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:
       U2 Concert
       View Film, "Torturing Democracy" and panel discussion
New Business:
       News from ICM (Linda Veazey

Local Group 23 News:

• Amanda Glover spoke at the Adult Discussion Group at the Unitarian church in Stafford. The group was small but Amanda was invited to come back and speak to the entire congregation in the future.
• 116 letters were written at our last meeting

  

  and this is the food that fueled all the hard work:

  

• We have openings for Group Coordinator and Secretary.

Drummer Richard Hughes Says the Davis Case is a 'Terrifying Illustration' of Why the Death Penalty Should be Abolished

(New York) -- A musician from best-selling British rock band Keane will join Amnesty International delegates on a visit to Georgia to meet with death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis to highlight his case as he awaits a new chance to have a court hear compelling evidence of his innocence.

Richard Hughes, 34, Keane’s highly-regarded drummer, is scheduled to visit Davis, 40, on death row at the Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Ga., on Saturday, September 26. In the week proceeding, and continuing through Sept. 27, Davis supporters worldwide will be organizing Amnesty International-sponsored teach-ins about his case.

Davis is awaiting an as-yet-unscheduled hearing mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court that will give him another chance to prove his innocence, which he has vigorously maintained since he was sent to death row in 1991 for the killing of Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail. In August the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order mandating the new evidentiary hearing, after years of intensive campaigning by Amnesty International and other organizations.

During Davis' trial, authorities failed to produce a murder weapon or any physical evidence tying Davis to the crime. Seven of the nine original state witnesses have recanted or changed their initial testimonies in sworn affidavits. One of the remaining witnesses is alleged to be the actual perpetrator.

Richard Hughes said: “I am totally against the death penalty, and the case of Troy Davis is a terrifying illustration of the reasons why.

“Troy continues to fight for the chance to prove his innocence. I am going to Georgia with Amnesty International to meet this remarkable man and his family; to show my support for him; and to try to shine a little light on his case and the terrible effects of continuing to execute people in the name of justice.”

Hughes will be visiting death row with Amnesty International UK death penalty campaigner Kim Manning Cooper, and Alistair Carmichael, the Scottish Member of Parliament and chair of the UK parliamentary group for the abolition of the death penalty. The two expect to meet with members of Congress to discuss the Davis case on a Washington stopover.

Brian Evans of Amnesty International USA's Death Penalty Abolition Campaign, said: "People the world over are now aware of the terrible injustice that Troy has endured. As Troy waits for the opportunity to prove his innocence, we are grateful to Mr. Hughes and Mr. Carmichael for joining the growing ranks of people that believe Troy's case represents a terrible miscarriage of justice."

Manning Cooper said: “Even those who don’t agree with Amnesty’s stance in opposing all executions ought to be shocked by this case. But the tide may now be turning, and it’s heartening to see support for Troy growing all the time.

“We want as many people as possible to sign our petition on behalf of Troy Davis. It’s vital that the Georgia authorities know how strongly people feel about Troy’s plight.”

Carmichael said: “The case against Mr. Davis is so shaky that if the Georgia authorities were ever to push ahead with his execution I believe it would meet with significant international opposition. In such an event I would certainly seek to secure the firmest possible protest from the UK government.”

Since the launch of its February 2007 report, Where Is the Justice for Me?, Amnesty International has campaigned for a new evidentiary hearing or trial, as well as clemency for Davis, collecting hundreds of thousands of clemency petition signatures and letters from prominent individuals around the world.

Taiwan’s High Court has been urged to ensure a fair trail for a death row inmate preparing to face his 11th retrial in 21 years on Tuesday.

Chiou Ho-shun was first tried in two cases related to the deaths of a nine-year-old boy and a middle-aged woman in 1987. He was sentenced to death for robbery, kidnapping, blackmailing and murder in 1998.

He has been detained for over 21 years while the cases have bounced between the High Court and the Supreme Court for retrial.

Amnesty International called on the Court to conduct the latest trial in accordance with international fair trial standards, including prohibiting confessions obtained through torture and to refrain from imposing the death penalty.

