Human Rights

Hundreds of migrant workers continue to live in a climate of fear, poverty stricken, subjected to inhuman conditions and indebted to gangmasters, a report published today reveals. 'Experiences of Forced Labour in the UK Food Industry', a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and one of the largest studies into the plight of those in the industry from farm and factory workers through to those toiling in restaurants, found a catalogue of abusive practices.  Its researchers discovered workers were subjected to racist or sexist bullying and threats. Isolated, unable to speak English and unaware of their rights, many complained of feeling depressed and some were driven to self harm. Terri Judd, Independent, 15/05/12
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The Co-operative Group has become the first major European supermarket group to end trade with companies that export produce from illegal Israeli settlements.   Read More...

Read the new report Fair Games? on the conditions of workers making goods for the Olympic games. Official Olympic clothing sold by Next is claimed to have been produced in sweatshop conditions in Sri Lanka. The allegation comes days after the high street chain unveiled the formal outfits that Team GB will wear at the opening ceremony. TAKE ACTION: Following the shocking findings of the report, you can contact brands producing kit for Olympic consumers, athletes and volunteers, to tell them to do more to protect workers' rights. Read more at the Independent on Sunday   

Eight indigenous people were brutally murdered by criminal loggers - simply because they were trying to protect their forest. A staggering 80 percent of the trees and their livelihood have been cleared by illegal loggers. However, so far police has failed to start investigations.
Please demand the protection of the Purépecha and their forest. (Rainforest Rescue)   Read More...

Many of Brazil's Awá are still uncontacted, and they are running for their lives. A wave of illegal loggers, settlers and ranchers have invaded their lands, and time is running out. A major new campaign is being launched to save the Awá, and your help is needed. ‘One man has the power to stop the loggers: Brazil’s Minister of Justice. But it’s just not his priority. Let’s push it up his list.’ Please watch the new film, and take a few seconds to send a message to Brazil's Minister of Justice: he can send in the federal police to catch the loggers, and keep them out for good.   Read More...

Suspected Islamic terrorists killed as many as 20 Christian worshippers in an attack on a makeshift church at a university in northern Nigeria. Several small bombs, believed to have been fashioned from fizzy drinks cans, were thrown into a lecture hall that was being used for a Sunday morning service in Kano, a city that has been repeatedly attacked by Muslim radicals. The explosions killed one person and injured many others. But as the crowd fled the lecture hall, gunmen waiting outside opened fire with automatic rifles. Within minutes, as many as 19 others were killed, and their bodies littered the campus grounds as the gunfire continued for up to half an hour more, witnesses said.  Telegraph 29/04/12
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EDM 2951: Greenwash Gold
EDM 2969: Ethical Trading Standards and the London 2012 Olympics
please ask your MP to sign both EDM's. find out who your MP is at http://www.writetothem.com/
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Men account for more than two-fifths (41%) of adult victims of human trafficking in England and Wales helped by the Salvation Army, contrary to the public perception that the crime almost exclusively affects women. The finding comes in a survey by the charity, which provides specialist support for the adult victims of trafficking on behalf of the Ministry of Justice. The charity's survey found that 45% of those it supported had been forced into sexual exploitation, 43% were involved in labour exploitation and 8% were trafficked into domestic servitude. The Guardian 26 April 2012
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In the Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea sexual violence against young girls, and the shame and stigma that follows, is forcing many out of school and others into early marriage.  A recent study by Médecins Sans Frontières, one of the country's main providers of medical and psychological assistance to survivors of family and sexual violence, showed that from 2008 to 2011, a significant proportion of patients who received treatment as a result of violence were children, some under the age of five. Reliefweb, 06/04/12
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The Turkmen government's clampdown on freedom of expression and repression of civil society activism, torture and ill-treatment in places of detention, and the lack of an independent judiciary topped the committee's concerns. The committee also criticized the government's "refusal to grant entry visas to international human rights organisations," including no fewer than 10 UN rapporteurs, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and nongovernmental organizations. Human Rights Watch, 30/03/12

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The Afghan government should release the approximately 400 women and girls imprisoned for 'moral crimes', Human Rights Watch said in a new report. These 'crimes' usually involve flight from unlawful forced marriage or domestic violence. The fall of the Taliban  in 2001 promised a new era of women's rights. Significant improvements have occurred, yet the imprisonment of women and girls is just one sign of the difficult present and worrying future faced by Afghan women and girls. Human Rights Watch, March 28, 2012   Read More...

