Tag Archives: petition

Tools of torture traded on your doorstep

10 Sep

stick_web_final_0From the 15-18 September the biennial DSEI Arms Fair returns to London. At past DSEI Fairs, Amnesty has uncovered torture equipment being illegally traded.  At the last DSEI Fair in 2013 for example, Amnesty uncovered two companies advertising a variety of torture equipment, including electric shock batons and leg irons.  Previous fairs have all seen a variety of illegal weapons including cluster bombs, leg irons and electric shock weapons advertised for sale. 

A key loophole we wish to see closed in these EU torture trade laws relates to the ease by which companies can continue to promote market and advertise tools of torture at arms fairs within the EU.

The DSEI Arms Fair therefore gives us a great opportunity to pressure the UK Government to support our calls to close the loopholes in these EU tools of torture laws and to stop torture equipment being traded in the UK at DSEI and other UK defence and security exhibitions. 

Please sign the petition to ask the UK Government to stop the trade in illegal torture equipment: amnesty.org.uk/armsfair

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The EU Torture Trade: Sale Must End Now

13 Nov

stick_web_final_0Struggling to keep a crowd in check with your ordinary truncheon? This spiked baton delivers maximum impact with virtually no effort! And thanks to loopholes in EU laws, you can trade in an array of gruesome torture equipment like this right here in Europe.

Sign the petition calling on the EU to fix the flaws that allow people to profit from torture.

 

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Japan – please don’t send Hakamada back to death row

19 Oct

hakamadaHakamada Iwao‘s freedom is hard-won, but it could be lost at any moment.

After 46 years on Japan’s death row, he was freed in March and granted a retrial based on new DNA evidence that could prove his innocence.

Now prosecutors are appealing his retrial – they want to send the 78-year-old back to death row.

Please ask them to drop the appeal.

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Urgent: China – Do not send refugees back to North Korea

15 Aug

Four families, including a one-year-old baby, fled to China to escape the tyranny of North Korea.  Now China might send them home where they could face torture, labour camps and possibly death.

They have already been taken to a detention centre on the border with North Korea.

North Korea is in a category of its own when it comes to human rights violations. It is a totalitarian state where tens of thousands of people are enslaved and tortured.  All forms of freedom of expression are repressed and anyone attempting to assert their rights is crushed.  No one is safe from arrest and imprisonment

Call on Chinese authorities to let them seek asylum in China or another country, or travel onwards to South Korea.

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Gaza: Stop the arms, stop the killing

27 Jul

From AIUK:

The death toll is rising as rockets rain down on the citizens of Gaza.

Children, women, men – nobody is safe from the indiscriminate bombing.

Israel says it’s targeting Hamas operatives, but most of the dead are civilians.

We must not facilitate war crimes.

Click here to call on the UK government to halt the supply of arms to Israel.

 

 

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Report: Amnesty Taunton group meeting June 2014

24 Jun

Amnesty has become increasingly concerned about the policing of large scale demonstrations in Brazil.  We wrote letters on behalf of Edison Silva dos Santos and Douglas Rafael Pereira da Silva, two unarmed young men who were shot dead during demonstrations.  No one has been held accountable for their deaths, and Amnesty International continues to receive reports of excessive and unnecessary violence by the police.

Read more here and call on the Brazilian authorities to defend human rights at the World Cup.

We discussed Amnesty’s Stop Torture campaign and our work to end the Death Penalty.  We learned of the success of ex-MEP Sir Graham Watson in getting a response from Baroness Ashton about EU actions for prisoners of conscience in Burma, with particular reference to our prisoner Dr Tun Aung.

Watch (and listen!) out for our group in Taunton Town Centre, supported by the Blackdown Samba Band, on Saturday 28th June.

Our next meeting is at 8pm on Tuesday 8th June at the Silver Street Baptist Church and will include a workshop on the Human Rights Act in the UK. All are most welcome.

