This month we bring you news from Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Paraguay and Chile. Amnesty has issued two new Urgent Actions: the director of a Venezuelan NGO remains in detention and we ask for his release, while in Brazil we are asking the Attorney General to investigate the government’s mishandling of the pandemic.

Included are in-depth reports on the impact of US sanctions on Venezuelans, human rights abuses under Brazilian President Bolsonaro’s government and two reports on Colombia. One focuses on the continued aggression against human rights defenders, while a deposition to the Truth Commission describes in great detail how the lives of women and girls were upended by armed groups during 50 years of civil conflict.

We report on inter-familial sexual violence against women in Bolivia, an important ruling on Paraguay’s indigenous community and new evidence that Amnesty has compiled on 2019’s social uprising in Chile.

VENEZUELA

On 25 October, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court commenced an official visit to Venezuela to investigate crimes against humanity. The visit will last 10 days, and he will also visit Colombia. The ICC Prosecutor’s Office conducts independent and impartial preliminary examinations, investigations and prosecutions of the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.

Amnesty has issued a new Urgent Action on behalf of Javier Tarazona. He is Director of local NGO FundaREDES and remains detained by the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN). Rafael Tarazona and Omar de Dios García, FundaREDES’ activists, were conditionally released on 26 October. Amnesty urge authorities to release Javier Tarazona immediately

Important note: Please take action immediately. Send a letter to the Embassy in London, because the mail in Venezuela does not work properly. President Nicolás Maduro c/o Her Excellency Mrs Rocío Maneiro, Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela 1 Cromwell Road SW7 2HW Fax 020 7589 8887 ambassador@venezlon.co.uk reinounido.embajada.gob.ve Twitter: @NicolasMaduro

UN expert report emphasizes that US sanctions on Venezuela undermine human rights. UN Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan has reiterated her call for sanctions relief. The independent expert reiterated that the wide-reaching sanctions program against Venezuela has had a “devastating” effect on the entire population’s living conditions. economic and social crisis was exacerbated by the imposition of “sectoral sanctions on the oil, gold and mining industries” as well as ” the economic blockade

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Welcome to the latest newsletter from your local Amnesty International group. This is relatively brief as we’ve yet to receive new updates from the Europe and South America teams (one consequence of changing to the first Thursday of the month!). But we meet a week today on Thursday 4th November 2021 7.30pm at Moordown Community Centre Its very nice to be back at Moordown. One event that we will be discussing on Thursday is:…

Write for Rights 2021 We are delighted to announce that Bournemouth library have welcomed us back to hold Write for Rights (W4R) in their foyer.. We are booked for Saturday 11th December 2021 W4R is Amnesty International’s annual campaign, sending greetings cards to prisoners of conscience and other human rights defenders around the world.  In 2019, more than 6.5 million messages of support and appeal letters were sent during the W4R campaign. They made a big difference to the people and communities confronting injustice and facing human rights violations. We have tried numerous venues around Bournemouth over past 20 years, most outside and invariably cold or wet, sometimes both. Our W4R in Bournemouth library in 2019 was by far our most successful. So after last years enforced break it will be great to be back. We’ve yet to finalise the times, but the more help we have the longer we can stay. Please let us know if you would like to help.

Stop the Rights Raid There are several Bills currently progressing through the UK Parliament which could see devastating damage to fundamental human rights protections if passed in their current forms. These proposed changes would increase the marginalisation of some of the most discriminated against in our society, and also threaten the UK’s international reputation as an upholder of international human rights principles. Amnesty International are deeply concerned about the UK Government’s intention to ‘update’ the flagship UK human rights protection – the Human Rights Act – following the review launched in December 2020. The new Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, has already vowed to end the “nonsense” of the Human Rights Act, The Act enshrines our freedoms into UK law, is binding on public bodies and means people can go to UK courts to have their rights upheld. It is our strong view that it must remain untouched. There is a detailed briefing from AIUK on our website. There is also a proforma latter so you can write to your MP. https://amnestyat50.co.uk/stop-the-rights-raid Currently there is a petition you can add your name to on the AIUK site relating to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. https://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions/uk-government-stop-assault-our-freedoms

First a reminder that our next meeting will be on Thursday 7th October 2021, 7.30pm  at Moordown Community Centre (MCC). This will be our first face to face meeting for 18 months. The agenda will be updates on campaigns, letter writing and planning. We are guests of MCC, who have only just reopened. Both MCC and the group are having to make decisions on how to maintain safety in light of the ongoing risk from COVID-19. If you intend coming, please read this. https://amnestyat50.co.uk/event

