Friday, August 26, 2016

"Keeping You Connected" Excerpts from Angie's Email/Newsletter - August 26, 2016

Angie Hougas
August 26, 2016
Excerpts from her email/newsletter.

  • USA - Texas: On 19 August, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay of execution to Jeffery Wood, who was scheduled to be executed in Texas on 24 August. He was sentenced to death in 1998 for a murder committed during a robbery of a convenience store in 1996. He was sitting in a truck outside the store when the murder took place.
  • Syria: Ghina Ahmad Wadi, a 10-year-old girl seriously wounded by sniper fire at a Syrian government checkpoint on 2 August, was successfully evacuated to Damascus to receive the urgent surgery she needed.
  • USA - Guantanamo: Victory - the Obama administration announced that 15 Guantánamo detainees had been transferred out of the detention camp, and resettled in the United ArabEmirates.   It is the biggest transfer of Guantánamo detainees during the Obama administration, and reduces the detention camp’s population by 20 percent. There are now only 61 individuals in Guantánamo, a fraction of the nearly 800 who populated Guantánamo at the detention camp’s peak. More than half of those not slated for trial by military commission are cleared for transfer, and more clearances are happening on a nearly weekly basis.  This is the biggest Guantanamo transfer during Obama administration.Here is a published an op-ed  by Elizabeth Beavers, AISUA's Policy & Activism Coordinator, in The Hill commenting on these transfers One of the detainees transferred was Obaidullah, an Afghan man seized from his home at approximately age 19 and detained by the U.S. without trial for 14 years. Obaidullah was the subject the Amnesty report “I am fallen into darkness,” and was featured in our fall/winter American Torture Story campaign. His release comes after fervent action on his behalf by Amnesty members.
  • Standing Rock Reservation: The tribe made a direct request to AIUSA to monitor these protests, both through our Individuals at Risk team and our Identity and Discrimination team.
    AI's observers are there to monitor protestors and law enforcement agents to ensure that the right to peacefully assemble and protest is respected.
    The protest happening at / near Standing Rock are related to a ruling a federal court in Washington is expected to hand down on a lawsuit initiated by the Native American tribes against a Texas-based company seeking to build the Dakota Access pipeline, expected to travel more than 1,000 miles underground and endangering the water supply of several tribes.
    24 August 2016 Press Release:  http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/press-releases/amnesty-international-usa-to-observe-north-dakota-pipeline-protests
  •  Sierra Leone: Amnesty International Submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child
    Website link: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr51/4583/2016/en/
    AI index number: AFR 51/4583/2016
    Publish date: 15/08/2016 00:00 BST [GMT+1]
    Abstract: This briefing sets out Amnesty International’s concerns regarding the State party’s failure to uphold the right to non-discrimination, the right to education, the right to information, the right to privacy, the right to be free from violence, the right to be free from inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment) and the right to health with respect to the rights of girls in Sierra Leone.
  • Saudi Arabia: Submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
    Website link: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde23/4601/2016/en/
    AI index number:  MDE 23/4601/2016
    Publish date:   15/08/2016 00:00 BST
    Abstract: Amnesty International submits this briefing in advance of the September 2016 consideration of Saudi Arabia’s combined third and fourth periodic reports in respect of the country’s implementation of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). It sets out Amnesty International’s concerns about Saudi Arabia’s use of the death penalty for offences committed by persons below 18 years of age in breach of its obligations under the CRC. As such, this briefing is not an exhaustive account of Amnesty International’s concerns regarding the implementation of the Convention by Saudi Arabia.
  • Syria: 'It breaks the human': Torture, disease and death in Syria's prisons
    Website link: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde24/4508/2016/en/
    AI index number:  MDE 24/4508/2016
    Publish date:   18/08/2016 13:00 BST
    Abstract: The experiences faced by detainees in Syria’s detention system are often lethal. An estimated 17,723 people were killed in custody across Syria between 2011 and 2015, with the real number likely to be even higher. Of the 65 former detainees interviewed by Amnesty International for this report, most had witnessed at least one death in custody. All had been tortured and/or otherwise ill-treated.
  • Tunisia: Submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
    Website link: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde30/4575/2016/en/
    AI index number: MDE 30/4575/2016
    Publish date:   19/08/2016 00:00 BST
    Abstract: Amnesty International is submitting this briefing in advance of the United Nations (UN) Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’ review of Tunisia’s third periodic report on the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, during its 59th session from 19 September to 7 October 2016. The submission highlights Amnesty International’s specific concerns regarding discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and consensual sexual activity; sexual and gender-based violence and the protection of sexual and reproductive rights in the country.
  • Co-authors of Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War, interview
    There were on a book tour in the USA earlier this year (including Madison)
    San Francisco KPFA radio interview with Robin Yassin Kassab and Leila Al-Shmai":
    https://player.fm/series/kpfa-letters-and-politics/paper-edition-syrians-in-revolution-and-war
  •  "WITH WHOM ARE MANY US POLICE DEPARTMENTS TRAINING?"
    Blog:  AIUSA's domestic concerns as well as with one of the hot button international areas - our work re: Israel/OPT/Palestine & includes a video
    This blog shows how our human rights concerns internationally often directly relates to human rights concerns right here at home
    With Whom are Many U.S. Police Departments Training?  With a Chronic Human Rights Violator - Israel’.   
  • INTERIM ED MARGARET HUANG's OP-ED on BET.COM
    The Lethal Use of Force in Brazil Has Striking Similarities to the U.S.
    http://www.bet.com/news/national/2016/08/22/lethal-force.html
  • AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASES