The latest newsletter from the South America Team at AIUK – Richard Crosfield (Colombia), Graham Minter (Rest of South America) – we expect to have a new Brazil Coordinator onboard shortly:-

“This month we report on the critical situation in Venezuela, the wide range of human rights concerns and an update on the peace process in Colombia, and recent events in Chile, Peru and Brazil. We have good news from Peru, where all charges have been dropped against Máxima Acuña Atalaya; many thanks to all of you who have written on her behalf.

You are invited to an event at AIUK’s HRAC on 21 June, where the subject will be the massive forced sterilisation programme in Peru and its consequences 1996-1998.  You can take action by responding to the 3 UAs for Venezuela, another UA for Colombia and there’s a petition to sign on Brazil.

Venezuela

Amnesty has issued a statement that the use of military courts to try civilians in Venezuela undermines the rule of law in the country, violating the Venezuelan constitution and international laws. According to official data, more than 250 people are currently deprived of their liberty and were brought before military judges and prosecutors. They were all prosecuted under military jurisdiction for crimes such as “association with intent to incite rebellion” and “attacking a sentinel”.  More information here.

There are reports that the leader of the opposition Henrique Capriles was blocked from leaving the country for a meeting with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.  A UN spokesperson said that the rising tensions in Venezuela were very alarming and incidents such as this were unlikely to help reduce tensions.  According to the latest figures, there have been 42 deaths in the context of the protests.

There is still time to act on three Venezuela Urgent Actions sent out in May. The first (here) responds to an incident when authorities forcibly searched the home of human rights defender EhislerVásquez and prosecutors threatened to indict him when he requested information on the reason for the search. This potential criminalization would put his work to defend human rights at risk. The second (here) concerns Leopoldo López, who has been allowed no access to his lawyers since 8 April, violating his right to a defence. The third (here) relates to an incident in which unidentified persons broke into the residence of human rights defenders Yonaide Sánchez and Nelson Freitez. There is concern that this was an attempt to stop the legitimate activism that they both carry out for human rights.

• Leopoldo Lopez is one of our Case Files – see Take Action for some letters you can edit and print

[Read more…]

Hello
Welcome our the latest newsletter.
The next meeting is on Thursday 11th May 2017, 7.30 at Moordown Community Centre. As well as working on our Case Files and continued planning, there are ongoing discussions about proposed changes to our constitution and membership. If you intend coming and would like to see these documents, please reply to this newsletter. Also ideas about the Marsh Award (see below)

Christchurch Street Collection 2017

This is next Saturday, May 13th, Christchurch High Street (meet by Saxon Square – not allowed to collect in the Square as Council have sold off). We’ve ordered better weather than last year, when we all froze. If you have never done a street collection, they are a somewhat surreal experience – how to be invisible without taking any illicit substance! If you can help out, even for just an hour, it would help. You can then tick it off your bucket list…. Please reply to this newsletter if you intend helping, rather than just turn up as we have to know names – regulations are quite strict.

Marsh Award Winners 2017

We have won £500 – to create something you probably have never heard of and almost certainly have never used. Any ideas? Check out our blog to find out what and read our competition entry!
https://amnestyat50.co.uk/winners-marsh-award-2017

South America Newsletter

The May edition of the South America Regional Newsletter is now on the blog. Our group has focused on South America since its inception, which is also reflected in our two case files – see below. The 3 volunteers who run the network for AIUK – and produce the newsletter – do a huge amount of work on our behalf. The April newsletter has also appeared since our last newsletter. [Read more…]

…are the Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch Amnesty International Group!!!  To be precise the award is for “Human Rights Activism” as it says on our certificate.  However, its for what we are proposing to do in the future, rather than what we have done. We entered this annual award, where the criteria was

“Every day, Amnesty groups educate and empower people to take action on human rights in so many fantastic ways. Sometimes though, we know your amazing ideas feel a bit out of your financial reach.

This is where the Marsh Awards for Human Rights Activism can help. We have partnered with the Marsh Christian Trust to recognise your passion and ingenuity. There are three prizes of £500 for Groups (Local, Youth and Student) to help make your ideas a reality.  Your ideas need to positively impact people’s understanding of human rights. Aside from that, the only limit is your imagination!”

So what was our proposal to merit this £500 award? Selfie Frames (or Photo Booth Frames). Below is a (shortened) version of our entry, that explains how we came up with this idea, and why we think it could be a useful way to help engage people.

Sceptical?  All your editor can say (who holds his hand up as largely responsible for this state of affairs), is we have no idea what the other entries were (or if there were any!). Also last year, Hull Group won and commissioned a large professional effigy of a “local and much loved historical campaigner for women’s rights, Mary Murdoch”… But their argument was the much same, create something to stop people at events and engage them.

The next event we have, the one that inspired this entry, is BourneFree On July 1st.  If anyone out there has graphic design skills and/or in any way want to help with this project, please let us know.  What we also need are appealing human rights slogans – such as “Love is a Human Right”, “It’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness” – that can be utilised on the frames.
We’ll keep you updated, and obviously show the frames in use when made. But for now, this is part of our entry… [Read more…]

The latest newsletter from the South America Team at AIUK – Ellie May (Brazil), Richard Crosfield (Colombia), Graham Minter (Rest of South America):-

“In this month’s newsletter, we highlight the renewal of serious unrest in Venezuela and a new Amnesty report and campaign on the situation. We describe the continuing paramilitary attacks on communities in Colombia.  There are further reports of threats to indigenous communities in Brazil. There are also updates on human rights concerns in Chile, Peru and Paraguay.  There are several options to take action, focusing this month on Venezuela, Colombia, Chile and Paraguay.

Venezuela

While Venezuela’s economic crisis is causing an increasingly serious deterioration in living standards, deep political polarisation continues to obstruct the search for a solution. The authorities are using their control over the justice system and the state security apparatus to persecute and punish their opponents. Renewed protests around the country have resulted in several deaths and hundreds of people injured or imprisoned. A new report by Amnesty, Silenced By Force: Politically-Motivated Arbitrary Detentions in Venezuela, describes the current situation. This marks the launch of a new campaign to showcase the suppression of free expression by force in Venezuela, about which we shall write to you shortly.

Meanwhile, we have sent Groups an Urgent Action update about Leopoldo López (see letters, as Leopoldo is Case File 2, on ACTION) who has been kept incommunicado since 8 April and has been placed in solitary confinement for reasons that have not been disclosed by the authorities. During this time, he has been illegally denied visits from his lawyer and family. [Read more…]

Thought we’d have a change from action pictures from the pub – there are only so many ways of depicting a pub quiz! Anyway thanks to everyone who turned out for Fridays quiz at the Brunswick.  We made £207 from entry and our raffle.

Thanks, as ever, to David and Rosemary Brown for devising and presenting the quiz. Thanks also to the Brunswick for providing the venue for free. probably be back there again later in the year – unless you know of anywhere different?