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Proposed legislation crucial to reconciliation is being threatened by partisan stalling tactics in the Senate.

Conservative Senators yesterday prevented Bill C-262 being sent to Committee for review.

“This is a shameful moment for Canada,” said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, Union of BC Indian Chiefs. “It’s profoundly troubling that a crucial opportunity to now move ahead with the urgent work of reconciliation could be jeopardized by Conservative Senators resorting to procedural dirty tricks.”

Passage of Bill C-262 would establish a legislative framework for future governments to work collaboratively with Indigenous peoples to interpret and apply the global human rights standards set out in the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Nine people have been reportedly killed in Sudan since protesters began a sit-in at the military’s headquarters in Khartoum on 6 April, with police and security forces using excessive force to try and disperse protesters calling for President Omar al-Bashir to step down, Amnesty International has learned.

“The Sudanese authorities must stop firing at protesters peacefully exercising their freedom of expression. The killing of people who are simply taking a stand for what they believe in is completely unacceptable,” said Joan Nyanyuki, Amnesty International’s Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.

Amnesty International has verified that two men were killed early Tuesday morning, one close to his house in Omdurman as he returned from the sit-in. The other was killed after what appeared to be a skirmish between National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) and police on the one hand, and officers of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) on the other. An army officer was also reportedly shot in the head in the early morning clashes.

Responding to the guilty verdicts for “public nuisance” against nine leaders of the 2014 pro-democracy Umbrella Movement protests in Hong Kong, Man-kei Tam, Director of Amnesty International Hong Kong said:

“Today’s guilty verdicts are a crushing blow for freedom of expression and peaceful protest in Hong Kong. The government has used vague charges in their relentless persecution of the Umbrella Nine.

“The government is increasingly using prosecutions as a political tool to target peaceful activists, abusing the law to silence debate about sensitive issues such as Hong Kong democracy and autonomy. We urge the government to cease this chilling assault against people legitimately exercising their right to freedom of expression.”

Background

Among the nine activists convicted at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts are the co-founders of the “Occupy Central” campaign – legal scholar Professor Benny Tai Yiu-ting, sociologist Professor Chan Kin-man and retired pastor Reverend Chu Yiu-ming. 

The brutal forced eviction of 61 people, including 33 children, from a farming area in Eswatini one year ago has left in its wake a host of distressed children and poverty-stricken families struggling to survive, Amnesty International said following speaking to the affected families 12 months after they were made homeless.

On 9 April 2018, Eswatini authorities deployed armed police and bulldozers to demolish four homesteads in the Emphetseni farming area in the Malkerns town. Everyone lost their homes following the demolitions. Many of those evicted have lost their livelihoods as well as access to the graves of their loved ones.

“The forced evictions in Malkerns have destroyed people’s futures, including children whose education has been interrupted,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for Southern Africa.

“The affected families have been thrown into a cycle of poverty that they may never escape. They did not only lose their homes and livelihoods, but deep cultural connections with the land that they have known as their home for over six decades.”

A Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability Press Release

Canadian Network on Corporate AccountabilityThe Government of Canada failed today to appoint an independent Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) with real powers to investigate abuses and redress the harm caused by Canadian companies operating abroad.

Canadian companies operating overseas have been associated with widespread and egregious human rights abuses including forced labour, rape and murder.

Fifteen months ago, the government announced that it would create an independent office with the power to investigate. Instead, it unveiled a powerless advisory post, little different from what has already existed for years. It is clear that Canada needs an ombudsperson to help prevent Canadian complicity in corporate abuse and help ensure Canadian mining and garment supply chains respect human rights.

An ombudsperson operates at arms-length from government and has the power to order those under investigation to produce documents and testimony under oath. The advisory position created today does neither.

Egypt’s authorities must end their crackdown against critics who oppose amendments to the Egyptian constitution, proposed by members of parliament, that will strengthen impunity for human rights violations, said Amnesty International. Many of those who have criticized the changes have been arrested or publicly vilified in the media.

The organization is today publishing an analysis of the constitutional amendments which are currently being discussed by the Egyptian parliament. If passed, these measures will undermine the independence of the judiciary, expand military trials for civilians and could allow President Abdel Fattah to stay in power until 2034.

“If passed, these constitutional amendments would worsen the devastating human rights crisis Egyptians are already facing. They would grant President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and security forces free rein to further abuse their powers and suppress peaceful dissent for years to come,” said Magdalena Mughrabi, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International.

Today, Amnesty International released the organization’s 2019 Human Rights Agenda for Canada and called on all governments in the country to take a serious stance against human rights abuses, domestically and abroad. The report, Building Hope, Addressing Injustice, is being released with less than six months to go before the 2019 federal election, against an international backdrop of conflict, strife, and continued rise of political agendas fueling hate and demonization; and amidst a domestic context of growing divisive political rhetoric about refugees, violence against Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people, systemic discrimination against racialized communities, and failure to uphold the land rights of Indigenous peoples.