Amnesty International Bournemouth Poole Christchurch Group

In this month’s newsletter, from the South America Team at AIUK, we encourage you to highlight two South America cases that feature in the Write for Rights Campaign.  There are updates on Brazil and Colombia and a reminder of three Urgent Actions that we have circulated during October.

Write for Rights Campaign

We have two cases in this year’s Write for Rights Campaign.  Máxima Acuña, a subsistence farmer in Peru, has been repeatedly harassed and physically attacked for standing up to one of the world’s biggest gold and copper mines.

Leopoldo López, a Venezuelan opposition leader who features in the on-line version of the campaign, is serving a prison sentence of 13 years and nine months prison sentence without any credible evidence against him.  [Leopoldo is already one of our casefiles – see take action].   We encourage you to feature Maxima and Leopoldo in your Write for Rights activities.

FCO Contacts

On 27 October, we called on Nigel Baker, the new Head of the FCO’s South America Department.  We identified a number of opportunities to work together in support of human rights in the region, especially in Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela. [Read more…]

This newsletter from Sue Bingham, AIUK Cuba Coordinator has some updates from the International Secretariat Caribbean team in Mexico and some significant  news stories from Cuba:

1) A number of dissidents, including Guillermo Fariñas,  winner of the 2010 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought,  carried out hunger strikes to protest against what seems to be a rising tide of repression of opponents of  the Cuban government. They were not in detention at the time.
Many people wanted to know why Amnesty has been silent on this subject. The IS view is that AI’s policy on hunger striking – for those detained – is neutral.  This means we understand hunger strikers have a right to take this extreme measure, as a form of free expression. We do not try and deter hunger strikers – although it is of course concerning – or express support. In this case as they were not detained, it’s complex to comment on the actual hunger strike.
Amnesty would only be able to comment on the current human rights concerns they were raising, in other words, the alleged increase in violence and detentions reported, but obstacles remain in independently verifying those claims.

2) The Caribbean researcher has been busy preparing a report on police brutality & its effects on female relatives of victims in Jamaica (which will be launched on 23 Nov), and will now begin to focus on the Cuba study – ONLINE FREEDOMS – which is scheduled to be released in March / April 2017. There will be opportunities for campaigning activities then. [Read more…]

Welcome our the latest newsletter. Our next meeting is on 13th October 2016, 7.30 at Moordown Community Centre. On the agenda – quiz night and other events, an update on Case files (see below); stall publicity (please see ideas if coming to the meeting); planning.
Do check out our blog where there will be more details on some of the items listed below, plus a “take action” section, with our case file letters and links to the action pages of several national AI sections.

Autumn Quiz Night

This is now organised for Friday November 18th, 7.30 for 8.00 prompt at the Brunswick Hotel, 199 Malmesbury Park Road, Charminster, Bournemouth BH8 8PX.
For those unfamiliar, our quizzes are informal but competitive! Our Spring Quiz was very popular, to the point it was overcrowded. We are now obliged to limit total numbers to 50 via a “virtual ticket” system. Please go to our event page for more information and to reserve your tickets. Teams of up to 6, entrance £5 a person.
Sally Hawksworth has agreed to keep everyone in order and politely ask you things you don’t know; David Rogers has promised to come up with some stunning questions. May Stevens will be running the raffle – donations of prizes will be very welcome. [Read more…]

This month we have news of the disappointing rejection by the electorate of the peace process in Colombia, the plight of indigenous groups in Brazil and of a new casefile in Peru. And thanks to all who signed the petition asking Brazil to be accountable for the violence committed during the Olympic Games.

COLOMBIA

By the scant margin of 50.2% to 49.8% the Colombian electorate rejected the peace agreement between the government and the FARC rebel guerrillas. This would have ended a civil war that has lasted 52 years.

Amnesty’s Americas Director writes:

“Today will go down in history as the day Colombia turned its back to what could have been an end to a 50-year long conflict that devastated millions of lives.
“Although imperfect, the agreement represented a concrete way forward for peace and justice. The uncertainly this vote brings could place millions of Colombians, particularly those from vulnerable groups such as Indigenous, Afro-descendant and peasant farmer communities at greater risk of suffering human rights violations.
“It’s imperative that Colombia does not walk away from this project and that the country continues to move towards the long awaited peace millions are longing for.”
Amnesty issued the official count of human rights violations in the 52-year conflict:

7.9 million –victims of the armed conflict, almost half of them are women.

6.9 million – victims of forced displacement.

267,000 – conflict-related killings, mostly of civilians.

4,392 –victims of possible extrajudicial executions.

46,386- victims of enforced disappearance.

29,622- kidnappings.

11,062- victims of anti-personnel mines and unexploded ordnance.

8,022 – child soldiers used by paramilitaries and guerrilla groups.

[Read more…]

In this month’s newsletter, we have three, although tentative, good news stories for you. Starting in Peru and Argentina, some positive steps have been made regarding women’s’ rights and in Colombia, it looks like the 50-year civil war may finally be coming to an end. You can read more about Amnesty’s position on the Colombian peace discussions and about our Colombia Coordinators meeting with Foreign Office Staff and the Political Officer of the British Embassy in Bogotá. Big changes are afoot in Brazil with the impeachment of the country’s president being confirmed. We also have actions for you to take from Brazil and Colombia. The options to take action are highlighted in red.

COLOMBIA

Good news! On August 25th, the rebel guerrillas FARC and the Colombian government signed a peace agreement, ending more than 50 years of civil war. For more details click here. For the agreement to be enforced it must be approved by a national referendum which will be held on October 2nd. The outcome of the referendum is uncertain.

However, there are some caveats: The other rebel guerrilla army, the FLN (National Liberation Front) has not yet signed up to a peace treaty. And, for rural communities, indigenous and Afro-descendent communities, the peace treaty may mean little. Paramilitaries, who are still operating with impunity, are the main cause of human rights abuses in rural Colombia.

[Read more…]