P.O. Box 130901, Houston, TX 77219-0901
832-310 9326
http://www.amnestyhouston.org
mail@amnestyhouston.org

Monthly meeting first Wednesday of every month (except holidays).

NEWS AND NOTES

Monthly Meeting Agenda:

       Introductions
       Reports by Coordination Groups:
       Group case (Bárbara Italia Méndez)
       Avdo Palic
       Death Penalty
       Radio Committee
       Stop Violence Against Women Campaign
       Counter Terror With Justice Campaign
       South Asian Regional Action Network (SARAN)
       Refugees
       Out Front Campaign
       Demand Dignity Campaign
       Who Will Bring Letter Next Meeting
Old Business:
       IFEST Volunteers
       DP Awareness Week
       Torture Film
       Quaker Peace Fest - March 6
New Business:
       Human Trafficking Speaker Needed (Juli Kring)
       Meeting With Lisa Adler
       Texas State Meeting
       Financial Report/Budget
       Fundraiser
 

Local Group 23 News:

• John Sullivan wrote an article about the Eye and Tooth project that ran in the Community Arts Network e-journal.
• Hana Pinard represented us a meeting of the Mayor's Youth Council. The council is mostly high school students and Hana went to inform them about human trafficking. The students are very interested in AI's work and want us to continue working with them.
• Congressman Ted Poe held a press conference announcing his introducing the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAW) into Congress. Also attending were Rebecca White, director of the Houston Area Women's Center (host of the press conference); Anne Chandler, recently appointed director of the Tahirih Justice Center; the Houston Police Department chief; the Harris County Sheriff; the District Attorney; and one at-large council member. Attending from AI were Veronique Schlumberger, who compiled a comprehensive list of contacts for the IVAWA press conference and made sure that it was publicized as widely as possible, Phivan Wright who also helped to publicize the event and Rossana Daumas.
  

• We have openings for Group Coordinator and Secretary.

Amnesty International today called on all states to take concrete steps to end secret detention, following publication of a detailed United Nations report on its widespread use in the name of countering terrorism.

The UN study highlights the global nature of the problem, naming dozens of countries, covering every region of the world, as undertaking secret detention, or being complicit in it through international networks of detainee transfers and intelligence agencies.

Secret detentions, as the UN report clearly states, constitute a series of human rights violations and ‘cannot be justified under any circumstances.’ The practice is irreconcilable with international human rights law and international humanitarian law.

“Secret detention is not only unlawful in itself, it enables a range of abhorrent abuses including torture and extrajudicial execution,” said Widney Brown, Senior Director of International Law and Policy for Amnesty International.

“States must act swiftly to implement the recommendations in this important study, to confront and end secret detention and the human rights violations it entails and enables.”

Amnesty International has campaigned for decades against human rights violations associated with secret detentions worldwide, including enforced disappearance, torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, extrajudicial execution, and arbitrary deprivation of liberty.

The UN study highlights secret detention practices in USA-led global ‘war on terror’ operations since 11 September 2001.

Amnesty International continues to push for real accountability for abuses, including crimes under international law, perpetrated by the United States government in the course of such operations.

Governments that colluded in US rendition and secret detention programmes have also been urged to investigate the human rights and criminal implications of their own roles.

This week, Amnesty International wrote to the Lithuanian Prosecutor General urging him to open a criminal investigation into allegations that secret detention facilities existed on Lithuanian territory from 2003 to 2005.

Other human rights violations related to secret detention in the name of ‘countering terrorism’ that Amnesty International has campaigned against include enforced disappearance in Pakistan, and the secret or prolonged incommunicado detention of “security suspects” in Saudi Arabia and those accused of involvement in terrorism-related activities in Tunisia.

Amnesty International has urged the Uzbekistani government to allow its people freedom of expression after one of the country's most prominent photographers was charged with "defamation of the Uzbekistani people".

Umida Akhmedova's photographs, showing scenes of men, women and children carrying out everyday activities, were published in a book entitled Men and Women – From Dawn to Dusk in 2007.

She was charged by the Uzbekistani authorities on Saturday with slandering and insulting the Uzbekistani people and their traditions.

She is also facing charges for making a documentary film called The Burden of Virginity, which focuses on the traditional obligation on women to prove that they are virgins on their wedding night.

A court hearing is due to take place in the next two weeks. If found guilty of these charges Umida Akhmedova faces up to three years in jail.

"The life that she recorded is not the image of Uzbekistan that the government wants to be seen," said Maisy Weicherding, Amnesty International's researcher on Uzbekistan.

"This is the first time that someone in Uzbekistan has been charged because their artistic expression has been interpreted as dissent."

Amnesty International said it fears that the photographer has been targeted for exercising her right to freedom of expression, and that she will not receive a fair trial. Should she be jailed, she also risks cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.

Umida Akhmedova told Aljazeera English in an interview on Tuesday that she could not understand why several years after the initial publication of the images a criminal case had been brought against her.

Her statement was not intended to be political, and in her opinion her images were full of love and positivity, she said.

People expressing their dissenting opinion continue to be harassed, beaten and detained in Uzbekistan even though the authorities repeatedly deny this.

At least four human rights activists and independent journalists were sentenced to long prison sentences in 2009 and others have faced short-term detentions, beatings and accusations of harming the reputation of the country.

Human rights, including women’s rights, must not be traded away or compromised during any reconciliation talks with the Taleban in Afghanistan, Amnesty International said on the eve of a London conference set to discuss deteriorating security conditions in the country.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, other leaders and foreign ministers are to discuss security arrangements in Afghanistan for the next two years, including reconciliation programmes to reintegrate so-called moderate elements of Taleban.

