Writers in Prison Committee Chair's Notebook
Chair's Notebook #4
6 July, 2010
Thoughts on celebrations and campaigns and a CONGRESS REQUEST to centres
Celebrations-We are now halfway through the 50th anniversary year of the Writers in Prison Committee of PEN International. (See the end of this piece for thoughts about this small but important name change.)
The exact date of founding: 24 July 1960. Happy anniversary!
Inspired by Because Writers Speak Their Minds, the 50th anniversary campaign pages on the website, which includes a page for each of the 50 writers/50 years, and a Facebook hookup, and updates full of links, PEN centres around the world have undertaken wonderful, original activities in celebration of the 50th anniversary-some literary, some for fundraising, some for campaigns; some are taking the form of publications, others will culminate in a major event on November 15th, Day of the Imprisoned Writer. Two centres have chosen to build their marking of the anniversary on the tradition of the Empty Chair [See here for Scottish PEN and Sydney PEN chairs] Do keep checking on the updates page; it's a great rolling record of this year.
In April, I went to London for the Free the Word! Literary Festival. Two events celebrated the 50th anniversary; at both, we featured an Empty Chair, honouring Liu Xiaobo. The first was a dialogue between the Egyptian physician/writer/activist Nawaal el Saadawi and the Georgian poet/performance artist Irakli Kakabadze, moderated by journalist Michela Wrong (author of excellent It's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower which I'm just finishing). It was one of those encounters between writers from very different worlds, different generations, that took time to find its rhythm, and then was over too soon.
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon down at the Young Vic, we hosted a Literary Lunch, at which seven writers read from the texts of seven of our emblematic fifty cases. So we had, for example, Ala Hlehel, a young Palestinian writer living in Israel (look for his work in the excellent new collection, Beirut 39: New Writing from the Arab World, published by Bloomsbury) reading from Georgi Markov' eloquent memoir; South African crime writer Deon Meyer reading from Ugandan editor/essayist, Rajat Neogy's memoir; and Indian poet Sujata Bhatt reading the poems of Vietnamese Nguyen Chi Thien. We've put these seven selections, edited as scripts for reading on the website for centres who might wish to use them.
Congress Request: I hope that as many centres as possible will be able to attend the Tokyo Congress; the Japan Centre has a wonderful program in celebration of the 50th anniversary.
As a way of marking that Congress, I'd like to ask each WIPC to write no more than 200 words, on one Honorary Member, someone who has been most memorable for your centre, someone who exemplifies your work as a centre. Ideally, I'd like to collect these BEFORE the Congress; please send something to me at mbf@internationalpen.org.uk
Campaigning-In addition to performances and conversations and writing, this is also a year of serious campaigning. In my third notebook entry, I wrote about the Iran campaign; here are two other issues we're working on this year, in collaboration with various centres; both of these will be up for discussion and possibly the subject of resolutions in Tokyo:
Dawit Isaak: Since a 2001 crackdown on the independent press, Eritrea has become a nation that can place independent journalists and opposition figures into death camps with complete impunity. Since September, 2001, 15 of the 35 journalists and opposition politicians held at Eira Eiro prison camp in Eritrea have died. One of the prisoners who remains alive is a Swedish citizen, the journalist, playwright and author and International PEN WIPC main case, Dawit Isaak, who is also our emblematic case for 2002.
While Isaak and his colleagues have been detained without trial, or even formal charges, the European Union has agreed to transfer €122 million euros of unconditional aid to Eritrea between 2009-2013. But the EU agreement with Eritrea makes no mention of safeguards that will prevent aid money being used for other purposes, nor does it set out expectations which Eritrea must meet in order to remain eligible for further aid.
Even though the European Commission has expressed "concern over the human rights and governance situation in Eritrea," and even specified "the continued detention without trial or visitation rights of prisoners of conscience, the absence of a free press, severe restrictions on freedom of expression..." the Commission has recently argued that putting conditions on aid is inadvisable because of likely ill effects on the country's poorest citizens. Eritrea is one of the poorest countries in Africa. No reasonable person disputes its right to receive assistance for purposes of rebuilding its food supply, health care and infrastructure. So this is a conundrum.