Possession of a nationality is essential for the protection of every child. As set out in article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). This is important because while human rights are generally to be enjoyed by everyone, selected rights may be limited to nationals. For example, only 'citizens' have the unrestricted right to enter and reside in a country under international law. Stateless persons may therefore end up without any residence status or, worse, in prolonged detention. Statelessness also causes difficulties in a range of other areas, including travel, access to education and healthcare, and heightens the risk of trafficking. Statelessness may lead to displacement. Refworld   Read More...

Immigration procedures can favour administrative convenience over safeguarding individuals' rights to liberty and security. Periods in detention can be unlawful if release or removal is not imminent. The UN High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) has criticised Britain's use of fast track detention for asylum applicants for administrative convenience rather than last resort,
 and the lack of adequate safeguards to guarantee fairness of procedure and quality decision making.  The length of time in detention for those who have committed no crime risks breaching the right to liberty and security under Article 5.   Read More...

From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe women have been heavily using social media to focus global attention on areas where inequalities prevail. International Women's Day (IWD) 2012 has been a big hit on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn, among other networking sites. Each year the United Nations declares an overall International Women's Day theme. Their 2012 theme is "Empower Rural Women - End Hunger and Poverty". (Ekklesia)   Read More...

London 2012 chair Sebastian Coe has come under pressure over revelations that workers in Bangladesh producing clothes for Adidas, the official sportswear partner of the 2012 Games, are illegally paid less than the minimum wage. Claims have also emerged of illegal working hours as well as bullying and violence by factory managers. (Ekklesia)
See also Labour behind the Label   Read More...

Our duty to Sri Lanka, and human rights. It is not just Sri Lanka's people that the UN Human Rights Council must serve this week, but the cause of international law. This week the UN Human Rights Council has an opportunity and a duty to help Sri Lanka advance its own efforts
on accountability and reconciliation. Both are essential if a lasting peace is to be achieved. In doing so, the council will not only be serving Sri Lanka, but those worldwide who believe there are universal rights and international legal obligations we all share. Guardian, 26 February 2012   Read More...

In what are understood to be the Court of Appeal's first rulings on child trafficking for labour exploitation, Lord Judge said implementation of the convention should normally be achieved by "long-established prosecutorial discretion". He said this enabled the CPS, however strong the evidence might be, to decide that it would be inappropriate to proceed with the prosecution of a defendant unable to plead duress as a defence but who falls "within the protective ambit" of article 26. "This requires a judgment to be made by the CPS in the individual case in the light of all the available evidence," Lord Judge said.  Solicitors Journal, 21 February 2012
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Child Recruitment, Forced Marriage, and Attacks on Schools
Somalia's warring parties have all failed to protect Somali children from the fighting or serving in their forces, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Islamist insurgent group al-Shabaab has increasingly targeted children for recruitment, forced marriage, and rape, and attacked teachers and schools.  Human Rights Watch, 21/02/12   

That this House strongly condemns the Chinese security forces' unwarranted use of force  including opening fire on unarmed demonstrators to quash peaceful protests in Tibet; Primary sponsor: Fabian Hamilton, Jeremy Corbyn, date tabled: 08/02/2012   Read More...

The Report  documents human rights abuses worldwide including: mistreatment of migrants in Western Europe; violations of the laws of war in Libya and Afghanistan; the plight of political prisoners in Vietnam and Eritrea; the silencing of dissent in China and Cuba; internet crackdowns in Iran and Thailand; killings by security forces in India and Mexico; election-related problems in Russia and the DR Congo; neglectful maternal health policies in Haiti and South Africa; suppression of religious freedom in Indonesia and Saudi Arabia; torture in Pakistan and Uzbekistan; discrimination against people with disabilities in Nepal and Peru; detention without trial in Malaysia and by the United States.   Read More...

New EDM added 12 Jan 2102
EDM 2589: Christians In Nigeria

EDM 2472 Amendment of the Rome Statute of The International Criminal Court

EDM 2556: Elections in Democratic Republic of Congo

EDM 2558: Guantánamo Bay
  

The Catholic community in Glasgow has been served by several Nigerian priests in recent years. In his New Year message, Archbishop Mario Conti expressed his support and concern for Christians in Nigeria that suffered violent attacks over Christmas.   Read More...

