Write for Rights

On 14^th December Sheffield Amnesty International is holding a Write for Rights event. 7.15.pm. Quaker Meeting House, 10 St James Street, Sheffield S1 2EW. All welcome

AMNESTY CELEBRATES 50 YEARS WITH A  SPECIAL “WRITE FOR RIGHTS DAY”
In celebration of Amnesty International’s 50th anniversary and to mark international Human Rights Day, Sheffield  Amnesty International  is encouraging people  to take part in Amnesty International’s Write for Rights Campaign. 
 

Letter writing has proved phenomenally effective in protecting, securing the release of, or changing the lives of people over the last five decades. That’s why I’m delighted that Amnesty has chosen to mark its 50th anniversary with a Write for Rights campaign. It is a great way to see effective change for men and women around the world.


Ten individuals and communities feature in this year’s Write for Rights Campaign. They include Zimbabwean women’s activist group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) who are regularly intimidated, arrested and unlawfully detained when they take part in peaceful protests to demand basic rights; Jabbar Savalan – a 20 year old history student in Azerbaijan who is being persecuted by the authorities and is serving a two-and-a-half year prison sentence in response to his peaceful anti-government activism, including comments he posted on Facebook ; and 75 year old Hakamada Iwao – believed to be the world's longest serving death row inmate who's spent the last 43 years awaiting execution in Japan. 

#WriteForRights

Alaa Abd El Fattah, A blogger, writes from his Egyptian jail cell

Alaa Abd El Fattah, left, who is being held in an Egyptian jail, with his wife. Photograph: Nasser Nasser/AP

 

I never expected to repeat the experience of five years ago: after a revolution that deposed the tyrant, I go back to his jails?

The memories come back to me, all the details of imprisonment; the skills of sleeping on the floor, nine men in a six-by-12-foot (two-by-four-metre) cell, the songs of prison, the conversations. But I absolutely can't remember how I used to keep my glasses safe while I slept.

They have been stepped on three times already today. I suddenly realise they're the same glasses that were with me in my last imprisonment; the one for supporting the Egyptian judiciary in 2006. And that I am locked up, again pending trial, again on a set of loose and flimsy charges – the one difference is that instead of the state security prosecutor we have the military prosecutor – a change in keeping with the military moment we're living now.

Last time my imprisonment was shared with 50 colleagues from the "Kifaya" movement. This time, I'm alone, in a cell with eight men who shouldn't be here; poor, helpless, unjustly held – the guilty among them and the innocent.

As soon as they learned I was one of the "young people of the revolution" they started to curse out the revolution and how it had failed to clean up the ministry of the interior. I spend my first two days listening to stories of torture at the hands of a police force that insists on not being reformed; that takes out its defeat on the bodies of the poor and the helpless.

From their stories I discover the truth of the great achievements of the "return of security" to our streets. Two of my cellmates are first-timers, ordinary young men without an atom of violence in them. And their crime? Armed gangster formations. Yes; Abu Malek alone is an armed gangster formation of one. Now I know what the ministry of the interior means when it regales us every day with news of the discovery and arrest of armed gangsters. We can congratulate ourselves on the return of security.

In the few hours that sunlight enters the dark cell we read what a past cellmate has inscribed on the walls in an elegant Arabic calligraphy.

Four walls covered from floor to ceiling in Qur'anic verses and prayers and invocations and reflections. And what reads like a powerful desire to repent.

Next day we discover, in a low corner, the date of execution of our cellmate of the past. Our tears conquer us.

The guilty make plans for repentance. What can the innocent do?

My thoughts wander as I listen to the radio. I hear the speech of the general as he inaugurates the tallest flagpost in the world – which will surely break all records. I wonder: does pushing the name of the martyr Mina Danial as one of those "accused of instigation" in my case break a record in insolence? They must be the first who murder a man and not only walk in his funeral but spit on his body and accuse it of a crime. Or perhaps this cell could break a record in the number of cockroaches in a prison cell? Abu Malek interrupts my thoughts: "I swear by God if this revolution doesn't do something radical about injustice it will sink without a trace."

This article was written by Alaa Abd El Fattah on 1 November 2011 from cell No 19, the Appeals Prison, Bab el-Khalq, Cairo. It is being published in Arabic by the Egyptian newspaper Al Shorouk and in English by the Guardian

Support Human Rights on 10th December in Sheffield!

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR Human rights day events on 10^th december!

This year has seen revolutions, financial collapse and famine around the world.  Against this backdrop human rights abuses are committed on an appalling scale.

Indeed Amnesty International’s 2011 report shows that there are very few governments in the world that are not responsible for such abuses against innocent people.

Amnesty International is an organisation of ordinary people who are not prepared to turn a blind eye to torture, executions, disappearances, discrimination and other gross violations of human rights.


Amnesty International has more than three million members around the world. We campaign for  implementation of the wide variety of human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was introduced in 1948 on 10^th December.  This date is world Human Rights Day when, along with millions around the world, we celebrate the founding of the UDHR but we also ceaselessly campaign for the victims of the widespread violations on these rights.

That is why on 10^th December we are holding a vigil Human Rights Day vigil outside Sheffield Town Hall  at 1-2 pm.  We will very much welcome being joined by anyone who shares our concerns.  Don’t let them get away with it! Bring your organsation’s placards and banners by all means, but most important we want to see you there.

