Campaigning for human rights in the age of the internet
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What could be more charitable than the work of Amnesty International? I have heard that Amnesty International UK is hoping to become a charity and I welcome that but I do not know when it will be. This will give advantages such as...
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was issued by the United Nations soon after the end of the Second World War. It is available on the UN website in about 365 of the world's languages. More than 50 years later it is of course...
I found the regional conference very useful to find out more about Amnesty's activities and to meet like-minded people. There were talks and discussions about current campaigns: on violence against women and on asylum seekers. Speakers...
On 28 November MPs <a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2006-11-28a.25.0" href="http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2006-11-28a.25.0" _blank"="">debated the crisis in Darfur. The debate was in Westminster...
An Amnesty Greetings Card Campaign is for WOZA.
The Indian government has restricted the movements of an activist during the visit of President Hu and has even threatened him with deportation to Tibet if he does not obey. Here is a link to give more details from the Free Tibet...
I sent two e-mails to President Musharraf about this case and I am pleased to hear the news that he has now commuted the death sentence on humanitarian grounds. I understand that Mirza Tahir Hussain has been released and should be able...
I hope that people are having a look at my blog and I hope that it might stimulate debate. There are plenty of thorny issues on how to campaign effectively on human rights and plenty of need for debate. I don't know whether other...
Years ago a friend went to visit a country that shall remain nameless. She returned early, muttering about lies and deceit. Governments that specialise in human rights abuses usually either stay silent or issue statements that attempt...
The genocide in 1994 was severe enough to receive worldwide attention, although not enough action early enough to stop it. The roots of the conflict go far back and here is a timeline from 1918 to 1999. The timeline starts in 1918...
It was a shocking film of course, showing the way that the UN troops were unable to stop the killing and eventually withdrew, letting the killing get even more. The killing was done by machetes. The film is set in a school in Kigali...
Video footage from ProTV in Romania shows one of the line of Tibetan refugees falling suddenly to the snow. It was a 17-year old nun and she was killed. There have been rumours of shootings like this before but this is the first time...
I was sad to hear about conflicts and deaths at the borders of Spanish enclaves in north Africa, especially because I visited one of them, Ceuta, years ago as part of an expedition across Africa. It is right that Amnesty should press...
The motion at the First Committee of the General Assembly of the UN on moving towards an Arms Trade Treaty was co-sponsored by an impressive 116 governments; when it came to a vote on 27 Oct. 2006, 139 countries voted yes, 24 countries...
One chapter of the Alternative Human Rights Report describes a case study of what happened when 200 people publicly raised a flag in peaceful protest. Police advanced on the crowd, firing guns and beating demonstrators with batons...
Six campaigning organisations dealing with human rights in such places as West Papua, Burma, Tibet and the Chagos Islands (in the Indian Ocean) have joined to produce a report on the issues and on the UK government's record of...
The most fundamental right is of course the right to life; without it all other rights are irrelevant. I once read of a tragic shooting of an innocent person and I cannot remember all the details. I think that it was a British tourist...
Amnesty gives details about the crisis in Darfur . Amnesty says there that the government of Sudan is reluctant to allow any outside forces into Darfur and on page 24 of today's Independent there is the headline, "Sudan blocks UN plan...
Anna Funder in her book Stasiland paints a picture of what life was like in East Germany before the Berlin Wall came down. The Stasi were the secret police. It was a very effective police state, with an extensive network of informers...
Mark Thomas has written a book titled 'As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela: Underground Adventures in the Arms and Torture Trade' which I have started to read. I have seen Mark Thomas on television a few times so I already knew that I...