"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

8/12/16 Burundi: UN findings must be a wake-up call on torture
8/12/16 Syria: Russia and U.S. Should Arrange Immediate Evacuation of Ten-Year Old Girl Shot by Sniper
8/14/16 Syria: 10-year-old girl to receive urgent surgery following evacuation from besieged Madaya
8/15/16 Yemen: Bombardment of MSF hospital a deplorable attack
8/15/16 Amnesty International USA Welcomes Major Transfer of Guantanamo Detainees
8/16/16 Amnesty International India responds to sedition allegations
8/16/16 Hundreds of thousands more risk displacement sparking fresh humanitarian crisis in Iraq
8/16/16 Singapore: Contempt of court bill is a threat to freedom of expression
8/17/16 Yemen: Huthi authorities must release detained Bahá’ís, end crackdown on minorities
8/17/16 Australia/PNG: Closure of Manus Island detention only first step to ending offshore nightmare for refugees
8/17/16 Argentina: Ruling to release woman jailed after miscarriage, a step forward for human rights
8/18/16 Russia declares two more non-profits as ‘undesirable’
8/18/16 Amnesty International USA Responds to Announcement that DOJ Will End Use of Private Prisons
8/18/16 Obama must offer urgent support to Syrian refugees on Jordan border