It was quite something to see how quickly the people of Port of Spain reclaimed their city as the Summit came to an end on Sunday afternoon. As leaders headed off to the airport, barricades came down and city streets that had been off limit for several days were once again accessible.
You could almost hear a collective sense of relief in neighbourhoods that had been no-go zones throughout the Summit.
Clearly the big stories coming out of the Trinidad Summit revolve around what is being called a “new beginning” for US relations with the hemisphere, particularly with Latin American states. President Obama’s overtures towards Cuba and the several friendly encounters between him and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have received considerable play. All of the leaders are talking of the spirit of compromise and dialogue sparked by that “new beginning.”
We are in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic where we have just held a seminar for women human rights defenders from the Caribbean. There were 24 women participating, from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, the Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago.
It was great to have a variety of human rights organizations present, with representatives working on women’s rights; migrants’ rights; lesbian and gay rights; housing rights; women defending the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS; and working to secure justice for victims of police violence and their families. The main goal of the seminar was to provide a space for the women to share their experiences and provide tools to help enable their work.
At the moment, it’s very frustrating, because I’m in the south of Israel and we’ve been on standby pretty much since the beginning of the crisis on 27 December. We want to go into Gaza to investigate the human rights situation there, but that is not possible. The Israeli authorities are not allowing human rights organisations, as well as the media, into the Gaza Strip.
I’ve been here for a few days in the south of Israel investigating the human rights violations committed by Palestinian armed groups who are firing rockets into civilian towns and villages in the south of Israel. I’ve been talking to victims, people who have been injured, visited houses that have been hit by Palestinian rockets.
Amnesty International’s mission ended with a week long visit to Goma and other areas of North Kivu, from where we were unable to provide a daily blog for security reasons. Our team met with local human rights activists, representatives of MONUC, UN agencies and a number of international humanitarian NGOs, and were able to gain further eyewitness testimony of recent killings and other human rights abuses.
We held detailed discussions about our human rights concerns with General Mayala, commander of the North Kivu military region, Laurent Nkunda, leader of the CNDP armed group, and representatives of PARECO / mayi-mayi armed groups. Despite at time vigorous exchanges, however, all these people denied that their forces had committed human rights abuses.
Amnesty International invited the world to call on the Chinese authorities to deliver a positive and lasting human rights legacy for the Beijing Olympics.
Livewire is the new home of blogs produced by Amnesty International's International Secretariat. It includes blogs from campaigning actions, from research missions, from high level meetings and events written by Amnesty International staff.
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