It’s Oscar season.  And that’s great, because I like movies.  I’m not a buff or anything, which is why I wrote “movies” and not “film” or “cinema”.  But I enjoy a good flick.  As someone who campaigns for death penalty abolition, I’m especially interested this year because there is a death penalty film, Paradise Lost 3, nominated for Best Documentary.

Movies can be a powerful tool for raising awareness about an issue, or even inspiring people to take action.  In our death penalty abolition work, we have tried to promote movies we think will do that.

But what do we know?

That’s where you come in.  Please go to our Abolish the Death Penalty Facebook page and give us your pick for the best death penalty movie of all time (definition: a movie about capital punishment, or featuring it in some significant way).  Some of our favorites include The Green Mile, Dead Man Walking, In Cold Blood, The Exonerated, and of course the 1957 classic 12 Angry Men.

Unlike the Oscars, we won’t arbitrarily segregate documentaries and works of fiction.  And we don’t care about released in theaters versus made for TV.  Just tell us whatever you think is the best.

Jenni Williams-Women of Zimbabwe Arise

Yesterday, the activists of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) took to the streets in Bulawayo for the 10th consecutive commemoration of Valentine’s Day. Yes, I know it’s a week early; but in Zimbabwe, when you’re trying to keep the riot police from guessing when your peaceful protests will occur, that’s what you have to do. Unfortunately, their plan didn’t work and co-founder Jenni Williams, along with twelve other people including a pregnant woman and minor, were arrested.

WOZA and MOZA (Men of Zimbabwe Arise) use the occasion of Valentine’s Day to confront governmental policies that violate civil and human rights in Zimbabwe and educate their fellow citizens about issues and what can be done. Frequently, WOZA is met with brutal violence at the hands of the riot police. Jenni has been arrested nearly 50 times.

Jenni and those arrested with her spent last night outside in the rain, detained in the police yard rather than a holding cell. It’s arguable, however, based on prison conditions in Zimbabwe, which option might have been preferred. But they are cold, coughing and likely to be kept in the same conditions tonight.

The use of force and intimidation against human and civil rights activists in Zimbabwe must stop. Urge Minister of Justice, Patrick Chinamasa, to cease using the legal system in Zimbabwe as a weapon. Remind him this Valentine’s Day the power of love is greater than the love of power.

President Mohamed Nasheeds (photo: Mauroof Khaleel)

Mohammad Nasheed, a former Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience, resigned today as President of Maldives. He was the first democratically elected President of the country, following decades of dictatorship in the country. He was instrumental in highlighting the case for action against climate change, going so far as to hold a cabinet meeting underwater.

His supporters and media reports are stating that it was basically a coup by the military and opposition supporters.

The latest tensions arose after the government of the Maldives erected monuments of the nations of South Asia gathering for a regional summit meeting. Radical clerics accused the government of attempting to permit other religious groups in the country because of the non-Islamic artistic elements in the artwork.

Ismail Rasheed, a blogger, was also arrested because of his participation in a religious tolerance rally (Under the 2008 Maldives constitution, Islam is the only religion that Maldivian nationals can practice and some radical clerics interpret religious tolerance as un-Islamic).

Security forces and protesters allied to the opposition stormed the state media center and are now holding several journalists hostage while playing homages to the former President Abdul Gayoom. Last month, the Army arrested a Supreme Court judge, cementing the paralysis that has gripped the political scene since Nasheed’s election.

In a televised address to the nation, Nasheed said:

“It will be better for the country in the current situation if I resign. I don’t want to run the country with an iron fist. I am resigning.”

We in Amnesty International will continue to monitor the crisis in Maldives and work to ensure that human rights are protected in the days, weeks and months to come.

Follow me on twitter at @gringostani

courtesy of the Indian Muslim Observer

You would think that after the massive 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and last year’s nuclear calamity at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, Indian authorities might consider more closely the potential threats posed by the country’s many nuclear power plants.

