Tabling in July...

We continue to be present at the farmers Market for the 3rd week in a row during this month of July... thanks to our dedicated members Martha, Irwin, Omeima, Mohamed, Fanny, and Zeinab for bringing our voice loud and clear in Downtown Amherst...

Zeinab Omer, signs a petition on behalf of the Iranian Filmmaker Jaafar Panahi

We also had our monthly meeting yesterday and because the attendance was poor (the record Heat Wave?) we  decided to defer most of the agenda that was discussed to August meeting for more participation. the agenda should include: Financial Report; Update on Mohamed's trip to Sudan and Egypt; AGM; Northeast Retreat; New venues for our voice; Fall/Winter events.

Pls send agenda items to Martha (spiegelman22@netzero.net) and come ready to participate...
See you again at the next Tabling (we need volunteers for July 27) and in our next meeting Aug 17.

Torture Survivors' day June 26

Secretary-General's Message for 2013

As we mark International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, I call on Member States to step up efforts to assist all those who have suffered from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 

This year is also the 25th anniversary of the Committee against Torture. This body -- along with other UN human rights mechanisms such as the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and the Special Rapporteur on Torture -- is vital to strengthening a victim-oriented approach that also includes a gender perspective. This effort was further strengthened by the adoption this year of a UN Human Rights Council resolution focussing on the rehabilitation of torture victims.

I urge all Member States to accede to and fully implement the Convention against Torture and support the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture.  Let us work together to end torture throughout the world and ensure that countries provide reparation for victims.

Ban Ki-moon

Thanks to Martha and Irwin for organizing another successful information table at the Amherst Farmers Market last Sat...many people stopped by to sign petitions and donated money for our local chapters' campaigns...

Amherst Chapter Receives Hironaka Award

The 3-day Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Amnesty International ended last Sun in Virginia. Lot of great things, great people, great Resolutions to strengthen our human rights work.

Our Amherst Chapter (group-128) was recognized when received the prestigious Hironaka Award for community organizing in human rights. I was honored to receive the award on behalf of the members in a special celebration in the main auditorium. I was given the chance twice to share our experience in 2 separate meetings in order to have many other Chapters benefit of the organzing model we excelled over the past 35 years (yes we should celebrate the 35th anniversary this year)

 

One of the highlights of the Conference this year was the powerful speech given by the Ugandan Bishop CHRISTOPHER SENYONJO in support of the LGBT community and their rights to live in peace like all of other people without fear of hate crimes especially in countries like Uganda, Kenya, Sudan.

 

There were many great people at the Conference I met with and managed to strengthen our work relationship with them. This includes Shahram Hashemi, the Chair of the Boards of Directors of Amnesty. I shared with him our concern over few things especially the website and suggested few changes. I had another chance to discuss this in more depth during the Local Groups Training on Fri. 

  All what I can say, there was very clear signs of health recovery within the executive board that we hope to help us to better do our community organizing. I came back with more hope this time!

The Torture advocates are back with no shame!

With the release of the controversial Hollywood movie, Zero Dark 30, we started to hear a support to torture from people who were not before.
We are asking you to do your own homework and learn more about this fake claims and baseless argument.
Pls take a moment and examine these courageous statements from our legislators (Republicans and Democrats)...

"[The] CIA did not first learn about the existence of the [Osama bin Laden] courier from detainees subjected to coercive interrogation techniques. Nor did the agency discover the courier's identity from detainees subjected to coercive techniques."

- Joint statement from: Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Chairman, Senate Intelligence Committee, and Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) Chairman, Senate Armed Services Committee

"It was not torture or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of detainees that got us the major leads that ultimately enabled our intelligence community to find Osama bin Laden."

- Senator John McCain (R-AZ)

And Leon Panetta, Secretary of Defense and former CIA Director, had this to say:

"In the end, no detainee in CIA custody revealed the facilitator/courier’s full true name or specific whereabouts. This information was discovered through other intelligence means."
Source: the national Religious Campaign Against Torture

 

Amnesty Group-15

 

For years, Amnesty Group 15 in Providence, RI used to hold annual human rights Write-A-Thon, and draws a good crowd. In 2007, they invited 2 of our members to lead the event and lit the Candle. 

This year was no difference. 

"Writing letters to government authorities, if it's done in a volume, has an effect," said Marcia Lieberman, one of the local organizers. "We have met in person people who were prisoners of conscience in China and Liberia, all sorts of places, who credit their lives with the letters we've poured out."

read more...

A Great Human Rights Day forum

The Human Rights Day forum was a very successful event, with a packed room from diverse colors of human rights defenders from different ethnic and age categories.

The "Raging Grannies" performed a very powerful and colorful message of human rights with a focus on the US when they performed 5 songs to highlight human rights crises (immigrants, Guantanamo Bay, torture, etc). They gave a special flavor to this year's Forum.

The keynote speaker. Ms. Gissou Nia, an Iranian-American activist, captured the audience attention with her strong understanding of many different issues. Her passionate dedication to human rights in the Middle east and Iran in particular has engaged the audience in a scholarly discussion after her talk.

The Baha'i community of Amherst and Hadley showed good presence and participation in the Forum. Jacqueline Odess-Gillett, a spiritual Baha'i activist, inspired the audience with a beautiful and soothing peace song....

