UN Staff Evacuated, Human Rights Workers Targeted as Egyptian Unrest Escalates

Amnesty International India

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PRESS RELEASE

Human rights workers in Egypt are reportedly being targeted by the Egyptian police and supporters of President Hosni Mubarak as unrest in the African country continues to escalate.

Some of Egypt’s most prominent human rights activists were detained by the country’s police forces after a raid of the Hisham Mubarak Law Center, a human rights-focused institution in Cairo, The New York Times says.

Foreign media are also being targeted, with reporters from various outlets being detained or attacked, according to news reports.

Meantime, the U.N. is moving approximately 350 of its Egypt-based staff to Cyprus and the United Arab Emirates, according to a spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Cyprus.

The U.N. employees and their families can choose to fly either to Dubai or Cyprus, Rolando Gomez said, adding that two U.N. chartered plans are set to make two roundtrip flights from Cyprus to Cairo on Thursday (Feb. 3).

Some U.N. staff members will remain in Egypt to carry out “essential functions,” he said, according to The Associated Press.


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Critics Call for More US Development Aid, Less Military Funding for Egypt

Amnesty International India

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PRESS RELEASE

The U.S. should channel more development aid to Egypt while increasing its oversight over the military assistance its sends to the country - or even reducing that aid altogether, some critics have noted.according to the Boston Globe.

“Egypt has a real need for foreign aid, but not the kind of foreign aid they are getting,’’ the newspaper quotes Geoffrey Wawro, history professor and director of the Military History Center at the University of North Texas. “They need more butter than guns. They need development aid, but development aid does not serve as a stimulus plan for American factories.’’


Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) has also urged Congress and the Obama administration to consider scaling up its civilian aid to the country and working more to “guarantee that American military assistance is accomplishing its goals “

The United States provides up to USD1.5 billion military aid to Egypt annually. Meantime, the White House has requested for USD250 million in civilian economic assistance for the country for 2011.

The United States is reviewing all its aid to Egypt in light of the continuing crisis in the country, which has escalated to violent clashes between supporters of President Hosni Mubarak and protesters calling for his ouster.

At least two key U.S. legislators have spoken against cutting all U.S. aid to Egypt, noting that the country is an important ally in the Middle East and North Africa.


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Actors, filmmakers protest against Dr.Binayak Sen’s jail term

Amnesty International India

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PRESS RELEASE

Mumbai, Feb 2 : About 150 people marked the Martyrs Day Sunday by staging a protest in Mumbai as part of a nationwide agitation against the life imprisonment awarded to rights activist Binayak Sen.

The group that included artists, activists and common people chanted slogans like ‘Shame on you, Chhattisgarh government’ and ‘Free Dr. Binayak Sen’.
Calling the judgment by a Chhattisgarh court against Sen a travesty of justice, director Mahesh Bhatt said: ‘I can be safe only when people around me are safe and have the right to say what they want to say.’

‘Dissent without the fear of backlash is the right of the citizen in a democracy, a right that has been violated in the case of Dr. Binayak Sen,’ he said.

Documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan said that: ‘Jan 30 is Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination day. It’s a day of mourning. But it is also a day for us to look at what is happening in our country today. We see immediately before our eyes, the case of Binayak Sen and (Dalit activist) Sudhir Dhawale, who have been wrongly accused of sedition.’

Like Sen, Dhawale, editor of Marathi magazine Vidrohi, was arrested by police at Gondia in Maharashtra Jan 2 and charged with sedition and various provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.


‘It is a strange irony that sedition charge was applied on Mahatma Gandhi also. It shows that we are continuing on the same path that the British had embarked upon, which was to exploit the people and loot their resources. Binayak Sen stood up against that and he has been put in jail,’ Patwardhan added.

Actor Joy Sengupta, who has worked in films like ‘Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa’ and ‘Aladin’, said: ‘What is important for all of us is to express our solidarity. We should not go on with our lives as if nothing has happened.’

Protests were also reported from other parts of the country as part of a nationwide coordinated effort against the verdict against Sen. In Jaipur, 250 activists led by Aruna Roy were reported to have courted arrest.

The doctor-turned rights activist Sen is at present lodged in a central jail in Raipur after he was sentenced to life term by a trial court in Raipur Dec 24 on sedition charges over his links with Maoist ideologue Narayan Sanyal.

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Tribal women demand release of Binayak Sen

Amnesty International India

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PRESS RELEASE

LUCKNOW: Tribal women came out in large numbers in Robertsganj, Sonbhadra, on Tuesday demanding justice for civil rights activist Dr Binayak Sen and National Forum for Forest People and Forest Workers (NFFPFW) activist Ramshakal. Dr Binayak Sen is lodged in a Chhattisgarh jail on sedition charges.



