In Memory of Nicholas Howen

I was deeply saddened when I heard only this week of Nick’s untimely death. My hearfelt condolences go to his family.

I knew Nick well when he represented OHCHR in Bangkok, where I was the UN Resident Coordinator. I subsequently met up with him in Geneva, when I was passing through. I held him in the highest regard.

Nick was a good man, indeed an outstanding man, and a dynamic and insightful human rights advocate. He was deeply committed, highly knowledgeable and invariably constructive in his approach. He was, however, principled enough to realise – quite correctly I believe – that his scope for advocacy was greater outside than inside the UN, at least in the last few years.

Nick’s contribution will be greatly missed, but I have no doubt that he left his mark on a wide variety of collaborators and that his efforts will live on in the work of countless human rights workers around the world.

It is with the greatest sadness and shcok that I heard of Nicholas’s death. I feel so guilty about losing touch with him. He was a wonderfufl friend and what I remember most about him was his dedication to his family. Lucy, please write to me so that I have your email address. I have photographs that I would like to send you.

Nick Howen: An Appreciation

Former Board Members, Staff and Associates, Tibet Information Network

Nick Howen helped found the Tibet Information Network (TIN) in London in 1987 and served as the first chair of its board until 1998.

His connection with Tibet began in the autumn of 1987, when he was a young commercial lawyer travelling through Asia as a tourist. He was among a hundred of so foreign tourists who happened to be in Lhasa that September when the first demonstrations of the modern era broke out, and was probably the only foreigner there with legal training. When police opened fire on unarmed protestors, leading to at least 8 deaths, another tourist, Robert Barnett, met Nick by chance in the back streets of the city as they took cover from the shooting, and asked if Nick would help him treat Tibetans who had been wounded but were too afraid to go to hospitals. Nick immediately agreed. It was the beginning of many years of work helping to document human rights conditions in Tibet.

Barnett and Nick treated the wounded as best they could, but found that their medical supplies and skills soon ran out. That afternoon they arranged a meeting of other tourists back at their hotel and asked them to collect medicines from every foreigner in the city. The tourists formed teams which went to each tourist hotel in the city until they found three foreigners who were doctors or medical students, who were then led by Nick and Barnett to the places where wounded demonstrators were hiding to provide medical treatment and support.

At the same time Nick and Barnett organized informal meetings at each of the tourist hotels in the city. At these the foreigners pooled their knowledge of what had taken place. In the meetings, which reconvened each night for several weeks, they allowed only first-hand testimony to be included, formally distanced themselves from political activists, and asked foreigners to declare if they were working clandestinely for commercial news-gathering operations. Within two days they were able to produce a fifty page report detailing the events observed by the foreign eyewitnesses of the protests. A team of extraordinarily dedicated foreigners from several countries arranged for the report to be translated into various languages and for copies to be carried to the outside world. Their exhaustively-documented reports turned out to be critically important because they contradicted official statements to the international media that police in Lhasa had never opened fire. A few days later, while treating another patient, Nick and Barnett heard the BBC broadcast back the news that they had sent out.

They remained in Lhasa long enough to collect names and details of those detained before being required to leave. Nick was pursued by police after he was seen returning to a monastery to collect details of arrestees, and was hidden by monks in a monastery toilet until he could be smuggled back to his hotel at night. There he shaved his beard and hid for several days in the hope that he would not be recognised. He and Barnett left for the border shortly after. The mountain passes were blocked by snow and Nick used a pair of skis discarded by a mountaineer to ski down from the passes to the border rather than risk further delay. At that time checks and communications were only rudimentary, allowing him to cross the border and reach Nepal without hindrance. In March 1988 Barnett presented their initial report to the UN Commission for Human Rights in Geneva, leading the Chinese government immediately to concede to the Commission that in fact its police had indeed opened fire on the protestors in Lhasa the previous autumn.