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Defending your rights is not ‘inciting hatred’. Call on the Bahrain authorities to free Mahdi

24 Apr

In April 2011, Mahdi Abu Dheeb, a school teacher in Bahrain and then president of union the Bahrain Teachers’ Association, was arrested for encouraging members of the union to strike.

Along with his colleague Jalila al-Salman, Mahdi proposed a teachers’ strike to support widespread protests at the time, calling for governmental reform. Both Mahdi and Jalila were arrested soon after.

Jalila was freed a couple of years ago, but Mahdi remains in prison. He was interrogated by police at a secret location, subjected to 64 days in solitary confinement, reportedly beaten by the police, and tried in a military court despite being a civilian.

Click here to call on the Bahraini authorities to release Mahdi and investigate reports of torture and ill-treatment.

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Take Action: Pakistan: Drop Charges Against 69 Year Old On Death Row

19 Apr

69-year-old Mohammad Asghar is physically and mentally frail. He was arrested under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws in 2010 and sentenced to death in January.

Mohammad was arrested for allegedly writing letters claiming he was a prophet. However, his lawyers maintain it was never established that he posted or even intended to post the letters.

He is both physically and mentally frail. He suffered a stroke in 2000 and has been diagnosed by an expert in Scotland as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. He attempted suicide in 2010.

His appeal has been lodged, but it could take up to five years to be heard. He remains in detention in Adiala jail, Rawalpindi.

Text ‘SAVE1’ and your full name now to 70505 to sign our petition to the Pakistani authorities. Over 14s only please.

OR

Write/Email/Fax the authorities in Pakistan, before 30 April 2014, at the following addresses:

  • Minister for Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Room 404, 4th Floor, R Block, Pakistan Secretariat, Islamabad, Pakistan. Fax: +92 51 920 2624. Email: ministry.interior@gmail.com. Salutation: Dear Minister Khan
  • Chief Minister Punjab Mian Mohammad Shahbaz Sharif, Chief Minister’s Office, 7 Club Road, GOR I Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92 42 9920 3310. Salutation: Dear Chief Minister Sharif
  • Minister of Law, Justice and Human Rights Pervaiz Rashid, Room 305, S Block, Pakistan Secretariat, Islamabad, Pakistan. Fax: +92 51 921 0062. Email: contact@molaw.gov.pk

Sample letter:

I am writing to call on your to immediately and unconditionally drop all charges against Mohammad Asghar, and that he has immediate access to appropriate medical and/or psychiatric treatment. I also ask that you provide his lawyers with all medical records made during his detention.

Mohammed Asghar’s lawyers maintain that it has never been established that Asghar posted, or even intended to post, letters claiming he was a prophet. In addition he is mentally frail and an expert in Scotland has diagnosed him as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. The charges against him should be dropped.

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Act for 529 Egyptians sentenced to death

8 Apr

AmnestyBrum

Last month 529 people sentenced to death in Egypt in the biggest single batch of death sentences seen in recent years.

Amnesty described the ruling as ‘grotesque’ and called for it to be quashed.  Meanwhile there is an AVAAZ petition asking for the death sentences to be overturned.

Unfortunately AVAAZ did attempt to present this petition on Friday and were blocked.  However, this demonstrates that the authorities are worried about petitions like this, which is all the more reason to add your signature and show that the pressure will not be dropped.

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Call on the Egyptian authorities to release journalists held for “airing misleading news”

4 Apr

20140404-154830.jpg
Australian journalist Peter Greste was arrested last December alongside his Al Jazeera colleagues Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed.

Their crime? Airing ‘misleading news’ about Egypt’s political situation.

If convicted, they could face life imprisonment.

Peter’s arrest is part of an increasingly disturbing and violent crackdown by the Egyptian authorities. Journalists, protesters, and anyone seen as a threat to the government are targets.

Thousands have been killed in the streets. And in a single shock ruling last week, 528 people were sentenced to death after only two hearings.
If Egypt has any chance at a peaceful future, it must be built on respect for human rights and the rule of law.

Journalism is not a crime. Call on the Egyptian authorities free Peter and his colleagues immediately

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