Amnesty International Bournemouth Poole Christchurch Group

local news & events Amnesty International group for Bournemouth, Poole & Christchurch

South America Newsletter June 2023

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This month, we have updates on Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Chile and Argentina.  Amnesty has issued the full findings of its investigation of human rights abuses during the protests in Peru.  There is a petition that you can sign demanding fundamental reform of the Colombian National Police.  You can tweet calling for the Brazilian Senate to defeat a proposed new law that would open up the Amazon to huge new infrastructure projects.  Other updates include the continuing persecution of human rights activists in Venezuela, the Chilean Government’s intention to nationalise the country’s lithium industry and the investigation into the involvement of the Catholic Church in Argentina’s brutal military dictatorship of 1976-83.

PERU

amnesty InternationalOn 25 May, Amnesty launched its full report on the illegitimate use of lethal force by the security forces in Peru that resulted in 49 deaths during the protests from December to February.  Titled Lethal Racism: Extrajudicial Executions and unlawful use of force by Peru’s security forces, the report analyses 52 cases of people killed or wounded during the protests.  It calls on the Attorney General’s office to investigate all those involved, up to the highest level.

On the Amnesty Peru website there is an email action you can take.  Basically this demands that the National Prosecutor’s Office get to the truth and investigate those most responsible for the repression in Peru. You’re browser should translate into English; the option above send is asking is you want further information from Amnesty Peru (Sí) or not (No). Please also share our Facebook post and Tweet, if you use such platforms.

In a report released on 10 May, Human Rights Watch have reconstructed the events of 9 January, the single deadliest day of repression, when eighteen protestors and bystanders were killed, concluding that the security forces used disproportionate and indiscriminate force.  The report, They, The Policemen, Killed My Brother, refutes official accounts provided to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and in public statements.

COLOMBIA

Amnesty International
Forced displacement of rural community, Colombia

 

Amnesty International issued its submission with recommendations to the UN’s Human Rights Committee’s Universal Periodic Review of Colombia due November 2023. Major concerns are persistent violence against human rights defenders and lack of structural measures to protect them; lack of protection for refugee women regarding gender-based violence, and persistent impunity for human rights violations, including cases of unlawful use of force by the police in the context of protests. It notes that while some progress has been made on many of these issues there is a failure to implement them. [Read more…]

Europe Newsletter June 2023

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From Monday  the 19th of June to Sunday 25th June Refugee Week takes place across the World. The theme of this years Refugee Week is compassion. While many ordinary people across the world show compassion and solidarity to refugees who have lost everything due to war, oppression and violence, governments across Europe particularly at the borders of Fortress Europe :Spain, Italy, Greece, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Croatia are using violence against refugees who are simply trying to find a place of safety.

Often this results in loss of lives. At least 37 died at the Mellila border last year (+77 missing) and at least 94 people died at sea close to the coast of Italy because Frontex and the Italian authorities did not attempt to rescue them. And those people who are rescuing refugees from drowning in the sea are criminalised and threatened with long prison sentences for their humanity. Sarah and Sean are back in court again on baseless charges. The trial against the crew of the Juventa , who saved several thousand lives before being impounded, is on-going. And Tommy Olson from Norway is threatened with 25 years in prison for documenting how refugees and migrants are treated in Greece. Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, while welcoming refugees from Ukraine are still violently pushing back or detaining and deporting refugees from other wars and violence.

And our government is trying to get rid of the Universal Human Right to asylum from persecution altogether. If the „illegal“ immigration bill becomes law refugees fleeing war, oppression and violence will not be able to claim asylum in the UK any more if they have arrived „illegally“. There are no safe and legal routes for people seeking asylum to enter the UK. The bill will apply to people arriving in the UK on or after 7 March 2023 (the day the bill was published), and anyone caught by it would be permanently barred from the UK. Their partners and children will face the same fate, regardless of whether they arrived without permission – even if they were born here.

This would mean that many British children would be robbed of their rights to British citizenship. We have to fight this bill. Please join the digital action

STOP THE CRUEL BILL: Email Rishi now (amnesty.org.uk)  And please write personal letters to Rishi Sunak as well as your MP.

Refugee Week   Take part in International Actions

EUROPEAN BORDER ACTION WORLD REFUGEE DAY 20TH OF JUNE 2023

On World Refugee Week 19th-25th of June we come together to commemorate the challenges faced by refugees all over the Europe and the incredible courage they show. Find out below when it is and how we mark this important day.  

#SafeAndLegalRoutesNow #AmnestyUKEurope

Amnesty International

We are planning a mixed action, where the groups themselves can decide whether they want to demonstrate loudly, join digitally, join in creative and artsy ways or by making informational events. What we all will have in common are our demands.

Use #SafeAndLegalRoutesNow #AmnestyUKEurope and tag @amnestyukeurope

Actions Collect signatures for the Melilla case  19th-25th of June

For groups who want to collect signatures: Print the petition for the Melilla case and organise joint signing 

Spain and Morocco: Demand justice for dead and missing at Melilla

On 24 June 2022, people attempting to cross into Melilla through a border crossing between Spain and Morocco were met with a shocking display of unlawful force by Moroccan and Spanish security forces. At least 37 Black people – mostly from sub-Saharan Africa – died unlawfully and 77 are missing. Their loved ones still don’t have answers about what happened to them.

