Category: human rights

Mo Chara is free

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Mo Chara of Kneecap was cleared of terror charges today as naval ships from Italy and Spain join the humanitarian Global Sumud Flotilla (recovering from more chemical and explosive drone strikes) now off the coast of Koufonisi, south of Crete.

Also on this day, most of the 150 delegates at the 80th United Nations General Assembly walked out on Prime Minister Netanyahu, who then spoke to a nearly empty assembly hall. Colombian President Gustavo Petro stood on a street in New York City (with Roger Waters of the former Pink Floyd) and called for an army larger than that of the United States to be comprised of soldiers from all willing nations to enforce the orders of international justice starting with the liberation of Palestine. He said, “Here humanity has been challenged and humanity must respond.”

On Thursday, United States President Donald Trump said he “will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.”

Of the 193 United Nations member states, 157 recognize an independent state of Palestine. People around the world continue to protest crimes against Palestinians while the estimated number of deaths in Gaza exceeds 160,000 people of which more than 20,000 were children.

Guarding or owning animals, parenting children, teaching students, treating patients, employing workers, these all involve some autonomy and independence, but within the law and protections of human rights. A nation’s self defense must be proportional and no state has any right to target and starve, torture, psychologically harm or kill innocent people.

Humanity must respond, but how does the average person intervene in genocide? I don’t know. I emailed the Turkish Embassy and urged President Recep Tayip Erdoğan to mobilize partnerships in the region and call on National Defense Minister Yaşar Güler to assist in safe passage for the Global Sumud Flotilla. I emailed President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt, President Donald Trump, and President Gustavo Petro to respectfully request the same, assistance for the safe passage of the flotilla crew and survival aid to Gaza.

On board the humanitarian flotilla, Tadgh Hickey titled one of his videos, “Do something before we’re murdered.” I read that to mean all of us.

Mo chara is “my friend” in Irish, and I think it would be a beautiful thing to live in a world where we could say about all innocent people everywhere, mo chara is free, my friend is free.

Navalny is free, long live Navalny

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“My message for the situation when I am killed is very simple. Don’t give up.”

Photo published by Vatican News and other news sources

Shock

Had I not read the awful headline lying down, I might have fallen to the floor. Then again, why the surprise? Anyone who follows Navalny likely also hid a hazy nausea about this day, but I believed there was a chance, I don’t know why. Maybe it was his easy jokes, smiling reassurances even while Putin’s threatening chain of events hung ominously in view: the Novichok-laced tea, an unsurprising airport diversion to yet another unsurprising arrest, more fabricated crimes and demoralizing sentences, and finally Polar Wolf, penal colony IK6, the gulag.

Censorship, repression, unlawful detention, torture, murder. It’s easy to say Putin did all of this, not you or I, but in every country we willingly inhale smokescreens of patriotic rhetoric to ease that queasy cognitive dissonance rearing up whenever hard evidence reveals the grave errors of our judgment. It’s not easy to question misplaced trust and allegiance. If we can stomach the truth, we learn and grow, but for too many of us, there’s no admitting a mistake like this. In our desperation to believe that things can’t possibly be what they are, we created the Putin who poisons (poisoning of Navalny, poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko) hijacks (Ryanair flight FR4978, kidnapping of Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapega), corrupts laws, rights, and accountability (Putin’s palace), because it feels good to feel patriotic and it’s so easy to look away, not think about it, do nothing. True patriotism calls for the defense of a country and its peoples, including everyone’s rights, freedom, inherent dignity, and equality, and that responsibility is up to each of us.

“All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. Therefore, don’t do nothing.”

Heartbreak

The world is mourning the loss of fearless dissident leader Alexei Navalny because a head of state sanctioned his murder. The absolute zero of this crime is heartbreaking. Conscience can’t be killed. From poison and prison to death and now the arrest of grieving citizens laying flowers, when does it end? Perhaps the removal of Н as in Навальный (Navalny) from the Cyrillic alphabet.

The dream that Navalny would survive and become president is over, but one day soon someone inspired by Navalny and equipped with his legal education, principled anti-corruption experience, and tireless fight for justice will stand up.

“I’m not afraid. And you, don’t be afraid.”

Freedom

Navalny is free at last. No more persecution, starvation, solitary confinement, untreated medical and dental conditions. The countless daily cruelties designed to break the mind and spirit have stopped.

