Actions and Issues
Get on the Bus 2018 featured speakers and actions focused on human rights around the world.
2018 Main Actions:
Sri Lanka: Justice for Ragihar Manoharan and the Trinco Five
Sudan/U.S.: Prevent the closure of IDP camps in Darfur; stop the attacks on civilians and end the destruction of their homes and property; allow the passage of humanitarian aid and respect the presence of UNAMID forces; and release detained human rights defenders.
Tibet/China: Release of prisoners of conscience Tashi Wangchuk and Shokjang (Druklo)
Iran: Release of human rights defender Narges Mohamadi
Burma: Call on Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing to order his troops to put a stop to the ongoing crimes against humanity/ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya people
United States: End the practice of family detention of asylum seekers, with a focus on the Berks Detention Center
Download the action letters packet here.
Sri Lanka: Justice for Ragihar Manoharan and the Trinco Five
Sudan/U.S.: Prevent the closure of IDP camps in Darfur; stop the attacks on civilians and end the destruction of their homes and property; allow the passage of humanitarian aid and respect the presence of UNAMID forces; and release detained human rights defenders.
Tibet/China: Release of prisoners of conscience Tashi Wangchuk and Shokjang (Druklo)
Iran: Release of human rights defender Narges Mohamadi
Burma: Call on Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing to order his troops to put a stop to the ongoing crimes against humanity/ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya people
United States: End the practice of family detention of asylum seekers, with a focus on the Berks Detention Center
Download the action letters packet here.
Sri Lanka: Justice For Ragihar ManoharanRagihar Manoharan, a Sri Lankan Tamil student, and four fellow students had gathered for a chat near the seafront in the town of Trincomalee in northeastern Sri Lanka at about 7:00 p.m. on January 2, 2006, when a grenade was thrown at them from a passing auto rickshaw. The students ran, but at least three of them were injured in the explosion. A short while later, a group of 10 to 15 officers in uniform, believed to be police from the elite Special Task Force, arrived. They reportedly put the injured students into their jeep and beat them with rifle butts, and then pushed them out onto the road. According to a witness, the security forces personnel then shot the five students dead.
Despite subsequent court hearings and an investigation by a presidential commission of inquiry, no one has been prosecuted for these murders. Ragihar’s father gave evidence at the proceedings and then received death threats. Ultimately, Ragihar’s family was forced to flee Sri Lanka. Justice for Ragihar and the rest of the Trinco Five has been one of the GOTB actions for several years. In July 2013, due to the mounting international pressure, the Sri Lankan government arrested 12 Police Special Task Force members in connection with the murders. All 12 are out on bail and no further action has been taken since then. We are continuing to call on the Sri Lankan government to effectively investigate and prosecute those who murdered Ragihar Manoharan and the rest of the “Trinco Five." In January 2018, the Sri Lankan government announced that it would allow evidence to be given by Skype in the Trinco Five case, which would facilitate testimony by witnesses living outside Sri Lanka. To date, though, little progress has occurred in the case. In fact, both the 2017 and 2018 reports on Sri Lanka from the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights cited the case of the Trinco Five students as an emblematic case of human rights violations for which no appreciable progress has occurred. Take Action Now: Join the South Asia Regional Action Network Sign up for monthly actions by email on Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bhutan, the Maldives and Bangladesh. Email jmcdonald@aiusacs.org and write "SARAN sign-up" in the subject line. |
Online Resources
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Sudan: Release Human Rights Defenders, Protect Civilians and End Impunity for Chemical Weapons Attacks
Since 2003, the Sudanese government and allied Janjaweed militia (now Rapid Support Forces) have carried out wide-scale attacks on civilians in the context of ongoing conflict in Darfur. Villages have been bombed, burned, and looted. Amnesty International has documented repeated instances of sexual violence and other serious human rights violations, while the UNAMID (UN-African Union) peacekeeping force has failed to intervene. More than 1.5 million people have been displaced. The regime of President Omar al-Bashir resumed its offensive in Jebel Marra, Central Darfur, in January 2016, and a September Amnesty report revealed at least 30 chemical weapons attacks. Around 250 people were killed, including many young children. Authorities have consistently denied access to humanitarian agencies.
