Comments for Amnesty's global human rights blog

Comment on Egypt’s opposition activists in the dock by ALI‏ ‏

ALI‏ ‏ — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:00:25 +0000

We need to look at things the other way round, to preserve everybody’s rights and dignity. Ahamed Douma insulted the elected president of his country. Surely everyone has the right to oppose, free to explain his views, but this should be done within boundaries of not hurting others. Otherwise we let some people do wrong in the name of freedom of speech, then we come along and defend them against justice.

Comment on Egypt’s opposition activists in the dock by Mouawia khater

Mouawia khater — Thu, 16 May 2013 09:35:43 +0000

Stop violence against human rights activists in Egypt

Comment on UN ramps up scrutiny of North Korea’s catastrophic human rights record by Nancy Maynard

Nancy Maynard — Thu, 16 May 2013 00:34:36 +0000

Now that they’ve had warning they will threaten the prisoners with more torture if they speak out. They will hide what they are doing. They’ll fatten them up in the next month and put them in pretty clothes and nothing will change. Please persist in future random checks without warning so you can get the truer picture. Great that you are doing something for those poor people.

Comment on “I want my country back” by Mike

Mike — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:26:46 +0000

Well I can confirm everything mentioned above is true about Eritrea. I don’t understand though some Eritreans deceive themselves by making the issue look like Foreign powers trying to falsely accuse the current government of Eritrea. This is not to say that no country is tainting Eritrea bad names or all the activities of the superpower nations is based on good intentions. However it is not healthy even it is not right to outrightly blame the problem on these foreign contries. Therefore it is not really fair to deny the people everything a developed nation would strive to have which are peace, freedom, rule of law, constituion etc. This tools would have allowed us to work towards peace and prosperity which would make the Eritrea that our martry’s sacrificed their life for. Regardless of the intentions of other countries on eritrea, what is the need for lying to yourself when you have a choice to be truthful to yourself and everybody else. My understanding is, this issue is currently creating polarised eritrean communities both inside and diaspora. The need of the people should come before politics. As an Eritrean I am not interested in politics but I know that our martry’s did not sacrifice their lives for this thus I stand with my fellow eritreans who stand for the right. For those who try to deny those accusations in the above you have everyright to be but nobody has a right to support a criminal. In addition do not try to politicise everything. How hard is it for someone to differentiate between inhumane and humane person. If people are being imprisoned for no good reason — how is that accepted. I have nevver seen anyone being put before the court and given orders instead once these people are taken from their home you don’t know their abouts–how is that accepted. The government news papers never dare to write the issues of those eritreans who died in Libya or suffering in Sinai rather they have recently wrritten about a Norwegian and Israeli nationals abducted and released in Sinai—–your so called government thinks to not put this on its newspapers but does of others — what message does this send for someone?–this is a no brainer, because the governemnt knows that it is the cause of all this sufferings. what ever it does is just to prolong its life in power that is it? I hope we get through this soon and see the ERITREA we all want, God bless

Comment on “I want my country back” by Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 09 May 2013 22:38:48 +0000

“Do you go back to visit your country?” I’m often asked.
“No I can’t. I risk indefinite conscription and military service. Not sure I see myself holding a Kalashnikov”, I respond without irony.

Amnesty, couldn’t you or the so-called Eritrean come up with a better lie & try to win the peoples’ hearts. If not, repeat the same lie so that it could sound real.

Comment on “I want my country back” by Habtom

Habtom — Thu, 09 May 2013 20:13:39 +0000

This is not my real name and the Email is not mine either . You see I want to sign the petition for all the prisoners in Eritrea to be released. If I give my real name ,Email address and country of residence then I have to be ready for the consequence for doing that. And that is not only for me ,but also for my family members in Eritrea. You might ask what are the consequences . The main reason for me is I can’t go back to Eritrea as long as this BRUTAL regime is in power.

