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The next meeting of Amnesty International Local Group #642
will be on Human Rights Day, 10 December, beginning at 4:00pm at the University
of Minnesota - Duluth. Check back later for the exact room number.
The meeting will begin at 4:00pm but will continue for some hours. People
can come and go as they please as the key component of the meeting will be the
Amnesty International Global Write-A-Thon and Holiday Card Action. See
below.
As usual all Duluth/Superior Student Groups are welcome!
The agenda includes:
1. Global Write-A-Thon
2. Holiday Card Action
3. Planning for rotating Film Festival
For general information on Local Group #642, e-mail:
Hal Bertilson at HBertils@uwsuper.edu
or
Bret Thiele at Bret_Thiele@yahoo.com
Discover the power of your signature. Join the Global Write-a-thon!
Freedom – signed, sealed and delivered. When you participate in the Global
Write-A-Thon, you join thousands of concerned advocates fighting on behalf
of human rights defenders, prisoners of conscience, and other victims of human
rights abuses from all over the world.
What better way to commemorate Human Rights Day (December 10th) than by
standing up for those whose rights have been denied? Our goal of 70,000 letters
can make all the difference in the world to these individuals and remind them
that their struggle has not been forgotten.
Write it in your own words – send the message of freedom around the world.
Then be sure to spread
the word – tell your friends and family that the power of their letters
can save lives.
Holiday Card Action 2007
Each year during the winter holidays, Amnesty International asks friends and
members to send messages of support to prisoners and human rights defenders
around the world. Holidays can mean little to those who fear they've been
forgotten by the world. A simple greeting card, however, can bring renewed hope.
The prisoners and human rights defenders featured here need your support. Please
let them know they are not forgotten.
Available to Download:
2007 Holiday Card Action (1st
half) | (2nd
half) | 2006 Holiday Card Action Update (pdf)
BELARUS
Zmitser Dashkevich
Zmitser Dashkevich, a leader of the opposition youth movement Young Front, is
a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned solely for the peaceful exercise of his
rights to freedom of assembly, association and expression. Authorities in
Belarus charged him in September 2006 with "organizing and participating
in an activity of an unregistered non-governmental organization."
Following a closed trial that lasted just two days, a court was sentenced him
to one and a half years' imprisonment.
Learn more »
COLOMBIA
Martha Cecilia Díaz Suárez
Unknown assailants abducted Martha Cecilia Díaz Suárez, president of the
public services workers union (Association of Departmental Workers – ASTDEMP),
on August 15, 2006 in Bucaramanga. They accused her of being a guerrilla, beat
her, and demanded information about local officials of the Trade Union
Congress (CUT). The abduction of Martha Cecilia Díaz followed death threats
received by ASTDEMP and another trade union in March 2006.
Learn more »
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
AJEDI-Ka
Bukeni T. Waruzi Beck is the executive director of AJEDI-Ka (Association of
Youth for Integrated Development--Kalundu), an organization that reintegrates
demobilized girl and boy soldiers into Congolese society and maintains long
term follow-up on the welfare of these children. Tens of thousands of child
soldiers have been recruited as combatants by all parties to the conflict in
the Democratic Republic of Congo. AJEDI-Ka has managed to mobilize over 300
child soliders.
Learn more »
EGYPT
Karim Amer
Abdul Kareem Nabil Suleiman did what thousands of young bloggers around the
world do every day: he logged onto his computer and typed in his thoughts
about the politics of his country, criticizing both the Egyptian government
and religious authorities. For this the 23-year-old former student, widely
known on the Internet as "Karim Amer," was arrested and sentenced in
February 2007 to four years in prison on charges including "incitement to
hate Islam," "defaming the President of the Republic," and
"spreading information disruptive of public order."
Learn more »
EQUATORIAL GUINEA
Reverend Bienvenido
Samba Momesori
Reverend Bienvenido Samba Momesori, Protestant pastor of the Church of Cherubs
and Seraphs, has been detained since October 2003 without charge in the
central African nation of Equatorial Guinea. Amnesty International considers
Reverend Samba to be a prisoner of conscience, arrested solely because of he
is a member of the Bubi ethnic group and because of his peaceful political
opinions.
Learn more »
HONDURAS
Dina Meza and Carlos
Hernández
Dina Meza and Carlos Hernández work for the Association for a More Just
Society (Asociación para una Sociedad Más Justa, ASJ), an organization that
focuses on improving access to justice for all sectors of Honduran society.
Three days after the December 2006 killing of an ASJ lawyer, Carlos Hernández,
ASJ President, received a text message in English which read: "You are
the next because you are the head." Journalist Dina Meza, project
director of ASJ's online magazine, also reportedly received threatening voice
messages on her mobile phone.
Learn more »
TURKEY
Mehmet Desde
Mehmet Desde, a German national, has been convicted by Turkey's highest court
for "membership in an illegal organization," which related to his
alleged connection with the Bolshevik Party (North Kurdistan/Turkey), a small,
non-violent political opposition party. Though Desde maintains he is not a
member of the Bolshevik Pary and much of the evidence presented against him in
court was allegedly extracted under torture, he has been sentenced to 30
months in prison.
Learn more »
USA: HELP-IN-CRISIS
Help-In-Crisis
For more than 25 years, the organization Help-In-Crisis has provided
much-needed support services for both Native American and non-Native American
women and families dealing with violent and crisis situations in rural
Oklahoma. Beginning as a 24-hour support hotline in 1980 that shared space
with the local fire department, Help-In-Crisis has grown to provide a range of
services, including counseling, court advocacy, child abuse prevention and
treatment for batterers.
Learn more »
USA: TROY DAVIS
Troy Davis
Troy Anthony Davis has consistently maintained that he is innocent of the
crime for which he was sentenced to death in Georgia. There was never any
physical evidence linking Mr. Davis to the 1989 murder of Savannah police
officer Mark MacPhail, and the murder weapon was never found. All but two of
the prosecution's nine non-police witnesses have since recanted or
contradicted their testimony, many claiming that they were coerced by the
police to implicate Davis.
Learn more »
VIETNAM
Nguyen Van Ly
For challenging the Vietnamese government's tight restrictions on freedom of
expression, Father Nguyen Van Ly has suffered harassment, intimidation and
imprisonment. Accusations against Father Ly included being involved in the
pro-democracy movement Bloc 8406, which he co-founded, and in taking part in
the establishment of banned political groups. The court sentenced him to eight
years' imprisonment, plus five years' house arrest on release, for
"conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam."
Learn more »