The women took out a procession which converted into a public meeting in which tribal leaders and human rights activists criticised the police and forest officials for terming tribals and civil right activists as Naxals and implicating them in false cases.



Organised by NFFPFW, People's Union for Civil Liberties, Kaimur Kshetra Mazdoor Mahila Kisan Sangarsh Samiti and Human Rights Law centre, the rally also saw tribals demanding the state government to fulfil it promise of withdrawing cases lodged against poor tribals on petty offences. They said that most of the cases are related to encroachment and damaging habitat but have become redundant after enactment of the Forest Rights Act which provides individual and community ownership rights on the forest land.



Lauding chief minister Mayawati for taking steps for welfare of tribals, the tribal leaders and human rights activists said that Ramshakal was falsely implicated in criminal charges in 2001 but

was proved innocent in an inquiry ordered by Mayawati after coming to power in 2007. However, they said, local police and forest mafia again implicated Ramshakal in a false case.


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EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN

Amnesty International India

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Currently pakistan is facing a grivous problem of illitreacy. this minace is not only a big hurdle in the way of prosperity of this country but is also contributing to many socialevils.In order to bring this country back on track, we being the young generation had to step foward.


The workable options are many but i will numerate few related to education.

1. The social workers may collect their man power and can go to different camps and provide some basic education to the childern in camps

2. The education boards/ universities & collages may ask there students to perform feild work in educational sector by spending atleast 3 months in teaching childerns at refugee camps or at far flung areas of kpk (pakistan) befor getting the degree.

3. As the religous teams in pakistan are also working at different places for promotion of islam they may also contribute towards the primary education of childern.

My above stated suggestions may look to be very revelent to the childerns in refugee camps, it is because i am feeling that these childerns are being destroyed because of the horriable circumstance in this country and GOD forbid if we could not do any thing for them then it means we have lost a generation.

The time has come to do some good for this country , this nation and consiquently for the next generation.

SUPER 8 MDG's !

What are the Millennium Development Goals?

Well to describe in a very simple form ; these are the most broadly supported development goals for which the whole world has come together to accomplish. They can prove to be the most strongest tool in the war against some very big issues that are hitting the world all together. Basic target are income poverty, hunger, maternal and child mortality, disease, inadequate shelter, gender inequality, environmental degradation and the Global Partnership for Development.

Let's learn it here -

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education


Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development


We all can do a bit to accomplish these goals by making people aware about the importance of the MDG's and to start work upon these goals through proper campaigning and knowledge seminars.

If any one of you gets inspired by this and would like to connect to this journey , please feel free to contact me at - divs68@hotmail.com
            APYN Youth Campaign Team
            INDIA

Myanmar elections will test ASEAN’s credibility

Amnesty International India

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                                             Press Release - Courtesy : Amnesty International

Southeast Asian nations should press the Myanmar government to protect the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association throughout the elections period and beyond, Amnesty International said today on the eve of the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Ha Noi.




ASEAN has repeatedly emphasized that the elections should be held in a “free, fair and inclusive manner”. Yet those calls do not go far enough to highlight the human rights that are most at risk in the elections context. Indeed, the Myanmar government has not taken any steps to improve its poor human rights record as the polls approach.



More than 2,200 political prisoners continue to languish behind bars in Myanmar. This is double the number since the start of the mass peaceful anti-government protests of August – September 2007—a huge indictment of the grim human rights situation there.



Under Electoral Laws enacted in March, no political prisoner can take part in the elections, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The same laws also prohibit them from membership in any political party.



ASEAN should unequivocally call for the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience at the Ministerial Meeting, something they conspicuously failed to do at the organisation’s summit in Ha Noi in April.



The Electoral Laws also list a number of offences and penalties, among them—a blatant violation of freedom of expression—a vaguely worded provision against "exhorting" persons to vote or not to vote in the elections.



Moreover, in a 21 June directive issued by the Union Election Commission, political parties are prohibited from campaigning activities that “harm security, the rule of law and community peace”. These regulations allow for an excessively broad interpretation of what constitutes a threat to “security”. For decades the authorities have routinely used vaguely worded laws to arbitrarily criminalize peaceful political dissent.



New censorship rules introduced in June also serve to undermine any remaining scope for independent journalism around the elections process.



The “three freedoms”—of expression, peaceful assembly, and association—must be safeguarded for all, whether people choose to participate in the elections or not. It is not enough for ASEAN to adopt a “wait and see” attitude.



ASEAN states must also be prepared to speak out forcefully if individuals are harassed and detained for their peaceful political views and activities in the run-up to the elections.



Failure to address these urgent challenges will damage ASEAN’s international credibility. It is crucial that ASEAN seizes this opportunity to work towards the realisation of long overdue human rights improvements in Myanmar.



The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) comprises 10 member states: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam. The annual ASEAN Ministerial Meeting takes place from 19 – 23 July this year.


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