The Swedish Centre (which collected 20,000 signatures on behalf of Isaak in 2009) has asked the EU to scale back economic aid to Eritrea "until the death camp in Eira Eiro has been closed, and prisoners of conscience handed over to the Red Cross, released or given fair and open trials for their alleged crimes."
I think it would be very helpful if other PEN centres would ask their own governments to raise human rights concerns, and especially the case of Isaak and others, directly with the government of Eritrea. At International PEN, in consultation with WiPC staff, our President and International Secretary, we are considering what position International PEN might take, and have already had a meeting with the EU on this case.
Religious Defamation:
In recent years, the WIPC of PEN International and many other nongovernmental organizations have expressed concern about efforts to make the criticism of someone's religion a criminal offence. Since 1999, Religious Defamation has been the subject of resolutions at both the UN General Assembly in New York, and at meetings of what is now called the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva. The most recent such resolution was narrowly passed at the UNHRC in March 2010. We're also concerned about the efforts of the UN Ad Hoc Committee on Complementary Standards, established in 2007 by the Islamic Conference (OIC) and a group of African countries, to draft a treaty that would ban religious defamation.
PEN International represents writers, artists and journalists of all faiths and none. We favour respectful discussion across nations and between religious groups and believe that Articles 19 and 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights already cover religious hate speech and threats to public order that may arise from public expression of religious insults. In June, 2008, PEN made an oral submission to a meeting of the UNHRC in Geneva, which contains these words: International PEN believes that legal prohibitions on ‘defamation of religion' can easily pit one religion against another, as history has too often shown. Free criticism of governments, organizations, and institutions is essential for the advancement of societies. Rights rest within individuals, not in the groups and institutions with whom they are affiliated or associated.
In September, 2008, the Bogota Congress passed a resolution concerning UNHRC religious defamation resolutions. In March 2009, the WIPC was one of 200 civil society organizations from 46 countries, including Muslim, Christian, Jewish, secular, humanist and atheist groups, endorsing a statement jointly sponsored by IHEU, UN Watch, Freedom House and the Becket Fund for Religious Freedom.
The Norwegian and American centres are currently working on a proposal for a panel discussion in Geneva at the UNHRC this autumn, chaired by John Ralston Saul. I'll be writing directly to centres in countries that have either supported or abstained on the religious defamation resolutions, hoping that you will express your support of PEN International's position. I also hope to set aside time during the WIPC meetings at the Tokyo Congress for discussion.
For a useful overview: http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/discrimination/pdf/3-2010-focus-paper-defamation-of-religions.pdf
What's in a Name? As many centres will recall, we've been in the process of looking at the identity of our organization over the past several years. One aspect of that thinking is that, for several reasons, our name should become PEN International. PEN International is identical in all three of our official languages. And for purposes of having a strong presence worldwide, on websites and in our own communications, it is strategically smarter to have the word ‘PEN" first, as that is the key word in our identity.
So, over the next six months or so, International PEN will become PEN International, on the website, in news releases and on letterhead, etc. But I've decided to get a head start on implanting this new name in my brain, and I hope yours.
I'd love to hear from you; please write to me at mbf@internationalpen.org.uk
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Chair's Notebook #3
15 March 2010
Marian Botsford Fraser
Past...present...next steps
I. Our past
Since my first steps along the path of being a writer, I have been well aware that I have chosen a rocky path and a way which is strewn with pitfalls. In my Islamic culture, and Koranic culture in particular, my attention has been much drawn towards the proximity of prophesy, poetry and madness! In all these three areas, the protagonist is characterized by the courage to declare what he/she believes to be the truth, even if, over the course of history, people have taken it amiss and feared it and recoiled from it.