Nick had by then returned to London to take up work in commercial law. He had not intended to continue human rights work on Tibet. But as contacts still inside Tibet continued to send him and Barnett detailed news about events there, the two formed the organization that they called the Tibet Information Network or “TIN”. Nick acted as a field interviewer for the organization and in autumn 1988 returned to Tibet to continue human rights documentation work there, along with a small number of other highly-skilled foreigners. As before, he showed constant good humour in the face of any difficulty, as well as a valuable ability to find unintrusive ways to collect and deliver information. Work of that type was still possible in Tibet at that time without endangering contacts, a situation which changed radically shortly afterwards, leading Barnett and Nick to suspend the use of such methods. Nick also spent many months in India carrying out research with refugees, since that method did not put informants at risk, while Barnett produced reports and summaries in London.

Together, with the help of many outstanding researchers, couriers, funders and administrative staff, they turned the organization into the world’s principal independent source of news and analysis concerning Tibet, making it the chief source of news about events in the region for much of the western media. In 1990 Nick returned to India to carry out several months’ research and to improve his working knowledge of Tibetan, this time with his future wife Lucy at his side, always his greatest support and inspiration. He completed the organisation’s first book-length report, published jointly with Lawasia, Defying The Dragon – China and Human Rights in Tibet (TIN/Lawasia 1991). It was the first definitive study of the human rights situation in Tibet and it became the benchmark in that field for its relentless attention to balance, accuracy and detail.

Up until that time, TIN had been an entirely volunteer operation run out of a single room in a London flat on a shoestring budget. As a result of his long experience in Asia, Nick decided to turn from commercial law to full-time human rights work. He took up a position with Amnesty International in London as Head of their Legal Department. Though he could no longer do field work in Tibet, he took on the task of overseeing the legal aspects of TIN’s transition into a professional organization, helping Barnett to recruit a staff of specialist analysts and translators based in offices within the City of London, as well as to set up teams of researchers in South Asia. Nick established TIN as a professional organization and became the first chairman of its board.

In this capacity he provided oversight and advice for its operations and helped craft its strategic vision. For much of that time he provided valuable support to the staff of TIN, available for consultations at any time of day or night, and always ready with sound and practical advice. He exemplified the central principle of TIN’s work, which was to seek the highest standards of accuracy and detachment without losing sight of internationally accepted legal norms and values. At the same time he supported the organisation’s shift from its early focus on human rights alone to academic research, primary documentation, historical study, and policy analysis.

In early 1998, when TIN went through a period of major changes, Nick devoted much time to helping the organisation, despite the extra burden this placed on Lucy, who was gracious and supportive. That spring he resigned from the TIN chairmanship and from his position at Amnesty to take up a new post as head of the Human Rights Division of the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Angola. He subsequently moved to Bangkok as Asia-Pacific Regional Representative for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and then to Geneva as Secretary-General of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ). These positions gave him first a regional and then a global platform for human rights advocacy, though he always retained his special interest in Tibet. In Bangkok, he displayed another facet of his talented personality by organising a highly professional exhibition of his photographs of Tibet. The same photographs later decorated his office in Geneva.

By the late 1990s, both of the founders of TIN had moved on – Barnett to Columbia University in New York – leaving the organisation to face challenges in continuing and developing its mandate. TIN continued to produce in-depth studies as well as its regular news reports until 2005 when, because of funding and other difficulties, the organization closed permanently. There is no successor organization to the initiative that Nick helped establish and refine, and its absence has left a major gap in coverage and understanding of the issue.

In 2005, as soon as Nick heard that the organization was in difficulties, he joined up again with Barnett to try to sustain it, but they were unfortunately too late. In particular, they found that the TIN Archive, a priceless collection of documents that they and others had collected, had been removed in its entirety by a third party, without the knowledge of the board. With the help of the members of that board, after two years of exhaustive effort, they were eventually able to recover one third of the missing documents. They successfully raised funding so that these could be lodged for safe-keeping in the Library of Columbia University and, shortly before he fell ill, Nick sent from Geneva his formal consent to the transfer to Columbia of the archives which he had contributed so much energy and brilliance to collecting. He continued to urge unremitting efforts to recover the rest of the TIN Archive, from which some 3,000 documents still remain at large. The holdings at Columbia, together with the organisation’s publications and reports, will provide uniquely important documentation of events and policies in Tibet during the late 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, and will serve as a record of the work carried out by the organisation during its 18-year existence, work that reflected the high standards Nick had helped set for it as young lawyer at the start of his career.

