Working to Protect Human Rights worldwide
By Colby Goodman, Amnesty International’s Control Arms Campaign
October 7, 2009 – On a day the New York Times exposed more details about Guinean security forces recent use of weapons against thousands of peaceful protestors, Amnesty International participated in what turned out to be an electrified briefing at the United Nations (UN) about preventing the use of arms for serious human rights violations and the need for an Arms Trade Treaty.
Destroyed building in Gaza, 1 January 2009. © Sharif Sarhan
4 February 2009: As we leave after more than two weeks in Gaza, we are still shocked and horrified by the scale of the destruction caused by the 22-day offensive the Israeli army launched on 27 December. The task of reconstruction will be truly immense.
The main priority in our fact-finding research has been to investigate the Israeli forces’ direct and indiscriminate attacks on civilians and their homes, but, before concluding our visit, we also spent some time focusing on the wholesale destruction of factories, workshops and farms, for which it is difficult or impossible to see any possible justification. What we found was even worse than we had first realized.
Continue reading ‘The task of reconstruction will be truly immense’
Kate Sheill, Amnesty International’s Identity-based Discrimination Team Coordinator, blogging from the UN in New York
Some of the team who were in New York ©ARC International
So why all this fuss about a statement in a big meeting?
The joint statement will be issued as a formal UN document, but that will take a few weeks. It is a really strong text that will be really useful in our advocacy with those states who have signed on (see attachment for statement text and supporters), as well as in our future international advocacy work. Yet again, the UN has provided a space for LGBT activists to be heard when they are ignored by their governments at home.
In my last posting, I wasn’t sure about the level of support for the text that Syria delivered. Well, this isn’t surprising really, as States actively working on that statement were variously telling other government delegations and NGO activists that they had secured 60 or even 62 State endorsements.
Continue reading ‘UN has provided a space for LGBT activists to be heard’
Kate Sheill, Amnesty International’s Identity-based Discrimination Team Coordinator, blogging from the UN in New York
Over the last hour or so something truly extraordinary happened – approximately 120 countries associated themselves with statements to the UN General Assembly for the first time.
At about 1pm, New York time, Argentina started to announce the list of 66 countries that have signed up to support the joint statement on human rights and sexual orientation and gender identity. The States agreed that “everyone is entitled to the enjoyment of human rights without distinction of any kind” and “the principle of non-discrimination implies that human rights norms apply equally to every human being regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity”.
Continue reading ‘An extraordinary statement of anti-discrimination’
Kate Sheill, Amnesty International’s Identity-based Discrimination Team Coordinator, blogging from the UN in New York
Statement day dawns in New York. We’re not sure quite when it will happen, but in a few hours we will hear an affirmation of human rights and sexual orientation and gender identity. It’s that simple. Except that it isn’t – 60 years on from the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), we still have to work hard to get countries to say that human rights apply to all people, without discrimination.
But, thanks to the hard work of a lot of people, our count now has 64 countries supporting the joint statement. This is an increase of 10 countries from the last joint statement delivered in 2006 at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Continue reading ‘Countdown to delivery of statement against discrimination at UN’
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