THE FRONT Line Dublin Platform 2011 began yesterday morning in Dublin Castle as the 130 visiting human rights activists from 85 countries gathered for the opening.
The three-day conference will continue until Friday and is designed to provide an environment where defenders of human rights can share their experiences and knowledge.
It is the sixth platform organised by Front Line, a Dublin based international foundation for the protection of human rights defenders.
In her keynote address, executive director of Front Line, Mary Lawlor, welcomed the activists from around the world to Dublin and praised them for their work.
“Justice, freedom and human rights will never come easy but neither can they be indefinitely denied when there remain those with the courage to speak out and defend the rights of others like you.
“While there is increasing repression of human rights defenders, there are also more human rights defenders in more countries making more of a difference for their communities.”
Prior to her speech, Ms Lawlor presented a bouquet of flowers to a tearful Mutabar Tadjibaeva from Uzbekistan, who finally arrived in Dublin, six years after she was arrested on her way to the 2005 platform. A critic of the Karimov regime which rules her country, Ms Tadjibaeva was sentenced to eight years imprisonment in a psychiatric hospital where she was forcibly medicated with psychotropic drugs and denied access to family and lawyers.
When all campaigns had failed to secure her release, Front Line sent a bouquet of flowers to the prison for her birthday to remind her that she had not been forgotten.
Now a refugee in France, Ms Tadjibaeva and Ms Lawlor were both overcome by emotion this morning as flowers were presented to her in person this time, before a standing ovation.
Chairing the opening function, Front Line trustee and board member, Kieran Mulvey paid tribute to the victims of state terror around the world.
“Last weekend all over the world we remembered the appalling tragedies of the bombings in the USA and the individual stories of loss and grief. Today, by holding this sixth platform we remember the victims of state terror, of paramilitaries, of repression, discrimination, torture and the denial of fundamental human rights up to and including the murder of human rights defenders.”
Details of the event can be found online at frontlinedefenders2011.com.