UN experts urge US authorities to
drop charges against aid worker Scott Warren
GENEVA (5 June 2019) – UN human
rights experts* have expressed grave concerns about criminal charges brought
against Scott Warren, a U.S. citizen who works for an aid organisation
providing water and medical aid to migrants in the Arizona desert.
Warren’s trial began on 29 May
2019, and if found guilty he faces up to 20 years in jail.
“Providing humanitarian aid is not
a crime. We urge the US authorities to immediately drop all charges against
Scott Warren,” the experts said.
Warren, 36, lives in the desert
town of Ajo, Arizona, where he helped to establish the organisation No More
Deaths, which provides humanitarian assistance along migration routes. For the
past 10 years, he has helped migrants and asylum seekers attempting to cross
the Arizona - Mexican border through the Sonora desert.
Border Control agents arrested the
human rights defender on 17 January 2018 at “the Barn”, a humanitarian shelter
in the Sonora Desert, while he was providing assistance to two undocumented
migrants. His arrest came hours after the release of a report from No More
Deaths which documented the implication of Border Control agents in the
systematic destruction of humanitarian supplies, including water stores, and
denounced a pattern of harassment, intimidation and surveillance against
humanitarian aid workers.
Warren faces charges on two counts
of “harboring” migrants and one count of “conspiring to transport and harbor”
migrants.
Arizona has some of the deadliest
migrant corridors along the US border, accounting for more than a third of more
than 7,000 border deaths recorded by US authorities over the last two decades.
The actual numbers are likely to be higher, given the remains of many of those
who die are not recovered.
“The vital and legitimate
humanitarian work of Scott Warren and No More Deaths upholds the right to life
and prevents the deaths of migrants and asylum seekers at the US-Mexican
border,” said the UN experts.
“The prosecution of Scott Warren
represents an unacceptable escalation of existing patterns criminalising
migrant rights defenders along the migrant caravan routes.”
The experts are in contact with the
U.S. authorities on the issues.
ENDS
(*) The UN experts: Mr. Michel
Forst, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; Felipe
González Morales, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants; Ms Agnes
Callamard, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions;;
Mr. Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on the rights to peaceful
assembly and of association; Dainius Pῡras, Special Rapporteur on the right to
health; Maria Grazia Giammarinaro, Special Rapporteur on trafficking in
persons, especially women and children.
The Special Rapporteurs and
Independent Experts are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the
Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent
experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s
independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific
country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special
Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not
receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or
organization and serve in their individual capacity.
UN Human Rights, country page –
United States of America
For further information and media
requests, please contact: Ms Nantke Hinrichs (+41 22 917 9390/ defenders@ohchr.org)
For media inquiries related to
other UN independent experts please contact
Jeremy Laurence, UN Human Rights –
Media Unit (+41 22 917 9383) jlaurence@ohchr.org
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independent human rights experts on
Twitter @UN_SPExperts
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