Current case:
Justine Masika Bihamba: Threatened for protecting victims of rape
Posted on: 23/02/09

Profile - Justine Masika Bihamba

In the middle of the tragic conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the military and armed groups are targeting women through acts of sexual violence and intimidation, particularly directed at women who speak out against the violence and seek to help others who have become victims of these attacks.

Justine Masika Bihamba needs help from Amnesty International supporters.

Justine is the director of  the women’s organization Synergie des femmes contre les violences sexuelles (SFVS) which seeks to help women who have been targeted for sexual violence in the conflict in the DRC.

Justine's story - how the military acts to stifle the work of women's rights defenders

On September 18, 2007, while she was not in, six soldiers forced their way into Justine’s home in the city of Goma, eastern DRC. All six of Justine’s children, aged between 5 and 24, were at home at the time. The soldiers tied up the children and some of them searched the house, broke down the door to Justine’s bedroom and rifled through documents. One of the soldiers kicked Justine’s eldest daughter, aged 24, in the face, breaking her tooth. The same soldier then tried to rape Justine’s 21-year-old daughter and failing to do so, sexually assaulted her with a knife.

Justine returned home while the attack was happening. At the gate to the house, she spotted one of the soldiers, asked him what he was doing there and immediately telephoned the authorities.  The soldiers fled.   Justine identified the men during a search of the neighbourhood, but the military police refused to arrest them saying that there was no evidence of the crime.

A week after the incident, Justine made a complaint against the soldiers. In the weeks and months that followed, senior army officers, the provincial governor and other officials all promised Justine that justice would be done. In March 2008, the Vice-Governor promised Amnesty International that he would pursue the case, saying that it was “unacceptable that those responsible should remain unpunished”. One year after the attack, however, the men have still not been arrested or brought to trial.

Justine and her children have been repeatedly threatened by the soldiers, and Justine regularly sees them in the streets.  On two occasions, some of the soldiers have come to Justine’s house, threatening the family.
 
Justine’s 5-year-old son now fears he will be killed whenever he sees a soldier and her two daughters have fled abroad.

The counsellors at the women’s organization continue to be threatened and attacked because of their work.

Please sign Amnesty’s e-petition urging President Kabila to protect Justine Masika Bihamba and allow her to carry out her work on behalf of women the Democratic Republic of Congo

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Past cases:

Stolen Sisters : No more Indigenous women lost to violence
Posted on: 02/10/08

Felicia Solomon, a sixteen-year-old cousin of Helen Betty Osborne, was abducted and murdered in Winnipeg in 2003. No one has ever been charged with the crime. This terrible crime is part of long-standing and deep-rooted patterns of discrimination and impoverishment that put so many Indigenous women and girls in harm’s way. According to a government statistic, young Indigenous women are five times more likely than other women of the same age to die as the result of violence. The role of racism and discrimination in violence against Indigenous women has been documented by Amnesty International in our Stolen Sisters report.

Javier Correa: Defending the human rights of workers amidst enormous danger
Posted on: 03/09/08

Javier is a leader of SINALTRAINAL, a union that represents food workers. Working with other human rights defenders, Javier and his union are  at the forefront of public protests against the involvement of state security forces and army-backed paramilitaries in grave abuses. There is a heavy price to pay for such actions. Javier Correa lives in constant fear of attack, in a country where more than 2,500 members of trade unions have been killed since 1986.

Ding Zilin : A mother's right to mourn her lost son
Posted on: 28/05/08

Ding Zilin is a retired university professor and the mother of one of the first students killed during the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in June 1989. Ding created the group the Tiananmen Mothers to provide support for bereaving families and demand that the government apologize for the deaths. The Tiananmen Mothers have been at the forefront of the campaign to defend the rights of the relatives of people who were killed and people who were injured by the military 19 years ago. These women face great personal risk every time they speak out. They’ve suffered detentions, repeated interrogations, and prolonged house arrest.

Hu Jia: Prominent Chinese writer silenced by prison sentence
Posted on: 15/04/08

One of China’s most respected journalists, Hu Jia, has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years of imprisonment for “Subverting state authority”. Hu Jia’s arrest is part of a clear pattern by China to silence criticism prior to the Olympic Games. His arrest is of great concern to Amnesty International – not only because Hu Jia has been a reliable source of information about human rights conditions in China, but also because it’s a disturbing indication of China’s commitment to free expression.

Jelveh Javaheri is defying repression in Iran: Help her continue her work for women's rights
Posted on: 28/02/08

Jelveh Javaheri, a journalist, is a founding member of the Campaign for Equality, which orks to end legal discrimination against women in Iran. Jelveh Javaheri was detained in Tehran’s Evin Prison between 1 December 2007 and 2 January 2008, reportedly accused of “disturbing public opinion”, “propaganda against the system” and “publication of lies” in connection with articles she posted on the Internet. She was released on bail, but may face prosecution in the future.

Aster Yohannes: Detained Despite Guarantees of Safety
Posted on: 01/08/07

Aster Yohannes was detained in Eritrea by security personnel on December 11th, 2003 when she returned to be with her children after three years of study in the USA. She is still being detained at Karchele security prison in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), which won the majority of votes in the 1990 elections in Myanmar. However, the authorities refused to hand over power. Since the elections, the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has detained hundreds of opposition party members, including members of the NLD and student activists.

Claudina Velásquez was a 19-year old university student studying to become a lawyer. She left her home in Guatemala City on August 12, 2005 to go to university. This was the last time her family saw her alive.

On September 6, 1995 more than 30 Ontario Provincial Police officers charged protestors at Ipperwash Park. The riot squad was backed by snipers armed with submachine guns. The protestors, including Dudley George, were unarmed. Dudley George was shot by a police officer, and died later that night.

In February 2006, Husein Celil was picked up by Chinese police in Uzbekistan, where he was on holiday visiting his wife’s family. He was sent to China to face trial, and was held in secrecy without access to a lawyer, his family, or access to Canadian officials. Celil was sentenced to life imprisonmentafter an unfair trial, and he is still there, despite the attempts at intervention by the Canadian government.

Irene Fernandez is the director of Tenaganita, a non-governmental organization that promotes the rights of migrant workers in Malaysia. In March 1996, she was arrested and charged with “maliciously publishing false news”. The trial was the longest in the history of Malaysia, lasting seven years. On 16 October 2003, she was found guilty and sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment.

On September 26, 2002, Maher Arar was on his way home from a family vacation in Tunisia when he was detained at New York’s JFK Airport. He was flown to Jordan, then driven over the border to a Syrian prison, where he was interrogated and tortured, and forced to sign false confessions. Public pressure in Canada mounted for Maher Arar’s release, and he was finally released on October 5, 2003 and returned to Canada.

Rebiya Kadeer was a prominent Uighur businesswoman from the northwest region of Xinjiang in China. Rebiya Kadeer was detained, tried and imprisoned in 2000 for “leaking state secrets” as she had sent newspaper articles from publicly available regional newspapers to her husband in the USA. Amnesty International considered her a prisoner of conscience and campaigned for her release, which was achieved on March 17, 2005.

U Win Tin is Myanmar’s longest-serving prisoner of conscience. As of March 2007, he spent his 77th birthday in a Myanmar prison. U Win Tin was arrested in July 1989 because of his senior position in the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). U Win Tin has spent one fifth of his life in jail for his peaceful opposition to the ruling military authorities and for his defence of human rights and freedom of expression.

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