Welcome to the March edition of our newsletter. There is an Urgent Action on Turkey, a public Statement in support of the Saturday mothers in Turkey , an update on the “El Hiblu 3” campaign and a toolkit devised by the Roma support group to help those who are supporting Roma children and families to register for settled status in the UK. Particularly teachers can play a vital role in preventing a humanitarian disaster from July with vulnerable children and families cut off from healthcare and public services. Please share all the actions with your groups, networks, family and friends.

We have a presence on the following :

https://www.facebook.com/AmnestyUKEurope

https://twitter.com/AmnestyUKEurope

Please like and share posts on  the AmnestyUKEurope page and follow the Twitter account and retweeting posts would be very helpful.

We are recruiting a new Balkans coordinator and are still looking for a Western Europe coordinator.

Very best regards Ulrike and Chris

Turkey – Action Plan & Urgent Action

Failure to free Osman Kavala and Selahattin Demirtaş makes mockery of Erdogan’s “Human Rights Action Plan”

On 2 March Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unveiled a human rights “action plan” designed to strengthen the rule of law and judicial independence in a country that rights groups say lacks both.  Its commitments include respecting the presumption of innocence and a speedier judicial process to reduce the length of pre-trial detention.

Erdogan said the plans’ ultimate goal was to lay the groundwork for a new constitution that he has promised to adopt by the time Turkey marks its centenary as a post-Ottoman republic in 2023.

“Our goal is to further strengthen the rule of law,” Erdogan said in televised remarks.

Although cautiously welcomed by some Members of the European Parliament the announcement has been greeted with considerable scepticism by many organisations like Amnesty that have long experience of monitoring human rights abuses in Turkey. Amnesty International’s Europe Director Nils Muižnieks pointed out that continued detention of individuals such as Osman Kavala and Selahattin Demirtasmakes “makes a mockery of President Erdoğan’s government’s attempts to whitewash systemic human rights abuses by unveiling a meaningless Human Rights Action Plan last week”.

Responding to the calls by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers on the Turkish government to implement binding European Court of Human Rights judgments and release human rights defender, Osman Kavala and politician Selahattin Demirtaş, Muižnieks said:

“Osman Kavala and Selahattin Demirtaş have been arbitrarily and unjustly deprived of their liberty for years, despite the binding Court decisions that they be released.

“This action plan and Turkey’s generic platitudes cannot hide the reality: the ongoing imprisonment of these two men, and scores of others, for simply exercising their rights shows that in Turkey, freedom of expression is ruthlessly punished.

“Turkish authorities must release Kavala and Demirtaş, allow human rights defenders to do their work and stop putting undue pressure on their judges. It is high time that states across Europe tell Turkey that prosecuting and imprisoning people for political reasons is unacceptable.

“The Committee of Ministers’ decision to keep Turkey under its watch on a weekly basis is a welcome step ahead of an infringement procedure.”

Ironically, the announcement of the Human Rights Action plan also coincided with the announcement that Turkish prosecutors were seeking a two-year jail term for Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu for insulting a former regional governor. Imamoglu is a top member of the opposition CHP party who upset Erdogan’s candidate in a 2019 local election. Turkish courts and prosecutors

are also conducting a number of investigations into the pro-Kurdish opposition HDP party that could see it shut down before Turks go to the polls again in two years’ time.

For a useful assessment of the new “Human Rights Action Plan” please read the IFEX (International Freedom of Expression Exchange) document accessible through the following link:
https://ifex.org/makeup-on-a-bedridden-patient-rights-experts-assess-turkeys-new-human-rights-action-plan/

New Urgent Action on Boğaziçi students

Amnesty has issued a Urgent Action in relation to the protests at Boğaziçi University. The earlier UA from January was issued when at least 45 students were detained during dawn raids between 5 to 7 January after their alleged participation in a protest at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul; they are now released but many among them had alleged torture or other ill-treatment and we called for an investigation into these allegations and bring law enforcement officers found to be responsible to justice. [Read more…]

We have some great news to celebrate! On 2 March the court declared the verdict in the trial against our 3 brave Women Human Rights defenders who were absurdly charged with”insulting religion” which in Poland can carry a prison sentence of 2 years. Despite the political pressures on judges by the Minister of Justice and government controlled institutions a judge has declared the verdict of “not guilty”. Thank you for all those who promoted the on-line action (over 160000 signatures world-wide, more than 40000 from the UK) , sent letters to the Public Prosecutor, lobbied MP’s took part in solidarity action, this has strengthened the Human Rights and Civil Rights movements in Poland and strengthened judges to resist interference and intimidation from the government. The Minister of Justice can still appeal the decision, but lets hope he doesn’t. Please find the full press release here :

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/03/poland-rainbow-halo-womens-acquittal-shows-tactics-of-intimidation-against-activists/.

