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South America Newsletter April 2021
This month, we update you on developments in Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Paraguay, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile.
Amnesty International has delivered a petition signed by over 1 million people to mark the third anniversary of the murder of Marielle Franco in Brazil and has urged the Venezuela government to address the widespread human rights violations documented by an Independent International Fact-Finding Mission. We have two new cases on our Individuals at Risk portfolio for local groups to act: Joel Chipiaje (Colombia) and Gustavo Gatica (Chile). In Colombia, 177 human rights defenders were killed in 2020. Former Bolivian president Jeanine Añez has been detained and concerns over the impartiality of her arrest were raised. A new bill in Peru could jeopardise the rights of people with disabilities, including the right to consent to mental health treatment. A scandal over the roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik in Argentina forced the Health Minister to step down. Chile postpones its elections to re-write their constitution due to a surge in Covid-19 cases.
REGIONAL- COVID-19 Vaccines in the Americas.
On 25 March, Amnesty launched a new report Vaccines in the Americas. Ten Human Rights Musts to Ensure Health for All. The report analyses the vaccination plans against COVID-19 and the implementation of these plans. Amnesty is calling on States to comply with international human rights standards, to allow vaccinations to be available to the entire population, to prioritise high risk groups, and to ensure complete transparency in the design and implementation of their vaccination plans and their dealings with pharmaceutical companies. We have written to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and to the UK Embassies of South American countries urging support for the recommendations.
COLOMBIA
Frontline Defenders reports that 177 human rights defenders were killed in Colombia in 2020. This represents over half of all human rights defenders killed in the world. ‘2020 witnessed another rise in the level of violence directed against HRDs in Colombia, particularly those participating in the implementation of the peace process and engaging in voluntary drug crop substitution initiatives or those opposing the extraction of natural resources… At the same time, the number of defenders receiving protection from the National Protection Unit was reduced.’
A third wave of Covid-19 fuelled by the Manaus variant is underway in Colombia and threatens the country’s healthcare system. The Government, which has been criticised for its slow roll out of vaccines, is committed to vaccinating 30 million people by the end of the year.
To Amnesty International´s knowledge, Colombia is the only country in the region that opened its national vaccination plan to a consultation process. As a result the final plan includes a specific mention on indigenous peoples in the priority groups for vaccine rollout. Vaccination commenced in Colombia in late February 2021.
The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) joins calls for the Government of Colombia to return to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights hearing to determine the government’s responsibility in the rape and torture case of Jineth Bedoya Lima. On 25 May 2000, she was kidnapped while waiting for authorization to enter Bogota’s Modelo prison to interview inmates on paramilitaries and armed conflict in Colombia’s prisons. During the kidnapping, she was tortured and raped and told by her attackers that this was “punishment” for her journalism. Bedoya has sought justice in Colombia, investigating her own case when prosecutors failed to do so and facing additional threats seeking to silence her.
PBI Colombia warns that 170,500 people in the Pacific port of Buenaventura are at risk of forced displacement or death as two former paramilitary groups battle in the city. In January, more than 38 confrontations led to the forced displacement of over 2,000 residents and the killing of 22. In February the Bishop of Buenaventura indicated that in one district former paramilitaries had returned to use rudimentary cabins to torture and dismember people. [Read more…]
Europe Newsletter March 2021
Welcome to the March edition of our newsletter. There is an Urgent Action on Turkey, a public Statement in support of the Saturday mothers in Turkey , an update on the “El Hiblu 3” campaign and a toolkit devised by the Roma support group to help those who are supporting Roma children and families to register for settled status in the UK. Particularly teachers can play a vital role in preventing a humanitarian disaster from July with vulnerable children and families cut off from healthcare and public services. Please share all the actions with your groups, networks, family and friends.
We have a presence on the following :
https://www.facebook.com/AmnestyUKEurope
https://twitter.com/AmnestyUKEurope
Please like and share posts on the AmnestyUKEurope page and follow the Twitter account and retweeting posts would be very helpful.