At the end of January 2018, UNAMID signed an agreement with the Sudanese government to open a temporary base in Darfur’s Jebel Marra area, the site of documented chemical attacks against civilians among other atrocities. While this is a positive first step towards protecting the people of Darfur against further violations by the armed forces and their allied militias, the Sudanese government must ensure that UNAMID peacekeepers are guaranteed unfettered access across all of Jebel Marra to protect civilians and facilitate humanitarian aid. Meanwhile, the Sudanese Armed Forces have, since 2011, conducted numerous aerial and ground attacks on civilians in opposition-held areas of Blue Nile and the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan, causing displacement and a disruption to agricultural production, health care, and education in the area, contributing to the humanitarian crisis. Attacks on hospitals and schools may constitute war crimes; the military’s widespread, systematic and deliberate targeting of the civilian population seems to indicate crimes against humanity. Despite evidence of serious violations, United States authorities announced in January 2017 an easing of sanctions against Sudan. While a unilateral ceasefire continued at the end of December 2017, with no major fighting taking place, the security and humanitarian situation remained dire. There is still no agreement on delivering humanitarian assistance to populations in opposition-held territories, exacerbating the increasingly dire food insecurity. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS-NET) reported that in opposition-controlled areas in South Kordofan, the rate of chronic malnutrition was estimated at 38.3% due to long-term food deprivation and recurrent illness. FEWS-NET estimated that 39% of households in Blue Nile were severely food insecure. Furthermore, it is alarming that the Sudanese government continues to silence human rights defenders, political activists, and other critical/dissenting voices through arbitrary arrests and detentions, threats, harassment, torture/ill-treatment, and enforced disappearances. At least 140 opposition party members, human rights defenders, students, and women rights activists were arrested and detained by the Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) between January 6th and February 10, 2018, in connection with sporadic protests around Sudan over the rise in the cost of food and medicines. This crisis cannot be ignored any longer. |
We are asking the U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN to urge the Security Council to call upon the government of Sudan to release all human rights defenders detained for the exercise of their rights and freedoms, and to ensure protection of due process under international law. The Security Council should also press Sudan’s government to ensure that UN and AU refugee/IDP protection standards are respected, allow unrestricted access for humanitarian organizations, and end indiscriminate attacks and those targeting civilians in Darfur, South Kordofan, and Blue Nile.
Online Resources AI Reports: Amnesty Report 2017/18 Sudan: AU-UN peacekeepers must be given unfettered access to protect civilians in Jebel Marra Scorched Earth, Poisoned Air Scorched Earth and Chemical Weapons Attacks in Darfur How art is flourishing in war-torn Nuba Mountains, Sudan Sudan: Five Years and Counting Sudan: Amnesty International Public Statement at the 33rd Session of the UN Human Rights Council Actions and Information: Human Rights Defenders Darfur, South Kordofan, South Kordofan Action 4-minute Nuba/South Kordofan Video Amnesty Urgent Action Follow-up Activities: Help AI find evidence of damaged villages in satellite imagery Organize a screening of this powerful movie about aerial attacks on civilians in the Nuba Mountains: http://theheartofnuba.com/ https://www.facebook.com/TheHeartofNuba/ Attend a special screening of this film for activists at Village East Cinema (181-189 2nd Avenue & E. 12th St.) in Manhattan on Friday April 6th at 7:45 pm, Saturday April 7th at 5:35 or 7:45 pm, or Sunday April 8th at 3:25 pm. When you arrive, pick up your FREE TICKETS, saved under the name: Doctor Tom. Find out how to assist refugees from Sudan and send messages of support: https://www.iactivism.org/ |
Tibet/ChinaThis year's Get on the Bus will once again call for the immediate and unconditional release of political prisoners being held by the Chinese government. We will have a special focus on two prisoners of conscience: Tibetan writer and blogger Druklo, who is better known by his pen name, Shokjang, and Tashi Wangchuk.