- Syrian poet Faraj Bayrakdar, February 2010, translated from the Arabic
Because Writers Speak Their Minds -a rich resource
The 50th anniversary campaign of the Writers in Prison Committee was launched on the website of International PEN, and with a news release sent to all PEN centres, in the first week of February. The heart of the campaign, in every sense, is the catalogue of 50 writers chosen to represent each year of the campaign. Each writer has his or her own webpage; there is a photo, a short bio, a writing sample and links to additional material. Almost all fifty cases are now available on the website; please go to the site and browse through this extraordinary record of courage in the face of persecution. Each story is unique, and yet there are striking parallels between cases, the grounds for persecution and arrest, often shockingly banal.
For example: a fragment of a play called The Taxi Project, a 2008 collaboration by four writers now living in exile in Canada, one of whom is Martha Kuwee Kumsa (1984) imprisoned for nine years for an article calling for Oromo women to reclaim their cultural heritage. In the play Kumsa recalls the terror of being a fugitive and the unbearable agony of leaving her children behind.
Or this excerpt from a poem by Maria Elena Cruz Varela (1994), Cuban poet terrorized by a large crowd, held incommunicado for days, finally imprisoned in harsh conditions for "insulting the heroes of Cuba":
And it was a lie. The coward's defenseless lie.
Not even a speckled truth,
the epitaph of an old prostitute.
It was also a lie, my lie of amianthus
against the mortal fire.
It was a lie, the squatting fear,
the broken porcelain,
the quality of the clay.
It was a lie, a pious fiction for the dying one
that we say sea
and the fish jumped at our voices.
We also said arc, intention, monotype
or just another argument.
They were all lies.
Dumb, saddened, ineffective, futile lies.
-from Ballad of the Blood/Balada de la Sangre.
The statement above from Faraj Bayrakdar (1988) is one of a number of such statements being collected by Sara Whyatt over the course of the year from those writers in the 50/50 case list who are still living; these will also be placed on the website. Faraj writes: ...During the first ten years of my detention I felt that I was part of that same tragedy by which many throughout history have been oppressed by blind forces from which there is no escape.
However, during the subsequent years in prison (and when some news leaked through about what the International PEN Club [and other organizations]was doing for me...some completely different feelings arose within me and I realised that I had not been forgotten.... and I must acknowledge here and now that for prisoners, the thought that they are forgotten is a sort of spiritual death.
I hope that centres will use this collection of stories and writings, in public events, or on their own websites, or as the basis of articles, or consideration in blogs, as a way of marking the 50th anniversary.
II. The present-two recent initiatives
In February, the WIPC joined a coalition of other freedom of expression organizations for a campaign on the plight of writers, journalists and bloggers in Iran. The campaign Our Society will be a Free Society was created to draw attention to the more than 50 writers currently in prison in Iran; there have been several op-ed pieces in international media, interviews, news releases, and an open letter to His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei. There is an excellent weblog on the site, good interviews with Maziar Bahari, etc: oursocietywillbeafreesociety.org.
Our piece of the campaign was to organize an appeal from PEN centres to their diplomats attending Iran's appearance before the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on February 15-17. We had a great response to Patricia Diaz's letter; centres from Russia, South Africa, Belgium (Flanders), Norway, Netherlands, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzogovinia, and USA and Zambia wrote letters and reported back to us. The coalition issued a news release calling on Tehran officials to "open the door to the United Nations' special rapporteurs on human rights - including its expert on freedom of expression Frank la Rue." Tehran's envoy Mohammad Javad Larijani told diplomats and the media on the first day of Iran's appearance that there was a "standing invitation" for the UN's special rapporteurs to visit Iran and investigate claims of rights abuse - only to reverse his position the next day.
There is currently a petition on the campaign website, which can also be found on Facebook. The intention is to send the petition to Iranian authorities on March 20th.