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We have 2 very urgent Actions on Poland : one about the suffering of refugees trapped at the border of Poland and Belarus. Please sign and circulate the online petition
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/urgent-actions/protect-afghans-stranded-polish-border?fbclid=IwAR0K6hedXLdi1EKceHBYFBrW32yCpuiDQjD_f1EQheny-5Q-ZGjjC-EDTVs
and write personal emails and letters as well. The Urgent Action can be downloaded here. (includes model letter)
The other Urgent Action is about Ela, Anna and Joanna , the three brave LGBTI Rights defenders who are on trial again on 10th November . Please take Action :
https://www.amnesty.org/en/get-involved/take-action/poland-activist-elzbieta-podlesna/
We also have a very important trial coming up in Turkey ,
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions/demand-justice-turkish-students-defending-lgbtq-rights
And of course our preparations for the demonstration and Days of Action to support and defend refugees in Europe and the UK are shaping up. 

20th & 23rd October Demonstrations  and  Days of Action

The preparations for the demonstration and day of Action on 23rd October are shaping up. There will be 2 demonstrations in London : One organised by different organisations on Wednesday  20th October outside Parliament protesting against the Nationality and Borders bill (see picture), and on Saturday the 23rd October our Amnesty Europe demonstration starting at 12noon outside the Embassy of Italy (see poster below). We are campaigning against the criminalisation of refugees and Human Rights defenders who are involved in Search & Rescue and against the cooperation of Frontex and Italy with the Libyan coastguard returning refugees to torture, rape and extortion in Libyan DCIM camps. [Read more…]

Welcome to the latest newsletter. We are delighted to announce that our next meeting will be Thursday 7th October 2021, 7.30pm  at Moordown Community Centre. We last met there in March 2020, little knowing we would have such a long break. We have had a mix of Zoom meetings and a speaker since. But as we’ve unable to hold events, most of us have found this very unsatisfactory. So do join us for this relaunch. We have taken this opportunity to switch from the 2nd Thursday to the 1st. The agenda will be updates on campaigns, letter writing and planning. Egypt: Young Women Jailed for “Indecency” In Egypt, Haneen Hossam and Mawada el-Adham, social media influencers in their early twenties, have been sentenced to years in prison for ‘encouraging’ young women to share supposedly ‘indecent’ content on social media. Amnesty International believes that they are being punished for the way they dance, talk and dress, amid a crackdown on women’s freedom of expression, and attempts to police women’s conduct online. They are both being held in al-Qanater Prison for women. If enough people take action, it will send a message to Egyptian authorities that the world is watching, and will put pressure on them to release Haneen and Mawada. Sign the petition calling on the authorities to release them https://action.amnesty.org.au/act-now/iar/egypt-release-young-women-jailed-for-indecency South America Newsletter September 2021 Since the last newsletter there have been two newsletters from the hard working South America volunteers. The latest edition has updates on developments in Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. In our last newsletter we highlighted that indigenous Brazilians are 68% more likely to catch Covid-19 and their mortality rate is 58% higher than for the rest of the country. According to official counts, 523,000 Brazilians have died from Covid-19 as of 3 July. This newsletter draws attention again to the police in the state of Rio de Janeiro killing with impunity. Rio police killed 1,814 people in 2019, a new high. Black Brazilians are almost three times as likely to be killed by the police as white Brazilians. https://amnestyat50.co.uk/south-america-newsletter-september-2021 Gustavo Gatica, shot in both eyes with rubber bullets, by police, and blinded. Send a Tweet to Boris and Dom In their report “Eyes on Chile“, Amnesty International exposed widespread violations by police officers in Chile for at least a month and a half following the protests that began in October 2019. If you use Twitter, Instagram or Facebook would you post or tweet to Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab? President Sebastian Piñera is currently touring Europe and visit the United Kingdom at the end of this week.  Amnesty UK regards this tour as an opportunity to raise awareness of the widespread human rights violations that took place almost two years ago. During the protest in which Gustavo Gatica was blinded; others were killed, seriously injured and raped. Here are details of how to take digital action. https://amnestyat50.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Digital-Plan-Sebastian-Pinera-UK-Social-Media.docx Europe Newsletter August 2021 There is a very comprehensive newsletter,  with many of the reports relating to the treatment and abuses suffered by refugees around the continent. So the team are organising a Demonstration and Day of Action for the 23rd of October, campaigning for safe and legal routes for refugees, the right to asylum and respect for the dignity and human rights of refugees. Demonstration: Defend the Right to Asylum Saturday 23rd October Assemble 12 noon at Embassy of Switzerland Finish at 3.30 pm at the Home Office. https://amnestyat50.co.uk/europe-newsletter-august-2021