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
       Who Will Bring Letter Next Meeting
Old Business:
       IFEST Volunteers
New Business:
       Speaker Needed January 23
       Quaker Peace Fest - March 6
 

Local Group 23 News:

• We had a very successful write-a-thon in December sending out 242 letters in all

• We have openings for Group Coordinator and Secretary.

Amnesty International has appointed Salil Shetty as its next Secretary General. Shetty, an Indian national, has been the Director of the UN's Millennium Campaign for the past six years and the Chief Executive of international anti-poverty NGO ActionAid before then.

"We are thrilled that Salil will be joining us and leading Amnesty International as we renew our fight to end injustice – campaigning with those imprisoned because of their ideas, those on death row, those being tortured, and those who have their rights denied because they live in poverty," said Peter Pack, the chair of Amnesty's International Executive Committee [the organization's governing body].

"As we approach our 50th anniversary, we have ambitious plans to expand our work, especially in the global south, and Salil has a solid track record in mobilising people, civil society, governments and international organizations in the fight for people’s rights and dignity. He’s absolutely the right person to take Amnesty International into the next stage of our work," added Peter Pack.

"I feel privileged to be given this amazing opportunity at a time when the world needs human rights for all more than ever before," said Salil Shetty.

Salil Shetty will start in June 2010. He succeeds Irene Khan who steps down after eight years as Amnesty International’s Secretary General on 31st December 2009.

One year after Israel's major military offensive on the Gaza Strip, Amnesty International has again urged all parties to meet their obligations to pursue accountability for war crimes and serious human rights violations that occurred during the conflict.

"Impunity, if it is allowed to persist, not only undermines justice and the rule of law but makes it all the more likely that further, grave human rights violations will be committed," said Malcolm Smart, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.

No one has been held accountable for the war crimes and other grave violations of international law reported by a UN Fact Finding Mission, Amnesty International and Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organizations.

After the conflict in Gaza and southern Israel, the distinguished South African jurist Judge Richard Goldstone was mandated by the UN Human Rights Council to head a Fact Finding Mission to investigate allegations of war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law and human rights.

In a report published last September, Judge Goldstone and his team concluded that both the Israeli military forces and Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.

Following the Goldstone report, the UN General Assembly asked both the Israeli government and the Palestinian side to conduct their own investigations that are credible, independent and conform to international standards.

Amnesty International said on Sunday that if they fail to do so the international community must step in and take the measures necessary to ensure that those who perpetrated war crimes or other crimes under international law are held to account.

"There must be accountability for what happened in Gaza and southern Israel one year ago," said Malcolm Smart. "Those responsible, on both sides, cannot be allowed to evade accountability for the crimes that were committed. If the Israelis and Palestinians cannot – or will not – deliver justice themselves, the international community must ensure that the perpetrators are held to account."

Meanwhile, Gaza remains effectively cut off from the outside world by the continuing Israeli military blockade, which limits the amount of food, fuel, and other essential items that are allowed into the Gaza Strip, rendering reconstruction and recovery from the war virtually impossible.

Amnesty International has called on the Chinese authorities to reveal the whereabouts of 20 ethnic Uighur asylum-seekers who were forcibly deported from Cambodia to China on 19 December

The group, which includes two very young children, may be at risk of torture or even execution since their forcible deportation at the request of the Chinese government.

Since 2001, Amnesty International has documented cases in which Uighur asylum seekers or refugees who were forcibly returned to China were detained, reportedly tortured and in some cases sentenced to death and executed.

"The 20 should either be charged with recognizably criminal offences or released," said Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Director Sam Zarifi in a letter to the Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi Buzhang.

"Their trials should meet international fair trial standards, and under no circumstances should the death penalty be imposed.

"Our concerns are heightened by the fact that the Chinese authorities have already executed nine people and sentenced eight others to death in relation to the July 2009 unrest in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region," said Sam Zarifi.

Amnesty International has also urged the Chinese government to provide the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) with immediate access to the 20 individuals to monitor their well-being.

(Washington, DC) - For the first time a European government has admitted that a secret “black site” existed on its territory, Amnesty International said today after a Lithuanian parliamentary committee concluded that a CIA secret prison operated in Lithuania during the US-led “war on terror”.

“Confirmation of the existence of a secret prison in Lithuania marks a modern low point for human rights protection in Europe,” said Julia Hall, Amnesty International’s expert on counter-terrorism in Europe. “But the Lithuanian inquiry signals a turning point in the quest for the truth about what role European states played in helping the United States in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Other European governments should take note and commit to full investigations of similar serious allegations.”

The Lithuanian parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defense issued a report, which stated that officials from the Lithuanian State Security Department assisted in constructing a secret prison for terrorist suspects on the country’s territory. Many detainees held at such secret sites were victims of enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment by U.S. agents, often with the cooperation and assistance of foreign governments.

The committee concluded that CIA airplanes had landed in Lithuania without border checks and claimed that Lithuanian State Security Department officials had failed to notify the president or the prime minister in violation of Lithuanian law.

“The Lithuanian government should have known what its own agencies were doing and is ultimately responsible for the secret prison and any human rights violations that may have taken place there.”

“The inquiry’s findings are only a first step toward accountability,” said Hall. “The investigation in Lithuania should continue and those persons responsible for any involvement in the secret site must be identified and prosecuted.”

Poland and Romania have also been named by the European Parliament and the Council of Europe as allegedly having hosted secret detention facilities for the CIA.

“It is high time that European governments review and tighten civilian control over intelligence and security agencies. It is not enough for governments to claim that they did not know what their security apparatus was up to,” said Hall.

(New York) -- Amnesty International USA today welcomed the news that Sahrawi human rights defender Aminatou Haidar has been allowed to return to her home in Western Sahara and urged Moroccan authorities to provide medical treatment to help her recover following a monthlong hunger strike that seriously weakened her health.

A recipient of important U.S. human rights awards for her work exposing and campaigning to stop human rights violations in Western Sahara, Haidar, 42, who is the mother of two, was illegally expelled by Moroccan authorities from Western Sahara in November after returning from the United States to receive the prestigious 2009 Civil Courage Prize.

Amnesty International said Haidar's expulsion and the confiscation of her Moroccan identification document and passport were politically motivated and that she was being punished because of her defense of Western Sahara's self-determination.

"Amnesty International is elated to hear that Aminatou Haidar is being allowed to return to her home without conditions," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA. "This is a great victory for human rights."

Haidar, who was secretly detained without trial by Morocco from 1987 to 1991, is the 2008 recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. She just recently received the Civil Courage Prize "for steadfast resistance to evil at great personal risk."

Amnesty International activists, joined by other organizations, have mobilized worldwide demanding Haidar's return.

Amnesty International said after a month on a hunger strike, Haidar's health had become severely degraded and called on the Moroccan government to provide her with adequate medical care until she fully recovers. At present, she is resting comfortably.

The organization thanked the Moroccan government for allowing her to return and also thanked the Spanish government for its positive role in this crisis and the intervention of the U.S. government, especially Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator John Kerry, D-Ma., chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Haidar was detained at Laayoune airport in Western Sahara on Nov. 13 and questioned about her travel, her political opinions and affiliations. Her Moroccan passport and identity card were confiscated. She said the following day, officials offered to release her if she gave a public acknowledgement of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. She refused and a few hours later she was put on a flight to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands where she began a hunger strike in protest that lasted until her flight home.

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