Human Rights Action Update Oct. 18-24

Miriam, human rights defender, 1947-2012

This month we mark the passing of a year since the death of our beloved Miriam. Her daughters marked the event with a memorial that included a lecture by a linguist on the influence of foreign languages on Hebrew. This was an appropriate memorial for Miriam's career as a translator. Her efforts on medical translation in which she strove to bring medical services to marginalized populations merged her professional persona with her human rights defender aspect. Her attitude towards human rights defense was that it was something to do and not to talk about too much. This blog is dedicated to her memory and we hope we are getting someone somewhere to do something for human rights. Now to work:

CHINA
The pattern of forced evictions goes on.  Demolition without any warning took place in Bagou village, Haidian district, Beijing. Please act on this. A template letter is available. Just remove my formatting and use it freely.

MEXICO
AWID calls our attention to a series of death threats against community activists in Oaxaco State in Mexico. Please respond to the request for actions. A template letter is available.

UNITED STATES
Nearly 2 years ago, 14-year-old Daisy Coleman* was raped at a party by a high school football star and grandson of a powerful local politician in Maryville, Missouri. But now, he’s walking free while Daisy and her family struggle to survive with what happened to her. Please sign the petition to put an end to the cover up. It is a repeat of the Steubenville rape story.