Now its time to celebrate ! Join us on International Women’s day Monday at 6pm on-line and hear from Joanna, straight from the court room and listen to Olivia and Mola from the front-line of the Polish Women’s strike. Introductions by Kate Allen director of Amnesty UK and Kasia from the International Polish Women Council. Please register at the link below.
Here’s the registration link for the event: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/5639934312677045772

This month, we update you on developments in Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador, Argentina, Peru and Paraguay.  There are three live Urgent Actions – two for Colombia and one for Venezuela – and we shall shortly add the case of Gustavo Gatica (Chile) to our portfolio of long-term cases.  Amnesty has published the results of its investigation into the probable extrajudicial executions of at least 14 men in Venezuela in January and has called on the Ecuadorian  authorities to investigate the facts surrounding the killing of at least 79 prisoners in four prisons on a single day in February.

COLOMBIA 

Amnesty International has issued an Urgent Action on behalf of the Association for the Integral and Sustainable Development of the Amazonian Pearl (ADISPA) members, an organization protecting the rights of hundreds of field-workers in the Putumayo region. An armed group called “Border Command” are threatening to forcibly displace or kill them if they do not submit to their control. Please write to the authorities demanding protection for ADISPA. Please send copies of your letter to the Colombian ambassador Antonio José Ardila, 3 Hans Crescent London SW1X 0LN E-mail: elondres@cancilleria.gov.co

Amnesty has issued a second Urgent Action on behalf of Luis González López vice-president of FEDEPESAN, an organization that protects the environment in the Magdalena medio region. Luis González López has received death threats signed by the National Liberation Army (ELN).  Since September 2020, armed groups sent at least 5 life threatening messages to the members of FEDEPESAN. We urge the Ministry of Interior to grant FEDEPESAN members collective protection measures consulted and agreed with their members. Please send a copy of your email or letter to the Colombian ambassador.

Colombia Peace reports that the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) issued an order  to investigate and prosecute those responsible for extrajudicial killings, called “false positives.” This involved security forces personnel killing civilians, then presenting the dead as guerrillas killed in combat, in order to earn rewards. The JEP found that the security forces had killed 6,402 civilians, twice the number previously reported, between 2002 and 2008.

The JEP has also charged eight former leaders of the FARC guerrillas with war crimes associated with the kidnapping of 21,000 people, torturing and killing some of them. Among the accused is Rodrigo Londoño (known as Timoshenko), leader of the FARC’s political party, Comunes, and two of their Senators. The hostages included soldiers, police officers and politicians. Some were held for years, sometimes chained to trees, and freed after ransoms were paid or they were rescued. Others were killed or died in captivity.

The UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has called on the Colombian government to ensure protection for indigenous peoples and communities of African descent against the violence that still persists in the context of the armed conflict; ensure protection from forced displacement; intensify its efforts to prevent and eliminate the recruitment of indigenous children and children of African descent by non-State armed groups; and ensure that the risk reports issued by the early warning system are duly taken into account by the relevant authorities.

A six-hour webinar presented by President Duque and 22 members of his government outlined their plans to integrate 6.6 million people in 35% of the country formerly controlled mainly by FARC guerrillas. They are bringing roads, bridges, solar energy, natural gas, water treatment plants, schools, medical clinics, technical advisors and funding to substitute crops and livestock for illicit crops such as coca, social services, training for local government and justices to these rural communities. Duque said that this would take 15 years and was ‘irreversible’. If they achieve their objectives, this promises to bring the State to rural regions where, due to their isolation from cities and towns, armed groups act with impunity.

BRAZIL

Isac Tembé, history teacher of the Tembé indigenous community in Amazonia, killed by military police 12 February 2021Amazon Watch reports that Isac Tembé was shot dead by a military policeman on his land in the Alto Rio Guama Indigenous Territory, in the Amazonian state of Pará. According to the Tembé-Theneteraha people, Brazil’s military police serve as private militias defending the interests of farmers and ranchers that are illegally occupying areas of the Tembé Indigenous Territory [Read more…]

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