We are recruiting a new Balkans coordinator and are still looking for a Western Europe coordinator.
Very best regards Ulrike and Chris
Turkey – Action Plan & Urgent Action
Failure to free Osman Kavala and Selahattin Demirtaş makes mockery of Erdogan’s “Human Rights Action Plan”
On 2 March Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unveiled a human rights “action plan” designed to strengthen the rule of law and judicial independence in a country that rights groups say lacks both. Its commitments include respecting the presumption of innocence and a speedier judicial process to reduce the length of pre-trial detention.
Erdogan said the plans’ ultimate goal was to lay the groundwork for a new constitution that he has promised to adopt by the time Turkey marks its centenary as a post-Ottoman republic in 2023.
“Our goal is to further strengthen the rule of law,” Erdogan said in televised remarks.
Although cautiously welcomed by some Members of the European Parliament the announcement has been greeted with considerable scepticism by many organisations like Amnesty that have long experience of monitoring human rights abuses in Turkey. Amnesty International’s Europe Director Nils Muižnieks pointed out that continued detention of individuals such as Osman Kavala and Selahattin Demirtasmakes “makes a mockery of President Erdoğan’s government’s attempts to whitewash systemic human rights abuses by unveiling a meaningless Human Rights Action Plan last week”.
Responding to the calls by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers on the Turkish government to implement binding European Court of Human Rights judgments and release human rights defender, Osman Kavala and politician Selahattin Demirtaş, Muižnieks said:
“Osman Kavala and Selahattin Demirtaş have been arbitrarily and unjustly deprived of their liberty for years, despite the binding Court decisions that they be released.
“This action plan and Turkey’s generic platitudes cannot hide the reality: the ongoing imprisonment of these two men, and scores of others, for simply exercising their rights shows that in Turkey, freedom of expression is ruthlessly punished.
“Turkish authorities must release Kavala and Demirtaş, allow human rights defenders to do their work and stop putting undue pressure on their judges. It is high time that states across Europe tell Turkey that prosecuting and imprisoning people for political reasons is unacceptable.
“The Committee of Ministers’ decision to keep Turkey under its watch on a weekly basis is a welcome step ahead of an infringement procedure.”
Ironically, the announcement of the Human Rights Action plan also coincided with the announcement that Turkish prosecutors were seeking a two-year jail term for Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu for insulting a former regional governor. Imamoglu is a top member of the opposition CHP party who upset Erdogan’s candidate in a 2019 local election. Turkish courts and prosecutors
are also conducting a number of investigations into the pro-Kurdish opposition HDP party that could see it shut down before Turks go to the polls again in two years’ time.
For a useful assessment of the new “Human Rights Action Plan” please read the IFEX (International Freedom of Expression Exchange) document accessible through the following link:
https://ifex.org/makeup-on-a-bedridden-patient-rights-experts-assess-turkeys-new-human-rights-action-plan/
New Urgent Action on Boğaziçi students
Amnesty has issued a Urgent Action in relation to the protests at Boğaziçi University. The earlier UA from January was issued when at least 45 students were detained during dawn raids between 5 to 7 January after their alleged participation in a protest at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul; they are now released but many among them had alleged torture or other ill-treatment and we called for an investigation into these allegations and bring law enforcement officers found to be responsible to justice. [Read more…]
Latest Actions
At our meeting on Thursday 11th, we worked our way though a few actions – mainly online. Amnesty has improved this process considerably over recent months. These have been taken from several different sources – from local groups newsletters, AIUK emails and the action pages from Amnesty International “take action” sites around the world.
Do join us online next month (April 8th, 7.30). Meanwhile….
