Amnesty International Bournemouth Poole Christchurch Group

local news & events Amnesty International group for Bournemouth, Poole & Christchurch

Europe Newsletter August 2024

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Dear Amnesty activists and supporters. The Olympic games should be a time of celebrating diversity, but the French ban prohibiting Muslim women from wearing sports hijabs is excluding French athletes from taking part. Please join the on-line campaign to end discrimination in France. For any inquiries about France please contact our coordinator for Western Europe Jovana Bosnjak Jovana.Bosnjak@amnesty.org.uk

We also have a postcard action supporting the Saturday mothers in Turkiye. Please print the attached postcard templates and send cards to the Interior Ministry of Turkiye. For further questions please contact Chris Ramsey country coordinator for Turkiye  chris.ramsey@amnesty.org.uk

How we respond to refugees fleeing wars and oppression defines us as a society and civilization. On 14th of June vigils and demonstrations were held in many European countries including Greece, Denmark, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Turkey, UK and others to call for justice for the 600 people who drowned when the “Adriana”, a clapped out fishing boat packed with refugees including many children, sank near Pylos Greece. Investigations by Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and the BBC point to the culpability of the Greek authorities particularly the Hellenic coastguard for this horrendous and preventable loss of life.  Just this week Amnesty released a report investigating the suffering of people detained in the EU-funded Closed Controlled Access Centres in Samos Greece. And in Finland a new law on migration is a green light for violence and pushbacks at the border. For more information please contact Ulrike Schmidt Balkan and regional team coordinator Ulrike.schmidt@amnesty.org.uk

In Poland refugees are still dying in the forests pushed back and forth by Belarussian and Polish border guards. Refugees from Afghanistan, who have often helped Western troops and are persecuted by the Taliban are not receiving the welcome that Ukrainian refugees rightly receive. Used by Belarus and forcibly returned by Polish border guards refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and other oppressive and war-torn countries are forced back and forth over the border. Many, including children have died in the swampy and unforgiving forests. Our new coordinator for Central Europe Lucja Jastrzebska is giving us overview and updates. For further information please contact lucja.jastrzebska@amnesty.org.uk

Finally Amnesty has released a detailed report called “Under protected and over restricted“ about the right to protest in 21 countries. Chris Ramsey, our coordinator for Turkey  has worked through the 209 pages of the report for us and produced a more digestible summary for us. For further inquiries please contact chris.ramsey@amnesty.org.uk.

Malta

El Hiblu update :

Apologies to all the groups who expressed an interest in adopting the El Hiblu 3. The Action circular on the case has still not been issued, and I finally received an answer from the research team: The courts in Malta are currently hearing preliminary issues, following the attorney generals decision to indict the El Hiblu 3. The first preliminary issue is that they are examining whether Malta has jurisdiction over the case. At the moment all we can do is wait. I will keep you updated as soon as I receive more information. In the mean-time all we can do is continue to write solidarity messages. [Read more…]

South America Newsletter August 2024

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Dear Friends,

This month we bring you news from Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Paraguay, Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador and Brazil.

Highlights are:

  • Colombia and others: Amnesty has a new petition directed at governments to support a Torture-free Trade treaty.
  • Argentina: An Urgent Action demands that charges against 33 people opposed the controversial ‘ley de bases’ be dropped.
  • Argentina: A second Urgent Action demands that charges against Pierina Nochetti for painting graffiti be dropped.
  • Peru: A new report with an Urgent Action identifies the former President’s responsibility for the killings and injuries in last year’s protests.
  • Paraguay: Amnesty has issued an Urgent Action calling on the Chamber of Deputies to reject a bill limiting freedom of assembly..
  • Venezuela: following the controversial re-election of President Maduro, Amnesty is calling on a commitment to human rights and the release of three political prisoners.
  • Chile: Amnesty is calling on the government to decriminalize voluntary abortion in all circumstances.
  • Ecuador: Human Rights Watch have released a new report calling on the Ecuadorian Government to accelerate measures to end sexual violence in schools.
  • Brazil: Amnesty is denouncing the dropping of charges against 3 policemen accused of murder of a child.

COLOMBIA

Carlos Alberto Romero Martínez, legal representative of a small-holders´association, killed 16 December 2023 in Caldas, Antioquia by persons unknown.

Amnesty International has launched a campaign to demand that governments support a Torture-Free Trade Treaty to regulate the trade in policing equipment to ensure it does not end in the hands of abusive police forces. They cite the excessive use of violence using non-lethal weapons by Colombia’s police in response to the National Strike in 2018. Please sign the petition, which for UK residents will be redirected to the British government. Accompanying this demand is the first hand account by Leidy Cadena, the first person to be blinded by police in 2018, who has been forced to leave Colombia.

