South America Newsletter September 2022

September 4, 2022 by zarganar

Welcome to the latest South America newsletter. Several illegal armed groups in Colombia have agreed to talks after the new President proposed a conditional ceasefire, while new figures have revealed the huge numbers of deaths, kidnappings and disappearances in the civil war. Brazilian police have arrested five more suspects of the killing of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira, while UN experts have called on the government to take steps to put an end to police violence. 125 organisations including Amnesty have called for the renewal of the mandate of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela. Human Rights Watch have highlighted the scale of sexual violence in schools in Ecuador.

COLOMBIA

Amnesty international — Wilmar Ascanio Angarita, leader of Alto Cañabraval, San Pablo, Bolivar, killed by ELN 23 December 2021

Colombia’s recently inaugurated President Gustavo Petro has proposed a multilateral ceasefire with illegal armed groups that agree to negotiate their demobilization and disarmament. According to Colombia Reports, opposition armed groups that have agreed to talks include the ELN (National Liberation Army) two dissident FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) commands and dissident AUC (United Self-defence forces of Colombia) paramilitaries.

Colombia’s Truth Commission has issued its final report and executive summary on the six decades long civil war in Colombia. Its estimates for the number of victims are much higher than previously thought.

450,000 fatalities. Those responsible for deaths were mainly paramilitaries (45%), guerrillas (27%) and state agents (12%).
Over 110,000 forcibly disappeared. Main perpetrators were paramilitaries (52%), FARC (24%) and state agents (8%).
At least 50,000 kidnappings. Main perpetrators FARC (40%), paramilitaries (24%), ELN (19%).
At least 8 million people have been forcibly displaced. 70% of the perpetrators are not recorded.
Recruitment of child soldiers exceeded 30,000. 40% by the FARC, 13% by paramilitaries and 9% by the ELN.

You can download the Executive Summary with a commentary by the UK’s ABColombia here.

WOLA Colombia Peace report that investigative journalists at Blu Radio allege that corrupt officials in Colombia abused their positions to steal hundreds of millions of dollars in peace accord implementation funds, which were meant for some of the country’s poorest, most violent, and least governed territories. They estimate that 12% of the funds never reached their destination. Three investigations by the Attorney General, the Internal Affairs Office and the Supreme Court are under way. Corruption is endemic in Colombia.

Following their visit to Colombia, the international lawyers group Colombia Caravana is deeply concerned about serious threats to the rule of law that limit access to justice, the repression of political participation and social protest, and the lack of security guarantees for those carrying out vital human rights work in Colombia. They denounce the stigmatisation of legal defence work by conflating lawyers with their clients, the criminalisation of human rights defenders, lawyers and
judges through vexatious litigation [Read more…]

Europe Newsletter August 2022

August 20, 2022 by zarganar

Human and civil rights continue to be under attack inside and outside Europe and need defending. This autumn Amnesty will launch a new campaign focusing on the right to protest. We know that here at home the right to protest is severely threatened by the Police , Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 , which received royal assent on 29^th April 2022. Our first international action is focusing on France (see on-line petition below) and we will be working on the UK later in the year. Another toxic piece of legislation, the Nationality & Borders Bill became law on 28^th June 2022, scrapping the right to asylum.

Care for Calais, Detention Action and PCS Union are challenging the government decision to deport refugees who arrived in the UK by boat over the channel to Rwanda. Seeking asylum is a human right, and the UK can not dodge its responsibility facilitate fair asylum hearings and to grant asylum to refugees by deporting desperate people elsewhere. UNHCR stated that the vast majority of asylum seekers arriving via the channel are having a valid claim. We are calling for safe and legal routes for refugees to enter Europe and the UK, so that no-one has to risk their lives in order to reach safety. Read more below.

In January we protested against the inhuman conditions refugees from war-torn Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Congo and other places were suffering at the border of Belarus and Poland. In Amnesty’s new report on Lithuania we read chilling evidence of abuse and torture in the detention centres where refugees from outside Europe are detained. Please take action and write to the Interior Minister of Lithuania (Sample letter included).

But last not least some good news ! Please read how activists standing up for LGBT rights in Hungary outsmarted the so-called referendum, designed to further marginalise and criminalise LGBT+ people and communities

Right to protest under threat in Western Europe

MILITARISATION OF POLICING in FRANCE

While governments have long relied on aggressive tactics to police protests, security forces have increased the amount of force they use in recent years.

So-called less lethal weapons, including batons, pepper spray, tear gas, stun grenades, water cannons, and rubber bullets are routinely misused by security forces. And, since the early 2000s, Amnesty International has documented a trend towards the militarisation of state responses to protests, including the use of armed forces and military equipment. In countries including France security forces in full riot gear are often backed by armoured vehicles, military-grade aircraft, surveillance drones, guns and assault weapons, stun grenades and sound cannons.

France: Abusive and illegal use of force by police

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL LAUNCHES GLOBAL CAMPAIGN TO CONFRONT UNPRECEDENTED WORLDWIDE THREAT TO THE RIGHT TO PROTEST

In the coming months we will focus on the Right to protest in Western Europe as part of the Amnesty´s global campaign to confront worldwide threat to the right to protest.