Action by Christians Against Torture have provided lists of prisoners in many countries whose hope may depend upon receiving a message, card or some communication from us in the free world; please give this urgent consideration and action, but please do observe their advice concerning exactly how to communicate our support with sensitivity to their predicament. 
Full Christmas Card list 2011 .pdf   

Inquiry says Women, men and children trafficked into Britain not seen as victims of crime whose rights have been breached. The victims of human trafficking, including women forced into the sex industry or trapped as unpaid domestic servants, are being unfairly treated as criminals and illegal immigrants, an inquiry has found. Guardian, Severin Carrell, 27/11/2011   Read More...

Both the global economic downturn and the pending London Olympic year bring issues involving the exploitation of vulnerable workers into sharp focus in the UK, says a major ecumenical Christian agency working for corporate responsibility. The wide-ranging nature of this exploitation and the opportunities for large companies to do more to prevent it were discussed by five expert speakers in at a public panel debate organised by the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility (ECCR) London on 17 November 2011.   Read More...

El Salvador has bestowed the first 'Amigo de El Salvador' award on the London-based Archbishop Romero Trust, which celebrates the legacy of human rights advocate Archbishop Oscar Romero. On 11 November 2011 Hugo Martinez, El Salvador's minister for foreign affairs, presented a gold medallion at a London reception to the trust chair, Julian Filochowski, and said the award was in honour of the trust's stalwart social justice work.   Read More...

Management at Nestle's giant Kabirwala dairy factory in Pakistan - a state-of-the art facility with a feudal industrial relations system - is criminalizing the union's fight for the rights of hundreds of contract workers at the plant. Email Nestle   Read More...

Human trafficking is serious, international, organised crime. The money generated from it (an estimated $32 billion per annum worldwide) is only marginally less than from arms dealing and drug smuggling. We call on the Government to establish an independent watchdog, in line with the recommendations of the CoE Convention on trafficking in human beings (#29.4), to which the UK is a party, to monitor the performance of key agencies ensuring that victims' needs and experience are central. The watchdog should report to Parliament on a regular basis to ensure transparency and accountability.   Read More...

Despite this year's vote by South Sudan for independence, churches in Sudan and South Sudan have decided to remain united, mainly to help denominations in Muslim-majority Sudan. Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church have approved maintaining one conference covering the two states, alluding to shared history and existing "very real practical human links."   Read More...

Human Rights Watch has revealed that serious human rights violations persist in Burma, despite an apparent commitment by the government to defend human rights. HRW's deputy Asia director said yesterday that "while the new government has passed reformist laws and promised policy changes, the real test will be the reaction when Burmese citizens try to avail themselves of their rights." She added that "atrocities against civilians in conflict zones, torture of political prisoners, and courts that justify repression have been features of the first year of nominally civilian rule as much as the announced reforms."  Human Rights Watch, 4th November   Read More...

Chinese-run copper mining companies in Zambia routinely flout labor laws and regulations designed to protect workers' safety and the right to organize. Zambia's newly elected president, Michael Sata, a longtime critic of the Chinese labor practices, should act on his campaign promises to end the abuse and improve government regulation of the mining industry to ensure that all companies respect Zambia's labor laws.  Human Rights Watch, 03/11/11   Read More...

Victims of human trafficking who end up in the UK could be forced to claim asylum to stay in the country, the general secretary of the Immigration Law Practitioners Group has warned. Alison Harvey said asylum claims would continue to be publicly funded under the legal aid bill, but other immigration cases would not, apart from those involving detention or questions of national security.
Solicitors Journal, 25 October 2011   Read More...

The United Nations independent expert on the situation of human rights in Iran today voiced concern over alleged violations in the country's judicial system, citing practices such as torture, cruel or degrading treatment of detainees, and the imposition of the death penalty without proper safeguards.   Read More...

Burma's armed forces have committed serious abuses against ethnic Kachin civilians in renewed fighting in Kachin State, Human Rights Watch said today. Since hostilities began over five months ago against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), Burmese armed forces have been responsible for killings and attacks on civilians, using forced labor, and pillaging villages, which has resulted in the displacement of an estimated 30,000 Kachin civilians. Human Rights Watch, October 18, 2011   Read More...

