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 5^th 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…]

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…]

This month we bring you news from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Suriname, and Venezuela. 

Highlights are: 

• Amnesty has raised an alarm about the proliferation of legal initiatives to curtail the work of civil society organisations in Latin America and which seriously threaten the efforts of these organisations to promote and defend human rights in the region. 

• In Argentina, a violent police operation during protests on 12 June resulted in 33 people being arbitrarily detained and charged with several offences, including attacks on constitutional order and democratic life. Amnesty International has issued an Urgent Action urging the prosecutor to immediately drop the charges against them. 

• Following reports of a failed coup attempt in Bolivia, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk expressed deep concern at the news, calling on Bolivian authorities, including the armed forces, to ensure full respect for human rights under all circumstances 

• El Pais (English version) reports on the findings of the Gamboa case in Brazil where three police officers are charged with the killing of three young Black individuals during Carnival in 2022. 

• Yuly Velásquez, President of FEDESPAN (Federation of Artisanal, Environmental, and Tourist Fisherfolk of Santander Department), received AI Germany’s human rights award on 4 June. 

• Amnesty has submitted a briefing to the UN Committee against Torture setting out its main concerns with regard to the current crisis within Ecuador’s prisons. 

• There will be a new Amnesty report this month focusing on demanding justice and accountability for the victims of the military and police repression of the 2022/23 Peruvian protests. 

• According to a report from Dialogue Earth, Suriname is the only remaining country in South America that has yet to enshrine Indigenous land rights in its constitution. 

• The United Nations published an update denouncing the growing restriction of civil liberties in Venezuela, especially before the election later this month. 

REGIONAL 

Amnesty has raised an alarm about the proliferation of legal initiatives to curtail the work of civil society organisations in Latin America and which seriously threaten the efforts of these organisations to promote and defend human rights in the region.  Taking cues from questionable, regressive and authoritarian measures that certain countries in the region have adopted, the parliaments of Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela are currently considering passing laws that would arbitrarily restrict and unduly interfere with civil society organizations, associations, and groups. These measures threaten to silence criticism, compromise the pursuit of justice and undermine progress on human rights.  [Read more…]