It’s a New Year. For many it will remain an unhappy one if we choose to do nothing about it!
As always, Amnesty International continues to work hard researching, documenting and reporting human rights abuses wherever they occur and applying pressure to ensure that internationally agreed laws and standards are honoured and respected. 2010 is already shaping up to be a year where your active support will be needed more than ever.
While we grieve the loss of so many lives caused by Haiti’s recent earthquakes, it is important that we do not forget the plight of Cyclone Nargis survivors who continue to be deprived of a better quality of life. In May 2008, Nargis carved a path of destruction across the nation of Myanmar (Burma) leaving 140,000 people dead or missing.
Astoundingly, 20 months later, life continues to be a struggle for many people still desperate for help.
“The authorities are denying Nargis survivors the assistance they desperately need and have a right to receive,” reports Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International’s Myanmar Researcher.
Only 68% of international funding initially requested by Myanmar authorities has been committed so far. In late October 2009 authorities arrested at least 10 political activists and journalists for accepting relief donations from overseas, sources inside the country told Amnesty. The 10, whom Amnesty considers prisoners of conscience, were among 41 dissidents arrested in October.
The human rights situation in Myanmar remains grave and volatile with the detention of more than 2,100 political prisoners. Ninety-five percent of Myanmar’s opposition leaders are behind bars and are likely to remain there unless, together, we build pressure for their immediate release (this being an election year).
Your financial support will help Amnesty continue to campaign for the immediate release of prisoners of conscience and stop the harassment of activists who are trying to help survivors.
Thirteen months after Israel’s major military offensive on Gaza, Amnesty continues to urge Israeli and Palestinian authorities to meet their obligations (as directed by the UN General Assembly) to pursue accountability for war crimes and serious human rights violations that occurred.
The conflict, which began in late 2008, left some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead. Among the many casualties were hundreds of unarmed civilians and more than 300 children. Atrocities included the restriction of vital humanitarian aid and medical care to those wounded and trapped, attacks against UN compounds and civilian shelters, and the killing of many Palestinian civilians using high-precision weapons. Israeli officials have yet to explain why so many were killed in these types of attacks.
White phosphorous shells (restricted under international law) were repeatedly fired over densely populated Gaza regions. These burning wedges, impregnated with highly incendiary white phosphorous, showered civilians, burning deeply through the skin, muscle tissue and into the bone.
“Impunity, if it is allowed to persist, not only undermines justice and the rule of the law but it makes it all the more likely that further grave human rights violations will be committed,” says Malcolm Smart, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.
By making a donation today, you will help to bring those guilty of these horrific crimes one step closer to justice.
There are many other Amnesty projects that will require your renewed support in 2010. We continue to lobby for the release of those illegally detained at Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay detention centre for example.
In January 2009 President Obama signed an executive order committing his administration to resolving the cases of detainees held “as promptly as possible” and to the closing of the facility no later than one year from the date of this order.
Neither of these objectives has been achieved.
“Over recent months, US authorities have allowed the Guantanamo detentions to become a political football, and the politics of fear to trump human rights, says Susan Lee, Director of Amnesty International’s Americas Regional Programme, “Now, as should have been the case from day one, the government should resolve these detentions by bringing the detainees to fair trial or immediately releasing them.”
It is time to hold the US government to account. Please continue to help make this happen.
Please make a donation now. Your gift will help get our efforts in the New Year off to a great start! More importantly, it will be used to further help those who have no rights or voice in 2010.
