(c) Amnesty International
By Jeremy Bloom Campaigner, Central America Team,
Hace cinco días, lanzamos una acción nueva e emocionante – llamando a nuestros miembros e activistas en las redes sociales a enviar un fax a la Fiscal General de Guatemala de parte de la defensora de derechos humanos Norma Cruz.
Anoche, hablamos con Norma, dirigente de la organización de derechos de la mujer Fundación Sobrevivientes, quien ha recibido reiteradas amenazas de muerte por su labor de apoyo a las víctimas de la violencia contra la mujer y el enjuiciamiento de los responsables.
Y las noticias son buenas, parece que las autoridades realmente están prestando atención. Continue reading ‘¡El fax esta saturado! Y nuestra llamada por la libertad de expresión escuchada’
Libya's referral to the ICC has implications going beyond the crimes that may have been committed by Muammar Gaddafi © US DoD
By Steve Crawshaw, International Advocacy Director for Amnesty International
This blog was orginally published in the Independent
UN Security Council Resolution 1970, unanimously adopted this weekend, is important for Libya. But it can and should have an impact around the world.
The arms embargo and asset freeze that the council imposed is significant in symbolic and practical terms. Importantly, the decision to refer Libya to the International Criminal Court sends a signal that the killings will not go unpunished. That has implications going beyond the crimes that may have been committed by Muammar Gaddafi and his associates, important though those are.
Continue reading ‘After too long, the Security Council unites for justice’
By Ilona Kelly, campaigner for Amnesty International USA
Now that this year’s Write for Rights campaign has drawn to a close, Ilona Kelly reflects on how important an impact this diverse event can have.
As a campaigner at Amnesty International USA, for the past three years I have been involved in organizing our section’s participation in the Write for Rights Global Write-a-thon.
Continue reading ‘How today’s letters of solidarity will lead to tomorrow’s human rights victories’
Salil Shetty is the Secretary General of Amnesty International © Matt Writtle
By Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International
There is going to be one empty place at this year’s Nobel Peace Prize awards ceremony. Amongst the pomp and circumstance, before a packed house of a thousand invited guests and dignitaries gathered for the century-old event, the chair of this year’s recipient, Liu Xiaobo, will be vacant.
Liu Xiaobo would have sat on the podium alongside the members of the Nobel Committee in Oslo’s cavernous City Hall as he was honoured for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China. He would have given a speech, accepted his medal and diploma and continued his call for peaceful legal and political reform in China. He would have posed for pictures, given interviews, briefly enjoyed the glow of international recognition and then he would have gone home.
Continue reading ‘Liu Xiaobo’s empty chair holds more than the Chinese realise’
Palestinians are denied sufficient, clean and affordable water for household use and agriculture © Iyad El Baba/UNICEF-oPt
By Ashfaq Khalfan, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Policy Coordinator, Demand Dignity and ESCR Programme
On 30 September, the UN Human Rights Council affirmed for the first time that the human right to water and sanitation is legally binding.
The Council stated that the right to water and sanitation is derived from the right to adequate standard of living, which is recognised in several international treaties. These include the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) to which 160 States are party, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has reached nearly universal ratification.
In 2002, the committee of experts appointed by the UN to monitor the ICESCR stated that this treaty implicitly includes the right to water. However, some states, such as Canada and the US, vocally rejected this right and blocked efforts by states to recognise these rights at the international level. Continue reading ‘UN affirms the right to water and sanitation as legally binding’