And in the evening at 8 pm on 10^th December, we will celebrate with live music from the amazing funk and soul band, The Free Radicals at the Broomhall Centre, Broomspring Lane,S10 2FD . (Tickets £8/£4 concessions)

To find out more please contact the Sheffield Amnesty International local group’s press and media officer ,Graham Jones, on Graham.Jones@amnesty.org.uk  or ring on  0798473243

Human Rights Day Celebration all welcome

Come and celebrate Human Rights Day, with Amnesty International and the Free Radicals!

Put on your dancing shoes, tell your friends and let your hair down to live funk and soul classsics, no experience necessary!

10th December 2011 8.00 pm

Broomhall Centre 

Broomspring Lane

Sheffield S10 2FD

Tickets £7 Concessions £4

For info call 0114 255 5748

Daljit Nagra and Lily Mosini

Welcome to Off the Shelf

Sheffield’s Annual Celebration of Writing and Reading

8th – 29th October 2011

Daljit Nagra and Lily Mosini
Thu 27 October 2011 @ 7.30pm
Quaker Meeting House

Daljit Nagra’s debut Look We Have Coming to Dover! marked the arrival of a thrilling new voice in poetry. Tippoo Sultan’s Incredible White-Man-Eating Tiger Toy-Machine!!!, his second volume, takes its cue from the eighteenth-century automaton (a tiger savaging a British soldier) in a series of poems that begin at the throat of the old British Empire. Daljit creates his own linguistic bhaji: where Shakespeare meets the Subcontinent in a range of forms from sonnets to ‘bollyverse’ or the tender love songs of the monsoon and cover everything from race relations to Rudyard Kipling A comic, passionate, satirical and thought-provoking collection.

Iranian poet Lily Mosini has experienced brutal persecution because of her work, and now lives with the threat of deportation. This is an unmissable opportunity to hear this powerful writer and activist. Clare Shaw will be joining Lily to read translations.

Tickets

Tickets £6/£4 (cons) from: Arena Ticket Shop Tel. 0114 256 5567/+

Shameful execution of Troy Davis

The state of Georgia shamefully executed Troy Davis on September 21, 2011 despite serious doubts about his guilt. But our fight to abolish the death penalty lives on.

Take a stand for Troy Davis. Pledge to fight to abolish the death penalty.
The case against him consisted entirely of witness testimony which contained inconsistencies even at the time of the trial. Since then, all but two of the state's non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted or contradicted their testimony.
Many of these witnesses have stated in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis.
One of the two witnesses who has not recanted his testimony is Sylvester "Red" Coles — the principle alternative suspect, according to the defense, against whom there is new evidence implicating him as the gunman. Nine individuals have signed affidavits implicating Sylvester Coles.
Breaking News: The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency to Troy Davis on Tuesday. This means that very little is standing in the way of the state executing a ptentially innocent man this Wednesday. Join us in calling on the Board to reconsider its decision, and on the Chatham County (Savannah) District Attorney Larry Chisolm to do the right thing.

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Get Involved

Learn More: Notable Leaders, Artists and Other Troy Davis Supporters

Listen: Amnesty's telephone conversation with Troy (mp3)

Troy Davis Updates

Blog

Georgia Kills Troy Davis

The state of Georgia has killed Troy Davis. Now we must redouble our efforts to abolish the death penalty so such a travesty of justice never happens again.

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Press Release

Troy Davis Execution a 'Catastrophic Failure of the Justice System,' Charges Amnesty International

The U.S. justice system was shaken to its core as Georgia executed a person who may well be innocent. Killing a man under this enormous cloud of doubt is horrific and amounts to a catastrophic failure...

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Report

USA: Less than "ironclad," less than safe

Despite the fact that the case against Troy Davis is not “ironclad,” a federal judge’s ruling, if upheld, will clear the way for the state to kill Davis in its execution chamber.

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Troy Davis Issues

Death Penalty

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method used.

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U.S. Death Penalty Facts

The death penalty in the U.S. is unjust, costly, discriminatory and used disproportionately against the poor and minorities.

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U.S. Executions

We track all scheduled executions in U.S. states. Take action to stop current executions!

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Prisoners and People at Risk

Prisoners and people at risk are those whose human rights have been violated or are under threat of violation.

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Sign Up

Get updates on Amnesty's work on behalf of individuals at risk.

Latest Troy Davis Solidarity Updates

Laura_Moye

lauramoye

Our movement for abolition has grown in size and energy today. #TroyDavis lives on! 6 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

Supreme Court has decided and they will not block execution 3 hours ago · reply · retweet · favorite

High intensity. Prayer circle of a couple hundred around Davises. Helicopters above noisy, invasive. Singing here. 7 hours ago · reply · retweet · favorite

2 arrested outside prison for civil disobedience. Men in riot gear came out. #TroyDavis 7 hours ago · reply · retweet · favorite

Savannah State Univ students speak to a tv reporter #toomuchdoubt! at prison in jackson 4 #troydavis http://t.co/X

Stop the executon of Troy Davis

Troy Anthony Davis will be executed today.

On a terrible day for US justice, Troy Davis has been denied clemency despite far-reaching and high-level international support for his execution to be halted. On death row for 20 years, Troy has always asserted his innocence. There are numerous doubts around his case: far too many to justify his execution this evening.

 Please follow this link to stop the execution


http://action.amnesty.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1194&ea.campaign.id=12137&utm_source=aiuk&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=deathpenalty&utm_content=troy2_main_home