Welcome to the latest newsletter. The next meeting  is on Thursday 11th January 2018, 7.30pm  at Moordown Community Centre. On the agenda  –  Review of campaigns; Tapestry exhibition; AIUK AGM resolutions

Azza is one of the featured human rights defenders in Write 4 Rights

Write for Rights Thanks to everyone who turned out for our Write for Rights events – at Castlepoint and Moordown Community Centre. We sent about 80 cards to the various human rights defenders featured. Write for Rights finishes at the end of January.  There is an update on this blog post, which gives details of how the campaign has impacted. There is also a link at the end of the post if you still want to send cards – whilst focussed on December it has no actual link with Christmas. https://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/campaigns/writing-rights-2017

Library Exhibition During 2015, members of local Amnesty groups in the South (including us!) designed and embroidered  panels – each of which depicted one of the articles of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR).  These were then stitched together to create a large patchwork wall hanging, our Tapestry. The aim was to mark the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta in 1215 and to highlight the continuing importance of the protections afforded by the UNDHR. The Tapestry spent 6 months adjacent to the Magna Carta at Salisbury cathedral. Since then it has travelled to other venues around the south. We are in the process of organising an exhibition at Bournemouth Library featuring the Tapestry. This will be during April, this year, and also feature 30 photographs from AIUK’s current “Refugees Welcome” campaign. The photographs document some of the issues surrounding refugees over the past 70 years, from the mass upheaval and displacement of the post-war years to the present-day crisis in Syria, Afghanistan and South Sudan. Watch this space for more information about the exhibition – hit reply if you would like to get involved in any way.

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SUMMARY

In this month’s report, we have urgent actions on Colombia, Venezuela and Bolivia. In Peru, the President granted a humanitarian pardon to an ex-president who was serving a lengthy prison sentence, including for human rights abuses. Health in Venezuela continues to be undermined by the government’s failure to order the purchase of antiretroviral medication. The security forces violently broke up demonstrations in Argentina, Chile elected a new President, and human rights work in Bolivia was obstructed. Meanwhile communities across Colombia continued to find themselves under threat from paramilitary groups, and new data emerged in Brazil highlighting the overcrowding of its prison system and the extent of police violence.

PERU

President Kuczynski has granted a humanitarian pardon to ex-President Fujimori, who was serving a lengthy prison sentence for human rights abuses and corruption during his time in office in the 1990s.  Thousands of people have taken to the streets in Lima and other cities to protest against the decision.  Kuczynski has acknowledged the anger triggered by his decision but said he could not allow Alberto Fujimori to die in prison.  The announcement came days after Kuczynski had narrowly survived impeachment by Congress over allegations that he lied about his links to Odebrecht, the Brazilian contractor at the centre of a string of major corruption cases in Peru and elsewhere in the region.  Amnesty described the decision as a tough blow for the struggle for justice for victims of humanitarian crimes committed by Fujimori.  BBC report here.

VENEZUELA

Venezuela’s opposition-led National Assembly, along with “all political prisoners”, have been awarded EU’s prestigious Sakharov prize for human rights for 2017 (Guardian report here) while the government has expelled the senior diplomatic representatives from Brazil and Canada and those two countries have responded in kind (BBC report here).

We have circulated two Urgent Actions: one for prisoner of conscience Villca Fernández, whose transfer to hospital has been repeatedly postponed and whose health has continued to deteriorate (take action here); and the other highlighting the government’s failure to order the purchase of vital antiretroviral medication, putting the lives of at least 77,000 people living with HIV at risk (take action here).

For more on the current health crisis in Venezuela, including for those with HIV, and the rising numbers fleeing the country as refugees, see this interesting report.

ARGENTINA [Read more…]

Welcome to the latest newsletter. The next meeting  is on Thursday 14th December 2017, 7.30pm  at Moordown Community Centre. On the agenda –  Write 4 Rights! This meeting is dedicated to the Write 4 Rights campaign – details below. Don’t forget seasonal nibbles and raffle prizes…

Every year Amnesty International has encouraged and helped groups send greetings cards to prisoners of conscience around the world in December. Traditionally there were just half a dozen names selected.  In recent years Amnesty has branded this as “Write for Rights” (W4R) and produced much more informative information leaflets, covering many more prisoners of conscience. We have always made this a mainstay of our December meeting. If you have been tempted to try one of our meetings, but never quite got there, this is an ideal opportunity. As well as dedicating the meeting to sending cards, we also have a few seasonal nibbles and an exciting raffle. Do join us if you can.

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SUMMARY

Lots to report this month, but first we give a warm welcome to a new member of our team: Joe Smith, our new Brazil Coordinator, who has produced the Brazil section of this newsletter.  You will be hearing from Joe himself shortly.  In this newsletter, we report among other things on the continuing deterioration in Venezuela, the disturbing rise in murders of human rights defenders in Colombia and proposals that would seriously reduce human rights protections in Brazil.  There is good news from Chile and Paraguay, advance notice of a new campaign on Peru and a disappearance in Argentina.  You are invited to join the Lambeth Group’s annual Embassy crawl which will include a stop at the Chilean Embassy

Wounaan family at a displaced settlement near Quibdo Chocó

 Amnesty International has launched its first full report on Colombia in 2 years. The Years of Solitude Continue is a vivid account of what has gone wrong in the Chocó since the Peace Agreement was signed a year ago. Killings, forced displacements, anti-personnel mine casualties, rape, recruitment of girls and boys by armed groups are happening right now. The UN High Commission for Refugees reports 27 separate incidents of forced relocation in Chocó in the month of October 2017 alone. Over 6,000 Afro-descendant and indigenous people were forced off their land, losing their homes, their livelihood and way of life – in one month. They join 7.2 million internally displaced people – one in every six Colombians. Please download this report and distribute it as widely as possible. We will be sending you actions over the coming months.

Bernardo Cuero, leader of the Association of Displaced Afro-Colombians, was shot dead by two men on a motorbike 7 June 2017.

Amnesty has chosen Bernardo’s case to work on as part of the Human Rights Defenders (BRAVE) campaign. Although he received death threats and was granted some protection by the government for a while, there were no effective investigations into the threats and attacks against him, leaving him exposed to further violence. This is against a background of increased killings of human rights defenders in Colombia post the Peace Agreement with the FARC.  An action will follow shortly. [Read more…]