SYRIA: Chemical gas used on people of Syria - NEWS & PETITION

Amnesty International 
April 5, 2017

Chemical gas is being used on people in Syria
Today, the production, retention, and transfer of chemical weapons is firmly prohibited under international law.

Yet, it happened again yesterday in Syria. Chemical weapons killed more than 70 people and injured hundreds, including young children.

Please help us deliver a powerful message to the United Nations that these deadly attacks on human life must be stopped, and those responsible must be held accountable.

CLICK HERE to take action

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Fighters Occupying, Looting Schools - NEWS

Fighters Occupying, Looting Schools Keep Children From Their Education

Human Rights Watch

March 23, 2017

     Soldiers camping out in schools and breaking up desks for firewood is common in parts of the Central African Republic. According to a United Nations report from November, 20 percent of the country’s schools are not operational, many because of misuse by armed groups. Some students were forced out of school four years ago, when the mainly Muslim Seleka rebels cut a bloody swath through the country and seized the capital. Thousands more children stopped going to school in the ensuing years, as Christiananimist anti-balaka fighters ousted the Seleka, torching whole Muslim communities and displacing more than 860,000 people. Many of these children may never resume their studies, despite hopes kindled when a new government took over a year ago. Researcher Lewis Mudge talks to Amy

     Braunschweiger about his latest research and what a lost generation could mean for the future of one of the world’s poorest countries

CLICK HERE for More Information

IRAQ: ISIS executions near Mosul - VIDEO

Human Rights Watch
The Islamic State (also known as ISIS) executed and dumped the bodies of possibly hundreds of detainees at a site near Mosul, Iraq, as the militant group battles Iraqi Security Forces for control of the city.

Multiple witnesses told Human Rights Watch that the bodies of those killed, including bodies of members of Iraqi security forces, prisoners, and women, were thrown into a naturally occurring sinkhole south of western Mosul.  Local residents said that before pulling out of the area in mid-February, ISIS laid improvised landmines at the site.

CLICK HERE to view VIDEO

UAE: Ahmed Mansoor, Leading Human Rights Activist at Risk of Torture - PRESS RELEASE

Amnesty International USA

Ahmed Mansoor, who was taken away at 3.15am, could be at risk of torture

Amnesty international has expressed fears for the safety of a leading human rights activist in the UAE who has been arrested following a midnight raid on his house.

"Amnesty International is appalled and dismayed at this surprise overnight raid resulting in the arrest of Ahmed Mansoor, a courageous and prominent human rights defender in the United Arab Emirates."

Lynn Maalouf, Director of Research at Amnesty International’s Beirut regional office

Madison, USA, Intimate Portraits of Gaza's Lost - EVENT April 2, 2017

• Intimate Portraits of Gaza’s Lost

You are invited to Madison's annual Rachel Corrie commemoration:

Featuring Photographer Anne Paq, Journalist Ala Qandil and the Obliterated Families Project

2 p.m. Sunday, April 2, 2017

St. James Church

1128 St. James Ct. 

Madison, WI 

   

Free and open to the public; beverages and desserts including baklawa will be served. Rachel Corrie Commeration supports the Samira Project for traumatized children in Rafah, Palestine.

USA: Amnesty Intl. In Their Own Words, PODCASTS

...on 19 February 2016 I walked out of a Louisiana prison a free man after serving 44 years in solitary confinement. 

At that moment I became “famous” as the longest serving person in solitary confinement in the world, as well as being the last member of the Angola 3 to be free.

For over 44 years - along with fellow Black Panthers Herman Wallace and Robert King - we turned our death chambers into classrooms and courts of law from which we educated fellow inmates and stood up against a violent, racist and brutal prison system which targeted us for our activism.

We believed then, as we believe now, that it is a human right to challenge and agitate the "injustice" system.

Listen now: 'In their own words' podcast Keep strong.The struggle continues. Albert Woodfox

CLICK HERE for More Information

Argentina: INDIGENOUS DEFENDERS DENIED RIGHT TO DEFENSE - Urgent Action

On 20 March the oral trial against three members of the Chañaral Wichí Indigenous community for defending their territory will take place. These legal proceedings violate their right to defence and access to justice. 

Click here for Action.