Comment on Governments can no longer shirk responsibility to protect all human rights by Amnesty International

Amnesty International — Tue, 07 May 2013 10:37:24 +0000

Thanks Alinear, that's a good point. You can find a full list of countries that have signed and ratified/acceded to the Optional Protocol at the following link (which has also now been included above): http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-3-a&chapter=4&lang=en

Comment on Tortured for witchcraft in Papua New Guinea by Vlad Sokhin

Vlad Sokhin — Tue, 07 May 2013 09:00:01 +0000

Thank you very much Amelia! Hope to see you again somewhere sometime

Comment on To all the women around the world, be strong! by Kristin Hulaas Sunde

Kristin Hulaas Sunde — Tue, 07 May 2013 07:22:20 +0000

Hi Pak –

In war zones all over the world crimes of sexual violence have been and are committed against women. For centuries, wartime rape was perceived as an inevitable consequence of war. Even today, in an era where global consciousness around human rights, specifically the rights of women, has risen, survivors of sexual violence are largely denied redress: there is widespread impunity for these crimes where perpetrators go unpunished and victims are denied any form of reparation. Sexual violence, including rape, is used as a weapon of war – it is used deliberately to demoralize and destroy the opposition and is used to provide ‘entertainment’ and ‘fuel’ for soldiers as part of the very machinery of war.

As we said in our previous reply, in 2005 Amnesty International conducted independent research and published a report on the failure of the Japanese government to provide justice for the survivors of Japan’s military sexual slavery system. Contradicting the legal position vigorously upheld by the government of Japan, this report summarizes the evidence that the “comfort women” system violated international law at the time, including prohibitions against slavery, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
For more information see the full report at http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA22/012/2005/en

Comment on ‘What does Europe want from us?’ – Migrants detained for months on end in Greece by Stella

Stella — Tue, 07 May 2013 05:25:54 +0000

It is appalling that my country is treating these immigrants so badly when their only crime is to flee their own countries due to fear of wars, crime, poverty etc. One of the biggest problems we are facing here is the lack of resources in order to help so many thousands of immigrants who are entering the borders daily when we cannot even take care of our own citizens. The larger and wealthier nations of the EU refuse to help in any way (contrary to immigration laws of the EU) to allow any of the immigrants we are hosting into their own borders to alleviate these problems of the smallest and poorest nation of the EU. There is severe racial tension here from all sides which is very convenient for the politicians of each county who profit from these tensions in order to take whatever wealth our country can provide i.e. oil, gold etc. The EU and our forced induction into the Euro monetary unit (elections were not held for the public to decide if we want to enter the Euro) has done major disservice to our country with no hopes of things getting better here any time soon. The public is extremely fed up with the extreme corruption here and are trying to fight back, unfortunately far too often the frustrations we endure are taken out on the innocent who are only trying to survive themselves. We all need to band together (natives and immigrants) to rise up in revolution in order to overthrow the corrupt government we have and fight against the foreign powers that are dictating (as in dictatorship) our fates here i.e Germany, Troika, IMF etc.

Comment on Governments can no longer shirk responsibility to protect all human rights by Roxa

Roxa — Mon, 06 May 2013 23:08:44 +0000

Uruguay is one of those countries, isn’t it? Thanks

Comment on Governments can no longer shirk responsibility to protect all human rights by Adrei Iordache

