We have just heard of the imminent execution of Sina Paymard, who was sentenced to death in Iran for a crime committed when he was just 16 years old. Sina may be executed within the next few hours.
From a press release we've just issued:
According to reports, he has been moved from Reja'i Shahr prison in Karaj, to Tehran's Evin prison, for his execution to be carried out.
Sina, a musician, was due to be executed in September last year for murder. On the gallows, his last request was to play the ney (a Middle Eastern flute) for the last time. The family of the victim was so moved by his playing that they granted him a last minute reprieve. Instead, they asked for 150 million toumans (over $US 160,000) as compensation. Sina's family, however, have not been able to raise the full amount.
Iran continues to have one of the highest rates of executions in the world. Amnesty International has recorded at least 124 executions since the beginning of 2007, suggesting that by the end of this year the total number of executions could exceed the total of 177 executions that Amnesty International recorded in 2006.
Two recent victims of the Iranian authorities' use of the death penalty were child offenders, whose alleged crimes were committed before the age of 18, and a third was a man who was stoned to death. The two child offenders -- Mohammad Mousavi and Sa'id Qanbar Zahi -- were executed in April and May respectively, in direct contravention of international law, which requires that no-one should be executed for crimes committed while under the age of 18.
Please take urgent action to halt the execution of Sina Paymard by visiting http://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions_details.asp?ActionID=301 and PLEASE post this on your blog, myspace page, Facebook wall, or anywhere else, so other people can do the same.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
imminent execution of a minor in Iran
Sunday, July 08, 2007
love is a human right - Amnesty blog
Amnesty is in the midst of an ongoing almighty battle against homophobia around the world, and especially in Eastern Europe. With the furore surrounding the gay pride parades in Riga and Jerusalem this summer, among others, this season has already proved to be an intense one for all those involved….. 
At the beginning of June a group from Amnesty in the UK joined Gay Pride marchers on Latvia’s 3rd ever Pride march, in the capital city Riga. The city authorities had tried to ban the march, but the courts overturned this decision and it went ahead:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6716287.stm
The key organisers were the inspiring Latvian gay rights group Mozaika:
http://www.mozaika.lv/index .php?lng=en
whose founder Linda is interviewed here:
http://web.amnesty.org/pages/lva-030507-background-eng
The march couldn’t have been more different from the party atmosphere of the well established Pride marches here in London or Manchester. The group was joined by 300+ seriously-well-armoured police who were there to keep the baying anti-gay counter-demonstrators at bay. One activist documented the march on his blog: http://blog.amnesty.org/rigapride/
It’s not enough to assume prejudice against LGBT people is only a problem elsewhere. A really worrying recent survey made by Stonewall shows that there is still serious homophobia in the UK: http://www.stonewall.org.uk/education_for_all/news/current_news/1794.asp
and 40 years since the law was changed here, decriminalising homosexuality (July 1967), there is clearly still a long way to go. 
Pride in London staged a mock Eurovision song contest and awarded “nil points” to certain countries… Blogged about on this blog: http://acediscovery.blogspot.com/search/label/eurovision
If you want to take action online, you can click on:http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=876
Gay Pride Paris 2006
Monday, June 11, 2007
Hi everyone,
Hope your Monday is going well so far. Just a quick note to steer you toward a few points of interest…
As some of you may already know, next week is the start of Refugee Week. Between the 18th and 24th of June, there will be a UK-wide programme of arts, cultural and educational events taking place to celebrate the contribution of refugees to the UK. There is a Refugee Week blog that you might find interesting at http://www.refugeeweek.org.uk/getinvolved/blog.htm, as well as several ways in which you can get involved. Check out http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=10221#blog to see what you can do to take part.
In the run-up to Refugee Week, we are reminded of the continuing crisis in Darfur and the countless numbers of people there who are being forced to flee their homes and livelihoods as refugees. Last week Amnesty launched the ‘Eyes on Darfur’ project. This project is a website for which Satellite cameras have been employed in order for ordinary people (like all of us) to monitor events on the ground in 12 Darfuri villages. The site is http://www.eyesondarfur.org/ and you can find out more about the project from our press release http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=17368.