Nick Howen was extraordinarily energetic and well-organised, sometimes even over-organised. He was completely fearless, deeply unassuming, an excellent companion, a devoted husband and father, and utterly committed to issues of human rights and fairness. The loss of Nick Howen as a human rights researcher and pioneer will be greatly felt and keenly remembered in the field of Tibetan human rights and news analysis, as in so many other fields that he touched and shaped.

Former Board Members, Staff and Associates of Tibet Information Network, London

Former Board Members

Duncan Barnet

Sarah Cooke

Catriona Bass

John Bray

Nicola Dahrendorf

Robin Munro

Pierre Robert

Tsering Shakya

Former Staff and Associates

Anders Andersen

Robert Barnett

Jan Willem de Besten

Palden Gyal

Frances Howland

R. Mayer

Christa Meindersma

Richard Oppenheimer

Gendun Rinchen

Kate Saunders

Ronald Schwartz

Heather Stoddard

Francisca van Holthoon

and others who have asked to remain anonymous

I wish to offer my condolences to Nick’s family at the loss of a husband and father. I met him when I was the National Director of Lawyers for Human Rights in South Africa and he was in Angola. While we did not communicate on a regular basis since then I was aware of the fantastic changes he brought to the ICJ. He struck me a being a very kind and caring human rights lawyer who was passionate about realising them in practical and tangible ways. Your loss is no doubt the loss of so many voiceless people who Nick fought for.

I was lucky enough to meet Nick when I was Australia’s Ambassador to Angola based in Harare. He was a good man, who spoke so warmly about his wife and little girls who could not be with him in Luanda, and whom he missed greatly. He was an outstanding representative of the most important values of the United Nations, and a great Australian. He worked tirelessly in very difficult conditions in Luanda at the time. He was able to transcend the bureaucracy of a large organisation, to keep his vision firmly on its broad mission. Through his work, and his gentle kind presence, he gave hope to many people who had experienced years of dehumanising horror and sadness. We will miss him.

Dear Lucy and children

I am so sorry about the loss of your lovely Nick. Like so many others I am deeply saddened by his passing.

I first met him when, as a young lawyer, he came to organise the setting up of an Australian Tibet support group. He did just that and it is called the Australia Tibet Council. It has operated since that time and Nick single handedly brought it about.

He once called me in the middle of the night and reverse charges, from a telephone booth in Lhasa. He left no stone unturned.

He was kind, good, intelligent and so committed to human rights for all humans. What an incredible man he was. I know you will always be proud of him and the legacy and inspiration he left behind in the hearts of so many of us.

With love and support

Lynn Russell

Dear Lucy and family

I was very shocked and saddended to read the news of Nick’s death in the obituary in the Guardian. You will not know me, but I worked with Nick at Amnesty International (I was Deputy Secretary General, I am the “other” Mary Robinson, not the eminent one). It is more than 10 years since I last saw Nick, but I have very happy memories of working with him. He had a great sense of humour, as well as being full of energy and determination. He often enlivened some of our rather long and boring meetings about management issues and I enjoyed working with him. The excellent obituary written by Nigel Rodley shows how much he achieved and what a loss he will be to the human rights community. Please accept my deepest sympathy and very best wishes to you and your family.

Mary Robinson (former colleague at Amnesty International)

Dear Lucy

So sorry to hear about the death of your husband. Reading his obituary in today’s Guardian its clear he made a huge contribution to human rights.

Thinking of you and your family.