I think about his last years in prison and wonder when was the last time Navalny spent summertime with his family. Sunlight, laughter, his wife and children, picnics, a playful, easy rhythm throughout the day from waking up late to watching the sun set in a burst of brilliant colors, evenings together over a simple, savory meal, reflecting on the day’s highlights.

In these heartbreaking days, I think about Navalny in summer.

It makes sense, I suppose, that I write this in Lato, which means summer in Polish. Łukasz Dziedzic designed Lato, a Google font, and according to his bio: “During Poland’s first free elections in 1989, he joined Gazeta Wyborcza, the first independent daily newspaper.” The font styles are shown in excerpts from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I think Navalny would like Lato:

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Light 300

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity

Regular 400 at 48px

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is

Regular 400 at 36px

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Regular 400 at 32px

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Regular 400 at 21px

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Regular 400 at 16px

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

“Prison exists in your mind. If you think carefully, I’m not in prison, but on a space voyage to a wonderful new world.”

Navalny is free, long live Navalny

Alexei Anatolievich Navalny Алексей Анатольевич Навальный

4 June 1976–16 February 2024

“If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong. We don’t realize how strong we actually are.”

Don’t give up, do something

Amnesty International

Spring is coming

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Another letter to President Putin

The President of the Russian Federation

Presidential Administration Office

23 Ilyinka Street

Moscow, 103132

Russian Federation

April 4, 2022

Your Excellency, President Vladimir Putin!

I emailed you last year through the Kremlin website. It seemed risky for several reasons, but Alexei Navalny and many others have risked much more in these shadow years of winter.

In my email, I said only you can save Navalny’s life, that you can change the course of history. This is still true. Your position on Navalny and Ukraine may feel fixed in stone, immovable and permanent, like a monument in the making.

The Palace of the Soviets would have been the world’s tallest skyscraper, but unchecked ambition crushed progress and the installed steel was disassembled to support unrelated construction.

The Palace of the Soviets doesn’t exist and obedience forced from dissenting minds can’t last.

From “Dwarf Birches” by Yevgeny Yevtushenko,

Constraint bears the form of rebellion.

For Alexei Navalny and Roman Protasevich, for others like them in Ukraine, Crimea, and Russia, for all persons bent down,

eternal frost can’t last.

Its horror will yield.

Our right to stand upright will come.

Should the climate change, won’t

our branches at once grow

into shapes that are free?

President Putin, won’t you lead this welcome change of seasons?

Spring is coming. 

Free Roman Protasevich

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Amnesty International campaign for Roman Protasevich

Flag by Jasper Johns, 1954-55

The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

I hope this message finds you, your family, friends & staff in good health.

As our world emerges from the pandemic, people everywhere still face many challenges, but none so insidious as the state-sanctioned hijacking of Ryanair flight FR4978 and the kidnapping of Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapega on Sunday, 23 May 2021.

Staggering in scope and brutality, this is state terrorism, a baseless military attack against a civilian aircraft, civilian passengers, international civil aviation, internationally recognized standards of democracy, and Article 28 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Roman and Sofia are in grave danger. Their safety and survival together with our collective humanity depend on the world’s right action right now.

An act of terrorism

14 May

  • Email address created for Ahmed Yurlanov, sender of the “Hamas bomb threat”

23 May

  • 09:30 GMT during the descent to Vilnius, the flight was forced to divert to farther-away Minsk due to a bomb threat from “Hamas”
  • 09:47 GMT emergency declared by the pilot
  • 09:54 GMT timestamp on bomb-threat email from Ahmed Yurlanov for “Hamas” 24 minutes after Belarusian authorities claimed they received the bomb threat
  • Protesevich was arrested and charged under Articles 293(1) (“Organization of mass disorders”), 342(1) (“Organization or active participation in group actions that severely violate public order”) and 130(3) (“Incitement of racial, ethnic, religious or other social hatred or enmity”). Amnesty International: Free Raman Pratasevich and Sofia Sapega, Write a message

