Human Rights Action blog May 9-15

Miriam, human rights defender, 1947-2012

MONTENEGRO FORCED EVICTION 
Seven households (14 adults and 20 children) are facing imminent forced eviction in the Zvjerinjak settlement in Nikšić, the second largest city in Montenegro. The authorities have failed to respect any of the safeguards and protections set out in international law, including the provision of adequate alternative housing.
Please act on their behalf.

VENEZUELA PROTESTERS DETAINED 
Security forces in Caracas detained 243 people involved in ongoing anti-government demonstrations between 7 and 8 May. The whereabouts of those who have not yet been released remain unknown. They are at risk of torture or other ill-treatment. Please take action


UKRAINE: ILL-TREATMENT OF CAPTIVES AMIDST CIVIL UNREST 
Video footage shows two men held captive and being ill-treated by armed people in south-eastern Ukraine. They are seen being interrogated by a man who is evidently not a law enforcement official. This incident occurs amidst spiralling civil unrest and concerns over breakdown of the rule of law.  Please join the protest.

PHILIPPINES
Join the fight back against the union-busting aggression of the market leading NXP Semiconductors. The company’s illegal retaliation to their Philippine employees organizing and peacefully supporting the collective bargaining process was to sack all 24 union officers on 5 May. The site will come up with my details, just replace them with your own and sign up for labor rights support.

Human Rights Action update May 1-8

Miriam, human rights defender, 1947-2012

CHINA 
We posted this last week  but we are told that the link that we gave failed to bring up the UA. We are reposting it since it is still very relevant. Religious leader and ethnic Uighur, Abdukiram Abduveli, has been on hunger strike since mid-February in protest against being given an additional five year prison sentence. Despite having been initially sentenced to 12 years in prison, he has since been given additional sentences on five separate occasions and has been in custody for nearly 24 years. He is in critical ill-health and in need of urgent medical attention.  Please act on his behalf.

SOUTH SUDAN
We are seeing there a reenactment of Rwanda two decades ago. The civil war fomented by the rivalry between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar is destroying the people. . Their power struggle is fueling an ongoing slide into genocide. Please sign the AVAAZ petition to stop the bloodshed.


THAILAND
A prominent human rights activist has been missing in Thailand since 17 April 2014. It is feared that Pholachi Rakchongcharoen, also known as “Billy,” has been subjected to enforced disappearance in response to his activism.  Please act for him.

MYANMAR
On 7 April two men, video journalist Zaw Pe and Win Myint Hlaing, were each sentenced to one year in prison in Myanmar because of their attempted investigation and criticism of education authorities in Magwe Region. Amnesty International considers them prisoners of conscience who must be immediately and unconditionally released. Please join the call for their immediate and unconditional release.

INDONESIA
Please help these striking workers who are being persecuted at a large paper mill. It will take you less than a minute.

Human Rights Action Update April 25-May 1

Miriam, human rights defender, 1947-2012

UNITED STATES 
The situation for tobacco farm workers in North Carolina is dire. Many farm workers often live in labor camps with inadequate or non-functioning toilets and showers and other substandard conditions, suffer from illnesses resulting from nicotine poisoning and exposure to dangerous pesticides and work long hours for below-poverty wages.  Please click and send a message to the  President of British American Tobacco calling on him to rectify this unacceptable situation. Of course, we would like to have a world in which no one worked in tobacco fields, but we must deal with the world as it is.
























CHINA
Religious leader and ethnic Uighur, Abdukiram Abduveli, has been on hunger strike since mid-February in protest against being given an additional five year prison sentence. Despite having been initially sentenced to 12 years in prison, he has since been given additional sentences on five separate occasions and has been in custody for nearly 24 years. He is in critical ill-health and in need of urgent medical attention.  Please act on his behalf.  
Scroll down on the page to reach the text of the UA.
QATAR 
Call on FIFA to tackle modern slavery fuelling the Qatar 2022 World Cup. The conditions under which the workers are laboring are inhuman. Please call upon FIFA to play fair.

Human Rights action update April 17-23

Miriam, human rights defender, 1947-2012

TURKEY/GERMANY
IndustriALL Global Union and IG Metall call on German textile brand Brax to play instrumental role to stem labour rights violations in its major supplier Lafem in Turkey.  The workers are trying to organize a union and the company is fighting them by firing the organizers. Please join the protest. Put your own details into the form.











