Nobel Women's Initiative

In a sudden change of events, Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial, which was due to resume on Friday, 3 July, has been postponed to 10 July 2009.  The trial would have coincided with the first day of a two-day visit to the country by Ban Ki-moon, during which he will meet with Senior General Than Shwe and members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

“We arrived to the courtroom around 10am [today], as scheduled for the hearing, and a judge told us we are reappointed to July 10,” said one of the remaining witness, Khin Moe Moe.

On June 29th, Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire and 20 other human rights activists were detained by Israeli authorities while on the Free Gaza Movement peaceful mission to deliver aid to the people of Gaza. The Nobel Women's Initiative calls on the Israeli government to immediately release all of the nonviolent activists and to ensure that the humanitarian aid reaches the people of Gaza.

Israeli naval forces forcibly boarded the Free Gaza boat 23 miles off the coast of Gaza.  The activists were taken from the boat at gunpoint and held in the Ashdod detention centre. Maguire was handcuffed when she protested at being isolated from the rest of the group, but was soon moved to Giv'on prison, where she and the rest of the group are presently being held. The boat was headed to Gaza, carrying construction materials, three tons of medical supplies, and suitcases full of children's toys, all items banned by the Israeli government.

African civil society leaders, Nobel Laureates, and justice experts from across the continent are uniting ahead of the African Union summit, to call for action on the crisis in Sudan.  In particular, the leaders are supporting the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and calling for humanitarian access. 

The statement, signed by Nobel Laureates Wangari Maathai (Peace, 2004), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Peace, 1984), and Wole Soyinka (Literature, 1986), as well as 39 other prominent African experts, emphasizes that the ICC plays a critical role in achieving the objectives of “justice and accountability for the peoples of Sudan.”

Iranian journalist Zhila Bani Yaghoub and her husband Bahman Ahmadi Amooyi were arrested in Iran over the weekend after government forces reportedly raided their home.  Yaghoub is a veteran journalist who has worked to promote women's rights in Iran.

Hundreds of protesters were arrested over the weekend and at least ten were killed as authorities cracked down violently on demonstrators. Most foreign journalists have been asked to leave the country and there are reports of many Iranian journalists being arrested.