South America Newsletter June 2023

June 6, 2023 by zarganar

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 International On 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 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

June 5, 2023 by zarganar

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

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…]

Europe Newsletter April 2023

April 30, 2023 by zarganar

Türkiye

Türkiye: People with disabilities neglected in humanitarian response to devastating earthquakes

As you will all be aware, southern Türkiye and northwest Syria were hit by devastating earthquakes in February. More than 48,000 people were killed and more than 100,000 were injured many of whom lost limbs and sustained other life-changing injuries. An estimated 3.3 million people have been displaced, with approximately 2.3 million people currently sheltering in tent camps and container settlements.

According to a joint Turkish government and United Nations assessment as many as 70 percent of injured earthquake survivors are expected to have a disability. In a shocking report, published by Amnesty International last Thursday 27 April it was revealed that people with disabilities living in displacement camps after the earthquakes in Türkiye are being overlooked in the humanitarian response to the disaster.

Three Amnesty International researchers undertook research from 9-22 March, in four of the provinces that have been most affected by the earthquakes in southeast Türkiye. Those were Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Hatay and Adiyaman. Research was undertaken in urban and rural areas. Amnesty International met with people from a mix of ethnic backgrounds. In total, the team interviewed 131 people, including survivors who have been living in displacement camps and aid workers. Interviewees included Turkish nationals and Syrian refugees.

Amnesty International did not have access to Syria for this report – which does not address the situation in Syria.

During the visit to Türkiye, Amnesty International researchers identified that persons with disabilities were among those particularly at-risk of being marginalised or left behind with regards to access to assistance, and who also experienced unequal access to their human rights in the aftermath of the earthquake. They found that there were significant gaps in humanitarian response programmes, which included barriers to equally accessing sanitation, food, water and specialist support.

As result of this work Amnesty has made a number of wide ranging recommendations to the Turkish government, humanitarian agencies and organisations and countries donating aid for earthquake victims (see report).

ELECTIONS 2023

On 14 May, in what are being described as the most important elections in the history of the Republic since it was founded in 1923, the people of Türkiye will go to the polls to elect their president for the next 5 years and a new parliament, the 600 member Grand National Assembly.

Standing for re-election is President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who has been in office since 2014 and was Prime Minister from 2003.

[Read more…]

South America Newsletter April 2023

April 12, 2023 by zarganar

Dear friends

This month we bring you news from Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Argentina and Chile. Plus we have the regional highlights from Amnesty International’s annual report on human rights worldwide.

In Colombia Amnesty International, together with many local NGOs, has published its detailed proposals for police reform. Whilst in Brazil, Amnesty and other civic society organisations have launched the campaign “The Ministry Has to Be Public”. This is an attempt to tackle the severe problem of police violence. Amnesty has marked the 100th day since the start of social protests in Peru.

In Venezuela Amnesty has decided to extend the deadline for its Urgent Action on “Venezuelan NGOs at risk” for another eight weeks. They have also highlighted the ongoing arbitrary detention, and health deterioration, of Javier Tarazona, director of an NGO, who was imprisoned and charged with inciting hatred, treason, and “terrorism” in July 2021.

In Argentina the remaining aircraft used to carry out “death flights” during the military dictatorship is being returned to the country. Amnesty has published a new report, based on the testimonies of female Venezuelan refuges in Chile, outlining the difficulties they experience.

REGIONAL

Amnesty has issued its annual report on human rights worldwide. It found, among other things, that:

An additional 15 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean have begun to live in poverty since the Covid-19 pandemic began, raising the total to 201 million;
The Americas remained the region with most fatalities from Covid, with more than 2.9 million confirmed deaths, while Peru has the highest death rate from Covid in the world;
At least 67 people have died since widespread protests began across Peru in December, including at least 49 deaths from state repression;
The Americas accounted for 273 of 327 trans and gender-diverse people reported murdered worldwide, while Brazil recorded more killings (96) than any other country on earth
More than 7.17 million Venezuelans have left the country, mostly since 2015, over 6 million of whom are living in other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon reached the second highest annual figure since 2006.

COLOMBIA

José Eduardo Cardenas Sanchez, community leader,
killed 19 March 2023 in Quibdó, Chocó.

Following Amnesty International’s reports on the excessive use of force by the National Police during the 2021 National Strike, Amnesty International, together with many local NGOs, has published its detailed proposals for police reform. These include removing the police from the Defence Ministry, re-orientating its objectives and changing its recruitment and training to enable it to serve the people and fully recognise their human rights, including the right to protest. (See attached proposal). Please sign the petition supporting these proposals.

Amnesty has submitted its findings to the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly. Between 2018 and 2022 Amnesty International documented worrying trends of excessive use of force by Colombian security forces when intervening in protests and mobilizations. Among the most commonly used repertoires of violence were extrajudicial executions, injuries (including severe eye trauma) and gender-based violence (including sexual violence).

The UN Commissioner on Human Rights reports on his visit to Colombia. While noting the many advances on human rights and the 2016 Peace Accord’s transitional justice under the new administration, he calls on ‘the Attorney General’s Office to advance accountability for violations reportedly committed by security forces during protests. The charges of serious offenses, such as terrorism, against protestors, needs to be reviewed.’ The Attorney General is independent of the Government.

[Read more…]