Write for Rights 2024

October 31, 2024 by zarganar

Write for Rights (W4R) is Amnesty International’s annual campaign, sending greetings cards to prisoners of conscience, their families and other human rights defenders around the world. Since W4R started in 2001, millions of people have taken part, helping to change the lives of those whose human rights have been taken away. Over the past 20 years, more than 56 million actions have been taken and over 100 people featured in the campaign have seen positive outcomes in their cases.

To take online actions about all the cases to to the main Amnesty International site

You can download the Campaign Booklet and other information on the AIUK site.

You can see videos on all the cases, created by Amnesty Canada, on YouTube.

Find out about our W4R events.

Türkiye: Professor Şebnem Korur Fincancı

Harassed for defending human rights

Forensic medicine expert and human rights defender Professor Şebnem Korur Fincancı has dedicated her life to eradicating torture and defending human rights. Trying to silence her, the Turkish authorities have subjected Şebnem to baseless criminal investigations. In 2023, she was convicted for allegedly “making propaganda for a terrorist organization” after she had called for an investigation into allegations that the Turkish military was using chemical weapons in Iraq. Şebnem is appealing against her conviction but could be imprisoned for almost two years if unsuccessful.

At home, Professor Şebnem Korur Fincancı enjoys spending time with her cats Simone and Ulula, cooking and listening to music. Beethoven is her favourite composer.

To the world, Şebnem is a forensic medicine expert, renowned for her work to eradicate torture. She has contributed to the development of a United Nations protocol on the investigation of torture, and a handbook on sexual violence for the World Health Organization. Until June 2024, she was the head of the Turkish Medical Association. Şebnem has also continually fought to protect the human rights of people in Türkiye, including their right to freedom of expression.

In a bid to silence her and stop her important work, for years the Turkish authorities have subjected Şebnem to baseless criminal investigations, detention and prosecutions. In January 2023, she was convicted for allegedly “making propaganda for a terrorist organization” after she had called for an investigation into allegations that the Turkish military was using chemical weapons in Iraq. Şebnem is appealing against her conviction but could be imprisoned for almost two years if her appeal is unsuccessful.

The government is cracking down on people’s freedom of expression and putting restrictions on the work of human rights defenders like Şebnem. But Şebnem refuses to give in to their intimidation. Undeterred by the hostility she faces, she says: “I have never had the habit of bowing to any authority to this day.”

Send a message of support and solidarity

Prof Şebnem Korur Fincancı
Türk Tabipleri Birliği
GMK Bulvarı
Şht. Danış Tunalıgil Sk. No: 2/17-2
06570 Maltepe/Ankara
Türkiye

Suggested message:

I stand with you, Prof Şebnem Korur Fincancı.
Defending human rights should never be a crime. Thank you for all your amazing work, we are in full solidarity with you.

Can I Send a religious card or message? No
Send an Amnesty card or mention Amnesty? Yes
Include my name and address? Yes

Creative solidarity ideas
• Draw a piano and reference Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata
• Share a positive story of a doctor helping you or a loved one.

Send an appeal letter
Urge the minister to stop using the criminal justice system to harass Professor Şebnem Korur Fincancı and drop all charges for her human
rights work. Sample Appeal Letter

Write to

Yılmaz Tunç
The Ministry of Justice
T.C. Adalet Bakanlığı Kızılay
Milli Müdafa Cd. No:5
06420 Çankaya Ankara
Türkiye
Salutation Dear Minister
Email: ozelkalem@adalet.gov.tr

With both letters and emails, please CC (or write directly to) the Ambassador in London.

His Excellency Mr Osman Koray Ertaş
Ambassador to the United Kingdom
Embassy of the Republic of Türkiye
43 Belgrave Square SW1X 8PA
020 7393 0202
Fax 020 7393 0066
embassy.london@mfa.gov.tr

Argentina: Joel Paredes

Blinded by Police During a Peaceful Protest

Twenty-nine-year-old ceramicist Víctor Joel Rodrigo Paredes lives in Humahuaca, a small town in Jujuy, a northern Argentine province. In June 2023 the local government pushed through changes to the province’s constitution, including restrictions on the right to peaceful assembly, as well as measures that may cause damage to the environment, and risk violating Indigenous Peoples’ land rights. The changes were approved without consultation with Indigenous Peoples or the wider population.

Jujuy is a province rich in lithium, a metal known as “white gold” due to its worldwide demand for the creation of batteries. Argentine authorities want to expand lithium exports. But people who live on the land, like Joel and his family, have serious doubts. Although not Indigenous himself, Joel sympathized greatly and was concerned for the future of his children who would grow up on the land. In support, on the evening of 30 June 2023, Joel joined a protest in Humahuaca square. Alongside hundreds of peaceful demonstrators, Joel played a “bombo” drum with his band while the City Council discussed the changes in a nearby building. For Joel: “Our musical instruments are our weapons.”

