Today is World Refugee Day and for the first time in history you can witness refugee camp life in real time, live on the UNHCR refugeedaylive.org website between 2pm and 2am GMT (9am and 9pm EST).

Watch and gain insights into daily refugee camp life:

• A refugee mother cooking a meal for her children using refugee rations,
• Meet teachers and children in their school setting.
• Observe UNHCR front-line staff talking about their work.

You can donate to help refugees at the refugeedaylive.org website or visit UNHCR and learn more.

Tags: Global, Refugees, World Refugee Day

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Governments in Europe are putting lives at risk by denying refugees protection, Amnesty International warned today. On World Refugee Day, the doors to Europe are closing as the rights of those seeking sanctuary are ignored.

“Refugees are risking their lives to find safety only to be turned away when they reach Europe,” said Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central Asia Director at Amnesty International. “Governments must stop putting lives in danger and start meeting their international obligations to protect these vulnerable people.”

Countries at Europe’s border are showing a flagrant disregard for their international obligations towards refugees:

• Italy is intercepting refugees in international waters and physically transporting them, without assessing their protection needs, to Libya, where migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees are at risk of ill-treatment and forcible return to countries where they risk serious human rights abuses.
• Turkey continues not to recognise people from outside Europe as refugees, meaning thousands of people are denied the protection they need.
• Greece pushes back people at its land border and sea borders with Turkey without first assessing their asylum claims. For those that do enter the country there are many legal obstacles for refugees to gain protection.
• Spain’s bilateral agreements with several countries in Africa are used to justify the arbitrary arrest, detention and deportation of asylum-seekers and migrants in these countries.

On World Refugee Day, Amnesty International warns EU states that their actions are undermining the protection of refugees not only in their own countries but across the world, by sending a dangerous message on the treatment of refugees. All countries must meet their obligations towards refugees and asylum-seekers not only within their own borders but wherever they exercise effective control.

Background

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Tags: EU, Greece, Italy, Spain, Turkey

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The 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre is being marked with a vigil in Hong Kong, the only region in China allowed to commemorate the date. Around 150,000 people gathered in Victoria Park for the annual event, which was addressed by one of the 1989 student leaders, Xiong Yan.

Chinese Human Rights Defenders has documented the cases of sixty-five activists who have been subjected to harassment from officials in order to prevent them from organizing or taking part in activities commemorating the Tiananmen Massacre.  These individuals have been taken into police custody, had their movements restricted, been forced to leave their homes, or otherwise threatened or monitored by police. In addition to those documented, more are feared to have been subjected to similar forms of harassment, but may have chosen to keep quiet to avoid repercussions. Many of these individuals are signatories to Charter 08 and were participants in the 1989 pro-democracy movement.

Amnesty International say that as many as 200 people remain in detention for their involvement in the 1989 pro-democracy protests.

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Today China commemorates the first anniversary of the Sichuan Earthquake.

The earthquake left more than 87,000 people dead or missing.
While China has been widely praised for its rapid response to the Sichuan quake, questions remain unanswered.

Although the Government promised to investigate why so many schools collapsed during the earthquake and to hold individuals accountable if shoddy construction was to blame, no report has yet been published. Recently released figures of the number of school children who died have been disputed. There have also been reports of parents, rights activists and the media being harassed for campaigning to get officials to look into the issue.

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In Sri Lanka, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says government security forces continue operations in the conflict zone. Intense fighting has been reported over the weekend with a heavy toll on civilians, resulting in the loss of hundreds of lives and more injuries.
The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon is appalled at the killing of hundreds of civilians in Sri Lanka over the weekend. He has called on both sides, in the strongest terms possible, to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law and to stop using heavy-calibre weaponry, including mortars, in the areas with high civilian concentrations. Thousands of Sri Lankans have already died in the past several months due to the conflict, and more still remain in grave danger.

HRW report that Sri Lankan armed forces have repeatedly struck hospitals in the northern Vanni region in indiscriminate artillery and aerial attacks and warn that commanders responsible for ordering or conducting such attacks may be prosecuted for war crimes.

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Tags: Sri Lanka, War, War Crimes

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47 families are facing forced eviction fron the Borei Keila social land concession in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 32 of the families are affected by HIV/AIDS. The families have been living in the “green shed”, temporary accommodation whilst they’ve waited for over 2 years for new apartments to be allocated to them. Local authorities propose to resettle these families to the Tuol Sambo relocation site, 20km outside of Phnom Penh sometime this month to create space for a new Ministry of Tourism building. At Tu0l Sambo there is no clean water, sanitation or medical facilities.

Background:
Borei Keila in located in central Phnom Penh. It housed 1776 families, including 86 families affected by AIDS/HIV. Villagers first moved onto the land in 1992. In 2003 a land-sharing arrangement was proposed for Borei Keila, to allow a private company to develop part of the area for commercial purposes whilst providing alternative accommodation to residents. The idea was welcomed as villagers would receive compensation for their land in the form of apartments. The construction company Phanimex was granted a contract by the government to build 10 apartment buildings on 2 hectares of land in return for ownership of 2.6 hectares for commercial development. So far only 522 families have been allocated apartments, while more than 100 other families had their homes demolished and were left living under tarpaulins in very squalid conditions. There have been allegations of corruption and other irregularities in the allocation process, with some apartments being occupied by families who’d never been residents of Borei Keila before.

Link to LICADHO

Take Action: Send your appeal to the Cambodian government and demand that the authorities protect these families and guarantee adequate alternative housing with access to health services.

Tags: Cambodia, HIV/AIDS

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As a result of the international outcry following the video shown on ABC News on April 22, 2009 of  Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan torturing an Afghan grain dealer, UAE officials have announced that the sheik has been put under “house arrest” and prevented from leaving the country while the Ministry of Justice conducts a criminal investigation.

“The videotape of this episode shocked the world,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The report of the arrest was reassuring, but now the government needs to make the details public. Secretive prosecutions will not deter further abuses and torture.”

Link to HRW

Tags: Torture, UAE

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A few months ago, we received a request to disseminate a human rights survey.
Whilst some responses were received, more are needed in order to obtain the most diverse sample possible.
Please contribute to this survey, it’ll only take a few minutes.

The original human rights survey request can be read here.

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As the first anniversary of the May 12, 2008 Sichuan earthquake approaches, news from China tells of earthquake victim’s relatives being harassed, activists being arrested and the media being obstructed.

The struggle of the many parents who lost their children (in many cases their only child) to find out the reasons why so many school buildings collapsed with the resultant loss of so many young lives, while other surrounding building survived, are constantly thwarted by obstacles placed in their way.

The story of the parents courage in dealing with their unimaginable grief and the hindrances to their endeavours to uncover the truth about why so many school building collapsed is vividly shown in the forthcoming HBO documentary  “China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province” which premieres on Thursday, May 7 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

The roll-call of schools and the numbers of children who died in them, coupled with the framed photographs of children and the scenes of devastated  school buildings give an indication of the true scale of this human tragedy. Fuxin Primary School, 127 students died. Hanwang Primary School, 317 students died. Xinjian Primary School, 438 children died. Hongbai Schools, 430 children died.

The voices of the grieving parents with their justified belief that they are entitled to the truth and an explanation through an official investigation into the widespread allegations that corruption and the use of sub-standard building materials all exacerbated the impact of the earthquake are powerful and convincing.
The film follows a group of parents to Mianzu City to voice their complaints to the director of the Board of Education, one parent shows an official letter of compensation offering $317 per dead child. Another group of parents resolve to march 70 miles to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. When confronted by officials and police the parents make it clear that they are not seeking to criticise the Party or the Government, they simply want the government to represent them and investigate the allegations of corruption and sub-standard school buildings. En route to Chengdu the Fuxin parents are persuaded to go to the regional capital of Deyang. Officials in Deyang promise to visit the Fuxin school the next day and dully arrive with inspectors and engineers from the Architecture Institute. The film captures some of the inspectors/engineers admitting that the construction of the school was faulty, hard to deny given the evidence of foundation bricks with no mortar and concrete with wood embedded in it.
The parents are offered compensation of $8800 per child, this is tied to a pledge to “obey the law and maintain social order“. One parent makes it clear, its not about the money, they want the truth.  A group of parents from Fuxin file a suit seeking additional damages and a public apology, however their lawsuit is rejected.
Broadcast schedule for China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province.

Amnesty Internationals’ report “Justice Denied: Harassment of Sichuan earthquake survivors and activists” documents instances where some parents and relatives were detained for up to 21 days for trying to seek answers from officials about why their children died. Some have been detained repeatedly and the youngest detainee was only eight years old.
“By unlawfully locking up parents of children who died, the government is creating more misery for people who have said in some cases they lost everything in the Sichuan Earthquake,” said Roseann Rife Amnesty International Asia-Pacific Deputy Program Director. “The government of China must cease harassing earthquake survivors who are seeking answers and trying to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.”