But unlike some countries that have spurned the aggressive pursuit of nuclear power post-Fukushima, India presses on full speed ahead. Barely five months after the Fukushima disaster and despite serious concerns about India’s readiness for a similar accident, India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said:

“there would be no looking back on nuclear energy. We are in the process of expanding our civil nuclear energy programme.”

Apparently, India is even prepared to imprison peaceful anti-nuclear protesters on false charges for their opposition. In the last few months, Dr. V. Pugazhendhi has been threatened by police with death and jail time for warning locals about the health dangers of radiation from a nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu.

And charges have been filed against leaders of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy that include sedition and waging war against the state, which carry life sentences. Their crime? Peacefully protesting against India’s biggest nuclear plant.

These threats and charges are clearly intended to silence peaceful and legitimate opposition to these nuclear power plants. Tell the Indian government that even its critics must be protected and that their rights – as humans and Indian citizens – must be respected.

©AFP/Getty Images

Join us Thursday, February 9th from 1:00 – 2:00 PM EST for a live online chat on Facebook with Amnesty International on the crisis in the Middle East and North Africa.

2011 was an unprecedented year in the region — a year in which millions of people flooded the streets to demand change. While change has come to some countries, in others repressive governments continue to clamp down on dissent with deadly force and censor their citizens:

• In recent days in Syria, hundreds have been slaughtered in the streets.
• The US government continues secret arms transfers to Bahrain, even as that government continues to use deadly force against protesters.
• In Egypt, the military government has attacked protestors and used the old dictatorship’s laws to prosecute civilians.
• Across the region, new curbs on online freedom of speech have crept up.

Our specialists will be on hand to answer your questions and discuss:

Geoffrey Mock, Egypt Country Specialist for Amnesty International USA. For over 17 years Geoffrey has worked with Amnesty to support human rights defenders, end unfair trials and torture in Egypt and defend Egypt’s civil society against harassment and legal attacks.

Sanjeev Bery, Advocacy Director for Middle East North Africa issues at Amnesty International USA. He lobbies US officials, diplomats, and officeholders regarding human rights concerns across the MENA region.

To Join The Online Chat
To join the chat, visit the Amnesty International USA Facebook page on Thursday, Feb 9th from 1-2 PM EST and post your questions directly to our “Wall.”  RSVP here.

Chat Rules

• Please keep your questions on topic.  We welcome all questions relating to the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa and will try to answer them as they are received.
• Unrelated questions will be removed from our Wall feed for the duration of the chat.  Thanks for your understanding.
• Please abide by our Community Guidelines

We look forward to answering your questions!

Today marks the 12^th anniversary of the unlawful detention of Walid Yunis Ahmad in the Kurdish Region of Iraq.

You may recognize his name. Perhaps the longest serving detainee in Iraq, Walid was featured in our report, “New Order, Same Abuses: Unlawful Detention and Torture in Iraq” and has been the subject of several Amnesty International actions.

Walid Yunis Ahmad is a Turkomen and father of three who worked for a local radio and TV station. He was arrested on February 6, 2000.

He was “disappeared” for three years, tortured, and detained without charge or trial for ten years.

In 2010, he finally was charged with directing terrorist activity from prison in 2009.  His 2000 detention remains unexplained.  At his one-day trial in 2011, his lawyer was not allowed to question “secret informants” whose testimony was accepted as the basis of the apparently fabricated charges against him.

He was sentenced to five years in prison, dating from the time he was charged in 2010.  In yet another bizarre perversion of justice, the court determined that, because the first decade of his detention was unlawful, it did not count.  Now, Walid Yunis Ahmad is to be held until 2015.

Walid should not be forced to pay for being unlawfully detained. There are no signs that those responsible will be held to account.

We need your help TODAY to urge the Kurdish Regional authorities to order Walid Yunis Ahmad’s immediate release, drop all charges against him, and compensate him and his family for his years of torture and unlawful detention.