In the early hours of 1 July, the police arrived at the square and started recklessly firing rubber bullets into the crowd. Joel was hit in his right eye. The injury required surgery, but doctors could not save his sight and Joel is now permanently blind in his right eye. Joel is also left with debilitating nerve pain that impacts his daily life.

Joel filed an official complaint about the incident. The investigation is being handled by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. So far, no progress has been made in the investigation. No one has been held accountable for what happened to Joel and the other protesters.

Send your messages of support to show Joel and his family that they are not alone.

Víctor Joel Rodrigo Paredes (Joel)
C/o Amnesty International Argentina
Santos Dumont 3429, 2nd floor
Buenos Aires
Argentina 1427

Suggested message

Stay strong Joel, we are fighting for justice.

¡Mantente fuerte Joel, estamos luchando por que se haga justicia!

Can I Send a religious card or message? No
Send an Amnesty card or mention Amnesty? Yes
Include my name and address? Yes
In solidarity messages avoid references to Joel’s eye injury.

Creative solidarity ideas
• Draw musical instruments (especially the bass drum) and/or ceramics to represent Joel’s love of music and pottery.
• Share your hobbies and passions, especially if they relate to pottery.

Send an appeal letter
Urge the attorney general to bring those responsible for Joel Paredes’s injuries, and all other violations against protesters, to justice in accordance with international law and standards. Emphasise the urgent need for justice and reparation for Joel and other victims of police violence in Jujuy. Sample Letter

Write to:-

Dr Sergio E. Lello Sánchez
Attorney General of the Public
Prosecutor’s Office
Sarmiento 427
4600 San Salvador de Jujuy
Argentina

email:- slello@mpajujuy.gob.ar
Salutation Dear Sir

With both letters and emails, please CC (or write directly to) the Ambassador in London.

Her Excellency Mrs Mariana Edith Plaza

Ambassador of Argentina

The Embassy of the Argentine Republic

65 Brook Street

London W1K 4AH

ambassadors-office@argentine-embassy-uk.org

Europe Newsletter October 2024

October 17, 2024 by zarganar

Dear Amnesty Activists and supporters
Please take urgent action to stop Eritrean asylum-seekers being deported to Eritrea, where they would face torture and imprisonment. Here is a sample letter. Please also look at our Write for Rights case from Türkiye. After the last elections in Poland the government changed, but there are no improvements for refugees stuck in the swampy forests between Poland and Belarus, violently pushed back from both sides. Just today, Donald Tusk, the new Prime Minister of Poland announced that he wants to suspend the right to asylum, a grave violation of European and international human rights law. More details and reports below.

2 dates for your diaries : the Amplify Human Rights Festival on 7^th December where we are contributing a workshop on Fortress Europe, and the screening of the Film “Green Border” at the Human Rights Action Centre on 16^th January.

Türkiye

Urgent Action:- Eritrean asylum seekers in Türkiye at imminent risk of forcible return home

by Chris Ramsey
Hundreds of Eritrean nationals are at imminent risk of forcible return from Türkiye to Eritrea where they would face a real risk of torture, arbitrary detention and other serious human rights violations. Reports indicate that around 300 Eritreans recently detained in Türkiye without adequate access to communication or legal support have been deported to Eritrea. Amnesty says the authorities must immediately halt any plans to forcibly return Eritrean nationals from Türkiye and grant them access to asylum procedures, in line with international law.
Türkiye is party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. However, Türkiye retains a geographic reservation to its ratification of the Convention, so that only citizens from Council of Europe member states are allowed to apply for refugee status. People who do not qualify for refugee status in Türkiye, can request conditional refugee status or subsidiary protection under the Law on Foreigners and International Protection of 2013. The conditional refugee status was created for people originating from “non-European” states and provides more restrictive rights than the ones granted to refugee status holders.

Amnesty International has found that the Eritrean authorities regard the act of applying for asylum abroad as evidence of treason, and a reason to detain anyone forcibly returned to Eritrea. Appalling detention conditions in Eritrea amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has noted that “Eritreans who are forcibly returned may, according to several reports, face arrest without charge, detention, ill-treatment, torture sometimes death at the hands of the authorities. They are reportedly held incommunicado, in over-crowded and unhygienic conditions, with little access to medical care, sometimes for extended periods of time” and that “For someEritreans, being outside the country may be sufficient cause on return to be subjected to scrutiny, reprisals and harsh treatment. Individuals may be suspected of having sought asylum, participating in diaspora-based opposition meetings or otherwise posing a (real or perceived) threat to the Government, particularly where they have exited the country illegally.”

