor-General’s office, the mutilations to which the four had been subjected correspond to the treatment that the police usually use on those who inform against this security force. The mutilation of the ears, eyes and tongue signifies that the person had heard or seen or spoken of something inadvisable".

On 19th November 1999, the American Court of Human Rights found Guatemala to have violated the right to life, right to humane treatment, right to personal liberty, right to a fair trial and the right to judicial protection of Henry and his mates.

To read the full judgment of the Court, go to this site and look for "Case of the 'Street Children' v. Guatemala. (Villagrán-Morales et al.) Judgment of November 19, 1999." You can download a copy of the judgment in Word or PDF format.

Fawzi's story

Fawzi al-Odah is from Kuwait. In 2002, he was taken forcibly and subsequently detained in a US detention camp at Guantánamo Bay.

Up till today, he has not been put on trial for any offences. That is no surprise since there has been no formal charge made up against him. He will just be kept detained until the "war on terror" is over*.

Fawzi alleges that he was beaten up when he was first brought to Guantánamo - that would not be the last time.

Out of a protest inter alia against their detention without trial, Fawzi and 83 others went on a hunger strike in December.

According to Fawzi, the tactics used by US to stop them from carrying on are as follows:-

1. They took away his "comfort items" - blanket, towel, shoes etc.;

2. Then they kept him in isolation** for 10 days;

3. Then they came and threaten to put him on "the chair" if he continue to refuse to eat. "The chair" refers to the metal chair where detainees are strapped on to be force-fed.

He refused - and the US carried out their threat. Fawzi was placed onto the "chair" and liquid food was forced through his nose via a thick tube with a metal edge.

Fawzi said, "They pulled the tubes in and out. If I resisted or tried to take the tubes out, they would strap me down, hold my head back and force the tubes in and out causing a lot more pain. It was useless to resist."

Todate, only 4 of them are still refusing food. Hardly surprising seeing the torture*** they had to endure.

Fawzi complained also of the horrible conditions in Guantánamo - "the lousy food, no reading materials, bad medical care, being in isolation". But he said that that is not the real problem of being in Guantanamo.

"The real problem is being here without reason, without hope, without a hearing. I am an innocent person who has done nothing wrong and I have had no opportunity to show that. ... A fair court with fair procedures is what I have been asking for".

Fawzi says that his health is deteriorating. He longs for death for "(d)eath in this situation is better than being alive and staying here without hope. Death would be better if it helped end this situation."

Read the transcript of the interview Fawzi gave to BBC here.

*According to the International Law of Armed Conflicts, any enemy combatants captured will be detained until the hostilities end. In this case, the US has started a "War against terror" - so technically, the hostilities may not end since "terror" can never be fully eradicated. Can it?

** The Human Rights Commission has stated many times that being kept in isolation is considered a form of torture - mental torture.

***For those who still can't imagine how can force-feeding amount to torture, here is an account given by Attorney Julia Tarver on 28th October 2005 and found in the report submitted by five holders of mandates of special procedures of the Commission on Human Rights who have been jointly following the situation of detainees held at Guantánamo Bay since June 2004:-

“They are being force-fed through the nose. The force-feeding happens in an abusive fashion as the tubes are rammed up their noses, then taken out again and rammed in again until they bleed. For a while tubes were used that were thicker than a finger because the smaller tubes did not provide the detainees with enough food. The tubes caused the detainees to gag and often they would vomit blood. The force-feeding happens twice daily with the tubes inserted and removed every time. Not all of the detainees on hunger strike are in hospital but a number of them are in their cells, where a nurse comes and inserts the tubes there.”

Roza's story

Roza Yusupova was born in Kazakhstan in 1958. She has been living in Grozny off and on since 1980.

During the war, she left Grozny with her family and returned in April 200 only to find her house to be unihabitable. At that time, her husband managed to get a job as a plumber at a police station.

