This month we bring you news from Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina and Ecuador.

Highlights are:

• Colombia: Amnesty has released a new report which documents the reality experienced by the women who dedicate their lives to searching for the victims of enforced disappearance.
• Peru: Amnesty has published the stories of four of the survivors of the repression of the 2022/23 protests, highlighting how the authorities have failed to ensure their health and recovery.
• Venezuela: Nicolas Maduro has been sworn in to the Presidency, prompting outrage amongst non-governmental organisations and in other countries.
• Chile: Amnesty has issued a new Urgent Action, calling on the Senate to reject draft legislation that poses a grave threat to the rights of migrants.
• Argentina: Amnesty Argentina have published a report on the human rights situation during 2024. This explores how the economic policies and reforms have negatively impacted the lives of millions of people, especially the most vulnerable.
• Ecuador: Amnesty has published an article on how communities in the city of Guayaquil and along the country’s coast have stepped up their activism in the face of the hostile environment created by the authorities.

 COLOMBIA

Amnesty has released a new report Transforming pain into rights: Risks, threats and attack on women searchers in Colombia.  The report documents the reality experienced by the women who dedicate their lives to searching for the victims of enforced disappearance in Colombia, and the need for society to recognize these women and for the authorities to guarantee their rights, given the serious obstacles they face in demanding truth and justice.  The report has been prepared as part of Amnesty International’s #SearchingWithoutFear campaign, which calls for the recognition and protection of women searchers across the Americas. [Read more…]

This month we bring you news from Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, Chile, Brazil, Paraguay and Ecuador.

• Peru – Amnesty is bringing two Human Rights Defenders to the UK and you may book here to join them at the Human Rights Action Centre on 11 November evening and you can sign a petition.
• Colombia – Amnesty has issued a new Urgent Action demanding that the authorities investigate the attacks on Fundación Nydia Erika Bautista.
• Argentina – Joel Paredes is in this year’s Write For Rights campaign, you can sign an online petition
• Argentina – Amnesty has issued a new report Muted: The impact of digital violence against women journalists.
• Venezuela – Amnesty welcomes the two-year extension of the UN’s Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela.
• Chile – On the 5^th anniversary of the protests, Amnesty demands reparations for victims of the protests and reform of the Carabineros
• Brazil – As the trial of the killers of Marielle Franco begins, Amnesty demands that the master minds behind the killings be apprehended.
• Paraguay – Amnesty has issued an updated Urgent Action aimed at stopping the enactment of a bill that endangers work for human rights in Paraguay.
• Ecuador – Amnesty issued a briefing setting out its concerns about the decline in human rights protections under the current administration

PERU

Two Peruvian Human Rights Defenders will visit the UK from 10-13 November to raise international pressure in the search for justice for those who were killed or seriously injured during the repression of protests in Peru in 2022-2023. Yovana Mendoza Huarancca, Vice-President of the Ayacucho Victims Association, and Mario Iquita Chambi, Representative of the Juliaca Victims Association, will be speak at an event that we are organising at the Human Rights Action Centre on 11 November from 6pm to 8pm.  Space will be limited to a maximum attendance of 40.  You can book here. Their programme includes a meeting at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and an event at Parliament.  You can still sign our petition here.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has found that the policy of forced sterilisation in Peru, which took place during the 1990s, amounted to sex-based violence and intersectional discrimination, particularly against Indigenous, rural, and economically disadvantaged women.  The decision was a response to a joint complaint filed by five victims who were forcibly sterilised between 1996 and 1997 as part of the State-led birth control policy. [Read more…]