Lastly, on a more flowery note, our web team have created a very cool animation and screensaver for blogs and websites which we thought you should see. Take a look at it and, if you like what you see, copy and past the code(s) at http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=10903. We think it is rather lovely indeed! Hope you do too and that it will grow its way around the web in no time.
That’s it for today. Until next time…
Liz and Steve
The Project Blog seedlings
Friday, June 01, 2007
Hello again from Amnesty's Project Blog team -
Are you free this Wednesday evening?
To mark the first anniversary of our irrepressible.info campaign, on Wednesday (6 June) we’re are hosting a global web conference on Internet Freedom, called ‘Some People Think the Internet is a Bad Thing: The Struggle for Freedom of Expression in Cyberspace’.
The event, which we’re hosting with The Observer newspaper, looks into the future of the Internet, exploring governments’ increasing attempts to repress freedom of expression and information online - with the help of some of the big Internet companies - and how web users are harnessing the power of the internet to resist them.
It involves some of the top names of the Web and will be broadcast live online at http://www.amnesty.org.uk/webcast
Speakers include victims of Internet repression from around the world; Internet entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox; Josh Wolf, jailed US blogger; Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia; Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software movement; Cory Doctorow from BoingBoing; and Kevin Anderson, head of blogging at The Guardian.
But…we need you (and people like you) to contribute!
The event is going to be webcast live at 18:30 UK time on Wednesday, 6 June. In addition to live speeches, it will involve podcasts and vodcasts from supporters unable to attend on the night and questions and other contributions emailed from bloggers and other passionate web-users, like ourselves, all over the world. Please tune in and contribute and tell everyone you know who’d be interested to do the same!
Here is the Irrepressible.info site to refresh your memory: http://irrepressible.info/
And look out for a big preview article in this weekend’s Observer newspaper
Also, there are some podcasts about the event and a whack of other information to share at http://www.amnesty.org.uk/irrepressible
We’d love you to spread the word and help us get everyone talking about the importance of Freedom of Expression in Cyberspace.
Hope you can join us!
Liz and Steve
Pro-Freedom of Expression Project Bloggers
Monday, May 28, 2007
Hi Allhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
Be afraid, be very afraid…
Amnesty launched its annual report today on the state of human rights around the world – it’s a massive, comprehensive round-up of the year’s human rights developments.
This year the report focuses on how governments and armed groups alike have used ‘the politics of fear’ to turn people against each other and create an increasingly polarised world.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
You can read more on our website at:
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=17360
or can see the whole report online at:http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
http://thereport.amnesty.org/eng/Homepage
and join the debate at the Guardian’s Comment is Free site at:
There are also video clips of key events at
And audio at:
The report also highlights attacks on freedom of expression in the last year, from the legal restrictions on journalists in Russia and Turkey - both countries where high-profile journalists were murdered – to the struggle for dissent online as activists used the internet to get stories out and governments tried to stop them. The Times’ take on the report is really interesting in that respect: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article1828944.ece
“Bloggers are on the frontline in the global rights battle’, says the Times.
We couldn’t agree more.
Spread the word,
Steve and Liz
The ‘Project Blog’ team at Amnesty
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Amnesty's blog projects
Having supposedly joined Amnesty's blog project months and months ago, I haven't done a thing with any of the campaigns they sent me, and the pile-up in my in-box is making me feel guilty! So even though this is a very lazy and uncreative response, I've got to cleanse my conscience (and my email account), so I'm just listing the campaigns below... I know, fairly lame... But I'm resolving to do much better with them from now on...! Promise...!
Free Zmitser Dashkevich!
10,000 crane birds for freedom of expression in Belarus
A legend says that if you fold 1,000 origami crane birds, your wish will be granted. Origami cranes have come to symbolise peace after the Second World War. Our wish today is for Belarus to restore freedom of expression and proceed with the immediate and unconditional release of all those who are detained for the legitimate and peaceful expression of their views.
We are appealing in particular for the release of youth opposition leader Zmitser Dashkevich. Zmitser was sentenced in November 2006 to one and a half years' imprisonment for 'organizing or participating in an activity of an unregistered non-governmental organization', under article 193, Part 1 of the Criminal Code. The Article was added to the Criminal Code in December 2005 as part of a series of amendments that introduced penalties for civil society organizations and other outspoken critics of the government, in the lead-up to the presidential elections in March 2006.