More

  • Belarusian authorities reported the “bomb threat” and diverted the plane 24 minutes before they received the “bomb threat”
  • A military MiG jet escorted the civilian Ryanair plane and passengers to Minsk airport
  • Belarus attributed the “bomb threat” to Hamas, but Hamas claims no responsibility
  • “President Alexander Lukashenko told Parliament the email originated in Switzerland, however Swiss authorities say they know nothing about it, and Swiss email provider Proton Technologies said it had not seen ‘credible evidence that the Belarusian claims are true.'” – Belarus plane: What we know and what we don’t, BBC News
  • Arrests, torture, and imprisonment of journalists and activists has increased recently
  • Belarus carries out the death penalty and executed two journalists in 2019
  • “In August 2020 during post-election protests over 30,000 people were arbitrarily detained and there were hundreds of complaints of torture and ill treatment” – Amnesty International: Free Raman Pratasevich and Sofia Sapega

Mr. President, I urge you to swiftly galvanize all powers by any means necessary to ensure the release of Roman and Sofia before they’re killed and before our right to life, liberty, and security of person in this fragile world are further endangered.

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Update: Nassima al-Sada Released from Prison on June 27, 2021

About Nassima al-Sada’s release

Free Nassima al-Sada

Amnesty International campaign for Nassima al-Sada

H. R. H. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud
Deputy Prime Minister
Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Your Excellency:

Progressive reforms for women that you’ve introduced include ending the ban on female driving and diminishing male guardianship requirements. Nassima al-Sada is among the millions of people around the world who welcome these changes. In fact, Nassima campaigned for these same human rights that you defended into law, yet years later she is still in Dhahban Central Prison. 

In 2018, Saudi authorities arrested Nassima for championing the same equal rights for the people of Saudi Arabia that you have now established. She was held in solitary confinement for a year, and for months at a time was not allowed to see her lawyer or her own children.

I read that Nassima cares for a plant in her prison cell. Even without sunshine, fresh air, and butterflies, she cultivates life, hope, and freedom. I think I understand this. After losing nearly everything in my life, I started over in a cold, grey city thousands of miles from everything I’ve ever known. Though it rains and snows here and the sun doesn’t shine often, I work hard and against all odds to grow the tropical plants and flowers of my previous life because some dreams will never die. Life, hope, and freedom belong to everyone. Nassima and you are not so far apart; you both want the people of Saudi Arabia to flourish.

I respectfully urge you to release Nassima al-Sada and all detained human rights defenders and activists. They are among your country’s greatest strengths and together you have an unprecedented opportunity to establish equality for everyone. When everyone in your kingdom is empowered and free, imagine what more Saudi Arabia will accomplish!

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Free Aleksei Navalny

Amnesty International campaign for Aleksei Navalny

The President of the Russian Federation
Presidential Administration Office
23 Ilyinka Street
Moscow, 103132
Russian Federation

Your Excellency, President Vladimir Putin!

In the matter of Aleksei Navalny, only you can save his life, which is to say only you can change the course of history.  

To free Navalny is to lead humanity as we’ve never seen before. You have the power to change the world.

In the words of Yevgeny Yevtushenko, excerpted from “Dwarf Birches” translated by

Vera Dunham:

"Of course, you command more freedom.
But, for all that, our roots are more strong.
Of course, we don’t dwell in Paris,
but we are valued more in the tundra.

"We are dwarf birches.
We have cleverly made up our poses.
But all this is largely pretense.
Constraint bears the form of rebellion.

"We believe, bent down forever,
eternal frost can’t last.
Its horror will yield.
Our right to stand upright will come.

"Should the climate change, won’t
our branches at once grow
into shapes that are free?
Yet we’re now used to being maimed.

"And this worries and worries us,
and the frost twists and twists us,
but we dig in, like splinters,
we-dwarf birches!"

Spring is coming.

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Free Idris Khattak

Amnesty International campaign for Idris Khattak

Prime Minister Imran Khan
Prime Minister’s Office
Constitution Avenue
Islamabad
Pakistan

Your excellency, Mr. Prime Minister:

Assalamu Alaikum

I respectfully request your help in the matter of Idris Khattak’s disappearance.

Mr. Khattak was last seen in June 2020 with a black hood over his head as he was taken by force from his car. Later, Pakistan authorities stated that they had Idris Khattak in their custody. Eleven months on and Mr. Khattak still has had no contact with a lawyer, with Amnesty International, or with his family.

We are very concerned for his safety.

If there is sufficient and credible evidence that Idris Khattak has committed an internationally recognized offense, then he must be promptly remanded by a civilian court and granted a fair trial in line with international law and standards.

Without sufficient and credible evidence, Idris Khattak must be released immediately.

In either case, I trust you will uphold Idris Khattak’s essential right to meet with lawyers, Amnesty International, and his family as soon as possible. 