Adrei Iordache — Sun, 05 May 2013 12:18:49 +0000

In the summer of 2006, Guzu Paul, a civil rights activist, became the unfortunate victim of a shocking tragedy, which you would expect to see only in movies. In everyday life, he would be a Paintball promoter. It was the first time he was going abroad due to the suffering of a rare form of bone disease, which made it difficult for him to travel on long distances. He was coming home from a Paintball match in Argentina, a place considered to have many risks by some people, home country of the current Pope. Having to change flights, his first arrival was in Fumicino-Rome(Italy), where he instantly became the target of some covetous custom officers, who decided to take some of his belongings for themselves. The activist reacted immediately, as anyone would, and publicly protested, demanding help from the police and accusing the officers of theft. They searched for reasons to keep him there for a couple of hours, until he would change his mind. One of the reasons was that his booked airflight wasn’t found on their airline’s server, which was subsequently proved to be valid.
The situation started to deteriorate when the Romanian man was taken in a private room with the intention of forcing him not to press charges against the Italian custom officers. The activist’s goal of punishing them was a dangerous decision to make. He got hit several times, without fighting back. Even in poor physical health, he didn’t stop believing in justice and asked for the presence of a translator and the police. It seems that around him, there have been noticed other cases of people pushed around. One thing is sure: the custom officers were looking for somebody. In airports, there are constantly found luggages with illegal content, abandoned by their owners for various reasons. The custom officers’ duty is to find those owners, guilty of carrying around those items. To get rid of the accusations made by the Romanian activist and to escape successfully without any sort of punishment, they suddently had an idea. They brought him the wrong luggage, one similar in shape, size and colour. The Romanian man knew it wasn’t his, so he refused to open it, considering it strange to rummage through other people’s bags. He got hit again. This made their situation more complicated.
How did the Italian system cover up for them? They quickly did some paper work in Italian, language that the activist didn’t speak, changed the luggage, robbed everything that looked valuable from it and put the man to sign charges that he wasn’t aware of, without any translator, lawyer or witnesses. They took 9000 lei, equivalent to almost 2000 Euros. They even got all the coins found in his bag. They also tore apart every document found in the bag. This way, he got framed, blaming him falsely for drug trafficking, which is a serious accusation to make. The Romanian was taken to a clinic, where the doctor refused to examine him because the situation was suspicious. Later on, they took him to prison. After a few days he went to see the judge, not in a court room, but in a cell. He got investigated without a lawyer because the person who was supposed to defend him refused to come. The Romanian even got a letter in which he was announced that his assigned lawyer didn’t wish to attend his investigation.
How did he get the news about the accusations made against him? In spoken and written Italian, of course. Afterwards, a translator assisted him, who explained in poor Romanian skills what was going on. The written accusations were just in Italian, so Guzu Paul remained under arrest without at least understanding what happened.
The Romanian Ambassy admitted in a letter that they didn’t get their acces allowed due to the fact that the Italians declared that the activist has a lawyer allready, but the lawyer was the person who refused to represent him. Another suspicious thing! Why were there so many irregularities? What were his rights violated for? The right to an attorney must be always strictly respected.
The Romanian activist got moved from a prison to another, 3 in total, because their directors considered him incompatible.They later made a medical expertise in which they declared that because of his health condition he couln’t be imprisoned on Italian territory or any prison. That’s what the doctors said. He got released after 4 months, on the 22nd of December 2006, the maximum period of time he could be held without starting the trial. They said they had evidence, but in 4 months they didn’t accomplish to present anything to start a trial. Once he got released from jail, he was threatened to leave the country. According to the Bosefinni law, that’s what he had to do. With help from people on the street, he bought himself a train ticket to go back home. After he arrived in Romania, he immediately announced the national authorities and the international ones, even the European Court, the Abuses Court of the Romanian Parliament and the secretary of state. In 2008, the institutions checked everything out but they didn’t find anything after contacting the Italian authorities. The advice he got was to sue the Italian state for abuse.
Being a civil rights activist, he decided to search for other similar cases where Romanian people got abusively imprisoned. He was in shock of what he had found and tried helping them. He even accomplished winning one of his most publicized cases with serious financial damages. The case of Papp Stelian Laurentiu(story which can be read on http://www.papstelian.info) is a similar story to Guzu Paul’s, both in Italy, both living in the same town. The activist has often appeared on TV camera, which bothered the Italian state. He didn’t do anything illegal, but thruth hurts and disturbs.
On the 12th of March 2013, the Italians decided to take revenge on him in the most cruel way. Guzu got arrested again, for the same accusation made 5 years ago. It is said that he was adjudged in his absence 5 years ago, without being announced of his sentence. Unlawfulness again! Why? Because the Italians hatched a plot against the activist to make him shut his mouth permanently when it comes to Italy’s problems. The Romanian state immediately decided to take him under arrest like he was a real danger to other people, all based on a paper without extradition warrant. After 5 days, the mandate made its appearance. The Romanian man had his foot already strained because of the improper way of transport and visibly instable health condition due to being illegaly imprisoned in a dungeon, in IPJ’s basement in unhealthy conditions.
Help came right before giving his last breath, after 27 days of starving, from a human rights lawyer and the organizations who discovered the horror situation the activist had been in. The president of the Civil Rights Asociation was in the same situation. Guzu was forced to jump in one leg from court to court, in a miserable condition, until his other leg got also weak. In the last moment, the High Court released him. He is now at home, in his bed and wishes there is still hope for justice in his case. He asks himself why has he fought this much for his country. If this happens to other people, everybody will stop caring about law in Romania. These events have made Guzu Paul decide to quit activism, asking himself “For what?”, just like Petre Tutea, another old activist against comunism.
Now it is clear for us why Romanian people give up their citizenship so easily and why they aren’t proud at all of their nationality. They can easily compare Romanian citizenship with others, countries that care about their people and their rights. The life of a Romanian doesn’t have any value for the state, which only regrets what has happened only after an opinion gets scandalized. Unfortunately, this can happen after a Romanian citizen gets already killed because of the abuse.