Join Make Some Noise and add your crane to free Zmitser Dashkevich! For your readymade origami print-out and a 'how-to' video, click here. Take a picture of your best origami crane(s) and upload it in the form below. Make Some Noise will then put all pictures online and track the progress towards the 10,000 cranes appeal. Once your picture has been uploaded, put your crane(s) in an envelope addressed to:
Minister of Internal Affairs
Vladimir V. NAUMOV
ul.Gorodskoi Val 4
220615 Minsk, BELARUS
Hello all,
Yesterday, we at Amnesty International UK launched a new UK web appeal in the Sunday Mirror on behalf of a 20-year-old woman artist facing execution in Iran
http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/sunday/tm_headline=the-young-girl-facing-a-public-hanging%26method=full%26objectid=18906927%26siteid=98487-name_page.html; we hope you can help with some campaigning by blogging about this web appeal. We’re asking people to go to our website
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=78and to write to the Iranian authorities, imploring them to stop the execution of Delara Darabi, who was just 17 at the time of her alleged crime.
Delara Darabi and her 19-year-old boyfriend Amir Hossein reportedly went to a woman’s house in 2003, where Amir Hossein allegedly killed the woman. Delara initially confessed to the murder, but subsequently retracted her confession. Delara says that Amir Hossein asked her to admit responsibility for the murder to protect him from execution, believing that as she was under the age of 18, she could not be sentenced to death.
Amnesty members around the world are urgently campaigning to stop Delara’s execution. You can link to our press release
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=17329
There’s also an active online campaign for Delara on MySpace
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=56004879&MyToken=a44f6827-7014-462f-99f0-57516a013cc4MLwith background material and pics of Delara, and an online petition too
http://www.stopchildexecutions.com/Delara.aspx
Much of Delara’s artwork was painted while she was in prison, awaiting execution and can be seen online at Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/infinit_pictures/sets/72157594338433737/
Iran executes more known child offenders than any other country, and, in 2006, Iran and Pakistan were the only countries in the world to continue to execute child offenders. At least 28 child offenders remain on death row in Iran and the country is known to have executed four child offenders last year.
Iin the past, Iran has commuted death sentences after international outcry, so we think this campaign could really make a difference. Hope you can help in any way you can – we’ll let you know if we hear any developments.
Until next time,
Liz and Steve
Project Blog Crew
Did you know that 2.5 million people have been driven from their homes in Darfur, Sudan? Each day, they face threats that are hard for us to even imagine including rape, disease, and starvation.
These people need our help to put an end to the genocide and they need it NOW.
Please join me in taking the first step to stopping the violence.
Sign the Save Darfur Coalition's petition urging President Bush and the UN Secretary-General to take immediate steps to stop the killing.
Together, we can make a difference in the lives of millions of people in the region who desperately need outside help.
The Save Darfur Coalition is urging the international community to prevent further killings, displacement, and rape by deploying the UN peacekeeping force that has already been authorized, strengthening the understaffed African Union force that is already in Darfur, establishing a no-fly zone, increasing humanitarian aid, and ensuring access for delivery of food, medication and other essential supplies.
Please do not stand by while the violence continues - you can make a difference.
Go to
http://www.SaveDarfur.orgto get involved.
Then please forward this message to your friends and family and ask them to join you.
If you'd like to make a donation to support the campaign, you can do so at:
http://www.SaveDarfur.org/Donate
Thank you for your help
So, did you think the death penalty is a thing of the past? Maybe that it died out with witch burning (or at least after major miscarriages of justice showed how fallible capital punishment is)?
Think again.
Last week we published our global survey of executions in 2006. It shows that at least 1,591 people were executed in 25 countries last year - the majority in China (1,010), Iran (177), Pakistan (82), Iraq (65), Sudan (65) and USA (53) - but that these are only minimum figures. China, for example, refuses to even publish execution statistics and it secretly executes 7,000-8,000 each year.
Do they get what they deserve? Well, this is what it can involve:
· A man in Somalia was publicly stabbed to death after being hooded and tied to a stake
· A Sri Lankan man was found to be still alive and moving by morgue staff after being hanged in Kuwait - he died five hours after the hanging
· In Japan a man was taken to the gallows in a wheelchair
· In Iran, two people (a man and a woman) were stoned to death - stoning was made the punishment because they were accused of adultery
Check out the full gory details:
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=17344
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_17696.pdf
One of the latest shocking cases we’ve come across involves a 17-year-old Kurdish girl called Du’a Khalil Aswad who was stoned to death in Iraq last month. This was a so-called ‘honour killing’ because she and a boy had supposedly brought shame on their community. Horrifically, local security people reportedly stood by and let the stoning happen.
For the full story, check out:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE140272007?open&of=ENG-IRQ
And, there’s a disturbing set of photos of Du'a Khalil after she’d been stoned at:
http://kurdistannet.info/2007/4-2007/24-4/keleast.pdf
There is a way in which you can take action on other cases to help prevent further executions. One such case is the case of Delara Darabi, the 19-year-old woman in Iran who could be executed within weeks – the case we emailed you about in the middle of April. We are asking people to go to the link and send appeals to the Iranian government to urgently stop this execution. Please check out Delara’s case and spread the word to as many people as possible:
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions_details.asp?ActionID=9
As always, thank you all for your support.
Until next time,
Liz and Steve
The Project Blogsters
Hi all,
Many of you will be familiar with the media reports of village-burning, mass rape, killings and lootings by armed men pillaging their way across the western Sudanese region of Darfur.
But like us, you might be asking - why, when the evidence of enormous human suffering is so clear, is nothing done to protect these people? Didn’t the whole world say ‘never again’ after the Holocaust, and after what happened in Rwanda? Isn’t this why we have international law and human rights?
Amnesty International has been reporting on the crisis in Darfur since 2003. Our reports, such as one in 2004 that exposed how rape was being used systematically to terrorise the Darfuri population, helped to raise awareness of the crisis and to get the UN to start talking and at least get monitors into the region:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engafr540762004
This kind of evidence from the frontline, based on what people on the ground report to Amnesty, is critical in getting the international community to listen and to act. But it works best when it is supported by activists who share the message, tell others, and when necessary take to the streets – as 1000s of us did at the end of April:
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=10871
This month, Amnesty staff member Kerry Smith has been in eastern Chad, interviewing people who have been displaced from their homes in attacks very similar to those which have taken place in Darfur. The crisis has truly spread across the Sudanese-Chad border.
You can read her extremely moving reports in a special blog sent direct from Chad here:
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs_entry.asp?eid=414
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs_entry.asp?eid=415
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs_entry.asp?eid=420
Amnesty will deliver a formal report on our findings to governments soon, calling for an effective peace-keeping force to be sent to Darfur, and to Chad, to protect people now. You can help us make this work more effective by telling those you know about the crisis, linking to our blogs and special reports, and joining us when we demonstrate on behalf of the Darfuri people. The latest info is always here:
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=10592
Thanks for your support.
Until next time,
Liz and Steve
The Project Blogsters
Hey, everyone,
Infant Mortality is defined as the percentage of infants who die between birth and their first birthday. It one of the leading measurement of health and economic welfare of any given population. These numbers are rising in the southeast of the United States - 17 out of 1000 black babies die in their first year in Mississippi - vs. 6.6 for every 1000 white babies.
I am working towards midwifery within a framework of social justice, so I wanted to share this information with you. This article has it's issues - I won't go into a full critique, but notably lacking is any mention of the systematic eradication of the granny midwives tradition in the southeast, nor any mention of the impact of the many missing men from these communities, due to the high incarceration rates among young black men in the southeast. Nevertheless, the information is important and the article even mention some viable models for improving the situation. Included is an excellent audio slideshow.
Please read this article and feel free to forward this to anyone you might know who could be interested. It makes me proud to be involved in providing good care for the pregnant women I meet and the revolutionary models of healthcare that are working in New Orleans, but also ashamed at the continued class and race divisions in this country, particularly around health care. With hope and resistance,
~ Kate
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/health/22infant.html?pagewanted=1&hp
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