Duncan Stroud
former colleague from Survival International

Dear family of Nicholas Howen,

I learnt today about Mr. Nicks’s death by a mail of Kate Saunders, International Campaign for Tibet,which she has send to all Tibet Support Groups worldwide. As a board member of Swiss Tibetan Friendship Association and working in the fields for Human Rights in Tibet, unfortunately I’ve had the chance to meet him personaly. But through friends of him who worked with him for Tibet Information Network, I heard about his passion for Human Rights and specially for his engagement for Human Rights in Tibet when he travelled and worked in Tibet in late eightees and in the ninetees. When I’ve red the obituary of Nick Howen by Sir Nigel Rodley in the Guardian NEwspaper and a tribute to him by Robbbie Barnett, I was really impressend and touched how much he work for the Tibetan people in Tibet who are suffering since more than 50 years! I’ve the feeling he was very closed to us Tibetans and our culture – that’s why he married hisw wife in Dharamsala, the Heart of us Tibetans in Exil!
As a Tibetan, born in Tibet and grew up in Switzerland, I send you my deep condolences to his family! May his soul rest in Peace!

Migmar W.RAITH

Leider hatte ich nie die Gelegenheit, meinen Cousin aus Australien kennenzulernen, habe aber regelmaessig seinen Weg im Internet verfolgen können.
Unsere Familie kann stolz auf ihn sein. Wir trauern um ihn.
Peter von der Howen

I’m shocked to learn about Nick’s death. I interned with him at OHCHR’s Asia-Pacific office in Bangkok during early 2004. He was an inspiration and a mentor to me. I remember learning alot from him speacially about his passion for human rights.
My condolences to his family. May his soul rest in peace.
Prabhjot R Khan.

I am incredibly saddened to learn of Nick’s passing. In addition to great expertise in human rights law, he had tremendous enthusiasm and warmth and very genuine belief in the power of human rights work and the possibility of change.

I am deeply grateful to him for having taken a chance on a young human rights lawyer when he hired me as a legal advisor at Amnesty International back in 1995. I still remember the warmth with which he welcomed me at the International Secretariat when I arrived.

I salute his achievements in the field of human rights and to that end the session of the Protection of Human Rights class I teach at the Rutgers Law School will be dedicated to his memory on April 20th, 2010. We will study Transnational Corporations and Human Rights that day and will read his Business, Human Rights and Accountability piece.

My warmest condolences to his family who meant so much to him, and to his colleagues.

Karima Bennoune

Professor of Law – Rutgers School of Law-Newark

At ICCO and Kerk in Actie, we learned with sadness about the death of Nicholas Howen. Although we never had the chance to meet him personally, we knew him through our partnership with ICJ. We want to express our deepest respect for his dedication to worldwide justice and his tremendous contributions to the human rights movement. He was a source of inspiration to many, and will be dearly missed. We send our condolences to his family, friends and colleagues, and wish all of his fellow human rights defenders the strength to continue the work in his spirit.

Regards,

Annet Ijff

(Programme Manager Democratisation and Peacebuilding),

&

Gijs Paaimans

(Program Officer Democratisation and Peacebuilding)

Dutch Interchurch Development Organisation ICCO & Kerk in Actie.

I am so shocked to learn of the death of Nick. This is unbelievable as I thought of Nick last week when looking back at my time at the ICJ, and the last meeting we had on the progress of ICJ work in Africa.

As a former intern at the ICJ, he has been a great inspiration in my legal career. He was a good mentor and his comments and feed back have been of great help. I remember all the staff meetings, his passion to intervene in human rights situations around the world and particularly in Africa.

My condolence to his entire family and the ICJ. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

Regards

Ngane Sylvia

Wilder

I just heard about Nick’s death. I wanted to reach out to you and through you to his family and others at the ICJ.

I first met Nick when he worked at Amnesty and continued a great working relationship with him when he came to the ICJ. I always appreciated his colleagiality, his intelligence and his practical approach to human rights work.

Last September he made a special effort to come to a talk I gave in Geneva, shortly after my confirmation to a position in government. I was really touched by his appearance and appreciated seeing and talking with him. It seems so unfair that such a good guy, who dedicated himself to making a difference in the world, was cut down at such an early age. We will miss him.

