Tabling this Sat

image source www.theadvocatesforhumanrights.net/

in Amherst Common this Sat 3/14 from 11am to 1pm... stop by and sign petition to save lives in prisons and to stop violence against women...

New Report from Amnesty

Middle East and North Africa: More protection and guarantees needed for people defending human rights

Human rights activists in the Middle East and North Africa still face imprisonment, torture, persecution and repression for seeking to uphold the rights of others, more than ten years after the UN called on all states to support the work of people defending human rights,

read more in the above link of Amnesty International

Join us in the coming Annual General Meeting

Where: Boston Park Plaza Hotel and Towers,
When: March 27-29, 2009


Confirmed speakers include:

Sharon Asetoyer: Executive Director, Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center
Congressman Michael Capuano
Larry Cox: Executive Director, AIUSA
Sherif Elsayed-Ali: Head, Refugee and Migrants Rights, Amnesty International, International Secretariat
Margaret Huang: Executive Director, Rights Working Group
Juan Melendez, Death Row Exonoree
Eva Millona: Executive Director, Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition
Stephen Oleskey, Attorney, WilmerHale, attorney for Guantanamo detainees and co-lead counsel in the case of Boumediene v. Bush
Sarnata Reynolds: Policy Director, Refugee and Migrants Rights, Amnesty International USA
Gouri Sadhwani: Deputy Executive Director, AIUSA
Lhadon Tethong, Students for a Free Tibet
Jenni Williams: Women of Zimbabwe Arise
Ginetta Sagan Human Rights Award Winner (A Colombian Human Rights Defender)

The AGM Program Agenda is now posted. Check out the schedule and plan to arrive early on Friday to take part in our action at the State House and to join a special pre-conference training.

Human Rights Day: Vigil in Amherst Commons

photo from this link: http://pakistaniat.com/images/candles-HR.jpg

“Dignity and justice for all of us”

Join our celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
When: Wed 12/10/2008 4:00-6:00pm
Where: Amherst Downtown

Amherst, MA- Since its adoption in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been and continues to be a source of inspiration for national and international efforts to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms. The Declaration is universal, enduring and vibrant, and it concerns us all.

“Any attempt to sacrifice justice not only validates the false dichotomy between peace and justice but undermines the potential for a sustainable end to the crisis in Darfur." said Salih Mahmoud, attorney and human rights defender from Sudan, a country plagued by over 6 millions of Internally Displaced People (IDPs).

It is no surprise that the theme for the Human Rights Day this year is focused on dignity and justice. More than 42 million people have been uprooted from their homes around the world, including 16 million refugees who fled to neighboring countries. Without justice these 42 million would not have the dignity that we enjoy in a relatively peaceful area here in Western Massachusetts.

Sixty years later, we pay tribute to the extraordinary vision of the Declaration’s original drafters and to the many human rights defenders around the world who have struggled to make their vision a reality.

We dedicate our celebration of the Human Rights Day this year to one democracy activist from Libya, Mr. Fathi El-Jahmi, a prominent journalist who has called for democratic reforms in Libya. This month marks the beginning of his seventh year of imprisonment in the horrific prisons of Colonel Gaddafi. We strongly encourage you to send a letter on behalf of this courageous human rights defender (see sample letter at the blog of AI’s Amherst group: http://ai-amherst.blogspot.com/)

Amnesty International vision is of a world in which every person – regardless of race, religion, gender, or ethnicity – enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Sample letter to free Fathi El-Gahmi

http://www.amnestyusa.org/action/special/fathiletter.doc
Colonel Mu’ammar al-GaddafiLeader of the RevolutionOffice of the Leader of the RevolutionTripoliGREAT SOCIALIST PEOPLE’S LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA

Your Excellency:

I am deeply concerned about 66-year-old democracy advocate Fathi el-Jahmi who has been detained since March 2004 for seeking peaceful political reforms in Libya. He suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease. Without proper medical treatment, his life may be in grave danger.

On 6 February 2008 the Gaddafi Development Foundation (GDF) issued a statement that a court had determined Fathi el-Jahmi to be “mentally unstable” and that Mr. el-Jahmi had been transferred to the Tripoli Medical Center as a result. The GDF failed to explain how the court arrived at their conclusion, or whether medical expertise had been used to reach this diagnosis. A previous claim by Libyan authorities that Fathi el-Jahmi was suffering from mental illness was contradicted by independent medical experts at Physicians for Human Rights and the International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organizations, who stated in a public report that Fathi el-Jahmi remained “mentally strong.” I am concerned that Fathi el-Jahmi’s physical and mental health may have deteriorated due to the conditions in which he has been held, particularly because he appears to have been detained in solitary confinement for much of the period since his arrest on 26 March 2004.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Libya is a party, states that everyone shall have the right to freedom of opinion and expression. Amnesty International considers Fathi el-Jahmi to be a prisoner of conscience, detained solely for the peaceful expression of his political views. I urge your government to bring about his immediate and unconditional release. I further urge you to ensure that while he is detained, Fathi el-Jahmi receives adequate medical treatment, delivered by professionals with relevant expertise, and that an independent medical assessment of his condition is allowed immediately.

Sincerely,






copy to:
The Honorable Ali Aujali
Libyan Embassy
2600 Virginia Avenue N.W.
Suite 705
Washington, D.C. 20037

Journalists Arrested in Sudan

More than 60 journalists were arrested in Sudan according to international media http://allafrica.com/stories/200811200007.html
The Sudan Human Rights Org (Cairo Chapter) issued the following Press Release:

THE SUDAN HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION – CAIRO


Gross government violations of the press and journalist rights

November 20, 2008

The Government of Sudan is required to respect the right of the Press and the right of all journalists to attend Parliament sessions, in general, and those sessions scheduled to pass a new law of the press and publications to govern journalist work and their relations with the authorities.

The government prevented unlawfully hundreds of journalists from attending the National Assembly session on the new law on Monday November 17th. Harsher prevention by police and security forces disassembled peacefully protesting journalists outside the parliament space, then arrested and detained 78 protestors. These acts and others inviting the abstention of three English papers and seven Arabic journals from publication constitute a flagrant violation of the Interim Constitution and the parliamentary traditions that allow journalists to cover parliamentary sessions in the press.

The Sudan Human Rights Organization is deeply concerned with the repressive environment the government has been spreading over the public life throughout the last three years in the course of implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (2005) prior to the upcoming 2009 elections.

The Organization has repeatedly condemned the government’s insistent violations of journalist rights and public freedoms. We have been asking the government, to no avail, to end the unlawful security interventions that obliterate journalist columns, restructure printed news, and confiscate whole papers, in addition to arbitrary arrests, heavy fines, and possible terms of imprisonment by the notorious Press and Publications Law.

As we welcome the Assembly’s approval of the National Elections Commission, SHRO asks the Government to abide by all provisions enshrined in the Bill of Rights of the National Interim Constitution, especially those concerned with the freedom of the expression and the right to peaceful assembly to prepare the national elections’ process prior to the actual voting in 2009.

AI-128 particpates in Tents of Hope

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8eDuH1SCQ0

Photo by John Grant


Mohamed Elgadi, Amherst Chapter Coordinator, spoke in front of Sudan Embassy in Washington, DC and was among the group that delivered the People's Arrest Warrant of President Omer Al-bashir

"As part of the events, about 450 students from around the country traveled to the capitol for leadership training in grassroots mobilization for genocide prevention"
for more info, read the story http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article29219