Druklo: Druklo was sentenced to three years imprisonment in February 2016 on charges of separatism, after being detained in March 2015. It is believed that this is as a result of an article he wrote describing the increased presence of Chinese security officers ahead of the March 10th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising. Previously, Druklo was detained by Chinese authorities in 2010 for writing about the wide-scale Tibetan protests of 2008. Tashi Wangchuk: Tashi Wangchuk is a Tibetan entrepreneur and language rights activist. He has been detained by the Chinese government since January 27, 2016 on charges of inciting separatism, after he worked to sue the Chinese government to expand access to Tibetan language education. He faces up to 15 years in prison if he is convicted. • Coming to the China/Tibet rally? Please print and cut out this mask of Tashi Wangchuk's face. We will be bringing some to the rally, too |
Photo by Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times
Druklo links:
Tashi Wangchuk links:
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IranNarges Mohammadi is a human rights activist in Iran. She has been in prison for more than 1000 days. In May 2016 she was sentenced to 16 years in prison on several unsubstantiated national security charges. She is a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned solely for her peaceful exercise of her rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.
Here’s a short video about Narges: https://www.iranhumanrights.org/2017/05/demand-the-judiciary-to-freenarges-now/ Narges Mohammadi is the executive chairperson of the Center for Human Rights Defenders (CHRD),which was founded to report on violations of human rights in Iran, and to provide pro-bono legal representation to political prisoners and support to their families. The Center was co-founded with prominent human rights attorneys, including Iran’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi. The CHRD was forcibly closed by the Iranian authorities in December 2008. Mohammadi also founded the organization Step by Step to Stop Death Penalty, a group campaigning against the death penalty in Iran. She is the mother of twins - a girl, Kiana and a boy, Ali. Narges has continued her fight for justice from her prison cell. In October 2017 she wrote a letter to Parliament protesting the use of solidarity confinement in Iran’s prisons. Read this story about her most recent efforts to fight for justice, all from inside her prison cell: https://www.iranhumanrights.org/2017/12/in-letter-from-evin-prison-narges-mohammadi-demands-judiciary-stop-violating-due-process-rights/?utm_content=buffere046f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer To get the latest updates on Narges, follow Amnesty International Group 151 on Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/AIGroup151/ |
Here are some online petitions asking for the release of Narges:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/get-involved/take-action/iran-release-human-rights-activists/?utm_source=FBPAGE-IS&utm_medium=social&utm_content=1136239838&utm_campaign=Human%20Rights%20Defenders http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1770&ea.campaign.id=57128 https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/immediate-release-narges-mohammadi.html |
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Burma
We will call for justice for the Rohingya people of Burma (Myanmar) who have faced displacement and extreme human rights abuses. Rohingyas are not recognized as an official ethnic group and continue to be denied equal access to citizenship rights. Their rights to study, work, travel, marry, practice their religion (Islam), and receive health services have been restricted to various degrees for decades.
The severity of the human rights abuses has escalated in recent years, and The Myanmar military has killed Rohingya women, men and children, raped Rohingya women and girls, and burnt entire Rohingya villages. Amnesty International has called the current abuses ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. These conditions have forced over 688,000 Rohingya people to flee their homes as of February 2018, starting in August 2017. Those who stay behind are still at risk, Myanmar’s authorities are restricting their access to lifesaving humanitarian aid and assistance. They continue to live under a system of institutionalized discrimination and segregation which amounts to apartheid. Along with Amnesty activists around the world, we will call on Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing to order his troops to put a stop to the ongoing crimes against humanity and to respect the Rohingya people's human rights. |
Rohingya children in a rural village in Northern Rakhine State,
March 2016. © Amnesty International
Links:
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United StatesEvery year, tens of thousands of people fleeing violence and persecution come to the U.S. southern border asking for asylum, a form of humanitarian protection recognized under U.S. and international law. They are refugees in search of safety. When people seeking safety – including children and their parents – arrive at the border, many are imprisoned and held behind bars for weeks, months, and even years, without easy access to attorneys or interpreters.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security detains families seeking asylum at three centers that hold as many as 3,000 kids and parents each day. Berks County Residential Center in Pennsylvania is the oldest of these “baby jails.” Locking these families up undermines their access to asylum and traumatizes people who have already endured violence and psychological harm in their flight from human rights abuses. We are protesting in front of Trump World Tower to call on the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to end the policy of locking up families simply for seeking safety in the U.S., and to release those detained like #TheBerksKids. • Bring a teddy bear with you for GOTB's afternoon rally to symbolize the lost childhood of kids locked up in detention centers like Berks. Some of these children learned to walk and talk behind bars. |
For Reports, Newsroom Highlights, and Additional Resources:
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