The images are impossible to forget.
Men, women and children, many with nothing more than tiny backpacks, walking with thousands of others on a long, exhausting, perilous journey from Honduras, through Guatemala and across the Mexican border.
A woman holding a sick baby in her arms, her face lined with worry.
In January 2018, the Government of Canada announced the creation of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise, the first of its kind in the world.
We are deeply concerned however that, 10 months after the announcement, the ombudsperson is still not in place. Communities around the world who are looking to Canada for a credible process to protect their rights continue to wait.
There is an urgent need to turn promises into action.
It is time for all of us to call on the Government of Canada to urgently implement its commitments by naming an independent ombudsperson with the mandate and tools to conduct independent investigations.
We need your help! Please phone, hand-deliver a letter, or meet in person with your Member of Parliament (MP). Next week (November 12 – 16) is an ideal time to do so, because MPs will be in their home ridings.
We strongly encourage you to contact your MP about this important issue. It is particularly important to do so if you live in one of the following key ridings:
by Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International
Guatemala has a historic unsettled debt regarding the quest for justice for crimes under international law and other serious human rights violations committed during the 1960-1996 armed conflict. Today, more than twenty years later, the country faces another major challenge to ensure access to justice and to effectively combat impunity in the country.
It was recently announced that the activities of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) had ended; that the CICIG Commissioner, Iván Velásquez, was banned from entering the country; and that visas for several CICIG staff members had been denied or revoked, among other measures. These were just the most recent efforts by the Guatemalan authorities to undermine and hinder the work of one of the key institutions in the struggle for truth and justice.
One month ago, on October 2nd, Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. What happened next was a series of dramatic and horrifying events that unfolded as we watched in real time on our screens and smart phones from around the world. His friends, family, colleagues, activists, politicians, and concerned people from around the world asked, “Where is Jamal?”
People often assume that the world is divided neatly into two groups of people, male and female, and that everyone’s biological and genetic characteristics fit into one of these two categories.
But this is not always the case. There are millions of people around the world who have sexual characteristics that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies. Many, though not all, of these people identify as intersex.
Intersex is an umbrella term used to describe a wide range of natural variations that affect genitals, gonads, hormones, chromosomes or reproductive organs. Sometimes these characteristics are visible at birth, sometimes they appear at puberty, and sometimes they are not physically apparent at all.
Myth 2: Being intersex is very rareAccording to experts, around 1.7% of the population is born with intersex traits - comparable to the number of people born with red hair.
So you've signed up to host a Write for Rights event. THANK YOU! Your time and enthusiasm means more people are taking action for human rights on December 10! (Haven't signed up yet? You can still sign up HERE!)
Are you hosting a Write for Rights event? Join our short online training for event organisers on Thursday, 1 November 20178. You can register for the training here!
Planning to write on your own? Join our online webinar for individuals to learn more about Write for Rights on Tuesday, 27 November 2018. You can register for the webinar here!
We've put together a few tips to help you make the most of your event, whether it's just a few people in your living room or a big event downtown!
Our global letter-writing marathon is now more than 15 years old, and bigger and better than ever before.
It started in Poland with a young man trying to impress a young woman. He met her at a festival and she told him about 24-hour events she’d been to in Africa, where people wrote letters of protest to governments. Inspired by her story – and wanting to see her again – he invited her to his local Amnesty group where they decided to do the same thing.
The idea caught on and within a year, Write for Rights grew into a global letter-writing phenomenon. That was 2002. Today, Write for Rights is the world’s biggest human rights event, and with good cause. Over the years, the campaign has helped free at least 48 people from wrongful imprisonment. That’s 48 lives renewed and transformed – thanks to millions of actions by people like you in almost every part of the world.
Here are just 15 highlights from the last 15 years – reason, if any, to get writing for rights this year.
Prisoners under sentence of death around the world are often subjected to the most cruel conditions of detention. In many cases, they are kept in strict isolation, lack access to necessary medications and live with the constant anxiety of the threat of execution. Some governments notify prisoners and their relatives a matter of days or even moments before their execution.
Amnesty International has documented appalling abuses across the world. To mark World Day Against the Death Penalty it’s launching a campaign highlighting cases in Belarus, Ghana, Iran, Japan and Malaysia where death penalty cruelty is rife.
Solitary confinement, with or without the use of restraining devices, is a common practice on death row. In the case of Matsumoto Kenji, a death row prisoner in Japan, this particularly inhumane punishment has been the likely trigger of a delusional disorder that has reportedly made him paranoid and incoherent.
It was a day of expectation, emotion and drama. The long awaited first day of the trial of 8 men charged with involvement in the murder of iconic indigenous rights and environment defender Berta Cáceres.
The case has attracted considerable attention, in part because Berta was so well known and the recipient of a prestigious Goldman Environmental prize for her efforts to oppose a controversial hydroelectric dam and its impact on the territory and rights of marginalized Indigenous communities.
Police in riot gear were ominously present as I arrived at the court house in my yellow Amnesty vest, making visible to all that our global movement of 7 million supporters will be observing the trial in the hope of ensuring impartial justice, while respecting the independence of the Honduran judiciary.
Take ACTION in September-October to help us make an IMPACT during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign in November-December!
Amnesty International Canada has long been campaigning alongside organizations like Women's Shelters Canada for a National Action Plan to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence. Read this to learn more about why Canada so badly needs a national action plan.
Join the global movement for human rights.
