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…]

Welcome to the latest newsletter. The next meeting  is on Thursday 9th November 2017, 7.30pm  at Moordown Community Centre. On the agenda – Castlepoint, Write 4 Rights, Case File, Exhibition Bournemouth library.

This is now organised for Friday November 24th, 7.30 for 8.00 prompt at the Brunswick Hotel, 199 Malmesbury Park Road, Charminster, Bournemouth BH8 8PX. For those unfamiliar, our quizzes are informal but competitive! Teams of up to 6, entrance £5 a person. Due to popularity, and past overcrowding. We are now obliged to limit total numbers to 50. Please get your tickets here  This will let you print off tickets once booked – You will still need to pay on the night! Please book as soon as you can as we can promote the event more widely if numbers are low. Any problems, please leave a message (with contact details) on 07787350946, or reply to this newsletter.

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 would like to work on Write for Rights from home, or take to work on within a workplace or other organisation you belong to, please go to the AIUK site. You can download a PDF or follow up individual pages on the different cases. In recent years the group have used the “pod” at Castlepoint to engage the public. We are hoping to finalise a date at the next meeting – we will let you know as soon as we know.

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SUMMARY

This month we have urgent actions for Brazil and Colombia and the sad news that the body of Santiago Maldonado has appeared in Argentina. You can still sign up to the Peru healthcare petition. The ongoing violations of human rights post the Peace Accord continue to be news in Colombia, while the new government of President Temer has a legislative programme to restrict human rights in Brazil. The deteriorating situation in Venezuela is the subject of a new Amnesty report on home raids by the police, and we bring you updates for Paraguay and good news from Chile too.

COLOMBIA

Amnesty issued a press release stating that nine peasant farmers have been killed and more than a dozen injured in the municipality of Tumaco, allegedly by members of the Colombian Army and National Police. This is a clear signal to the authorities of the need to protect to the civilian population during the implementation of the Peace Agreement, said Amnesty International. The communities were protesting against the slow implementation of the programme for the voluntary replacement of illicit crops, set out in the Peace Agreement signed in November last year. For the full press release click here.

We sent you an urgent action to respond to the killing on 24 October of Aulio Isarama Forastero, Indigenous governor of the Catru Dubaza Ancoso reservation Chocó department. He was killed by armed men, allegedly members of the ELN (National Liberation Army). There have been 21 instances of forced displacement so far this year in Chocó department and the community is at risk of forced displacement following this violence. For those of you who have not yet responded, please write to the authorities listed in the Urgent Action which you can download here.

In a profound analysis of the ongoing land disputes in the Cauca Valley, The Guardian reports that “The 50-year civil war is over but, in the Cauca Valley, indigenous communities are on frontline of fight against drug gangs, riot police and deforestation.” The Peace Accord, by causing the FARC to abandon this area, has led to multiple incursions by armed groups. Indigenous communities, in an attempt to conserve the environment and respect traditional values, have responded. For the full article, please   click here. [Read more…]