Reports from the BBC's Uzbek service and other Uzbek news sources confirm that the 2011 cotton harvest has started and yet again children and adults are being forced to pick cotton, with some schoolchildren reported to have been working 7 days a week under watch by local administration observers.   Read More...

Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights, Strasbourg, 15/09/11
The importance of the work of human rights defenders is recognised in international conventions. The UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders lists several fundamental rights necessary for the work of human rights defenders, such as freedom of association, peaceful assembly, expression and opinion. Many of these rights are also enshrined in other binding human rights treaties of the UN, in the European Convention on Human Rights and in the OSCE commitments.   Read More...

Sign the pledge
With less than a year to go before the start of the London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games, Anti Slavery are launching a new campaign for a Slavery-Free London to draw attention to the potential risk of an increase in modern slavery connected to the 2012 Games, and ensure more is done to stop it in the run up to and during the event.   Read More...

Created By God, Treated Like Slaves: Tackling Human Trafficking
This year's Racial Justice Sunday resources are based around the theme "Created by God, Treated like Slaves: Tackling Human Trafficking" and "Love your neighbour as yourself, do this and you will live" from Luke 10:27-28.   Read More...

What's the role of human rights in a period of cut backs to public services? What is the role of human rights in protecting the vulnerable? Do human rights offer an effective tool for people wishing to challenge the impact of service cuts or changes? How do we make sure we balance one person's rights against the interests of society as a whole?  These are the questions at the heart of a National Human Rights Tour by the British Institute of Human Rights.  There will be 16 free-to-attend events taking place across the UK between September and December 2011
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Urgent Request from Anti Slavery International   Read More...

President Aquino came into power a year ago. Since then, his military has been linked to the murder of seven activists and the disappearance of three more. Investigations into military-related killings and disappearances often lose momentum quickly or are stopped entirely, allowing the military to continue their violence unchecked. Take action sign the petition   Read More...

Government forces in Ivory Coast have been accused by the United Nations of a spate of extra-judicial killings targeting supporters of former president Laurent Gbagbo, including a 17-month old baby. They have documented 26 cases of extra-judicial killings, 85 arbitrary arrests and 11 cases of rape," said Guillaume Ngefa, the peacekeeping mission's human-rights officer. By Daniel Howden, Indpendent, Saturday, 13 August 2011   Read More...

In a bid to break the silence around violence against children, Tanzanian authorities launched a five-year plan on 9 August to eliminate all forms of violence against children, including sexual, physical and emotional abuse. "Levels of violence [against children] reported are high in all settings; forms of violence reported and described are equally disturbing, including being beaten, tortured, sexually assaulted and even murdered," Sophia Simba, the Minister for Community Development, Gender and Children, said in Dar es Salaam during the launch of a survey on the subject. The report identifies the perpetrators of violence as including parents, guardians, relatives and teachers as well as other people entrusted with daily care of children.
IRIN, 9 August 2011
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During July the Government released its long-awaited anti-trafficking strategy, but charities including Anti-Slavery International, have warned that it places too much emphasis on border control and not enough on protecting the victims.
To find out more, please read: Anti-Slavery's full statement here The Government's strategy here   

Channel 4 recently screened a Dispatches documentary, The Real Price of Gold. You can watch again online and see some of the issues with the gold that is available to buy on the high street. 
The programme highlights the need for Fairtrade and Fairmined Gold. Watch it again here and sign the pledge opposing dirty gold   

Women and children who it is suspected have been trafficked into the UK should no longer be treated as criminals, according to new guidance to prosecutors issued by the Crown Prosecution Service. Robert Booth, guardian.co.uk, Sunday 3 July 2011   Read More...

National figures indicate the silent crisis of the 42% (5,000,000) children who are not in school due to poverty and vulnerability and an acute shortage of funding due to a very low response to education projects under CAP 2011. The continued shrinking of humanitarian space and accessible areas to humanitarian agencies, and the looming transition is making programme implementation including regular monitoring difficult. Relief Web, 26/06/11   Read More...