The Human Rights day activities continued the next day with the annual Candle Vigil in downtown Amherst organized and led by the town of Amherst Human Rights Commission. here in this picture, our dynamo Martha and Irwin Spiegelman (hats) read the Universal declaration of Human Rights. 

Human Rights Day Forum

 Human  Rights  Day  Forum

The  64^th  Anniversary  of  the  Universal  Declaration

of  Human  Rights  by  the  United  Nations ~ December  10,  1948 

 

Human Rights Challenges

in the Muslim World:

The Case of Iran

Speaker, Gissou Nia

Human Rights Activist and Director

of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center

Sunday,  December  9th  at  1:30  pm

Jones Library, Woodbury Room, Amherst MA

Songs by The Raging Grannies

This forum will focus on the work of the brave women and men

in the Islamic World who have stood up for their rights – particularly the rights

of women and ethnic minorities – and for religious freedom and free speech.

Free  and  the  Public  is  Invited

Organized  by  Amnesty  Amherst--Group  128

Info:  www.amnestyamherst.blogspot.org

mohamedelgadi@yahoo.com / 215-870-7809

Co-sponsors:  Amnesty International Amherst Chapter-Group 128 //

Amnesty Intl. Chapter, Amherst Regional High School // Amnesty Intl. Chapter, Hampshire College //

Amherst Human Rights Commission // Amherst Progressive Muslims //

Baha'i Community of Hadley // Episcopal Peace Fellowship of Grace Church, Amherst //

Group Against Torture in Sudan // Mount Toby Meeting of Friends at Leverett //  

Unitarian-Universalist Society of Amherst, Social Justice Committee // Western Mass Darfur Coalition //

Each year Amnesty International Chapter in Amherst celebrates Human Rights Day, the day in 1948 when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by sending a message of hope to human rights defenders. This year, along with other local human rights and religious organizations, we are highlighting the work of the brave women and men in the Islamic World who have stood up for their rights – particularly the rights of women and ethnic minorities – and for religious freedom and free expression.

Update on Sudan

For the past seven years, the Amherst Town Human Rights Commission (HRC) continued to receive monthly  update on the human rights situation in Sudan, and recently on South Sudan (the newest independent country in the UN). This was mainly due to active members of Amnesty who attended the monthly meeting of the Commission (Magda, Fanny, Samia, Mohamed).
This month, HRC will get the following update:

1) Congresswoman Niki Tsongas, of Lowell, MA signed on and co-sponsored last month The Sudan Peace, Security, and Accountability Act of 2012 (HR 4169), which was introduced by Jim McGovern last March. By signing on this Bill, Rep. Tsongas joined John Olver, William keating, and Michael Capuano in supporting peace in Sudan.

The HR 4169 summary is "To require the development of a comprehensive strategy to end serious human rights violations in Sudan, to create incentives for governments and persons to end support of and assistance to the Government of Sudan, to reinvigorate genuinely comprehensive peace efforts in Sudan, and for other purposes"

2) Amnesty International called last week upon South Sudanese authorities to investigate and end horrific acts of violence and rape of civilians by its security forces. Read more on this here. 

Thank you HRC for bringing the voice of the oppressed and standing for human rights worldwide...

Welcome back George

Professor George Greenstein, a founding member of our chapter back in 1978 has stopped by our table today and expressed interest to reconnect with his group... what a great news... Thanks are due to our Treasurer, Bob Stern, who actually re-connected him to the Chapter 

I want take this opportunity and make a quick announcement. The next meeting of the group will be@ 1pm  on Sun 10/21 at Magda & Mohamed house (and not on Sat at Jones Library as was originally planned)

The address is: 135 East Hadley Rd (S.Amherst)

email: mohamedelgadi@yahoo.com

Tabling Today

Thanks to our active members and their friends who organized the bi-weekly Information Table @ the Amherst Farmers Market.

Cylvanna, Abrahim, and Anthony reported the table witnessed lot of activists who stopped to sign petitions or to reflect on the deteriorated human rights in the Middle East and some Islamic countries. The issue of freedom of expression and freedom of religion was a main topic and concern to activists.

Kudos to our member Cylvanna (photo, left) for being featured on the Amherst Bulletin last month for legislative advocacy work she was doing as part of one-week long environmental civics program at Amherst College

Prisons in Iran

The infamous torture center Evin Prison

"Extensive evidence indicates that the Ministry of Intelligence, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and official prison authorities in the Islamic Republic make widespread use of torture, rape, and solitary confinement, and that the deprivation of basic rights and human dignity ..."

read more from this strong document by our sister human rights org IHRDC in New Haven, CT

Lesotho Human Rights Activists in Amherst

The Amnetsy International information table was run today by 3 young women activists from the Kingdom of Lesotho (in southern Africa).

our members Mahali and Keke invited their visiting friend Tume from

Philadelphia and they ran a very interactive table.

They did not wait for people to come to the table, they went to them in the Farmers market, raising high posters of Amnesty and handing out flyers.

By the end of the day, Tume was convinced to become a member and asked to be connected to the Amnesty Chapter in Philadelphia.