Human Rights Action Update June29-July4

Miriam, human rights defender, 1947-2012

First best wishes to our US readers for Independence Day and a belated greeting to our Canadian friends for Canada Day.

PEPSICO IS RIDING ROUGH ON ITS WORKERS IN INDIA
Please let Pepsico know that organizing a union is a  basic human right. 

 
















Workers who are members of Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) at West Bengal warehouses exclusively contracted by PepsiCo are fighting for fairness and justice in the face of mass dismissals as a result of exercising their right to join a union. 162 workers out of 170 have been brutally fired. Furthermore PepsiCo is using labour contractors that are not officially licensed (something that is mandatory). Workers are therefore not paid the current minimum wages set since January 1, 2013 and no social security payments are made for them as required by law.

URGENT ACTION:CHINA
Please respond to this urgent action appeal  on behalf the photographer Du Bin who is being persecuted for his peaceful human rights activity.   In 2005, Du Bin wrote his first book Petitioners: Living Fossil Who Survived China’s Rule of Law , which documents the stories of millions of people who travelled to Beijing every day in an attempt to seek redress for the injustices they faced in their home towns as well as the violence, unfair treatment, and even death they faced when trying to report local corruption. Since then, Du
Bin has written several books covering a range of topics, including on the investigation into violent forced evictions in Shanghai, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of peasants from starvation during Mao Zedong’s rule, and a recently released book that details the violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989. His books are all published overseas I have provided a template letter. 
You just need erase my information and edit it to your taste.

IMPENDING GENOCIDE IN BURMA
Most people didn't know who the Rwandans were until it was too late, and 800,000 of them were dead. Right now, the fate of Burma's Muslim Rohingya is hanging by a thread. Racist thugs have distributed leaflets threatening to wipe out this small Burmese minority. Already children have been hacked to death and unspeakable murders committed. All signs are pointing to a coming horror, unless we act. Please sign this AVAAZ petition.



 HELP TRIBAL PEOPLE
Again I call for attention to the fate of tribal people who are under threat of extinction.  Tribal peoples do not just die out. They’re killed—and the people killing them have names and addresses.

Your letters and petitions help tribal peoples win recognition of their land rights, put an end to logging or mining on their land, and halt government violence and oppression.
→ It works!