July 2015
Good afternoon,
I wanted to share an update on some of our recent activities, as well as some big news we received last week.
June
was a busy month as we continued our push for accountability for
torture. On June 23, we joined with ACLU and Human Rights Watch to send
a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch urging that she appoint a
special prosecutor to review the Senate torture report and ensure that
there is a full criminal investigation into the conduct it documents. We
also delivered petitions signed by more than 110,000 people, urging the
same. (See our letter and video message here). On June 26th,
activists nationwide marked the International Day in Support of Victims
of Torture by demonstrating in front of Department of Justice offices.
Actions took place across the country (see pictures here)
– from Boston to San Francisco, Minneapolis to Raleigh – as we called
on the Department of Justice to investigate allegations of CIA torture
and bring those who authorized and committed torture to justice.
Even
though those major mobilizations are over, there is still work to be
done. You can continue to support the movement to ensure accountability
for this #AmericanTortureStory by urging the Attorney General to reopen
investigations through this online action.
We
also received some big news to start off July: in a shocking
development, the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal informed Amnesty
International that the UK government had spied on the organization by
intercepting and accessing its email communications. We do not know the
scale of the surveillance or the reason for it, or even the extent and
ways in which Amnesty International communications were accessed.
Here’s a link to our press release for more information and an article about the questions raised. This new development highlights how mass surveillance undermines our work to protect human rights. Join us in calling on President Obama to “log off” and ban mass surveillance through this online action.
Thank your for your activism and continued support.
Best,
Naureen
Naureen ShahDirector, Security and Human Rights Program
Amnesty International USA