One day, around 2 months after working there, he told Roza that he was going to the police station to get paid. That was the last Roza had seen of her husband.

The police station deny any knowledge of what happenned to her husband - much to Roza's disbelief.

Life has not been easy on Roza - or for that matter, those who live there. There is no piping and water supply. Clean water has to be bought and is very precious. At the same time, rain water is collected and saved for purposes such as laundry and mopping the floor. There is gas supplied - but it gets turned off frequently and is unreliable. Roza stocks up on firewoood to keep her stove going.

Roza has four sons. She says this about them:-

"I feel upset and ashamed that I can't give my children what my parents gave me. We can't give our children a peaceful childhood. There are no decent schools, and if there are they don't have the most basic conditions.

They don't know what parks or funfairs are. They are children of war, they know what killings and explosions are. They know nothing but war."

But it is her sons - and recently, a granddaughter - that keeps her going on no matter how tough life is, no matter how much she is deprived of basic human rights.

People have commented how strong Roza is, how she never cries. She doesn't deny the latter but regarding the former, she confesses that she "...was afraid to cry in front of the children, so as not to traumatise them even further".

See Roza' story told in a photo journal in BBC News Online here

Humberto's story

Humberto Alvarez Machain - or should I say Dr. Alvarez - is a medical doctor who is a Mexican and was residing in Guadalajara, Mexico.

On April the 2nd, 1990, while Dr. Alvarez was in his medical office, men came and took him by force. Dr. Alverez was then forced onto a plane which flew him into US territory. Upon disembarking the plane, Dr. Alvarez was arrested by the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) officials to be tried for the crimes he had allegedly committed!

Not surprisingly, Dr. Alvarez challenged the way he was abducted and forcibly brought to the US. The Supreme Court of the US found that while Dr. Alvarez '...may be correct that his abduction was "shocking" and in violation of general international law principles', nevertheless the decision on whether he should be returned to Mexico is one that should be left to the US government to make.

Dr. Alvarez was not returned to Mexico.

Outraged?

Would you feel any differently if it is said the DEA believed that Dr. Alvarez participated in the murder of DEA special agent Enrique Camarena Salazar by prolonging agent Camarena's life so that others could further torture and interrogate him?

You can read the Supreme Court's opinion here.

Zafar's story

Zafar Qureshi was the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) of the provincial investigation department in Punjab.

Sometime after May 2005, Zafar was made chairman of a Punjab Police inquiry committee. The purpose of the committee was to make recommendations regarding Sonia Naz's case.

The committee in its report found sufficient grounds to support Sonia's allegations. The committee further recommended the registration of FIR against the accused, including Khalid Abdullah, Superintendent of Police (SP) of Faislabad.

However, the recommendations were not implemented by the Punjab Government.

Subsequently, Zafar found himself victimised:-

1. He was removed from investigation department and transfered to Surveillance and Inspection department without any office, staff, phone and car;

2. His promotion from BPS-19 to BPS-20 was withheld;

3. Thereafter, he was told that his services were not required and was asked to stay at home till further orders.

Source: Asian Centre for Human Rights

Sonia's story

Sonia is a 23 year old housewife. She is married to one Asim Yousuf of Faislabad in Punjab. The Superintendent of Police (SP) of Faislabad is one Khalid Abdullah.

Sonia wanted to expose the excesses of the SP on hr husband and other family members. As a result, the SP along with the Jaranwala Station House Officer Inspector Jamshed Iqbal Chishti allegedly kidnapped her in May 2005.

This is what Sonia alleged was done to her:-

"SP Khalid Abdullah beat and tried to rape her. Unable to rape, he urinated on her face while Inspector Jamshed Chishti raped her in the presence of SP Khalid Abdullah."

A Punjab Police inquiry committee was set up with provincial investigation department Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Zafar Qureshi, as chairman. In its report, the committee found Sonia's charges of rape as substantial. The inquiry report said, "As regards the allegation of rape, there are sufficient grounds for registration of an FIR and subsequent investigation."