For International Women's Day on March 8th, Sara did an excellent essay, reflecting on the fourteen women on the 50/50 list and recommending action on current cases in Tunisia-Sihem Ben Sedrine; Burma (Myanmar)-Aung San Suu Kyi; Mexico-Lydia Cacho; Russia-Natalia Estemirova and Vietnam-Tran Khai Thanh Thuy. Women's Day Action
III. What's next?
Centres! Let us know what you are planning to do for the 50th anniversary-everything from books to bake sales to blogs. There will soon be a way to post such news on the website, and Sara is putting together some other suggestions for action and activities your consideration. We'd like to know what were the memorable cases for your centre, either from those on the 50/50 list, or some of the hundreds of other cases; we want to put up posters, photographs, pieces of writing as well.
We also would like to encourage more centres to take up the cases (the most recent version of the case list is now available online) as honorary members, and possibly for a group of centres to get together to work on a particularly difficult case. Please contact Sara, Cathy, Tamsin and Patricia for suggestions.
During Free the Word! Literary Festival in London in April, there will be several events celebrating the 50th anniversary. I very much hope to be there. For the annual "Literary Lunch" (free admission/bag lunch) we are assembling a selection of writings from the 50/50 list, which will be read by writers attending the festival. There will be an Empty Chair every day, and we are hoping for a Twitter campaign as well.
Last word to Faraj Bayrakdar: For me freedom of expression is something non-negotiable, and which cannot be explained away or glossed over or haggled over. In one sense it is a question of whether one is a human being or not, and in another - no less important - sense it is a question of whether one can be a writer or not.
Do send me a note at this email address; I'd love to hear from you, Marian (mbf@internationalpen.org.uk)
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Chair's Notebook #2
30 December 2009
We should end the practice of viewing words as crimes.
Charter 08
This year ends with the sentencing of one of International PEN's most distinguished colleagues, Liu Xiaobo. Considered by Chinese authorities to be the principal mind behind Charter 08, his sentence of 11 years on charges of 'incitement to subversion of state power,' is meant to set a terrible example, which it does. Please read Charter 08*, in honour of Liu Xiaobo; here's why it matters....
Words matter. Charter 08 is a 3000-word statement declared first by 300 dissidents (all citizens, all resident in China) offering to the Chinese people, 'in a spirit of duty as responsible and constructive citizens,' 19 principles of democracy that the Charter's creators believe are essential. Why? Because 'the Chinese government's approach to 'modernization' has proven disastrous. It has stripped people of their rights, destroyed their dignity, and corrupted normal human intercourse. So we ask: Where is China headed in the 21st century? Will it continue with 'modernization' under authoritarian rule, or will it embrace universal human values, join the mainstream of civilized nations, and build a democratic system? There can be no avoiding these questions.'
History matters. Charter 08 boldly invokes Charter 77, the 1977 declaration by Czech and Slovak dissidents including the playwright who would become president, Vaclav Havel. In barely 600 trenchant words, Charter 08 lays out a simple chronological analysis of China's last one hundred years; phrases like 'warlord chaos' and 'cultural illness' and 'abyss of totalitarianism' jump off the page. In a mere five sentences, all the banners of modern Chinese history from 1910 to 1989 - The May Fourth Movement, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution - are ripped down to reveal a devastating scene: 'Tens of millions have lost their lives, and several generations have seen their freedom, their happiness, and their human dignity cruelly trampled.'
Dates matter. The Charter was issued on December 10, 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In fact, the Charter opens with a litany of dates: 'A hundred years have passed since the writing of China's first constitution. 2008 also marks the sixtieth anniversary of the promulgation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the thirtieth anniversary of the appearance of the Democracy Wall in Beijing, and the tenth of China's signing of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. We are approaching the twentieth anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre of pro-democracy student protesters.' Ah yes; some dates really matter.