Furthermore, in 2015, the UN Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry on human rights in Eritrea found that ‘’with a few exceptions, those who have been forced to return to the country have been arrested, detained and subjected to ill- treatment and torture.’’ According to a 2016 Amnesty International report, deserters are likely to face prolonged arbitrary detention, inhumane detention conditions and torture and other-ill treatment. National service is compulsory for all men and women between the ages of 18 and 40 in Eritrea, with additional mandatory reserve duties up to age 50. There is no limit on length of service. Initially 18 months long, it generally includes six months’ military service followed by 12 months’ deployment in military or government service. However, this is frequently extended indefinitely.

National service often involves forced or involuntary labour in state projects. Conscripts perform construction labour on government projects such as road building, work in the civil service or work for companies owned and operated by the military or ruling party elites. Conscripts are paid minimal salaries that do not meet the basic needs of their families. Much of the adult population of Eritrea is currently engaged in mandatory national service. There is no exemption from military service for conscientious objectors.

ACTION:

Use this model letter to the Head of Migration Management in Türkiye requesting that the country fulfils its international obligations with respect to refugees and desists from deporting people back to Eritrea. [Read more…]

South America Newsletter October 2024

October 6, 2024 by zarganar

AIUK SOUTH AMERICA TEAM OCTOBER 2024 NEWSLETTER

Dear Friends
This month we bring you news from Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Peru.
Highlights are:

Regional: Amnesty has called on seven South American Presidents to strengthen action to reduce the risk of wildfires after recent record fires had a devasting impact on indigenous territories
Colombia: We have an Urgent Action calling for those threatening and harassing Jani Silva to be brought to justice
Argentina: We have a new Urgent Action urging Congress to insist on the passage of a law to improve pensions for older people.
Venezuela: Amnesty has called for the extension of the mandate of the UN’s International Independent Fact-Finding Mission for Venezuela
Brazil: Global Witness reports that 25 land and environmental defenders were killed in Brazil during 2023
Chile: President Boric has promised to push for the repeal of a dictatorship-era law that rules out most investigations of crimes against humanity committed under General Pinochet.
Peru: Former President Alberto Fujimori, who was convicted of human rights abuses and corruption, has died aged 86.
Uruguay: Human Rights Watch report Uruguay’s shortcomings in meeting the support requirements of people with disability

REGIONAL

August and September 2024 saw record fires across South America, with several millions of hectares burning not only in rainforests of the Amazon basin, but also in diverse ecosystems stretching across entire countries. Amnesty has published an Open Letter addressed to the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru calling for governments to ramp up action to extinguish wildfires, strengthen efforts to abandon fossil fuels, protect territories of Indigenous Peoples and provide guarantees to environmental human rights defenders.

COLOMBIA

Marino Pavi Julicue, indigenous leader, killed 16 December 2023 in Toribio, Cauca

Amnesty has issued a new Urgent Action : On 10 September Jani Silva, a defender of land, territory and the environment in the Colombian Amazon (department of Putumayo), received a phone call threatening to “blow you up, car and all”. Jani and her association ADISPA have protection measures in place, provided by the government’s National Protection Unit (UNP). We call on the Colombian authorities to identify those responsible and to bring them to justice. Please take action. This is the letter we sent at our last meeting.

Global Witness reports that in 2023 Colombia was the most dangerous country in the world for land and environmental defenders ‘with a record 79 defenders killed last year compared to 60 in 2022, and 33 in 2021. With 461 killings from 2012 to 2023, Colombia has the highest number of reported environmental defender killings globally on record.’ [Read more…]

Jamnesty September 2024

September 11, 2024 by zarganar

Thanks to everyone who supported our Jamnesty at Chaplin’s & The Cellar Bar last Saturday. We raised a fantastic £1300. Unfortunately persistent rain curtailed performances outside, and made for a slow start, but soon the Cellar Bar filled up. And we sold lots of cake! Many thanks to Nic, Connie, Geoff and all the staff at Chaplins. And a big thanks to all the music acts and poets who performed to help raised money for Amnesty International. Also local businesses and people who donated raffle prizes

Blues band For Pete’s Sake, with local group founder (1986!) member Keith Dear on vocals

Pierina Nochetti Video

September 11, 2024 by zarganar

This is a translation (by technology, rather than human);-

“Well, my name is Pierina Nochetti. Two years ago I was accused of asking “Where is Tehuel”, a young trans man who disappeared. I am a municipal worker, and the municipality of Necochea are the ones accusing me of being the writer of this graffiti.

I am very grateful and honestly, I don’t know, I would like to reach to your hearts as you reach to mine. Because, the truth is, that a significant movement has been made for my acquittal. We want to fill walls, sidewalks and all kinds of things with murals and stickers. And I am truly very grateful for all your support.

It’s hard for me, in everyday life, to be able to wake up and keep going. I don’t know, I have to smile and also not believe that protesting is wrong.”