Pakistan: Idris Khattak, a human rights researcher facing trial in a military court. take action… Letter (model letter included)
Professor Muhammadany Ismail, a retired professor of Urdu, is imprisoned awaiting trial, apparently for the work his daughter does for human rights. He is a prisoner of conscience who should be released immediately. take action… Letter (model letter included)
Christian Couple on Death Row for Blasphemy
Shagufta Kausar and Shafqat Emmanuel face execution for allegedly sending ‘blasphemous’ texts to a mosque cleric, from a phone containing a sim registered in Shagufta’s name.
https://www.amnesty.ca/sites/default/files/27%20Pakistan.pdf Letter
Saudi Arabia
Nassima Al-Sada has been in prison since 2018 because of her work defending women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. She goes months without seeing her children or lawyer. Sign the petition https://bit.ly/3edMabg
Loujain al-Hathloul
Despite her release from prison, Loujain is not free yet. Help by emailing the Saudi embassy, calling on them to help quash Loujain’s sentence and release her unconditionally.
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions/help-quash-loujains-sentence
Russia
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/urgent-actions/chechen-man-faces-deportation-russia email
Twenty-year-old Salekh Magamadov and 17-year-old Ismail Isaev were abducted by police in Central Russia and taken to Chechnya:-
https://www.amnesty.ie/russia-salekh-ismail/ email
Iran: There are five people facing execution in disturbing circumstances. Three Ahwazi Arabs have been tortured and denied medical treatment while awaiting execution Take Action… email. Two members of the Baluchi minority are also facing execution following torture Take Action email
Honduras
Demand that the Attorney General ensures truth and justice in the case of Berta Cáceres
https://www.amnesty.org/en/get-involved/take-action/verdad-y-justicia-para-berta-caceres/ email
Ethiopia
Demand full humanitarian access into Tigray
https://www.amnesty.org/en/get-involved/take-action/demand-full-humanitarian-access-into-tigray/ email
India
Unfreeze AI India’s bank accounts
https://www.amnesty.ie/unfreeze-amnesty-indias-bank-accounts/ Sign a petition
GUATEMALA
On 16 January 2021, Xinca defender Julio David González Arango was shot by an armed man.
https://www.amnesty.ie/julio-gonzalez/ email
France
President Macron: Allow people to protest peacefully..
https://www.amnesty.org/en/get-involved/take-action/france-right-to-protest-freedom-of-expression/ Sign a petition
UK – email your MP
Many are under threat from governments, violent groups or self-interested companies. Too often they are attacked, threatened, imprisoned or killed for their work.
The UK government has the power to help defend them. But they need persuading to do more – contact your MP now, calling on them to urge the UK government to help protect frontline defenders.
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions/uk-give-urgent-protection-frontline-human-rights-defenders
BANGLADESH
https://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent-actions/urgent-action-cartoonist-tortured-writer-dies-in-jail-bangladesh-ua-29-21/ Letter (model letter included)
Australia
https://action.amnesty.org.au/act-now/demand-safety-for-women-and-girls email
Jeff Bezos!
https://www.amnesty.org/en/get-involved/take-action/tell-amazon-to-let-workers-unionize/ email
Europe Update
We have some great news to celebrate! On 2 March the court declared the verdict in the trial against our 3 brave Women Human Rights defenders who were absurdly charged with”insulting religion” which in Poland can carry a prison sentence of 2 years. Despite the political pressures on judges by the Minister of Justice and government controlled institutions a judge has declared the verdict of “not guilty”. Thank you for all those who promoted the on-line action (over 160000 signatures world-wide, more than 40000 from the UK) , sent letters to the Public Prosecutor, lobbied MP’s took part in solidarity action, this has strengthened the Human Rights and Civil Rights movements in Poland and strengthened judges to resist interference and intimidation from the government. The Minister of Justice can still appeal the decision, but lets hope he doesn’t. Please find the full press release here :
Now its time to celebrate ! Join us on International Women’s day Monday at 6pm on-line and hear from Joanna, straight from the court room and listen to Olivia and Mola from the front-line of the Polish Women’s strike. Introductions by Kate Allen director of Amnesty UK and Kasia from the International Polish Women Council. Please register at the link below.
Here’s the registration link for the event: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/5639934312677045772
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