This month’s #deathpenalty report is attached thanks to Lesley. It makes depressing reading especially concerning countries in South East Asia and #Pakistan.
Death penalty report
Amnesty award
It was announced in the Salisbury Journal this week that a group of students at Burgate School in Fordingbridge, Hampshire has won the Amnesty International Youth award for the ‘most committed’ category. Every congratulations from the Salisbury Group.
New link added to the list: Globalconsilium
Magna Carta and Human Rights Today
Around 160 people attended the Cathedral this evening to hear Dominic Grieve QC MP give a brilliantly lucid lecture in support of the Human Rights Act. He traced some of the key clauses of the Magna Carta and showed how they had continuing relevance today. We hope to include a transcript of his lecture soon. His lecture followed the annual Amnesty evensong which also was very well attended with around 120 people.
#Morocco film
UPDATE 25TH MARCH
The film Bastards (12A) was shown this Wednesday 25 March starting at 7.30 and the audience reaction was very positive indeed. There were many questions to the producer Deborah Perkin.
This is a fascinating and highly-acclaimed documentary about one Moroccan woman’s struggle to legitimise her daughter and the director, Deborah Perkin will be there to answer questions. The film follows an illiterate young woman who took on her own family and the Moroccan justice system for the sake of her illegitimate child. It is a gripping, moving and uplifting documentary from the cutting edge of Islam.
Deborah Perkin is the first person to film in a court in Morocco, a country which leads the world in its legal efforts to give women and children more rights under Sharia law.
In Morocco, as in all Muslim countries, sex outside marriage is illegal and women bear the brunt of society’s disapproval. But what is the fate of the children of those single mothers? They cannot attend the better schools, are turned away from infant immunisation clinics and refused government posts. Jobs, housing and a huge range of social advantages are denied them. They are despised outcasts, condemned to a life of discrimination. Bastards is the first film to tell this story from a mother’s point of view.
We shall have a petition to sign about torture in Morocco. Morocco is one of the five countries highlighted by Amnesty International in its #StopTorture campaign. We are pleased to say many people signed our petitions at the end of the showing. Thanks to the Arts Centre.Afghanistan
Britain’s role in Afghanistan is coming to an after over a decade of bloodshed and war. It is doubtful that the country is in a fit state to function effectively since the Taliban and the warlords are still very much in evidence and there are reports of ISIS being present in the country as well. After all this time it is easy to forget some of the original aims which were defeating terrorism and the Taliban. We can also forget that it was the CIA who helped establish, arm and train the Taliban in order to assist them in their fight with the Russians.
One of the major victims of the years of war is women. It has turned thousand of Afghan women into refugees and widows – or both – and made it dangerous for them to seek schooling, go out to work, get healthcare or secure paid employment. Before the arrival of the Taliban in 1996, women’s rights had steadily improved and indeed, there are many photographs from that era women and girls in schools and university with not a burqa or veil in sight. Improving the rights of women became one of the additional aims of the invasion and it will be recalled that Cherie Blair – wife of the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair – hosted an event in 10, Downing Street in 2001 with this aim in mind. Kofi Annan said:
There cannot be true peace and recovery in Afghanistan without a restoration of the rights of women.
Similar sentiments were expressed by the then secretary of state Colin Powell:
The recovery of Afghanistan must entail a restoration of the rights of women, indeed it will not be possible without them.
At the South West regional conference of Amnesty International it was heartening to hear from someone who has worked to improve the status of women through theatre and artistic groups in the countryside. The speaker was Abdul Hakim Hashemi Hamidi who set up the Simorgh Film Association of Culture and Art, SFACA. Unlike many aid programmes which tend to stay in Kabul or the main cities, SFACA goes out into the countryside and to the villages.
He has organised educational theatre workshops in prisons, juvenile correction centres, drug addiction rehabilitation centres, in schools and with the police. He has produced films with an emphasis on human rights and the role of women.
Not all the problems faced by women are solely to do with the Taliban. Another factor is honour killings which are at a very high rate in the country. 57% are identified as the responsibility of a family member and 21% by the husband. The perpetrator of 43% killings is unclear however. A telling quote from the PowerPoint display was:
A problem with women [is] because men don’t accept women have rights
He went on to discuss the problems of human rights defenders in Afghanistan. These included difficulty in
travelling to some areas combined with a lack of government control in some parts of the country, traditional beliefs and illiteracy. Religion was a main cause he said and human rights are seen as a western construct. He urged that the UK government consider the role of human rights defenders in their discussions with the Afghans.
It was an interesting and uplifting talk by someone who has taken risks to go into the Afghanistan countryside to promote the rights of women. Abdul is a visiting fellow on the Protective Fellowship Scheme for Human Rights Defenders at York University. There is a permanent link to the York University Centre for Applied Human Rights at the bottom of the main page.
Sources:
Watson Institute
Global Research
Amnesty International
Arms trade support for a college
SCHOOL NOW CLOSED
The new South Wilts University Technical College in Salisbury is to be part-funded by arms companies and a number of people are concerned that young people will be corrupted by such firms. The Salisbury group has campaigned in the past on the issue of arms as Salisbury is surprisingly rich in arms companies. It is likely that because we are near to Salisbury Plain – where a number of regiments are based – and the garrison towns of Bulford and Tidworth, it is attractive to such firms to set up here. We are also near Porton Down and to Boscombe Down.
Some years ago, we discovered that a firm based in Salisbury was supplying the Indonesians with armoured land rovers being used in the oppression of the East Timorese. Chemring, which has a factory at a place called High Post near Salisbury, was also the subject of press interest recently for allegedly supplying CS gas to the Hong Kong police to help suppress demonstrations, and to Israel. Chemring supplied CS gas which was used in Egypt.
So the activities of arms companies are a matter of interest to us. It has to be said straight away that, unless you are a complete pacifist, there are aspects of the arms trade which are perfectly legitimate. We need to defend ourselves and therefore have a need to make armaments. We can also sell such arms to countries we trust or to whom we are allied. The difficulty is when arms are supplied to regimes who have little interest in human rights. This is why Amnesty among others has been promoting an arms trade treaty. Another problem is the shadowy world of dealers and brokers who go on to supply anyone willing to pay.
Anyone interested in the arms trade, then a book to read is The Shadow World: inside the global arms trade by Andrew Feinstein (Hamish Hamilton, 2011). This remorselessly describes the trade and the high degree of corruption involved in its activities. The industry is over £1tn in size and money flows via tax havens and brokers around the world.
Look at almost any news broadcast and it doesn’t matter who is fighting whom, what is noticeable is that they all seem to be remarkably well armed. The various belligerents drive around in military vehicles, and they seem to be guns and rocket launchers aplenty. These arms don’t appear out of nowhere, they are supplied by the shadowy world of the arms dealer and are financed via various tax havens, many of which are Crown dependencies.
Feinstein expresses it well in his introduction:
In our twenty-first-century world the lethal combination of technological advances, terrorism, global crime, state sponsored violence and socio-economic inequality has raised instability and insecurity to alarming levels. At the same time, the engine that has driven this escalation, the global arms trade, grows ever more sophisticated, complex and toxic in its effects.
It might therefore be thought essential that the world’s democratic nations should address this trade effectively and urgently. If it must exist, then surely it should be coherently regulated, legitimately financed, effectively policed and transparent in its workings, and meet people’s need for safety and security?
Instead the trade in weapons is a parallel world of money, corruption, deceit and death. It operates to its own rules, largely unscrutinized, bringing enormous benefits to the chosen few, and suffering and immiseration to millions. The trade corrodes our democracies, weakens already fragile states and often undermines the very national security it porports to strengthen. (p xxii, ibid)
Arms sales are promoted by the British government by the Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO). There has been a lot of publicity recently as various ministers – including the Prime Minister – visiting the Gulf states to sign arms deals. Some of these countries arrest or harass oppositions, use torture regularly, execute people in public, mistreat their women and have corrupt judicial systems. No matter it seems, there’s trade to be had. The Campaign Against the Arms Trade CAAT held a meeting in Salisbury recently to publicise the financing of this college by four arms firms. The firms involved include Chemring, QinetiQ, Esterline and Dstl. Serco is also involved which has a dubious record.
Some of the questions to ask of this college are: will their young people be free to discuss the activities of this trade? If it transpires that munitions supplied by one of these firms are used to suppress demonstrations or are used to kill unarmed people for example, will students be free to debate this? Will the effects and practices of the arms trade be a topic of discussion in Citizenship activities? Interesting questions … CAAT allege that the firms will use the college as a means to promote their image. It will be interesting to see how this UTC deals with the ethical and moral issues of the arms trade and adopts an appropriately impartial position when and if allegations of wrongdoing emerge.
The college is part of the Baker Dearing Educational Trust and none of its trustees has any local links.
Article in Salisbury Journal. CAAT item discussing the college is here.
UPDATE
The College has now closed (2019)
Meeting
The monthly group meeting took place tonight at 7.30 in Victoria Road as usual. There was a discussion on the Magna Carta arrangements among other things. Agenda is below (Word).
Monthly meeting
UPDATE
The last meeting was on Thursday, 8th January. An agenda is attached. The minutes of the December meeting are also attached. Note that you can see all recent minutes by going to the ‘About Us’ tab on the front page.