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China has received several reports of journalists being harassed and detained in Sichuan province in the run up to the anniversary of last year’s earthquake.

• On April 1, a French journalist was working in Dujiangyuan on a story about a family whose daughter was killed in a school collapse when he and the family were stopped and detained by both uniformed and plain clothed police. The parents were released. The reporter was forced to go the police station and informed he needed to register to report in the area.
• On April 2, a German reporter was barred from Yingxiu while attempting to cover the area ahead of the first anniversary of the quake. The reporter was in a public cemetery amid a group of Chinese journalists interviewing relatives of the dead when authorities approached him and told him he had failed to register. They led him away from the cemetery.
• On April 6, a German television crew working in Shifang and nearby areas was physically prevented from filming and detained for over five hours. When the crew was waiting to meet the father of a child who died in a school collapse, unidentified men grabbed the man in front of the journalists.

“Parents of student quake victims, who are trying to understand how and why their children died, deserve answers and compassion, not threats and abuse,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “Persecuting quake victims and their relatives adds cruel insult to already grievous injury.”
Such harassment is occurring despite the Chinese government’s specific pledge in its new National Human Rights Action Plan, published on April 13, to protect the rights of Sichuan quake victims.

In addition to harassing victims’ family members, state security forces have also targeted individuals trying to investigate the possible causes of school collapses or compile lists of quake victims. Those individuals include:

• Huang Qi, a veteran dissident and founder of http://www.64tianwang.com/, a website dedicated to publicizing human rights abuses across China. Huang was detained on June 10, 2008 in Chengdu, while investigating allegations that shoddy construction had contributed to the collapse of schools in the earthquake. He was formally charged with “possessing state secrets” on July 18, 2008, and his trial was indefinitely postponed for undisclosed reasons in February 2009.
• Zeng Hongling, a retired university professor. After posting online critiques of building standards in the Sichuan earthquake zone, Zeng was arrested in May 2008 and faces “subversion” charges.
• Liu Shakun, a teacher. Liu was reportedly arrested and sentenced in August 2008 to one year of “re-education through labor” on the charge of “disseminating rumors and disrupting social order” for posting on-line photographs he had taken of collapsed schools in the Sichuan earthquake zone. Liu was released from a labor camp and allowed to serve the remainder of his sentence outside of custody on September 24, 2008.
• Tan Zuoren, a literary editor and environmentalist. After trying to compile a name list of children killed in the Sichuan earthquake, Tan was detained in March 2009 on suspicion of subversion.

Tags: China

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Reprieve is currently working urgently on behalf of Samantha Orobator, a twenty year old British woman in jail in Laos. Samantha, who is also pregnant with a child due on 6th September, is now facing a hastily arranged trial and possible death sentence.

Samantha left home in July 2008 for a holiday and, after visiting the Netherlands and Thailand, was arrested in Laos with 0.6 kg of heroin. If convicted next week, Samantha could face death by firing squad.

Despite having been detained in Phongthang Prison for more than eight months, Samantha has still has not been given access to legal representation. Samantha’s trial was unexpectedly brought forward last week, and Reprieve is now calling for urgent action by the British and Lao governments to ensure Samantha is given a fair trial.

Reprieve has sent UK barrister, Anna Morris, to Laos to visit Samantha. However, despite earlier guarantees by the Lao authorities that she would be allowed into the prison, she has been denied access. Speaking from Vientiane yesterday, Anna said: “I am deeply frustrated by the lack of access to this vulnerable young woman. This is preventing Reprieve from obtaining first hand knowledge of her welfare and how she is being treated in prison.”

Reprieve is also extremely anxious about the deplorable conditions inside the prison, and the health risks they may pose to both Samantha and her unborn child.

A representative from the Lao government will be visiting Britain tomorrow, and it is hoped the British government will use this as an opportunity to raise Samantha’s case.

Please support Reprieve’s campaign to bring Samantha home, by joining their facebook event.

You can send a written message of support directly to Samantha at, Samantha Orobator, c/o Phongthang Prison, Vientiane, Laos.

Reprieve would also like to urge you to write to Samantha’s Member of Parliament, Harriet Harman, requesting her to take urgent action on Samantha’s behalf. Letters can be sent to Harriet Harman MP, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA, or email harmanh@parliament.uk. Harriet Harman QC, is also Minister for Women, Leader of the House of Commons and Deputy Labour Leader.

You can support Reprieve in this important and valuable work by making a donation at www.reprieve.org.uk.

Tags: Laos, UK

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