Numbers matter. The original Charter bore 300 signatures. Since its appearance, more than 10,000 Chinese citizens have signed the statement. More than 300 Western writers signed an International PEN letter to President Hu Jintao protesting Liu Xiaobo's detention on December 8, 2008. In December, 2009, just before Liu Xiaobo's trial, more than 300 Chinese citizens signed a letter of solidarity: We are willing to share responsibility with Liu Xiaobo.
Names matter. All over China, on or around December 10, 2008, signatories were harassed, interrogated, their houses searched, passports removed, bank accounts emptied. Some were detained, notably Liu Xiaobo. Liu was held without being charged for just over one year. On December 23, 2009 he was finally tried; his wife and foreign diplomats were barred from the courtroom. That day Internet writer Liu Di had herself detained (later released) and issued a statement: 'For the dignity of Constitution and laws, and for no more imprisonment of the people for their independent opinions, I would prefer to share with Mr. Liu Xiaobo the same case with the same penalty.'
On December 25, 2009, Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years and is also to be denied his political rights for two additional years. He is appealing his sentence, which he must do within ten days.
So must we. [see call to action sent to PEN Centres earlier today, 30 January 2009]
May 2010, as we mark the 50th anniversary of the Writers in Prison Committee, be a year in which progress is made in ending the practice of viewing words as crimes.
*[For Charter 08 in English: http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/3552/prmID/1610]
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Chair's Notebook #1
30 November 2009
Because writers speak their minds
Fifty years after the formation of the Writers in Prison Committee, I am deeply honoured to be elected as its Chair, and I will do my utmost to work with the Centres, the Board, and the exceptional WiPC staff, in the spirit of the Committee's original mandate.
In July, 1960, at a PEN Congress held in Rio de Janeiro, General Secretary David Carver reported that a committee of three people had been empowered at a previous meeting to research and produce a list of imprisoned writers. The lists he circulated to delegates at that meeting named seven writers imprisoned in Albania, 25 in Czechoslovakia, 13 in Hungary, two in France and nine in Romania.
Mr. Carver proposed that where PEN Centres existed, in "a country where writers had been imprisoned because they spoke or wrote their minds," those Centres should take all possible steps to improve the situation and to report to PEN, and in countries where there were no Centres, International PEN should act through the Writers in Prison Committee.
The creation of a Writers in Prison Committee formalized concerns about freedom of expression and the persecution of writers that had been an aspect of PEN's work from the beginning. As early as 1932 at the Hungarian Congress, a resolution was passed unanimously opposing the suppression of literature. In 1935 formal resolutions were passed on specific cases-two German writers, Ludwig Ronn and Carl Ossietzky, and the Haitian writer, Jacques Roumain. In 1959, telegrams were sent by many PEN Centres to the Soviet Union about the 'rumours concerning Pasternak.'
The committee of three individuals is now a Committee of more than 70 PEN Centres. The case list, tragically now contains the names of almost 900 writers encarcelados, perseguidos, desaparecidos o asesinados por que han hablado o escrito lo que pensaban. The nature of the persecution, and the nature of the work of the Committee over those fifty years (and in the years leading up to the formation of the actual Committee), has changed in unfathomable ways.
Imbedded in the history of PEN's "compassionate solidarity with persecuted writers" is a focus on the plight of the individual. We have always named names. Nous avons toujours travaillé avec acharnement depuis le moment de l'imprisonnement jusqu'au moment de la liberation ou jusqu'au décès, et souvent delà, des collègues opprimés parce ce'qu'ils ont ecrit ou declaré ce qu'ils pensaient.
Parce que plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Burning books and blocking blogs are one and the same. Quite simply, as our brave Chinese colleagues exhort in Charter 08, We must stop the practice of viewing words as crimes.
During the celebration of the WiPC's 50th anniversary next year, we will look back at the work we've done, by highlighting fifty cases that illustrate where and how and why we have worked. We'll examine how that work has changed, how the nature of persecution has changed. And we'll look to the future, to see how the WiPC must evolve and adapt to meet these new challenges. Because writers must speak their minds.