Piece Description

SEGMENT A:       (12:30) Award-winning human rights defenders

PROGAM TAG:      (:29)

UZBEKISTAN: In 2005, police in Uzbekistan brutally quashed a public protest against the government. Activists claim that 500 people were killed. After the massacre, the Central Asian’s government led a crack-down on journalists and human rights activists, including Umida Niazova. She won one of the 2008 Human Rights Watch Awards and speaks to host Jonathan Groubert about her arrest and her work.

CONGO: Justine Masika works in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, providing help to thousands of rape victims. Justine is also gathering evidence about sexual violence to submit to the International Criminal Court. She has just received the Human Rights Tulip, an award established by the Dutch government to honour people who take great risks to defend human rights.

BURMA: Bo Kyi also won the 2008 Human Rights Watch Award. He spent seven years in a Burmese prison after participating in the 1998 uprising which was put down just as violently as the 2007 protests. He tells Jonathan about his time in prison and his efforts to put pressure on the Burmese junta.

TEASER B:  Jonathan tells us what’s coming up in the B segment

SEGMENT B:  18:30 

CLIVE STAFFORD SMITH: He is a British lawyer who has dedicated nearly 30 years of his life in the pursuit of a fundamental belief: that being a lawyer is about giving power to the powerless. He has defended 300 people on death row and has lost only six of those cases. He is also a vociferous opponent of the US detention centre at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Meribeth Dean followed Clive Stafford Smith for several months to produce a portrait of the man and his work.

TEASER C: Jonathan tells us what’s coming up in the C segment

MUSIC BED  (1:30)

SEGMENT C:  19:00

BRAZIL: There are favelas or shantytowns in all of Brazil’s big and medium-sized cities. Valdênia Paulino lives and works in one of the most violent favelas in São Paulo. She’s fighting for the rights of slum dwellers, providing them with education and access to the justice system. She has received numerous death threats and there is now a bounty on her head, but she has no intention of giving up her battle.

IRAN: For the past 30 years, Mehrangiz Kar, an Iranian lawyer and writer, has been defending political activists and women sentenced to stoning or death. Kar spent four years in jail for criticising Iran’s legal system, based on Islamic sharia law. She currently teaches at Harvard University and spoke to Jonathan about why she decided to defend women’s rights.

CLOSING MONTAGE: