Rights activists target of backlash in 2009-report

(January 23, 2010) Rights groups suffered an intense backlash in 2009 in some countries, with activists and organizations harassed, detained, crippled and killed, Human Rights Watch said recently as it urged governments to make human rights a bedrock of diplomacy. In its 20th annual review of global human rights, the group said attacks on rights monitors were not limited to authoritarian countries such as Myanmar and China. It said there was an increase in attacks on rights activists in countries with elected governments facing armed insurgencies. "Under various pretexts, these governments are attacking the very foundations of the human rights movement," said Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth in the introduction to the World Report 2010. The report said human rights monitors had been killed in Russia, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Burundi and Afghanistan, while Sudan and China routinely shut down human rights groups and Iran and Uzbekistan harassed and detained activists. Colombia, Venezuela and Nicaragua were accused of threatening and harassing activists and violence was used in countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sri Lanka, Human Rights Watch said. Some governments, such as in Ethiopia and Egypt, use extremely restrictive regulations to suppress the work of nongovernmental organizations. It also found that local and international human rights groups working in Israel had experienced a more hostile climate since the three-week Gaza war a year ago.