However, the Punjab Government did not implement the recommendations of Zafar Qureshi inquiry committee.

On 17 October 2005, taking suo motu cognizance of news reports about the victim's sufferings at the hands of the accused police officials, a three-member bench of Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered the immediate arrest of SP Khalid Abdullah, Inspector Jamshed Chishti and eight other policemen on charges of abduction, torture and rape of Sonia Naz.

On 24 November 2005, both prime accused-SP Khalid Abdullah and Inspector Jamshed Chisti were granted bail.

According to Sonia, since their release, there have been efforts to kill her. But the Punjab Inspector General of Police, Major Ziaul Hassan had refused to provide security to Sonia. Subsequently, Sonia's two-year-old son and a 10-month-old daughter were reportedly kidnapped on the evening of 22 January 2006. Thank God her kids were recovered from the kidnappers unharmed.

The case is still pending.

Source: Asian Centre for Human Rights (click here to read more horror stories)

Post script:-

It is extremely difficult - and even dangerous - for rape victims in Pakistan to seek justice. This is due to the Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance of 1979 which provides inter alia as follows:-

1. A rape victim is required to produce at least four adult male Muslim eyewitnesses, who have physically seen the act of rape against the victim in order to prove her case.

2. The Court must be satisfied that the witnesses are truthful persons and abstain from major sins (kabair).

3. The rape victim can be held guilty if she fails to prove the accusation.

4. The Ordinance also considers sexual intercourse as adultery whether it is with or without the consent of a woman, who is not married with the man. Therefore, if a woman complains that she has been raped, her statement pertaining to sexual intercourse can be treated as her confession to adultery and thus could be charged with the offence of Zina!!!

According to the National Commission on the Status of Women, 80% of the women prisoners in the jails were victims of the Ordinance that relates to adultery, rape, kidnapping and abduction.

Dongyue's story

It was in May 1989 when Yu Dongyue, a journalist, joined the students in the pro-democracy demonstrations at Tien An Men Square, Beijing.

At the height of the protest, Yu and 2 others threw paint at the famous Mao Zedong potrait at the Square. He was arrested for that act and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment (the equivalent to a life sentence in Malaysia!!) - for basically, a criminal damage charge.

17 years later, he was released. However, instead of a sweet reunion with his family, he could not recognise them. They say that he spoke unintelligibly. His father says that Yu is suffering from mental illness.

When a friend visited Yu in 2004, he alleged that Yu was "barely recognisable" - and that he had a big scar on the side of his head.

Human rights activists claim that Yu had been a victim of torture and his mental illness was as a result of that.

Among other things, Yu was reported to have been tied to a electricity pole and left out in the hot sun for several days. He was also kept in solitary confinement for two years and that was what broke him.

From the bright young mind of the journalist in 1989, he is now one who is mentally ill.

Torture is still widespread in China. Although China outlawed torture in 1996, the UN special rapporteur who visited China last year, Manfred Nowak, reported otherwise. He found that it remained widely in use across the country. Torture methods stil used included "use of electric shock batons, cigarette burns, and submersion in pits of water or sewage".

Source: BBC News Online - see here

My story

I'm a student doing my Masters in International Human Rights Law. I had been practicing as an Advocate and Solicitor for 7 years before calling it quits and returning to do my studies.

Many people have asked why I gave up a seemingly successful career to return to study something that is of no direct relevance to what I had been doing previously.

The story is long - and I will spare you the details. But I must say that one of the reasons why I am doing what I am doing now is because of the stories of many people all around the world - stories that leave me shaking my head in disbelief, stories that makes me cry, stories that induces vomit at times.

This blog is specially dedicated to them - I will tell their stories here. Why? Because it needs to be told. And people need to know.

Perhaps, after reading the stories, who knows - I may have just persuaded you to join me in this difficult road that I have chosen.