I will always be appreciative to the ICJ for giving me such a great introduction to and grounding in the fundamentals of human rights work when I was a law student many moons ago. Nick carried on the the ICJ’s wonderful tradition of leadership, as you are doing today.

Please convey my condolences to Nick’s family. My thoughts and prayers are with you and them.

Best

Mike

Michael H. Posner

Assistant Secretary of State for

Democracy, Human Rights and Labor

When Nick passed on 26 January 2010 the world lost the physical presence of one of the finest, most courageous and dedicated human rights defenders that we have ever experienced. Nick had the extraordinary gift of communicating clearly the opportunities and spirit of human rights from a profound practical and intellectual understanding. Even under tough political, monetary or, more recently, physical challenges Nick would never lose sight of the target for his life endeavor – the human beings whose dignity are challenged.

When Nick passed on I lost the presence of a good and dear friend. Nick will stay in spirit and I will always benefit from recalling the advice that Nick gave me over the years; appreciating that our work on human rights and business was merely a fraction of Nick’s enormous contributions.

On behalf of my colleagues at GLOBAL CSR, the Danish Institute for Human Rights and the Danish Section of the International Commission of Jurist I will like to extend our deepest condolences to Nick’s wonderful family, thanking you for enabling Nick to burn his bright light to the benefit of all. Be proud that your husband and father left this world with an impact that reaches well beyond his enormous professional production and deeds. He has inspired and will continue to inspire thousands.

Sune Skadegaard Thorsen

Senior Partner, GLOBAL CSR

Chair, the Danish Institute for Human Rights

Chair, the International Commission of Jurists, Danish Section

Like so many friends and colleagues around the world, I feel a great sadness and loss at Nick’s passing. But also a real sense of gratitude for life and contribution. What I will remember most is the strength of his presence and caring. I admired so much his commitment and drive to learn, to make a difference, and to do better next time, whether as a human rights activist or as a dad. My deepest condolences to all.

Derek Evans

Dear Lucy,


I am writing this from London at the time I know Nick’s funeral is going on. I have this clear picture in my head of his smile, his alert eyes and the animated eyebrows, the open palm gesture occasionally touching his chin.


I have known Nick for a very long time. It started in the days when he was legal advisor for Asia at Amnesty when he was involved in the approval of one of my first reports (on fair trial in the Maldives of all things). He labelled it a “good attempt at making a silk purse out of a pig’s ear” but in the end after a highly instructive exercise for me we managed to produce a report which was taken pretty seriously by the government. The cooperation went forward from there. In 1994, Nick undertook this very successful mission to Sri Lanka, where he was able to locate a secret place of detention in the heart of Colombo and even to take some pictures of it, which we later of course published in a report. That document became evidence in a case filed in the Supreme Court by one of the torture victims and the judgement referred to it as an impeccable source. I still remember the name of the victim – Jude Arulrajah.


Later on, as Nick moved up into the management echelons at Amnesty, we did not work together that closely. But each time we met in the corridor, he would ask about certain developments in Sri Lanka or other countries, always leaving me wondering how he managed to keep on top of things at such a level of detail and do all his other work to such a high quality (and quantity!).


Our paths crossed again in earnest while you were all living in Bangkok and Nick was working for OHCHR. I was researcher on Nepal at Amnesty and we were in very regular contact strategizing away at trying to get an OHCHR field office established. I have the fondest memories of his phone calls during my early morning. He would make them from his car while stuck in a Bangkok traffic jam, and they often came while I was cycling to AI across London traffic. Needless to say I had a long list of ideas of things to do by the time I got to my desk. And I felt energized to last me well into the afternoon!


A few years afterwards, while you were back in Geneva and Nick was at ICJ, this cooperation on Nepal continued. I remember fondly a dinner we all had at your house with David Petrasek, Christine, the children and I think Sue Appleyard who had only just arrived in Geneva. That’s the only time I saw a glimpse of Nick the father.