"Any discussions with the Taleban must include clear commitments that they will respect and promote the rights of the Afghan people," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific director.

“The Taleban established a terrible record of violating human rights during their rule and they have done nothing since then to indicate they will act differently if they return to power.”

"The policymakers gathered in London this week have to show that they will not sacrifice the well-being of the Afghan people at the altar of political and military expediency."

Similar deals with the Taleban in neighbouring Pakistan led to increased human rights violations in areas under Taleban control and a significant escalation in conflict and insecurity.

The Afghan government and insurgent groups must both adhere to Afghanistan’s obligations under international human rights law and domestic law, Amnesty International said.

The Taleban and other insurgent groups in Afghanistan have shown little regard for human rights and the laws of war, deliberately targeting civilians, launching indiscriminate suicide attacks in which civilians are killed and engaging in the wholesale destruction of girls’ education.

According to UN figures, the Taleban were responsible for two thirds of the more than 2400 civilian casualties in Afghanistan last year, the bloodiest year yet since the fall of the Taleban.

In areas under their control, the Taleban have severely curtailed the rights of girls and women, including the denial of education, employment, freedom of movement and political participation and representation.

Afghan civil society groups, in particular women's groups, have voiced serious alarms about the prospect of ceding any type of political control to the Taleban.

“Diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict are a positive step forward,” said Sam Zarifi, “but the rights of the Afghan people must never be negotiated away.

“It is our experience that peace without justice or human rights is not real peace and could ultimately lead to further conflict.”

We are gypsies and that is why they don’t listen to us


Monika, May 2009


The Romanian authorities must stop the forced eviction of Roma families and immediately relocate those living for years in hazardous conditions next to waste dumps, sewage treatment plants or industrial areas on the outskirts of cities, Amnesty International said today.

“Across the country Roma families are being evicted from their homes against their will. When this happens, they don’t just lose their homes. They lose their possessions, their social contacts, their access to work and state services,” said Halya Gowan, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director.

“This pattern of forced evictions, without adequate consultation, adequate notice or adequate alternative housing, perpetuates racial segregation and violates Romania’s international obligations.”

In its briefing, Treated like waste:..., Amnesty International tells the story of one particular mass eviction to highlight the terrible conditions endured by the Roma.

In 2004, more than 100 Roma, including families with young children, were forcibly evicted by municipal authorities from a building in the centre of Miercurea Ciuc – the capital city of Harghita County in central Romania.

Most were resettled by the authorities in metal cabins on the outskirts of the town, behind a sewage treatment plant. Some decided to move to a nearby waste dump, rather than live next to the sewage plant.

Erszebet, who lives next to the sewage treatment plant with her husband and nine children, told Amnesty International what life is like in a metal cabin: “It is tight, when the whole family goes to sleep we don’t fit in. We cannot take a bath; we cannot clean ourselves. It is too small. We don’t want the older girls to take a bath in front of their father.”

The temporary metal cabins and shacks are close to the sewage treatment plant, falling within the 300-metre protection zone established by Romanian law to separate homes from potential toxic hazards. The failure to protect the right to health is another violation of Romania’s national and international obligations.

Ilana told Amnesty International: “The houses fill up with that smell. At night… the children cover their faces with the pillows. We don’t want to eat when we feel the smell… I used to have another child who died when he was four months old… I don’t want to lose the rest of my children.”

“The ordeal of the Roma families has continued for six years. Now is the time for the local authorities to provide them with adequate housing close to services and facilities in a safe and healthy location,” Halya Gowan said.

“Something needs to happen now. An example must be set – forced evictions must be stopped and the right to housing must be guaranteed. And this can and should be done by the authorities of Miercurea Ciuc.”

Amnesty International calls on the government of Romania to reform its housing legislation to incorporate international human rights standards with particular attention to housing.

Police are investigating grenade attack on the home of Tiran Alles, a prominent opponent of the ruling party who has been receiving death threats for several months.

“These attacks highlight the prevalence of political violence in Sri Lanka even after the military defeat of the Tamil Tigers,” said Madhu Malhotra, Amnesty International’s deputy Asia-Pacific director.

“Attacks by paramilitary groups or thugs attached to politicians jeopardize prospects for a free and fair election.”

A number of NGO workers have spoken to Amnesty International about their fears over violence and intimidation ahead of the 26 January elections. Transfer of weapons from military sources (particularly army deserters) has led to an increase in armed crime including grenade attacks on political opponents.

Attacks have taken place in many parts of the country and supporters of various opposition parties. According to CMEV, supporters of the ruling party, the United People’s Freedom Alliance, have suffered 354 attacks, the largest number of incidents.

In eastern Sri Lanka, an area often receiving less media attention, the TMVP (Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal), has been accused by local activists and observers of ballot rigging, intimidation and violence in Ampara and Batticaloa districts.

The TMVP, a Tamil political party comprised of ex-rebels, is now engaged in electoral politics. The party has split into two factions led by men facing accusations of serious violations of human rights and the laws of war: Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan (alias Karuna Amman), a member of parliament for the Eastern Province and Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan (alias Pillayan), Chief Minister of the Eastern Province.

”The government overlooked the atrocities alleged against these two men and brought them into the political mainstream, and now it appears unable to hold them to account,” Madhu Malhotra said.

“The unwillingness and inability to investigate and prosecute those responsible for violence gives carte blanche to armed groups or thugs to continue attacks”.

Abuses by paramilitaries are not the only source of violence. The role of armed groups who operate with the complicity of political candidates is a growing concern. For example, Amnesty International received reports that political organizers liked to the UNFP have been responsible for most of the preelection violence in the eastern district of Ampara.

Letter writing actions have moved to a special section of our website.