Livewire – Amnesty International blogging for human rights

Sivibilagbara swamp, Bodo, Nigeria, May 2011. (c) Amnesty International

Makmid Kamara, Nigeria Campaigner, Amnesty International,

On Sunday 22 April, I visited Bodo community in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. The community was devastated by two major oil spills in 2008, caused by operational failures from Shell pipelines.

The Bodo community have been fighting for their rights – after failing to secure justice in Nigeria, they are now bringing a case against Shell in the UK. I visited Bodo to update the community about what Amnesty International, in partnership with Nigerian NGO the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD), is doing to help the community tell the world about their plight, and in our broader campaign to get Shell and the Nigerian authorities to take responsibility for the devastation they have created across the Niger Delta. I also updated the Bodo community about the global week of action on the Niger delta, taking place this week, and of the activities being undertaken by Amnesty International Sections and supporters in more than 15 countries across the world. Continue reading ‘“We’re hungry and angry because of Shell”’

By Bridget Burrows, Africa Regional Campaigner Slums, Amnesty International,

From N’Djamena to Harare, Cairo to Accra, Port Harcourt to Nairobi, thousands of residents of slums and informal settlements and people affected by forced evictions mobilized from 17-25 March calling for an end to forced evictions in Africa, in a week of action organized by housing rights activists with Amnesty International and local partner organizations.

Events were also organized in Togo, Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso, in which thousands of people showed their support and solidarity during the week.

Sakwa Frank, a resident of Mathare informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, had this to say about the week:

“It felt so great seeing so many residents of informal settlements, even from Ghana, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, who have been neglected by our governments for so long, standing up well-informed and peacefully to say ‘people live here’ and demanding that their rights are respected.”

Check out the photo slideshow to see some of the inspiring campaigning that took place over the week, and add your voice to those of people across Africa by signing the petition

Ernest Creta, one of the Roma men forcibly evicted in December 2011, among others participating at the March for Social Justice in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 19 December 2011. (c) Csaba Farkas

By Enikő Vincze*, Adrian Dohotaru* and Cristina Raţ*, on behalf of the Working Group of Civil Organizations (glOC), Cluj-Napoca, Romania

The 19^th of December 2011 was incredibly sunny for the smoggy city of Cluj-Napoca, up on the hills of central Romania. As people gathered near the Heroes’ Boulevard, picked up placards which they could resonate with, greeted each other or simply exchanged glances with the sundry crowd of Roma from Pata-Rat (the famous “Gypsy ghetto” near the garbage dump of the city), civil society activists, university professors and academic researchers, artists, students, and many others… The March for Social Justice began, with messages of “Stop forced evictions!”, “Decent housing for everybody!”, “For a Society without Prejudices!”, “Social Justice for the Roma” floating above our heads.

The leitmotiv of the “Super-Owl” (“Superbufniţa” in Romanian) captured the eyes of the passers-by: the fictive “Superbufniţa”, supposed to save the humanity in our hearts, was invented by Roma children from Pata-Rat and their Romanian peers from the ELF school, in a joint artistic workshop organized two days before, at the Tranzit House, an old former synagogue, now place for alternative social art and multicultural events. It was a powerful message of solidarity and claim for social justice, coming from children on different sides of the socio-economic and ethnic divide. Some of them were present at the March, along with heir parents. Continue reading ‘Marching for social justice and housing rights for the Roma from Pata-Rat, in Cluj-Napoca, Romania’

Rosalind McKenna has been campaigning for Ireland to become party to the Optional Protocol for the last three years. (c) Amnesty International

By Rosalind McKenna, Coordinator, Human Rights in Ireland Programme,  Amnesty International Ireland,

Three years on from its adoption, the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights needs five more countries to become parties to it before it comes into force. Rosalind McKenna, Amnesty International Ireland’s Human Rights in Ireland Coordinator, reflects on three years of campaigning – and the progress that is being made.

“We hope to be in a position to sign the Optional Protocol to the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights before the end of this year.” So spoke Ireland’s Justice Minister at the Human Rights Council on 6 October, to the delight of myself and everyone else who has been campaigning for this. Continue reading ‘Protecting economic, social and cultural rights in Ireland – and internationally’

Demonstrating against the abortion ban in Nicaragua, 28 September 2011 (c) Fondo Centro Americano de Mujeres

By Stephanie Schlitt, Amnesty International’s Researcher and Policy Advisor on Gender

Today, at the United Nations General Assembly, the UN’s expert on the right to health, Anand Grover, will present a ground-breaking report. The report exposes how states are putting women’s and girls’ lives and health at risk through criminal laws and other misguided legal restrictions that deny girls and women access to sexual and reproductive health information and services and the ability to make decisions about their sexual and reproductive lives.

The report concludes that restrictions on abortion and contraception, the criminalization of pregnant women’s conduct (such as making drug use when pregnant a criminal offence), as well as restrictions on access to information on sexual and reproductive health violate girls’ and women’s rights to sexual and reproductive health. This report supports earlier UN expert findings that such laws place states in breach of their international human rights obligations. Continue reading ‘Rights – not criminalization – for girls and women, says UN health expert’