"Mama Efua", Efua Dorkenoo, 1949-2014 - Outstanding Voice for Women's Human Rights

From Equity Now Facebook post

• "It is with deep sadness that we learn today of the passing of our friend and colleague, Efua Dorkenoo, OBE. Efua has been a truly outstanding voice for women and girls around the world. She spearheaded the Africa-led work to end female genital mutilation (FGM) for over three decades. Our thoughts are with her family and friends."

• "Gloria Steinem, who had written an introduction to “Cutting the Rose,” and who was one of Efua’s closest American friends, e-mailed, calling her a “miracle of hope and change,” and saying that there was “no way to measure the loss of the courage, compassion and effectiveness that Efua Dorkenoo brought to the struggle for women’s human rights. #EndFGM "
• The New Yorker article:  "Efua Dorkenoo, the Ghanaian feminist who died last weekend of cancer, at sixty-five, was the warrior-in-chief in the ongoing battle against F.G.M.—the marginally less traumatizing way for women to utter the words “female genital mutilation.” Millions of women in Africa and throughout the countries of its post-colonial diaspora revered her; they called her Mama Efua and, with pride, urgency, and not a little fear, followed her lead.

AI Madison Group #139 Weekly Update - October 24, 2014

Happy Fall Everyone!

    This week we have two important posts which include links to more information and online petitions about these two important topics. Please check out (1) Amnesty and Gun Violence Links and (2) Human Rights and the Environment - Online Petitions. We also have this week's Online Petitions, Urgent Actions, Human Rights News, a video, and Calendar Events. Thank you to our contributors: Angie, Azam, Farideh, and Wayne. If you have information that you would like to share with our AI Madison Group #139, please send an email to  group139@aiusa.org.

   -Debbie, Weekly Update Editor

Click here for entire Weekly Update

Words of Peace - Video

  Uploaded on Dec 6, 2009

"What three words most convey what peace means to you?" That's the question we asked people to write down for us for our school assignment at the University of Utah. Some people used a different number of words but did their best to communicate how they relate to peace in their own hearts and minds.

Music: "The Opening" by Helen Tesfazghi and Gianni Bini's Soul Orchestra

New AI Campaign on Sri Lanka: #OURFUTURE

Jim McDonald Aiusa Srilanka

Oct 15th, 8:14pm

As you may know, AI's International Secretariat is now asking that AI members take a photo of themselves or a group holding a placard saying #OURFUTURE and email it to aura.freeman@amnesty.org by Oct. 22. The photos will be used to support Sandya Eknaligoda, wife of the disappeared Sri Lankan journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda. She will be launching a new #OURFUTURE campaign poster in Sri Lanka on Oct. 27 (the national day in Sri Lanka to commemorate the disappeared). She'll also be staging a vigil that day and asking Sri Lankan MPs to ensure that victims' families can speak without fear. AI launched its new campaign on Sri Lanka called #OURFUTURE at the beginning of October. For more images and photos for this new campaign, please visit tinyurl.com/srilankaourfuture. Thanks for any help you can give on this action. Jim McDonald, AIUSA Sri Lanka Country Specialist

NOTE: I apologize for the late posting of this important email. I was unavailable. -Debbie

Denis Mukwege, an African Voice Against Rape, Awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought

Denis Mukwege, an African Voice Against Rape, Is Honored by Europe

New York Times, Oct 22, 2014

The European Parliament has awarded its highest human rights accolade, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, to Dr. Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecological surgeon who has treated thousands of women and risked his life in a campaign to end the use of mass rape as a weapon of war.

     “In many armed conflicts around the world, rape is used as a weapon of war,” the statement said. Dr. Mukwege helped victims in his country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, by founding the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu in 1998, and he still treats victims of sexual violence. While the war in Congo may be formally over, the citation said, “the armed conflict still continues in the eastern part of the country, and so do attacks against civilians, including gang rapes.”

Click here for entire article.

Detroit, USA: United Nations Human Rights FB Post October 21

Reposted from Facebook
     Detroit: The water shut-offs are disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable and poorest, most of whom are African American, warn UN rights experts: http://sm.ohchr.org/1ziTR69
So far this year over 27,000 residences have had water services disconnected.
      UN Special Rapporteurs Catarina de Albuquerque and Leilani Farha stress that all decisions that affect access to water and to adequate housing for residents of Detroit should be guided by human rights.
Click here for entire article. 

HRANA October News Update

• ·         Iran: October to October (2013-2014) - Annual Review of 548 Execution in Iran

Office of Statistics and Publications of the Human Rights Activists Association of Iran has published a report, reviewing the last year Executions in Iran. Click here for details of this report.

• ·         Iran: Former Amnesty International, Prisoners of Conscious, Arash Sadeghi, was Detained - Risks Torture

Arash Sadeghi, a former student activist at Allameh Tabataba’i University, was arrested on 6 September at his workplace in Tehran by men in civilian clothing believed to belong to the Revolutionary Guards. Click here for more details.

• ·         Iran: A Juvenile executed at Tabriz Central Prison in Iran

Fardin Jafarian who was charged with murder at the age of 14, was executed on October 19, 2014 at Tabriz Central Prison. Click here for more detail.

• ·         Iran: 18 years imprisonment and exile for 3 Christian Priests
  

Three Christian Priests (L-R) Reza Rabbani, Behnam Irani, and Abdolreza Ali Haghnejad were sentenced to 18 years imprisonment at Islamic Revolutionary Court. Click here for more details:

• ·         Iran: Atena Farghdani and Ghoncheh Ghavami on ‘dry’ hunger strike

Atena Farghdani, painter artist and children’s rights activist, was arrested in early September this year and no exact information regarding the charges against her has been obtained yet. Ghoncheh Ghavami, a British-Iranian citizen, who had gone to watch a volleyball match in Azadi Stadium on 20th June this year was arrested and then released hours later. A few days later, she went to get her personal belongings; she was arrested again and since 105 days ago she has been detained. It should be noted that during ‘dry’ hunger strike, the striker avoids to drink water and other liquids, too. Click here for more detail.