In this issue
- Write your message on "My Olympic Dream"
- 2-minute video on China's human rights defenders
- Political violence in Zimbabwe
- Another taser death in Canada
"My Olympic Dream"
Help us light up the virtual stadium with messages of hope!
Please
share your dream for human rights in China. Then pass on the message. Note: To be delivered to China Ambassador the day before the Opening of the Games.
Write your message
TWO Quick Actions
Hu Jia & Zeng Jinyan: No freedom for peaceful activists.
3 1/2 years imprisonment for one of China’s best-known environment and HIV/AIDS activists; partner harassed by Chinese authorities. Please urge China to stop silencing peaceful activists.
Shi Tao: Improved conditions but still in prison
Well-known poet and jounalist Shi Tao was given a 10 year sentence for sending an email overseas questioning China's desired official statement of the Tianamen Square anniversary.
Help Amnesty Free Shi Tao
Good News
Uzbekistan: Saidzhakhon Zainabitdinov says "thank-you"
"Dear Friends from across the world"
I received 9620 letters, postcards, drawings, photographs and messages from dozens of countries...With these letters I also received photographs of 129 people...I also received signed petitions expressing solidarity with me ..."
Read Saidzhakhon's story and letter
Human Rights News in Brief
Serbia: Arrest of Radovan Karadžic Amnesty calls for the International Criminal Tribunal to be given enough time and resources to establish the truth and to secure justice for the victims of war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. News Release
Canada: Northern Boreal Plan welcomed
Amnesty International and a host of other groups issued a joint letter to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty welcoming the northern boreal forest proposal while urging the government to ensure that Indigenous peoples' rights are upheld in development decisions throughout the province. News Release
Rebiya Kadeer speaks at Amnesty's AGM
Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer on stage with Amnesty Canada's Secretary General, Alex Neve. Amnesty members at the AGM raised almost $5,000 to help troubled Uighur groups defend their rights in this remote region of China.
Amnesty members bring "Keep the Promise" message to Chinese Embassy
This August: Host a Taste for Justice BBQ during the Beijing Olympics and raise money to help Amnesty improve human rights in China. You pick the menu and we’ll help you make it happen.
Watch the Games, feed your friends, and enlist their support for Ding Zilin and the Tiananmen Mothers. Click here to register
This September: Run for Rights in Toronto! On September 28, join Team Amnesty at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. For information about how to raise money and Run for Rights, contact lstidwill@amnesty.ca.
If you don’t live in Toronto, you can still Run for Rights! Represent Amnesty while running, walking, biking or rollerblading in your community to raise awareness and funds for Amnesty’s work to improve human rights in China. Learn More
The Beijing Promise:
An Olympics
Human Rights
Legacy
Next week, the Beijing Olympic Games begin, and the world's eyes will be watching China like never before. Amnesty International is urging China to keep the promise it made when bidding for the Games - that the Olympics would leave a legacy of human rights.
It is Amnesty International's dream that the Olympics will bring a new era of respect for human rights in China.
· media and internet freedom
· fair trials
· protection for activists
· the end the use of death penalty
AND the release of peaceful activists, who share our dream for a more free and just China but who have been silenced for speaking out for human rights. You can learn about them today in our Olympics Quiz. And see them in our Video: China's Silenced Voices.
Campaign blog | Progress so far | China debate site
CHINA
VIDEO:
China's Silenced Voices:
Human Rights Defenders in China
Help us ensure that peaceful activists in China are not silenced. Load this video on your facebook page or email it to friends. View video
Quiz:
On your marks ... get set for the Olympics by taking Amnesty International’s Olympics Quiz.
Take the Olympics Quiz
NOTE: At the end of the Quiz, you will have an opportunity to take action on behalf of three of the courageous human rights defenders featured on the 2-minute video "China's Silenced Voices".
Before the end of the Games, let's give the world something to truly celebrate: the release of all those wrongfully detained!
ZIMBABWE
Climate of fear persists
Political violence has led to as many as 150 deaths, injured thousands, and displaced tens of thousands of Zimbabweans over the last several months. Amnesty International continues to receive reports of individuals seeking medical treatment for injuries sustained in political violence, particularly in rural areas.
Watch for news and actions on the Zimbabwe blog
CANADA
21 deaths:
Amnesty calls on moratorium on
Tasers
Many Canadians were outraged last October by video footage of the death in custody of Robert Dziekanski in the Vancouver airport. Since then another five people have died in Canadian police custody following the use of a Taser®. The most recent incident took place in Winnipeg last week. Over 1,000 people have signed Amnesty's petition calling on a moratorium on taser use until there has been an independent and comprehensive study of their use and effects.
Please sign the petition | Amnesty's Hilary Homes speaks on tasers | More on tasers
Omar Khadr: Bring him to Canada
While every other western country has denounced Guantanamo Bay and insisted on the repatriation of its citizens, Canada has not insisted on the repatriation of its own national, Omar Khadr.
Sign Action | Security and human rights blog
Are you interested in receiving email updates and actions on Amnesty's work on the 'War on Terror? Send a message to waronterror@amnesty.ca to join the mailing list.
MEXICO
Environmental activists threatened for opposing a mine
A group of environmental organizations in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí worry that a gold mining operation is poisoning their water and destroying the mountainside. For speaking out, they say they are being followed and threatened by company employees. Take action
Global Events:
Celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights this fall
‘Human rights begin in small places close to home’.
- Eleanor Roosevelt, a leading human rights advocate
Check out Amnesty International's new music and arts project on the Small Places website.
Dear ${token1},
We hope that you as a member of Amnesty International share our sense of hope that the Olympic Games will bring positive change for people in China. Over the next few weeks, the newspapers, radio and television will have their sites firmly set on events - sports and otherwise - coming from within China. We want the Games to be a reason to celebrate, and it's our hope that the many human rights activists within China are given a voice during the Olympics, and a stronger, more free voice after the Olympics. These peaceful activists share our vision for a China with stronger human rights protection. We hope that the Chinese authorities can see these courageous human rights advocates not as a source of embarrassment to the state, but as a part of a fabric of Chinese society where all citizens enjoy freedom of expression, freedom to practice religion, freedom from unfair trials and state executions. Please dream with us. Watch our video, try the quiz, and write your own version of "My Olympic Dream" on our special new website.
Thank you for keeping Amnesty International a strong voice for change at this historic moment for China.
Questions, comments? Contact us at 1-800-AMNESTY (266-3789) or send an email to members@amnesty.ca.
Amnesty International Canadian Section (English Speaking)
http://www.amnesty.ca/