We discussed:
- the results of the carol singing which had been very successful
- there was the December Death Penalty report
- we discussed North Korea and the increasing interest in that country, and in particular the human rights situation there, was noted
- the website numbers were given and that we now have 60 followers
- there was an update on the Magna Carta events and there is to be a meeting soon with the Cathedral to start doing more detailed planning
- the complete lack of interest by any of the sixth forms in the area to submit an essay was noted. This was extremely disappointing in view of the efforts made with leaflets and contacting the schools ahead of time to promote it.
- details on the Cathedral service are awaited
Minutes will be posted here as soon as they are available.
Carol singing
Last night the Salisbury group went carol singing around several streets in the city. The singing was done by members of the
Farrant Singers which meant residents were treated to high quality singing from one of the finest choirs in Salisbury. To fortify us, we started the evening with a glass of vin chaud kindly provided by Michael and Chantal and afterwards, we all repaired to their house for home made soup, cheese and mince pies. A most successful evening and thanks to Michael and Chantal for their hospitality, Jonathan and Thomas for leafleting the houses the evening before and to the Farrant Singers themselves. Also to other group members who played a supporting role.
A happy Christmas to all our readers and followers around the world.
Death penalty report: December
DEATH PENALTY SUMMARY
DECEMBER 2014
This is the summary for the group’s December meeting pulling together various news items about the use of the death penalty around the world. We would like to draw your attention to a web site Penal Reform International, with useful information on the death penalty. It is now in the list of links at the bottom of this site.
General
- Ethiopia – Andrew Tsage, a political refugee in the UK since 1979, has been placed in solitary confinement and is under threat of execution. He had been arrested at an Airport in Yemen, and sent on to Ethiopia. International concern has been expressed at the deterioration of human rights and freedom of expression in Ethiopia. David Cameron has written personally to the Ethiopian Prime Minister, but the Foreign Office say Tsage is not being held illegally.
- USA –
- Missouri – 19.11.14. Leon Taylor was executed, despite disagreement over the type of sentence which should have been imposed. This was the ninth execution in Missouri this year.
- Texas – 4.12.14 – a US Federal Court issued a stay of execution hours before Scott Panetti was due to die, following representations from his lawyers regarding his mental health.
- Saudi Arabia – 20.11.14 – the family of Simon Cumbera, an Irish national murdered while filming a news item, have expressed regret at the death sentence passed on Adil Sa’ad Al-Dubayti Al Mutayri.
- Pakistan
- Mohammad Asghar – David Cameron has commented in Parliament on the ‘appalling treatment’ received in prison by this Scottish man accused of blasphemy and shot while in prison. Reprieve is trying to prevent his return from hospital to prison
- 25.11.14 – Asia Bibi, the Christian woman sentenced to death following a conviction of ‘insulting the Prophet Muhammad, has filed her final appeal against execution
- China – 25.11.14 – According to his lawyer, Nian Bin, a former death row prisoner acquitted of the charge of poisoning two children, is now being investigated again by the police. They have refused to accept the Court’s decision and are restricting his movements. Acquittals are rare in China, but this one prompted renewed calls for the abolition of the death penalty.
- Thailand – 26.11.14 – Death sentences were passed by Pattani Provincial Court on five suspected militants convicted of killing four soldiers. Human Rights Watch have accused Thailand of double standards, saying the Army was also responsible for rights violations.
- Egypt – 2.12.14 following the dropping of murder charges against ex-President Hosni Mubarak, a Court sentenced 188 of his supporters to death in connection with the killing of 13 policemen in August 2013.
- Cameroon – 3.12.14 – it was reported that Lawmakers are to vote on whether to implement the death penalty for people convicted of acts of terrorism. This is in response to the activities of the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, on its border.
- Indonesia – AI have called on the Indonesian Government to halt its plans to execute 5 people by the end of the year.
Urgent Actions
- Bangladesh – UA283/14 – Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, a leading member of an opposition party, is at imminent risk of execution before being able to lodge an appeal. Circulated to DPLWG 17.11.14
- Iraq – UA300/14 – Ahmed Al-Alwani, a former member of Iraq’s Parliament, has been sentenced to death for killing two soldiers, following a trial marred with irregularities. He has only a month to appeal. Circulated to DPLWG 28.11.14. (This month’s Group DP Urgent Action)
- Saudi Arabia – UA 309/09 – Ali Agirdas, convicted of drug trafficking after an unfair trial, was executed on 20th November. His family learned of this through the media, and the authorities are refusing to release his body to them. Circulated to DPLWG 28.11.14.
- USA – Florida – UA 162/14 – the execution of Shane Kormondy has been scheduled for 15th January. Kormondy was found guilty of the murder of Gary McAdams in 1993. This would be the 21st execution under the governorship of Rick Scott.
Campaigning
- Reggie Clemons – there has been no further news. The Justice for Reggie website has not been updated since August.
- Moses Akatugba – further cards were signed for Moses at the Amnesty Film Night at the Arts Centre
Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire 