Help Libyans Before It's Too Late.

I've watched with horror as events in Libya unfolded over the past few days, it makes you feel so helpless to do anything to help. I have however found two actions you and I can take to put pressure on the governments of the world to do something.
This first link is from Amnesty International and you can send an email to ask William Hague to tighten UK arms controls. As it seems the weapons being used on peaceful protestors in Libya were made and supplied by a company in Leicetershire! Click here to find out more and send the email.
The second link is from Avaaz.org and is calling for the UN to stop the crackdown in Libya Click here to add your support.
It annoys me to think we invaded Kosovo and Iraq for less than what is going on Libya right now, it just goes to show that it wasn't about Human Rights abuse at all. If it were we would have invaded China and Libya years ago, Kosovo was just a rehersal for Iraq and Afghanistan, and they were just about Bush family vendetta's and oil.

Happy International Womens Day

Today is almost the 100th international women's day (the centenary will be next year), in 1910 a woman named Clara Zetkin (Leader of the 'Women's Office' for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) suggested the idea of an international day for women to press for our demands. The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries greeted Zetkin's suggestion with unanimous approval and thus International Women's Day was the result. Despite celebrating nearly 100 years of economic and social development for women around the world, we are tragically still witnessing the needless deaths of thousands of women every day in child birth or from pregnancy related factors.
Amnesty International are working to lobby world leaders to show real commitment to improving the situation and making sure an improvement in global maternal health is priority. Ten years ago world leaders committed to a millennium development goal of cutting the rate of maternal deaths by 75% by 2000 and 2015, we are way of track. Recent statistics reveal that in some parts of the world pregnant women are no better off than they were in 1910, a statement that shocked me when I read it earlier.
You can help by uploading a photograph of yourself and your mother to their flickr group here (or emailing it directly to them from this page) and they will be used to make giant card they will give to the prime minister later this year. If you don't have picture of yourselves together in a digital format you can use a picture of yourself with any mother you know, and you don't have to be from the UK to take part. You can also take action by sending an email Gordon Brown (The Prime Minister) Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrat leader) and David Cameron (The Conservative leader) visit this page to send your email.

International Day Of The Disappeared.

Today is the 25th annual International Day For The Disappeared, thousands of people all over the world go missing for their political beliefs or what they stand for. These people are secretly imprisoned or perhaps even executed and their remains hidden, some have been gone for over 25 years.
Enforced Disappearance is a grave Human Rights violation and a crime, It is defined when the authorities take someone then deny they have them or that they ever took them. Enforced disappearances have occurred across the world - in Sri Lanka, Russia, El Salvador, Morocco, Iraq, Thailand, Pakistan, Bosnia, Equatorial Guinea, Egypt and Argentina, to name a few. No one is immune; victims have included men, women and children.
Imagine the agony of knowing the government or military have taken your loved one, even knowing where they probably are, and standing outside that place only to hear denial and be told to go home. and when you call the Police they are unhelpful and dismissive.
There are several things you can do today to help take action. Just Read This Page and take the actions at the bottom, and if you use twitter don't forget to tweet about it and change your facebook status.
And you can also click the button below to show your support.

16 year old Mexican beaten unconcious by Police because of his hir style

I received this email a couple of days ago from Amnesty bloggers:

Hello all,

I don’t know about you but I’ve definitely had some interesting hairstyles in my time. Those who knew me a few years ago wouldn’t have been surprised to see me with a different hairstyle every other week. I’ve always taken for granted that I could express myself through my hair and never once thought I could be attacked for it.

But it seems as though that’s exactly what’s happened to a 16 year old student and graffiti artist in Mexico. Amnesty International has received reports that José Emiliano Nandayapa Gomez was beaten unconscious by police officers in Chiapas state in southern Mexico and was apparently accused of having a “subversive” hairstyle.

Three police officers are alleged to have kicked and punched 16-year-old Jose, stepped on his back, head and legs. They’re then reported to have said to him “what a lovely subversive haircut you have, here’s your revolution, get the weapons and the drugs out.” They went on to tell him, “if you keep on the same path, you won’t live to tell the tale.”

They then kicked him in the face and he lost consciousness.

Amnesty’s expressed concern about the news of this case. Perhaps more so because we know that just a few months ago a 16-year-old graffiti artist was shot and killed in another part of the same state – San Cristobal de las Casas.

Amnesty is urging its supporters to urge Mexican authorities to guarantee the safety of José and his family. You can click here for more information and to take action.

Thanks Amnesty bloggers

We’ll speak to you again next week.

Eulette

I was shocked when read it though one thing they don't mention is was the kid doing graffiti when they attacked him? Not that it matters as a kick in the face is not an appropriate punishment in my opinion, but it would mean it wasn't just about his hair cut.
People are divided about Graffiti artists some people think that it's all just vandalism and others think it's amazing. Our own Banksy has been paid millions to go and do graffiti inside peoples houses, I notice they call him a "Street Artist" on his website too not "Graffiti". The bottom line is these guys aren't just scrawling "I was ere" then drawing a cock and 2 balls, they are creating something beautiful it's just whether they are doing it in the appropriate place or not.
If this was just over the kids hair cut then it's a terrible thing and the Police in Mexico need some training in human rights is all I can say, if you feel the same then click the link above and take action.

Challenge Barack Obama.

Amnesty International has started a campaign to challenge Barack Obama to do more for human rights in his first 100 days as president. Amnesty welcomes President Obama’s positive moves in his first days in office to: close Guantánamo; suspend trials by military commission; end the CIA’s secret detention programme and ban torture and other ill-treatment. But there is still much more to be done click the banner or the post title to find out what you can do to help. There is a petition to sign and numerous other actions you can take just visit the banner to see the whole site.

Human Rights For China

Yet another Amnesty International campaign but one that is sorely needed click here or on the banner in my side bar to join their campaign for human rights for china. You can add your own banner to your profile or blogs and send email to help stop the death penalty (which is applicable to 68 crimes in China) and help end the torture of Bu Dongwei prisoner of conscience and because of his religion, demand Justice for Huang Jinqui a journalist imprisoned for "subversion", and campaign for the release of Hu Jia A human rights activist plus several other human rights activists, all from the one page. It will only take a few moments and Amnesty's campaigns have been successful time and time again so it really is worth your time.

Unsubscribe To Human Rights Abuse.

I am a supporter of Amnesty International and have just received information of a new campaign by them about the interrogation techniques the CIA are still employing in the "War On Terror". The video below is rather disturbing but I urge you to watch it and sign up to "unsubscribe" and help with this campaign.

Take Action To Stop Two Sisters Being Stoned To Death In Iran For Adultery!

You may have noticed I have an amnesty international badge in my sidebar, I am a member of the charity and regularly take action by sending emails or letters when I'm notified by the charity. Today I found a particularly disturbing one, two sisters are going to stoned to death for adultery in Iran:

"Zohreh Kabiri-niat and her sister Azar, are facing execution by stoning, for "adultery", a charge which they deny. They were arrested on 4 February 2007 after claims that they had had "illicit relations". They were initially sentenced, along with a third sister, to flogging, with this sentence reportedly being carried out.
However, a fresh charge of "committing adultery while being married" was then brought against Zohreh and Azar, where they were both found guilty and their sentence of death by stoning was then approved by the Supreme Court."

We all know adultery is wrong but I'm sure there's no one reading this who agrees these women deserve to die for it, especially not in this horrific manner:

"Iran's Penal Code prescribes execution by stoning. It even dictates that the stones are large enough to cause pain, but not so large as to kill the victim immediately. Article 102 of the Penal Code states that men should be buried up to their waists and women up to their breasts for the purpose of execution by stoning. Article 104 states, with reference to the penalty for adultery, that the stones used should "not be large enough to kill the person by one or two strikes; nor should they be so small that they could not be defined as stones".

And also bear in mind the women deny it too, so they probably are innocent, and even if they are guilty it is barbaric to kill them or even flog them in my opinion.

To take action against this and send an email to the relevant people please copy and paste this link.

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions_details.asp?ActionID=406