The last time I saw him was just before he got diagnosed with cancer. He had just returned from Australia having visited his mother and looked very tired. Of course, I attributed it to jetlag. Despite him being exhausted we had a stimulating strategy discussion on Nepal. In the months after that, when the news of his illness was only known to a small circle, I admit I got a little frustrated at the delay in the approval of my draft report – the result of a study of the Maoist “justice” system. But, then, in true Nick style, the hand-written meticulous comments rivalling the famous Ian Martin’s level of scrutiny arrived on the fax. I was grateful as always for them and of course duely incorporated them all.


I never had the opportunity to meet Nick after that last time. I had gained hope that we were going to work together again as I got news through friends that he was winning the fight against the cancer and that the treatment was successful. It’s indescribably sad that it wasn’t meant to be. Nick’s death is a tragic loss to so many, but his life has been and will continue to be an inspiration.
My thoughts are with you and the children and friends and colleagues at ICJ.

We first met Nick Howen in Tibet when, during the summer of 1987, our paths crossed many times. We particularly remember our stay at the Tenzin Hotel in Shigatse which was at that time a hive of fascinating characters, none more delightful to spend time with than that red headed Aussie. He said he was on his way to England to work for a commercial law firm. We left Tibet in early September with Nick’s contact details and promises of catching up in the future.

In early October a 15 page hand written document was delivered to our door in Kathmandu. This report detailed the demonstrations that had taken place in Lhasa in late September; the retaliation by Chinese authorities who fired into crowds of unarmed Tibetans (killing many) and the subsequent clandestine operation to assist the many wounded Tibetans too afraid to seek proper medical care. The report was impressive for its meticulous detail and scrupulous objectivity. The cover letter, urging us to get this report to the world media, was signed “Nick the bearded Aussie”.

The mix of dedication, compassion, intelligence and objectivity that has imbued Nick’s life and work shines through in that hand written report. Nick’s career as a commercial lawyer was short lived and the disadvantaged and oppressed people of the world benefitted as a result.

Lucy, despite not seeing you, the girls and Nick since our visit in 1995 we, like so many others, feel grateful to have had you all in our lives. You have always been and will remain an inspiration. Our love and thoughts are with you, Susie, Julia and Helena.

Kathy Butler

Gary McCue

Chers amis et collègues de la CIJ,

C’est avec une profonde tristesse que nous avons appris le décès de Nick des suites de sa maladie. Sa disparition nous plonge dans un sentiment de désarroi et d’impuissance. Un sentiment pourtant si étranger à sa personnalité. Par son engagement, son volontarisme et sa rigueur professionnelle, Nick a marqué tous ceux d’entre nous qui ont eu la chance de le cotoyer. Nous sommes à vos côtés pour continuer de tracer le chemin de l’espoir, pour toutes et tous, d’une humanité fondée sur le droit à la dignité et à la justice. Cet espoir qu’incarnait Nick, cet espoir qui nous anime. Recevez, chers amis et collègues, les plus sincères condoléances de la FIDH.

Souhayr BELHASSEN, Présidente & Antoine BERNARD, Directeur exécutif de la FIDH

Dear ICJ

I’m quite shocked to know that Nick Howen had passed away. I recall him very well the first time I met him in Bangkok, in the court, on the case of Somchai Neelapaijit disappearance on 2005. And I know that he’s the one who shown his strongest support to me and my family all the way of our struggle for Justice.

Please give our grievance and deep sorrow to his beloved family and colleagues.

With my Love,

Angkhana Neelapaijit and Family

I will always be grateful to Nick Howen for his help during 2001, in the months after the death of my sister in a massacre in Central Africa, when I was urgently seeking answers – and action – from the UK Foreign Office. Although he surely had many other pressing concerns, Nick was enormously generous with his time in answering my questions and giving advice as I took my first, somewhat amateurish, steps in lobbying and campaigning. This advice has stood me in good stead and proved invaluable over the years as I have become more involved in the human rights movement at a wider level.

I will remember too how welcoming Nick and his family were when I and my then girlfriend (now my wife) were living in Bangkok as volunteers with Amnesty Thailand. I will continue to take inspiration from Nick’s commitment, determination and generosity.