Prime Minister Khan, your immediate intervention to release Idris Khattak is critical and we greatly appreciate your help.

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Photo published by the World Boxing Association

Statement by President Obama on the Death of Nelson Mandela

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

5:25 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: At his trial in 1964, Nelson Mandela closed his statement from the dock saying, “I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

And Nelson Mandela lived for that ideal, and he made it real. He achieved more than could be expected of any man. Today, he has gone home. And we have lost one of the most influential, courageous, and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this Earth. He no longer belongs to us — he belongs to the ages.

Through his fierce dignity and unbending will to sacrifice his own freedom for the freedom of others, Madiba transformed South Africa — and moved all of us. His journey from a prisoner to a President embodied the promise that human beings — and countries — can change for the better. His commitment to transfer power and reconcile with those who jailed him set an example that all humanity should aspire to, whether in the lives of nations or our own personal lives. And the fact that he did it all with grace and good humor, and an ability to acknowledge his own imperfections, only makes the man that much more remarkable. As he once said, “I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.”

I am one of the countless millions who drew inspiration from Nelson Mandela’s life. My very first political action, the first thing I ever did that involved an issue or a policy or politics, was a protest against apartheid. I studied his words and his writings. The day that he was released from prison gave me a sense of what human beings can do when they’re guided by their hopes and not by their fears. And like so many around the globe, I cannot fully imagine my own life without the example that Nelson Mandela set, and so long as I live I will do what I can to learn from him.

To Graça Machel and his family, Michelle and I extend our deepest sympathy and gratitude for sharing this extraordinary man with us. His life’s work meant long days away from those who loved him the most. And I only hope that the time spent with him these last few weeks brought peace and comfort to his family.

To the people of South Africa, we draw strength from the example of renewal, and reconciliation, and resilience that you made real. A free South Africa at peace with itself — that’s an example to the world, and that’s Madiba’s legacy to the nation he loved.

We will not likely see the likes of Nelson Mandela again. So it falls to us as best we can to forward the example that he set: to make decisions guided not by hate, but by love; to never discount the difference that one person can make; to strive for a future that is worthy of his sacrifice.

For now, let us pause and give thanks for the fact that Nelson Mandela lived — a man who took history in his hands, and bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice. May God Bless his memory and keep him in peace.

END
5:30 P.M. EST

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Guantánamo: 86 men cleared for release, still detained

Update: “Guantanamo by the numbers.” ACLU, May 2018

Dear President Obama,

Executive Order: Review and Disposition of Individuals at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base and Closure of Detention Facilities
(Signed January 22, 2009)

Sec. 3. Closure of Detention Facilities of Guantánamo
The detention facilities at Guantánamo for individuals covered by this order shall be closed as soon as practicable, no later than 1 year from the date of this order. [No later than January 22, 2010]

If any individuals covered by this order remain on detention at Guantánamo at the time of closure of those detention facilities, they shall be returned to their home country, released, transferred to a third country or transferred to another United States detention facility in a manner consistent with law and the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.

More than 4 years later, the people detained at Guantánamo are still waiting. Most Americans are waiting. I’m waiting. We all, including you, value justice and the honor of a promise.

Without delay, please transfer the 86 men cleared for release. Appoint a White House official responsible for carrying out your Executive Order as soon as possible to close the detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay Naval Base.

From AVAAZ.org, the World in Action:
• Detainees in Guantanamo now: 166
• Detainees facing active charges: 6
• Detainees cleared for immediate release, but stuck in the camp: 86
• Guantanamo inmates on hunger strike: 103
• Hunger strikers strapped down and force-fed: 30
• Prisoners who have died in custody: 9
• Children the U.S.has held at Guantanamo: 21
• Detainees tried in civilian court: 1
• “Unreleasable” detainees who can’t be tried for lack of evidence or torture: 50
• Prisoners released by the Bush administration: 500+
• Prisoners released by the Obama administration: 72
• Current annual cost to US taxpayers: $150 million
• Days since Obama first pledged to close Gitmo: 1,579
• Time since first prisoners arrived at Guantanamo:
11 years, 4 months, 11 days

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Col. Dr. Mohamed Elghanam

Ueli Maurer, President of the Swiss Confederation

April 17, 2013

Dear President Maurer:

The Geneva court has demanded the release of Colonel Dr. Mohamed Elghanam from Champ-Dollon prison (where he languished for over six years without contact or treatment) and his transfer to a hospital.

