News and Updates for Members

Volunteers and staff at the Amnesty International Vancouver office designed and built a mock slum dwelling to have on display during a series of summer festivals. The goal was to draw attention to Amnesty's campaign on slum settlements and forced evictions, and to link this work with homelessness in the Vancouver area. And attract attention it did.

The dwelling was set up for Car Free Day, Vancouver Folk Music Festival, Under the Volcano Festival of Art and Social Change, and Justice Rocks. At each festival we featured a panel display, a map showing places where forced evictions are carried out, and a "red tent" from the Pivot Legal Society, which works locally to defend homeless and other marginized residents in the downtown eastside.  Thousands of people saw the dwelling and hundreds ventured inside to hear us describe the dwelling and take them through a scenario illustrating the threat of forced evictions.

People attending Justice Rocks were asked to vote for the most engaging display, and out of more than 20 non-governmental organizations, Amnesty International took third place behind CUPE and The Dogwood Initiative.

Toronto band Blurred Vision has released a remarkable song and video designed to inspire people in Iran and all over the world to continue to fight for justice and human rights.

The song is a unique cover of Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall, with the altered line “Hey Ayatollah, leave those kids alone”.

The band partnered with director and acclaimed filmmaker Babak Payami for the accompanying video. The fantastic result landed the video a nomination at the Soho Shorts Film Festival in London, England for Best Music Video.

Blurred Vision is donating 50% of the proceeds of song sales through iTunes to Amnesty International. We asked the band to say, in their own words, why they chose to support us in this way. They replied:

"Our support for the work of Amnesty International and our decision to donate proceeds of our single, Another Brick In The Wall (Hey Ayatollah Leave Those Kids Alone), to their efforts took no second thought. Our endeavour to use our music to raise awareness towards the horrific human rights violations around the world, and the duplicitous engagement of world leaders and governments to ignore these attrocities, is a humble mirror to the monumental journey that Amnesty has taken upon itself to uphold human rights for all. We stand firmly in our belief that music can break down the walls that separate us, and bring about the blooming of humanity’s unity."

In response, we'd like to say thanks to the band for these humbling words, and for the great work they are doing in raising awareness about human rights issues and inciting people everywhere to work together for a better world.

To learn more about Blurred Vision, see the video, and download Another Brick in the Wall (Hey, Ayatoallah, leave those kids alone), visit http://blurredvisionmusic.com/.

Here’s your chance to be part of something extraordinary to support Troy Davis, a long-standing death row prisoner in the USA.

Many of you may already be familiar with the case of Troy Davis, a prisoner in the US who received a death penalty sentence in 1991. He was convicted for murder of a police officer and for assaulting a homeless man. There was no physical evidence identifying Troy Davis as the shooter and the weapon used in the crime was never found. The case against him consisted solely of witness testimony. In affidavits signed over the years since the trial, a majority of the state’s witnesses have recanted or contradicted their testimony. In addition, there is post-trial testimony implicating another man as the shooter. Troy Davis has lived on death row for 18 years.

Finally, a hearing has been set to review testimony in support of Troy Davis’ claims of innocence, based on a Supreme Court order last year to open an evidentiary hearing on his case. The date is set for June 23rd.

To support justice for Troy Davis and to participate in a powerful project to educate people about the death penalty and judicial fairness, Amnesty International France has launched a photo-mosaic action.

You can add your photo to the Face of Justice: http://soutenonstroydavis.amnesty.fr.

For further information about Troy Davis' case, visit AI USA’s website at: http://www.amnestyusa.org/death-penalty

A 3-minute film about Amnesty International Canada’s Business and Human Rights Campaign by Michelle Paymar’s D-Facto Filmstudio was recently honored with a gold medal in the Summit International Awards' 2010 Summit Creative Award® competition.

This year’s competition drew over 4100 entries from twenty-four countries. Only one gold medal is awarded in each category.

The film features staff from Amnesty's Vancouver office and gives an overview of human rights violations committed directly or indirectly by Canadian mining, oil and gas companies in developing countries.

Watch the video and find out how you can get involved in Amnesty Business & Human Rights program.

For inspirational photos that tell the story of Amnesty Canada's work and its members, check out the ever-growing collection on the Amnesty Canada photostream on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aicanada/

There are photos from public events, photos of speakers who have shared their stories of courage and hope with us, and photos showcasing Amnesty members' creativity, energy and passion.

If you have event photos you'd like to share for the Flickr account, please contact jfarrATamnesty.ca.

On 25 January 2010, Alex Neve delivered petitions signed by thousands of Canadians calling for an end to violence against Indigenous Women in Canada to the Minister of State (Status of Women), the Honourable Helena Guergis.

Thank-you to everyone who signed the petition, and who participated in collecting petition signatures!  Your efforts allowed us to give a strong message to the government to do more to protect Indigenous women in Canada from violence.

Our new Amnesty International slideshow celebrates some of the human rights successes and touches on some of the challenges that the world experienced in 2009.

View the slideshow

Portishead, an award-winning electronic trio from Bristol, UK, have released a brand-new track - Chase the Tear - for Amnesty International.

It's now available as an exclusive download single from 7 digital with all earnings going towards Amnesty's human rights work.

Buy this track to support Amnesty

Watch the video

Last weekend, acclaimed Scottish author A.L. Kennedy took some time out from the International Festival of Authors in Toronto to talk to some members of Amnesty International Canada. 

And we got it on film!

A.L. Kennedy is one of the contributors to the new fiction anthology Freedom: A Collection of Short Fiction Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

View a short interview with the author about her involvement with this book, and hear some insights into the focus of her own story in it:  http://www.youtube.com/user/AmnestyIntlToronto#p/a/u/0/407l-f5CSGs

View a short interview with the author about her thoughts on Amnesty International and its work: http://www.youtube.com/user/AmnestyIntlToronto#p/a/u/2/Il-gA99CVSk

 (More about the Freedom anthology)

If you haven't yet checked out Amnesty International's YouTube channel, it's well worth a visit. It features links to almost 100 Amnesty-related video clips.

This week, the featured video is a final interview with Kim Dae-Jung, the former South Korean president, former death-row inmate, and Amnesty prisoner of conscience who died on August 18, 2009.

President Kim's final meeting with Amnesty was in April 2009 when he looked back at a key moment in his life when, after having been sentenced to death, he was approached by South Korea's military regime who offered to save his life if he cooperated with them. He refused to compromise his principles. International pressure led to the sentence being commuted to life imprisonment. Democratic reforms wre introduced in 1987, and ten years later Kim was elected president.

Go to Amnesty's YouTube channel.