Richard Wilson, London

Dear friends,

The news of Nick Howen is shocking many of us.

It’s a great loss for all international human rights movement. We know Nick is quite dedicated to his justice – human rights work and all humanitarian mission. We had been working together quite closely when he was a representative of the OHCHR Asia Pacific desk here in Bangkok sometime ago before he shifted his mission to ICJ in Geneva.

I still recall him, very clearly, at the meeting we met during the UN Commission on Human Rights Session in Geneva around April 2004 when our delegation were advocating for the case of disappeared human rights lawyer, Somchai Neelapaijit, a month after the incident. Nick had shown his strongest support to our call and took meaningful action immediately. Then, through that experience, we learned that he care so much on all the victims of any human rights violations wherever there are.

With his smart and charismatic leadership, intelligence and being sensitive to such social injustice, he is one of the great human rights advocates in our time.

We believe he is now living in peace and be our inspiration forever in our heart.

We share the grievance and deep sorrow with his beloved family and friends.

Peace be with you forever.

Sincerely,

Boonthan T. Verawongse

Secretary General, Campaign Committee for Human Rights (CCHR)

Director, Peace and Human Rights Resource Center (PHRC)

Secretary, Thai Working Group for ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism

Dear Lucy

I was so sad to hear that Nick had died.  The last few years must have been painful and stressful for you and the children as Nick struggled so bravely to conquer the cancer.  I remember our visits when I was in Geneva for the EJP and how he seemed so much better at the time of the last visit than he had been earlier. I had thought then that he had won and that seemed to be confirmed by the messages I got from the ICJ when I enquired about how he was doing.  But that was not to be and all of us who knew him now share your sadness at his passing.   Nick had such a positive outlook on life. Confident, outgoing, concerned about others, particularly those who were marginalized and oppressed, and a deep commitment to addressing those ills.  He did so with great energy and skill to the benefit of people in many different parts of the world. He flourished in the ICJ and led it to a new level, where it confronted injustices in many different countries and demanded that those responsible be held accountable for their conduct. The ICJ has along and illustrious history and Nick will be remembered as one of its great leaders, inspiring those who worked with him, and those whose causes he took up.

Our thoughts are with you and the children.

Warm regards

Arthur.

I have learnt with great sadness about the death of Nick Howen.

Nick came to Nairobi and addressed a public forum as Kenya prepared for its elections in 2007. The theme of his address revolved around the role of the Judiciary in supporting democratic elections, and was both very relevant and well received by the audience.

Thereafter, Nick asked me and Justice Claire Dubé of the supreme Court of Canada, to undertake a fact-finding mission in Zimbabwe, following allegations of serious interference with the independence of the legal profession in that country. Justice Dubé and I met in south Africa where Nick, who was in Geneva, briefed us before we went on our way to Zimbabwe. Through the mission in Zimbabwe, Nick was in constant touch with us and provided us with al the support we needed to make the mission successful. We found that Nick had made arrangements for us to meet with officials in the Zimbabwe government which greatly eased our work.

On our return to South Africa where we drafted a statement of our findings which we released to the media in Johannesburg, Nick worked with us closely and was personally involved in the drafting of the statement that we eventually released.

Nick was a very good man and , as has been pointed out, his passion for the protection of human rights shone through.

Kindly convey the tribute of ICJ Kenya to the family of Nick.

George Kegoro

Executive Director, ICJ Kenya

Dear Wilder,

I was very, very sad to learn today that our dear friend and colleague Nick Howen has passed away. Please convey to his family my most heartfelt condolences.

I met Nick almost immediately after starting work at the AI International Secretarial in the spring of 1992 and enjoyed for many years not only his expert support and professional advice but his very warm personality  and discussions on topics that ranged widely from international law to Polish cuisine (on which topic he had the upper hand although I was the Poland researcher). I will always remember Nick as an exceptional human being, a fine legal mind and a remarkably committed human rights activist. Although I had not been in contact with him for many years now I will terribly miss the possibility of meeting him again.