PHILIPPINES 
Harassment And Surveillance Of Human Rights Lawyer Ms Catherine Dannug-Salucon by the Intelligence Services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines since March.  Front Line Defenders is concerned at the continued surveillance and intimidation of human rights defender Ms Maria Catherine Dannug-Salucon. Please act on her behalf. Click the Take Action tab at the bottom of the page.

HONDURAS :HONDURAN MEDIA WORKER MURDERED IN HIS HOME
On 11 April Carlos Meji'a was stabbed to death in his home, in El Progreso municipality, Honduras. He had been threatened in the past in apparent connection with his work on projects for the promotion of human rights and social justice. Please join the call for investigation and justice.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 
Two men were reportedly tortured while in police custody in the Dominican Republic on 12 April. Since then, the men and their relative Ana Patricia Fermi'n have faced intimidation and death threats after she denounced the torture to the media. Please join the call for steps to ensure their safety.

Human Rights Action Update April 11-16

Miriam, human rights defender, 1947-2012

The blog is a day earlier this week because of travel.


MEXICO
Migrants and migrants’ rights defenders were shot at in the vicinity of Lechería shelter, Mexico State, Mexico. There are concerns that the authorities are not taking the threat to migrants and defenders working with them seriously due to a delay in investigating the incident and in implementing effective protection mechanisms. Please act on their behalf.

SWAZILAND 
On 9 April respected magazine editor, Bhekithemba Makhubu, and human rights lawyer, Thulani Maseko, were re-detained in Swaziland after irregular court proceedings against them. The two had been released from custody on 6 April after a high court judge overturned their previous arrests and detentions as unlawful. They had spent 20 days in detention for criticizing a powerful public official. Please pick up the link and act for them.

NIGERIA: MAN FEARED DISAPPEARED AFTER SENDING TWEETS
Yusuf Siyaka Onimisi has been missing since 30 March, when he tweeted photos of an
alleged attempted jail break-in at the State Security Service in Abuja, Nigeria. Twenty-one
detainees died during the incident. If he is in detention Yusuf is at risk of extra-judicial
execution.  Please act on his behalf.

HAITI
On 2 April Pierre Espérance, a prominent Haitian human rights defender, received a letter containing a bullet and death threats related to his work. Amnesty International fears for his safety and that of other human rights defenders in the country. Please act for them.

Human Rights Action Update April 4-10

Miriam, human rights defender, 1947-2012

MEXICO 
Martha Solórzano Martínez, a local activist from San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora state, on the northern border of Mexico has faced repeated threats from municipal police due to complaints she has made against police for abuse of power, corruption and ill-treatment. Please act on her behalf.

ANGOLA 
Men face extradition, at risk of torture Nine men, most of whom are originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), face extradition to the  DRC where they could be tortured or sentenced to death. They were arrested in Angola on suspicion of attempting to destabilise the government of the DRC.  Please act on their behalf.


CHINA 
FEMALE ACTIVIST DETAINED FOR EXPOSING RTL
Anti-corruption activist Liu Hua, a woman who exposed abuses in China’s Re-Education Through Labour (RTL) system, has been criminally detained on the charge of “picking quarrels and making troubles”. It is widely believed that she is being punished by the authorities for appearing in a documentary that exposed the torture and other ill-treatment of the RTL system. She is a prisoner of conscience and should be immediately and unconditionally released.  Please raise your voice.

Human Rights Action Update March 28-April 3

Miriam, human rights defender, 1947-2012

RUSSIA 
Civil society activist Ruslan Kutaev has been detained by the authorities in Chechnya after organizing a conference in commemoration of Stalin’s deportations from the Caucasus, and reportedly tortured. Amnesty International believes that the evidence against him was fabricated. Please act on his behalf.

 The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has been informed by reliable sources about discriminatory acts, including violations of the right to freedom of association and assembly performed against members of the Russian Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transexuals (LGBT) Network, because of the nature of the human rights they defend. Please join the protest.

 

Activists in Samara, Russian Federation, received death threats after staging a protest against Russia’s military intervention in Crimea. On 2 March, Svetlana Chernova, Alexander Lashmankin, Igor Titarenko and several other peace activists took part in a series of single-person pickets, which, under Russian law can be held without a prior permission from the authorities, in the city of Samara, in Russia. Following this, they repeatedly received death threats from anonymous members of an online group which calls itself “Anti-Maydan” (a reference to the recent EuroMaydan protest in Kyiv, Ukraine). Please join the outcry.

SRI LANKA 
We are renewing the call for the release of Balendran Jeyakumari and also demanding that the two activists, Ruki Fernando and Father Praveen Mahesan, who were released on March 18, be protected and allowed to move about freely.