Time to Act
There are lass than 400 days to go until the London Olympic games. Yet for workers in Indonesia production is ramping up, pressure is mounting, and the likelihood is that rights are few and far between. For many workers producing sportswear such as that  worn by athletes competing in the Olympic Games, the right to stand together with other workers and demand a fairer deal is crucial. Yet this is a right that is systematically denied to workers across the board. Take action today   Read More...

Just last week, the International Labour Organization (ILO) made a historic step forward in protecting up to 100 million domestic workers worldwide from slavery and exploitation by officially adopting a new landmark Convention on Domestic Work   Read More...

A major inquiry into human trafficking will be launched this week amid claims that slavery remains as much of a problem in modern Britain as when it was abolished more than 200 years ago. Among the investigation's aims will be to establish the scale of human trafficking and slavery in Britain. Between April 2009 and March last year, 706 potential victims of slavery were formally identified in the UK. Up to 18,000 women and children are also believed to have been trafficked into the UK and forced to work as prostitutes.  Mark Townsend, The Observer, Sunday 12 June 2011   

European Governments: "Their silence and passivity are difficult to accept. When preventing migrants from coming has become more important than saving lives, something has gone dramatically wrong."   Read More...

Investigation into Alleged War Crimes in Sri Lanka
Contact your MP   Read More...

Guardian, Louise Hunt, 24 May 2011
The hidden world of child sexual exploitation hit the headlines last week, with the announcement by children's minister Tim Loughton of a new action plan to tackle the crime. This was a welcome acknowledgment that child trafficking is a much bigger problem than the government thought.   

Yet with one doctor per 10,000 people and life expectancy a mere 47 years, who’s benefitting from the wealth beneath their feet?
As with countless countries around the world that have a wealth of natural resources, Zambia’s mineral riches won’t last forever. Men and women in resource-rich countries are unaware of how much foreign mining companies pay for their birthright in the form of taxes and royalties. Without this information, they can’t call for a fair share of the profits to be spent on schools, hospitals and basic services like electricity. Please email Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne!   Read More...

This Easter, much of the chocolate we enjoyed may be tainted by child slavery.
Anti-Slavery International’s latest research shows the continuation of child trafficking, a form of modern slavery, to cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast, which produces almost 40% of the world’s cocoa. Instead of going to school young boys are forced to spend long days hacking open cocoa pods with machetes, handling dangerous pesticides and carrying heavy loads - work that is deemed extremely hazardous, can lead to injury and ill-health, and that no young child should have to do.   Read More...

Take Action
A Honduran palm oil company is looking for funds from the carbon markets even though they have been implicated in 16-25 assassinations of peasants in 2010 alone. During the first three months of this year, they have been linked again to violent attacks and kidnapping. Unless the British Government stops the sale of those carbon credits, which they can do, the company will further increase their profits and thus be able to pay even more armed paramilitaries and to continue oppressing the peasant communities that are reclaiming lands which are legally theirs   Read More...

Campaign by Anti Slavery International
Home Alone: End Domestic Slavery campaign is gearing up for its most crucial time - the International Labour Conference in Geneva in June - where governments will vote as to whether a new international measure on domestic work will be created or not. Domestic workers are often seen as home ‘help' rather than a legitimate workforce meaning that they are often treated differently to all other workers who enjoy protection under the law, making them more vulnerable to exploitation and slavery. The new domestic work Convention would require countries around the world to change their laws to include domestic workers. Please ask your MP to urge the the Government to change its position and vote in favour of adopting the Convention.   Read More...

After months of campaigning the government has announced it will sign up to the eu trafficking directive giving greater protection to trafficked peopl
We did it! Together we've just won our campaign for the UK to sign up to a new European law to tackle human trafficking. Thousands of you have taken action helping us reach an amazing 47,000 petition signatures!   Read More...

 As reports by Human Rights Watch and formal documentation from the UN Human Rights Commission decry the worsening human rights situation in Côte D'Ivoire, many Ivoirians IRIN spoke with in Abidjan are appalled by recent acts of gruesome violence.

"We are seeing any and all forms of killing," said an Ivoirian human rights activist who requested anonymity. "It's sheer horror we're living hereŠ People are being burned alive and hacked to bits with machetes," he said, adding that the violence seemed to be spiralling out of control. IRIN, Tuesday 8th March 2011   Read More...

Advice on dealing with Amnesty International.   Read More...

on the Current Crisis of Our Country
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