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South America Newsletter November 2024
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 5th 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…]
Europe Newsletter October 2024
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 7th 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 16th 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…]
Group Newsletter October 2024
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South America Newsletter October 2024
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
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…]
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