Amnesty International’s “Protect the Protest” campaign will challenge attacks on peaceful protest, stand with those targeted and support the causes of social movements pushing for human rights change.

Protect the Protest! Why we must save our right to protest

At the moment you can join online to demand our freedoms and pledge your support to protect the protest.

Please sign the petition here: https://www.amnesty.org/en/petition/protect-the-protest/

We are considering at the moment further actions that can be taken from the UK in order to campaign for the right to protest in Western and Northern Europe, and we will announce those actions in our next newsletter.

“Our campaign comes at a critical juncture. The precious right to protest is being eroded at a terrifying pace, and we must do all we can to push back.” Agnès Callamard, Amnesty [Read more…]

South America Newsletter August 2022

August 10, 2022 by zarganar

This month we bring you news from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela and a new Urgent Action on Colombia. We report on the plight of female Venezuelan refugees in Colombia and Peru, and the ongoing serial killings of human rights defenders in Colombia. We review Amnesty’s two new updates on human rights in Argentina and Peru relating to their UN Universal Periodic Reviews, ongoing issues with impunity in Uruguay and a new report on extreme violence in Ecuador’s prisons. There has been another mass killing by Rio police in one of the favelas, a killing of an indigenous leader in Venezuela, and attacks on indigenous peoples by police in Brazil. There is good news from Colombia’s Senate which has started the country’s ratification of the Escazú Agreement.

VENEZUELAN REFUGEE WOMEN IN COLOMBIA AND PERU

In a new report, Amnesty has accused the Colombian and Peruvian states of being largely absent when it comes to guaranteeing, protecting and respecting the right to a life free of violence and discrimination for Venezuelan refugee women, who face gender-based violence in all areas of life, Unprotected: Gender-Based Violence Against Venezuelan Refugee Women in Colombia and Peru. Colombia and Peru have received the largest numbers of Venezuelans fleeing human rights abuses in their own country, together hosting more than 50% of all those who have fled Venezuela.

COLOMBIA

Amnesty International has issued a new Urgent Action on Colombia. On July 5th, Yuli Velásquez, President of the Federation of Santander Fishers for Tourism and Environment (FEDEPESAN), was the victim of an armed attack. Two unknown assailants shot at her, harming her bodyguard. Members of FEDEPESAN have previously suffered other armed attacks and threats. We urge Colombia’s National Protection Unit (UNP) to grant protective measures to Yuli that adequately respond to the level of risk Yuli and FEDEPESAN members are facing.

Amnesty’s report Unprotected (see above) finds that in Colombia Venezuelan women face multiple forms of violence in public spaces, at home and at work. Despite this, they are denied access to justice and health services because of stereotypes related to their gender, nationality and gender identity, among other factors, which also mean they experience new forms of violence and discrimination when they try to file a complaint.

Accompanying the report Unprotected is Amnesty’s Facts and Figures on this gender-based violence against Venezuelan refugee women. In Colombia, 122,000 cases of gender-based violence were reported in 2020 alone. One in four said they had experienced discrimination and of these over half said they had suffered violence in the street.

Programa Somos Defensores (Programme We Are Defenders) report 53 killings of Human Rights Defenders and Social Leaders in the first quarter of 2022, almost double compared to the same period for 2021. Of those perpetrators identified, ex-Paramilitaries were most numerous followed by FARC Dissidents and the Armed Forces. Killings occurred across over half the country’s departments. Indigenous leaders were again especially targeted.

Colombia’s Senate has ratified the Escazú Agreement, a first step which would give local communities much more say over the environment and control over extraction of resources. These include the rights of access to information about the environment, public participation in environmental decision-making, environmental justice, and a healthy and sustainable environment for current and future generations. The approval brings the agreement one step closer to being ratified in Colombia as a whole, pending two more debates and votes in the House of Representatives, the Commission and in the plenary. Finally, the agreement would be signed by the President. [Read more…]

Europe Newsletter July 2022

July 18, 2022 by zarganar

Here is our latest Newsletter with updates and actions.

Türkiye

The United Nations acknowledged the state’s registration of its name as the Republic of Türkiye as of 26 May 2022. Accordingly, Amnesty International will adopt the new spelling of the country’s name in all its communications from now on.

The Saturday Mothers

On 24 June the group known as the Saturday Mothers who have been demonstrating for 27 years on behalf of people who “disappeared” during the 1980s and 90s attempted to hold their 900th vigil in Galatasary Square, Istanbul.

Riot police immediately moved in to prevent the vigil by the human rights defenders, handcuffed and detained the head of the Human Rights Association, Öztürk Türkdoğan, prominent human rights lawyer, Eren Keskin, and several relatives of victims of enforced disappearances.

Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Europe, Julia Hall said:

“For the past 27 years, the Saturday Mothers have tirelessly sought truth and justice for their loved ones who were forcibly disappeared in the 1980s and 1990s. Riot police arbitrarily detained people who were peacefully participating today’s landmark Saturday Mothers/People vigil. This is only the latest shameful example of the state authorities’ intolerance of lawful, peaceful dissent.