With my sympathies in this sad hour,

Ivan Fišer

Kathmandu, 29 January 2010

Late in the afternoon, yesterday, the sun’s last light on the snow-capped peaks overlooking Kathmandu, an intimate group of Nepali and international human rights defenders gathered to remember Nick and to express their condolences to his loved ones.  At the front of a narrow hall with a high ceiling, a smiling portrait of Nick drew everyone close, placed on a table next to a lighted candle, incense, and flowers.

All present had dropped their obligations without question and gathered on short notice.  Some of Nick’s friends had no possibility of attending, including Keith Leslie, Arjun Karki, Satish Kharel, Dr. Renu Raj Bhandari, and Bimal Acharya of the ICJ-Nepal office, but all were tangibly present in spirit, as was Susan Appleyard, who followed the arrangements for the gathering from her current post in London.  Most of those present took their turn to stand in front of the group and describe spontaneously their feelings.

Sushil Pyakurel opened the ceremony, recalling Nick’s commitment and leadership from his earliest interventions in Nepal that continued from his ICJ position.  After February 2005, Nick sought ingenious ways to continue to support Sushil’s advocacy from his forced exile.   He recalled several visits to Geneva, where Nick, Lucy and family received him warmly in their home.  He described Nick’s photography, reflecting his love of Nepal and Tibet.  In a last communication, Sushil recalled Nick’s courage to overcome his daunting illness and to return to the remaining human rights challenges in Nepal, saying, “I will be working you”.  Sushil regretted that this was not to be.

Mandira Sharma of Advocacy Forum recalled meeting Nick almost a decade ago during his first delegation visit to Nepal. She met with him regularly thereafter in Nepal and in Geneva, and recalled his humour as well as his courage, commitment and support.  Struggling with tears, Mandira shared her last communication with Nick in Geneva, when he expressed his desire to return to Nepal where the work was still unfinished.

Govinda Sharma Bandi fought back tears as he described with equal admiration Nick’s long-term vision of the human rights challenges in Nepal and Asia more broadly, how he prompted human rights groups to document violations and guided them on how strategically to advance their cause.  Nick had personally convinced Govinda to join the ICJ-Nepal office, where he continues to work.   Govinda recalled last seeing Nick in hospital where, even against all odds, he vowed to overcome his illness return to work on Nepal.

The same courage, conviction, energy, intelligence, and leadership was remarked upon by Gopal Shivakoti, who described Nick as “the man who saw tomorrow”, recalling his leadership in establishing the Human Rights Home in Nepal.  Jyotsna Poudyal had met Nick in her first human rights work after university, when she interned with him at OHCHR Bangkok.  He was an inspirational and dedicated leader of the kind she had never met before or since, and she never questioned working long hours for him.

These sentiments were echoed by Richard Bennett (head of OHCHR-Nepal), and Karen Landgren (head of the UN Mission in Nepal), both of whom had both met Nick and shared the view of the international human rights community of his high standing and inspirational leadership.  Reshma Thapa, who was with ICJ-Nepal from its inception in 2005 until 2007, was overcome by tears as she described Nick’s love for music and his sense of humour.  John Tyynela of ICJ-Nepal echoed these remarks, taking a line from Dylan, “I’ll know my song well before I start singing”, to describe Nick’s preparation and tenacity.  He added that Sue Appleyard was with the group in spirit, noting her early work in implementing Nick’s vision in Nepal.  John Bevan, Hari Phuyal, Usha Titikshu, Kanak Dixit, and Dipendra Jha, were also present and shared their sentiments and signatures in the book of Nepal photography that is being sent with this note on behalf of Nepal’s human rights community.  John Bevan wrote, simply: “Without Nick, no serious UN engagement in Nepal.”

On behalf of ICJ-Nepal, with deepest condolences to Lucy, Susie, Julia, and Helena, and grateful for the strength and inspiration that we receive from Nick’s life and living memory,

John Tyynela

ICJ-Nepal