Reported in Le Courrier: La prison pour briser un homme (Benito Perez, Vendredi 17 Mai 2013).

I urge you to swiftly and comprehensively investigate the circumstances that allowed this crime against Colonel Dr. Mohamed Elghanam, to compensate him for his lost health and lost years, and ensure this never happens again.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

April 8, 2013

I am deeply concerned about Colonel Dr. Mohamed Elghanam and reports of his deteriorating health since his imprisonment without a trial in Switzerland in 2007.

His brother, Ali Elghanam, and the Swiss Red Cross International Family Tracing Services (Reference SRK_2009-402) have not been able to see Colonel Dr. Mohamed Elghanam or meet with him. The Swiss Red Cross Tracing Services have contacted Amnesty International and La Ligue Suisse des Droits de l’Homme regarding the case of Dr. Elghanam. The United Nations Enforced and Voluntary Disappearances experts have also been contacted.

The questionable circumstances surrounding Colonel Dr. Mohamed Elghanam’s arrest in Switzerland, his continuned imprisonment without a trial, and complete lack of communication with the outside world raise additional concerns of government-sanctioned disappearance.

2001
Switzerland granted political asylum to Colonel Dr. Elghanam, who was campaigning in Cairo for Christian Copts to have rights equal to those of Muslims

2003
Colonel Dr. Elghanam was pressured and attacked by Swiss Intelligence agents seeking to recruit Dr. Elghanam as their client/informant and as a reporter of the Geneva Islamic community, particularly Hani Ramadan, a figurehead and relative of the founders of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Colonel Dr. Elghanam filed an official complaint.

2005
On the Geneva University campus, Colonel Dr. Elghanam was assaulted by a Somali man believed to be a Swiss agent sent to intimidate Colonel Dr. Mohamed Elghanam from continuing his complaint. The Somali man was aggressive and hit Colonel Dr. Elghanam and in response, Colonel Dr. Elghanam held up a bread knife. Initially incarcerated for holding up a bread knife, Dr. Elghanam was released after the Somali man admitted he was never touched by Dr. Elghanam.

Subsequently, two police officers, one of them federal, sent a letter to the judge falsely accusing Dr. Elghanam of the following actions:

  • Authoring an article posted to Muslim websites
  • Having “seriously wounded” a man at Geneva University and allegedly having “stabbed him in the abdomen with a kitchen knife”
  • Having threatened leading Swiss personalities with violence
  • Being a violent man who was threatening the “internal and external security” of Switzerland

    No evidence or witnesses support these false allegations.

    2007
    Based on the false accusations of the two police officers, Dr. Elghanam was imprisoned for: alleged mental disorder and “dangerousness/dangerosite”

    2012
    Both police officers and the psychiatrist assigned to Colonel Dr. Elghanam’s case declared that they made mistakes regarding the imprisonment of Colonel Elghanam:

    The psychiatrist confessed he did not examine Colonel Dr. Elghanam, but wrote his report based on the officers’ letter
    One of the police officers said he was sick from seven years ago, including the day he wrote the letter of false accusations against Colonel Dr. Elghanam

    The Swiss government has refused to hear witnesses requested by Colonel Dr. Mohamed Elghanam for the past eight years, even though by law they are required to be heard.

    Since 2005, Colonel Dr. Mohammed El Ghanam has requested the Swiss government hear witnesses: Micheline Calmy-Rey (President and Head of the Department of Foreign Affairs through 2011), President Moritz Leuenberger (president of Switzerland through 2010) and Pascal Couchepin (President of Switzerland and Head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs) among others.

    The imprisonment of colonel Dr. Mohamed Elghanam for an alleged mental disorder allegedly requiring mandatory psychiatric treatment, is, in fact, retaliation for Dr. Elghanam’s refusal to cooperate with Swiss Intelligence and his exposure of acts of intimidation against him involving members of the Swiss government.

    The charges against Dr. Elghanam and his forced isolation should be investigated immediately and his right to communicate with people by phone, email/mail or in person should be restored at once. If evidence supports a trial, then Dr. Elghanam should have access to legal representation and be tried in a court of law that is transparent to Amnesty International and the Red Cross,

    I respectfully urge you to use your power of office to seek justice for Colonel Dr. Mohamed Elghanam.