“Time and again, the Saturday Mothers/People have been met with brutal crackdowns and even prosecutions for taking part in peaceful vigils. Turkish authorities have never provided a valid justification for their spiteful, arbitrary and unlawful denial of the right to exercise freedom of expression and assembly.

“Turkish authorities must immediately and unconditionally release all those arbitrarily detained solely for exercising their right to peaceful expression and assembly. The four year-long unlawful, arbitrary ban on assemblies in Galatasaray Square must be lifted, Saturday Mothers/People and others who wish to exercise their right to peaceful protest in this iconic square must be allowed to do so.

Thankfully those detained as they attempted to commence the vigil were later released. The photograph above shows them celebrating their release at the Human Rights Association offices in Istanbul.

The Gezi 7 (including Osman Kavala)

As I reported in the May Newsletter, at the conclusion of the long running Gezi Park trial on 25 April Osman Kavala , was convicted for “attempting to overthrow the government” and sentenced to aggravated life in prison. His seven co-defendants each received a sentence of 18 years, allegedly for aiding him.

Human rights defender and philanthropist Osman Kavala has been held in Silivri high security prison No. 9 since 1 November 2017 and received an aggravated life sentence with no possibility of parole for ‘attempting to overthrow the government’ under article 312 of the Turkish Penal Code for his alleged role in financing and organising the mass 2013 Gezi Park protests. Architect Mücella Yapıcı; film producer Çiğdem Mater; documentary filmmaker Mine Özerden; lawyer Can Atalay; city planner Tayfun Kahraman; Director of Boğaziçi European School of Politics Hakan Altınay; and a founder of Istanbul Bilgi University Yiğit Ali Ekmekçi were each sentenced to 18 years in prison for allegedly aiding Osman Kavala. The Istanbul Heavy Penal Court No. 13 also ruled that these six defendants who were previously on bail be immediately remanded in prison.

Mücella Yapıcı, Çiğdem Mater and Mine Özerden were taken to Bakırköy women’s prison. Can Atalay, Tayfun Kahraman and Hakan Altınay were taken to Silivri high security prison where Osman Kaval has been held.

(A warrant has been issued for the arrest of an eight defendant Yiğit Ali Ekmekçi, who wasn’t in the courtroom the time of the verdict and is NOT part of current campaigning by AI.)

Amnesty International has closely monitored both the first and second Gezi prosecutions. The prosecuting authorities have not provided evidence to support the charges levelled against the defendants, a fact that led to their acquittals in the first trial in February 2020. As demonstrated by the dissenting opinion of one of the judges in the second trial, there is no evidential basis for the conviction of the defendants who AI considers to have been convicted in a politically motivated, unfair trial. [Read more…]

South America Newsletter July2022

July 7, 2022 by zarganar

This month, we update you on developments in Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Chile

In Colombia, a new government has been elected: Gustavo Petro will become the first radical left-wing President of Colombia in its history, and his Vice-President, Francia Marquez, the first black coloured woman in this office. Also, Amnesty International has issued a new Urgent Action for the human rights defender organization FEDEPESAN, and Colombia’s Truth Commission has published its final report. In Brazil, Amnesty International and 17 Brazilian NGOs have issued a petition to the state’ Public Prosecutors and the President of the National Council of Justice to hold the police responsible for violations of human rights for killings committed in 2021. Amnesty International has issued a new Urgent Action for Ecuador, calling on President Lasso to stop criminalizing peaceful protests. In Venezuela, Marino Alvarado and Alfredo Infante, the subjects of an Urgent Action last month, have reached a settlement with Carabobo State Governor, to drop his defamation lawsuit against them. A new constitution is getting ready for approval in Chile.

COLOMBIA

Gustavo Petro was voted in as the first radical left-wing President of Colombia in its history, while his Vice-Presidential running mate, Francia Márquez, is the first Black Colombian to hold this office. As his party won just 20 of 108 seats in the Senate and 28 of 169 seats in the Chamber of Representatives, he will have to negotiate with other parties to pass his government’s legislation.

Francia Márquez, human-rights and environmental activist and lawyer, has promised to give priority to the human rights of women, indigenous and ethnic minorities and environmental rights defenders. They will take office on 7 August.

Amnesty International has issued a new Urgent Action on behalf of the Colombian human rights defender organization FEDEPESAN. On May 31st, four environmental defenders from the Federation of Santander Fishers for Tourism and Environment (FEDEPESAN) were victims of an attack with firearms by unknown people while assessing possible environmental harm in the Magdalena Medio region. We urge the Ministry of the Interior to adopt immediate measures to guarantee the life and right to defend human rights of members of FEDEPESAN. You can take action here

Colombia’s Truth Commission, part of the Peace Accord that ended the civil war with the FARC, has published its final report [pending English version], which has been well-received by President-elect Petro. The report calls for major changes to Colombia’s military and police forces. Military objectives should be re-evaluated, and all human rights violations committed by security forces should be tried by civilian courts. The report called on the nation’s government to regulate the drug trade so that its profits go to government agencies and not drug trafficking groups. It suggests that Colombia restart peace negotiations with the National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia’s largest remaining rebel groups. [Read more…]