"Under international fair trial standards, defendants should have the right to be presumed innocent and tried without undue delay," says Roseann Rife, Asia-Pacific Deputy Programme Director at Amnesty International. "This unresolved case lasting for more than two decades deserves a prompt resolution."

The cases against Chiou Ho-shun and his two other co-defendants, Lin Kun-ming and Wu Shu-chen, were flawed, according to the latest verdict document of the Supreme Court.

The Court noted that the defendants' fingerprints were not found at the crime scene.

Other concerns are that the defendants had been denied access to legal counsel during the investigation stage; initial confessions of the defendants were extracted through torture; and the courts in previous trials had failed to exclude these confessions in reaching the guilty verdicts and the subsequent death sentence of Chiou Ho-shun.

No material evidence such as the murder weapon, victims’ bodies and their clothes have been found.

Since Chiou Ho-shun and 11 other co-defendants were tried in the two cases in 1987, nine of the defendants having either died or completed their sentences.

In 1994, a number of police officers handling the case were convicted for their involvement in extracting confessions through torture. In spite of this, during all the retrials, several dozen judges at the High Court have insisted on using the “torture-free” portions of the confessions.

On 6 August 2009, the Supreme Court overturned portions of the original rulings against Chiou Ho-shun and the two other co-defendants, and returned the case to the High Court for retrial.
An estimated 65 people have been sentenced to death in Taiwan and are awaiting appeals or execution as of July 2009.

Although no executions have been carried out in Taiwan since December 2005 and former president Chen Shui-bian publicly opposed the death penalty, the current de facto moratorium has no legal basis.

There may be as many as 60 detainees of different nationalities currently being held by the US authorities at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who should not be forcibly returned to their home countries because this would place them at risk of torture or other serious human rights violations in these states.

Amnesty International considers that those detained at Guantánamo Bay must be either charged by US authorities and brought to trial in conformity with international standards of fair trial or released, and that in no cases should such detainees be returned involuntarily to their countries of nationality or habitual residence, directly or through other states, if this would place them at risk of torture or other serious human rights violations. Such detainees should be offered residence in the USA or in other states in which they would not be at risk of torture or other serious human rights violations.

While Amnesty International considers that the US government has the primary responsibility to end the Guantánamo Bay detentions, the organization is also calling on other governments to offer humanitarian protection to detainees who would be at risk in their countries of nationality or habitual residence in order to help end their ordeal and to facilitate the closure of the Guantánamo Bay prison.

Algerian nationals at Guantánamo bay: Risk factors

In August 2009, 12 Algerian nationals were being detained at Guantánamo Bay, all of whom, Amnesty International considers, would be at risk of serious human rights violations -- incommunicado detention, torture and other ill-treatment, and unfair trial - if they should be returned involuntarily to Algeria. Amnesty International's assessment in this regard is based on its continuous monitoring of human rights in Algeria over many years, particularly human rights violations committed in the context of counter-terrorism, including violations committed against Algerian nationals forcibly returned from other states where they were considered terrorism suspects.

Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan has urged the US government to examine the findings of Judge Richard Goldstone’s report on violations of international law committed in Gaza and southern Israel in late December and January.

The report found Israeli forces committed violations of human rights and international humanitarian law amounting to war crimes and some possibly amounting to crimes against humanity.

"The White House should actually now examine that report and ask the UN Secretary General to refer it to the UN Security Council," said Ms Khan in an interview with Al Jazeera on Thursday.

"It's the responsibility of the UN Security Council to take that report as seriously as it has taken reports for instance on the situation in Darfur. There can be no double standards for justice for war crimes or crimes against humanity."

Ms Khan also addressed suggestions that the findings of Judge Goldstone's inquiry, published on Tuesday, were biased against Israel.

She said that while most of the 575-page report was focused on the behaviour of Israeli forces, Judge Goldstone also recognised that Hamas also had a responsibility to respect international humanitarian law.

"By looking at it in that way, he actually increases the credibility," said Ms Khan.