Join us to demand truth, justice and reparations for the victims and their families.

Sign the petition here https://www.amnesty.org/en/petition/justice-for-dead-and-missing-at-melilla/,

[Read more…]

Back Door Parole

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Some of you may remember attending the Journeymen Theatre’s performance of Feeding the Darkness (about state-sanctioned torture), a few years ago. This will be the very last performance of Journeymen as Lynn and Dave are retiring.

[Read more…]

South America Newsletter May 2023

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This month, we bring you news that –

  • In Argentina, the Mapuche indigenous people continue to fight for their land rights in the face of the denial of those rights by provincial governments
  • Amnesty International has published its Annual Report on Brazil, highlighting the role of racism in state violence, the killing of human rights defenders and journalists, and the occurrence of politically motivated violence in the run up to the elections last year
  • Regarding Chile, Amnesty International has published a new Urgent Action demanding a halt to a proposed bill criminalizing refugees and migrants
  • In Colombia, Amnesty International has published a new Urgent Action calling on President Petro to protect the human rights organization CREDHOS, after an explosive device was found at the entrance to their offices
  • For Ecuador, Amnesty International has published an Urgent Action calling for the protection of Pablo Fajardo Mendoza, a lawyer accused by the government of being an “international criminal” for defending the rights of indigenous peoples
  • Human Rights Watch have published their report regarding the oppression of protests in Peru late last year
  • Amnesty International has published a new Urgent Action for Emirlendris Benitez, who has suffered torture and mistreatment in Venezuela – the Urgent Action joins those already published for the falsely imprisoned Javier Tarazona and for the repressive NGO bill
  • Amnesty International has reminded the Peruvian and Chilean governments to protect the human rights of around 300 people stranded at the Peruvian and Chilean border

ARGENTINA

THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES IN MENDOZA VOTED A RESOLUTION WHICH MAINTAINS THAT “THE MAPUCHES SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED ORIGINAL ARGENTINE PEOPLES.” | CEDOC-PERFIL

Tens of thousands of Mapuches, members of an indigenous people established on both sides of the Andes in the Chilean and Argentine territory, are claiming the return of their ancestral lands and assets. The Mapuche are the most populous indigenous people in Argentina. However, the group is facing significant backlash from provincial governments.

The Chamber of Deputies in Mendoza (in the province of Mendoza) voted a resolution which maintains that “the Mapuches should not be considered original Argentine peoples.” This resolution comes just days after the Supreme Court suspended the distribution of land in Bariloche (in the province of Río Negro), to a Mapuche community.

While the resolution was going to the vote in Mendoza, a demonstration of human rights movements and members of indigenous peoples took place outside. The protestors all sung in unison as they criticised the chamber’s actions. The Centre of Professionals for Human Rights expressed its “deep rejection of the denialist and racist opinion.”

In passing the resolution, the chamber also rejected a decree signed by President Fernández to suspend “judgments, procedural or administrative acts, whose object is the eviction or vacating of lands.”

This comes a few weeks after a critical report by a United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights, an independent monitoring program of the Human Rights Council. This denounced the “structural discrimination” affecting the Indigenous population in Argentina. In particular the UN delegation highlighted the unequal effects of Argentina’s high poverty rate:-

“Poverty is concentrated in certain regions, with indigenous peoples being especially affected by social inequality, economic marginalisation and structural racism”

The report had other criticisms of the treatment and stigmatisation of  indigenous peoples and communities, referring to the “exacerbation of a highly racist discourse” in the media. It also highlights that they were subject to repeated “evictions and violent interventions”.

On a separate issue, the report also criticised the management of a number of fast-growing industries – including so-called “mega-mining” of shale gas and lithium – for their tendency to perpetuate human rights abuses.

BRAZIL

Pataxó leader, Brazil

Amnesty International has published its annual report on Brazil. In summary: ‘Racism continued to drive state violence. Mass killings by public security officials were frequent, disproportionately affecting Black people in marginalized neighbourhoods. Cis and transgender women, especially Black women, were targets of various forms of violence. In an election year, the dissemination of fake news and statements by President Bolsonaro incited politically motivated violence, threatened state institutions and undermined the functioning of judicial institutions. Many journalists and human rights defenders were threatened and killed. The social, political and economic situation continued to deteriorate, leading to violations of the rights to food, health, housing, work and social assistance, among others. Investigations into human rights violations documented by the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic were shelved. The historic failure of the state to confront structural racism continued to result in Indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants being disproportionately impacted by failings in institutional measures and actions.’

According to Greenpeace, London listed Canadian Serabi Gold stands accused of illegally  mining gold in the Amazon without the permission of Brazil’s federal land agency, on disputed land, with licences contested by state agencies, and before a nearby Indigenous community has properly been consulted. The Company claims its mine is legal. This illustrates the tangled web of agencies and interests in Brazil’s Amazon.

The OAS’s International Commission of Human Rights has ordered the Brazilian state to take measures to protect the indigenous Pataxó people in Bahia state. Some of the Pataxó live in a contested area and since October 2022 they have been subject to ‘continuous violence’ including threats, harassment, shootings and defamation that culminated in the killing of three of their members with the connivance of the security forces. Members of the Military Police suspected of participating in these killings have been detained. But there is inadequate protection for this community. 

[Read more…]
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