The Washington based human right advocacy group WOLA condemns the ‘vile attack’ on indigenous Wayuu leader Javier Rojas Uriana 2 July. They demand that the Colombian authorities and the National Protection Unit guarantee the protection of Mr. Rojas Uriana, his family, and the Association of Shipia Wayuu members. ‘They should guarantee that these crimes’ intellectual and material authors are brought to justice. Additionally, these entities should investigate why the regional prosecutor’s office of Cesar and the SIJIN have refused to accept the complaint the victim tried to file.’

Leaders of dissident FARC guerrillas known as the EMC, who were travelling in armoured cars provided by the National Protection Unit, were arrested at a military checkpoint in Cisneros. They were on their way to peace talks. Seven remain in custody. The EMC has been blamed for a series of bombings and shootings around Cali and they threatened to disrupt the COP 16 negotiations which are due to begin in Cali in October. They have since withdrawn this threat and have called for the arrest warrants to be revoked.

Peace Brigade International Colombia’s annual report records the NGO’s invaluable role in protecting communities at risk in Colombia. This includes the presence of 26 field volunteers, some of whom protect Amnesty’s IAR Casefile Peace Community of San José de Apartadó. The report includes the testimony of one field worker in the country. They note that ‘Even though violence and human rights violations decreased slightly in 2023 according to figures from Indepaz, there were still 188 murders of human rights leaders and defenders, 94 massacres with 303 victims and 167,540 victims of forced displacement.’ [Read more…]

South America Newsletter July 2024

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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. 
  • 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. 
  • 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…]

Group Newsletter July 2024

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Welcome to the latest newsletter.
Our next meeting  is on Thursday 4th July 2024, 7.30pm – 9.00pm at Moordown Community Centre. We will catch up on campaigns, letter writing, and discuss new ideas about campaigning. We don’t meet in August.

Future Events

After lasts years success, we have now booked for this years Jamnesty on

Saturday 7th September at Chaplin’s Bar

Last year was our first Jamnesty, but we still had a fantastic day with 11 bands and 6 poets – and we raised over £1600! This year we don’t have to contend with the Air Show and can build on worked best last year. So still plenty of cakes! We will soon put up details of the performers, etc on our Events page. Please contact us if you would like to help on the day.

We had planned to return to BourneFree, which is next Friday and Saturday.
Unfortunately the organisers now insist stalls have to be set up (and run) over both days of the Festival. We don’t have enough volunteers to do this, so cannot now have a stall. We are obviously are unhappy at effectively being excluded for not being “corporate” enough!
Young girls at a Women-Friendly Space at a Rohingya refugee settlement
in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

I Don’t Agree with Nick

In 2017, almost one million Rohingya refugees were forced into Bangladesh from Myanmar following wide scale persecution, Human Rights violations, extrajudicial killings, summary executions, arson of Rohingya villages and schools, and diverse other atrocities.
Leading up to the 2017 atrocities, Facebook became an echo chamber of virulent anti-Rohingya content, which Meta was warned about repeatedly. The Myanmar authorities even temporarily blocked the Facebook platform in 2014 because of its role in fuelling ethnic violence and “instigation” during the Mandalay riots. Meta failed to take meaningful action.
The Rohingya community have asked for $1 million US dollars as part of a remedy to help fund educational projects for refugee children – a drop in the ocean to Meta, but a life changing intervention to hundreds of thousands of children.
Our group have written to Nick Clegg, the former Deputy Prime Minister, and now the President of Global Affairs of Facebook. Download the letter and write to Nick in London. Or you can sign the AIUK petition
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/activist-actions/Meta-remedies

[Read more…]

AIUK Human Rights Manifesto

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From AIUK:-  “The UK is set to head to the polls for the first general election since 2019 and much has happened since then. At home, we have seen a huge rollback in human rights protections with our rights being chipped away, often in contradiction to the UK’s obligations under international law. A fundamental change of direction is needed on human rights and a general election provides an opportunity for this to take place.

If the UK is to be seen as a champion of human rights, the next government must be ambitious and progressive with regards to rights protections.  It is an essential task, but not an easy one, which is why Amnesty International UK has created a human rights manifesto – a range of commitments that we are calling on political parties to adopt and deliver should they form the next UK government.”

Read the AIUK Manifesto

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