"He shows that this is not just propaganda, this is actually the way to judge the Israeli government's performance against international human rights and humanitarian law standards."

Ms Khan described Judge Goldstone as a "very credible international prosecutor" with a "good record on international law".

Rejecting accusations that Judge Goldstone had been biased against Israel, Ms Khan said "He has done a very thorough, professional job, he and his colleagues."

Despite powerful evidence of war crimes and other serious violations of international law which emerged during and in the aftermath of the conflict, both Israel and Hamas have failed to carry out credible investigations and prosecute those responsible.

Ms Khan said that she was pleased that the findings of Judge Goldstone's report echoed those of Amnesty International's fact-finding mission to Gaza in January.

"Judge Goldstone has confirmed that there were war crimes committed by the Israeli forces and also crimes against humanity, attacks on civilians that had no military purpose, excessive destruction of buildings, blockage of food and other essentials to the civilian population.

"We are also pleased that Judge Goldstone took a balanced approach and also looked at violations committed by the Hamas authorities. And we are very pleased that he has recommended accountability for what has been done," said Ms Khan.

In his report, Judge Goldstone has asked that the UN Security Council set up a mechanism to monitor whether the Israeli government and the Hamas administration investigate the crimes within a set period of six months.

If they do not, Judge Goldstone has said that the Security Council should refer his findings to the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor.

"We think there needs to be justice for the victims of Gaza and Judge Goldstone has provided a way for that," said Ms Khan.

On Tuesday, Amnesty International welcomed the findings of the Goldstone report as consistent with those of its own field investigation into the 22-day conflict.

The organization called on all relevant UN bodies to act promptly and in coordination to implement the recommendations of the report.

"The responsibility now lies with the international community, notably the UN Security Council, as the UN's most powerful body, to take decisive action to ensure accountability for the perpetrators and justice for the victims," said Donatella Rovera, who headed Amnesty International's investigation into the conflict.

The UN's Human Rights Council announced Judge Goldstone as the head of its four-member Gaza fact-finding mission on 3 April.

A new Indonesian bylaw that endorses stoning to death for adultery and caning of up to 100 lashes for homosexuality should be repealed immediately, Amnesty International said on Thursday.

The local Islamic Criminal Code was passed by the Aceh Provincial House of Representatives on Monday. It forbids a number of acts including alcohol consumption, gambling, intimacy between unmarried couples, adultery and fornication, and homosexuality.

"The new criminal bylaw flies in the face of international human rights law as well as provisions of the Indonesian constitution," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific director.

"Stoning to death is particularly cruel and constitutes torture, which is absolutely forbidden under all circumstances in international law."

Indonesia’s central government has indicated that the law may contravene Indonesia’s existing human rights protections under the country’s constitution.

"We welcome the concerns expressed by different levels of the Indonesian government about these laws," Zarifi said. "But the proof is in the doing, and as long as these laws stay on the books they pose a serious threat to Indonesia’s international human rights obligations."

Some of these provisions, particularly punishment by caning, are not new in Aceh and already violate international human rights standards on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

However, this is the first time that local legislators have included stoning to death (rajam) as a penalty for those who commit adultery. International human rights law and standards oppose the extension of the death penalty to new crimes.

Amnesty International has urged Aceh's newly elected legislature, due to take office in October, to repeal the law as matter of urgent priority.

Amnesty International has also called on the new legislature to ensure that all local regulations in Aceh are in full conformity with international human rights law and standards, and other human rights provisions set out in the Indonesian Constitution and in the 1999 Law on Human Rights.

The Indonesian government should ensure that the decentralization process and regional autonomy does not come at the expense of human rights.

Local Islamic Law was gradually put in place in Aceh from 1999-2000 through various autonomy packages. Caning was introduced a few years ago as a punishment meted out by Islamic courts for offences such as gambling, theft and adultery. At least 31 men and four women convicted of gambling were caned under local Islamic law in Aceh in 2005 and at least eight people (five men and three women) convicted for gambling or adultery were caned in 2006.

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