Comment on Governments can no longer shirk responsibility to protect all human rights by Dave Sheehan

Dave Sheehan — Sun, 05 May 2013 12:12:42 +0000

Be not afraid, but an insistence that ALL human rights as laid down in the UN Declaration of human rights will come with strings attached. If we insist that ALL human beings have an intrinsic right to food, shelter and unfettered cultivation of the body, spirit and mind, then there will be an equalisation of the way of life on this planet, never seen before in human history. We of the greedy, violent, ego-centred, materialistic western economic paradigm are going to have to complete remodel our way of life, which is based on a machiavellian exploitation of the majority of humanity, that lives a life of mind-boggling poverty. If you support this new vision, sign here, but be well aware of the consequences. This planet can become a haven for all life, but it is going to cost us.

Comment on Governments can no longer shirk responsibility to protect all human rights by Alinear

Alinear — Sun, 05 May 2013 12:07:35 +0000

It would be great if this blog post could link to the Optional Protocol or the list of the 10 countries which have ratified it.

Comment on Dissent still under attack in post-Mubarak Egypt by Mouawia khater

Mouawia khater — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:44:36 +0000

Egypt living in the worst cases of the Mubarak era in the reign of the Islamists, the situation will remain to the end

Comment on Shell’s Niger Delta pollution: the good, the bad and the ongoing quest for justice by Assault Charges Attorney In Sugar Land

Assault Charges Attorney In Sugar Land — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:52:35 +0000

Clever. I agree.

Comment on To all the women around the world, be strong! by Pak

Pak — Thu, 02 May 2013 17:19:30 +0000

Kristin,

I checked your report to see what references you have. When we see references we can know the level of your report.

I think your report is extremely POOR.

These are some points that I think it is poor.
- You have examined materials only from accusers. You have not listen to abduction deniers’ opinions. This is similar to accuse a suspect without a lawyer that leads to a false accusation

- You rely on testimonies too much.

- UN investigators cannot read Japanese and Korean at native level and totally incapable of investigating the case.

- Especially, Coomaraswamy is notorious for its inaccuracy and biased view on this matter.

- George Hicks also cannot read Japanese and Korean at all and he relied on materials that were given from leftist, communists and North Korea-related people.

- Yoshimi,Yoshiaki, he also cannot present any objective evidence to say that government/military ABDUCTED women.

No end and cheap shot.

Comment on To all the women around the world, be strong! by Kristin Hulaas Sunde

Kristin Hulaas Sunde — Thu, 02 May 2013 09:34:53 +0000

Hi Pak – Amnesty International conducted independent research and published a report in 2005 on the failure of the Japanese government to provide justice for the survivors of Japan’s military sexual slavery system. The research found that there is overwhelming evidence that the “comfort women” system violated international law, including prohibitions against slavery. Women and girls were preyed on because of their age, poverty, class, family status, education, nationality or ethnicity and were susceptible to being deceived and trapped into the sexual slavery system. Others were abducted. For more information see the full report at http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA22/012/2005/en

Comment on Tortured for witchcraft in Papua New Guinea by Shiromi Pinto

Shiromi Pinto — Thu, 02 May 2013 08:13:02 +0000

Hi Amelia, I’ll pass your comments on to Vlad. Thanks for sharing.

Comment on Welcome to WIRE – Amnesty’s global campaigning magazine by Rinta

Rinta — Thu, 02 May 2013 05:40:40 +0000

Each violation of human rights should be punishable. Violation of human rights is the worst thing.