Here is what you can do:

Tweet the accounts of the Kurdish Prime Ministers (current and incoming), Barhim Salih at @barhamsalih and Nechirvan Barzani at @NBarzani, the KRG government at @Kurdistanregion, and the Kurdistan Regional Government Representative in the US, Qubad Talabani, at @qubadjt.

Include this information in your tweets:

• @BarhamSalih @NBarzani @Kurdistanregion @qubadjt so that the incoming and outgoing Prime Ministers, Kurdish government and the KRG representative in the US all receive them
• The tags #KRG and #Kurdistan so that we can track all messages sent

Key messages and example of tweets:

@BarhamSalih @NBarzani @Kurdistanregion Today is 12th anniv of Walid Yunis arrest. Detained in #KRG & sentenced in an unfair trial. Why?

Walid Yunis Ahmad spent 12 yrs in #KRG prison & was sentenced on fabricated charges @BarhamSalih @NBarzani @Kurdistanregion Release him now!

@BarhamSalih @NBarzani @Kurdistanregion @qubadjt We urge you to immediately release Walid Yunis Ahmad in #Kurdistan http://owl.li/8TFkH

@BarhamSalih @NBarzani @Kurdistanregion @qubadjt We won’t forget Walid Yunis Ahmad, sentenced in an unfair trial in #KRG last yr http://owl.li/8TFkH

2 yrs in prison in #KRG & no evidence of crime. Release Walid Yunis Ahmad now! @BarhamSalih @NBarzani @Kurdistanregion @qubadjt http://owl.li/8TFkH

You can also send emails and letters to the Kurdish Regional authorities.

Beth Ann Toupin contributed to this post.

Sasha Baron Cohen as Supreme Leader Shabazz Aladeen

English comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, better known for his character Borat, has a new satirical movie in the works – The Dictator, depicting the leader of the imaginary authoritarian Republic of Wadiya. The latter has just launched its website, and the tourism section mentions Amnesty International:

Many dozens of endangered species can be found caged at the Wadiyan National Zoo, including pandas, white tigers, and Amnesty International officials.

Of course The Dictator is a comedy (see the trailer), but it will presumably highlight – through humor and exaggeration - human rights violations and abuse of power. In that sense, it may be worth watching it, of course after the Wadiyan National Zoo sets Amnesty International officials free so that they can make it to the Annual General Meeting in Denver in late March and continue fighting for a world without abuse of power!

Now, visit our online action center to fight real-life abuses.

Turkey’s jailing of writers has received increasing attention in both the Turkish and the international press, enough to force Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to defend the fact that Turkey has more journalists in prison,  describing them as “so-called journalists” who “ are actually “police murderers, sexual molesters and supporters of a coup”.

In 2011 Turkey imprisoned 104 journalists, causing Reporters Without Borders to drop Turkey’s press freedom ranking to 148^th in the world.  Either the country has one of the most vicious and corrupt press corps in modern history or these arrests are politically motivated.  However, the Prime Minister will have none of this.  When American Ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardone stated that he was unable to understand the massive arrests, he was dismissed by Erdogan as a “rookie ambassador” who just didn’t understand Turkey.

Erdogan’s increasingly surreal rhetoric concerning jailed journalists is probably due to the growing negative reporting on freedom of the press in Turkey. What has received far less attention, however, is the equally worrisome current practice of imprisoning attorneys in Turkey who attempt to defend journalists and others caught in the massive wave of arrests currently underway in Turkey.

Agence France Press reported in November that scores of Kurdish lawyers were arrested in a police crackdown throughout Turkey; those arrested in various crackdowns during November included 42 lawyers of convicted PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.  Arresting lawyers because of their clients’ misdeeds is a violation of Principle 18 of the UN Basic Principles on the role of lawyers:

“Lawyers shall not be identified with their clients or their clients’ causes as a result of discharging their functions.”

It is also a convenient way to stifle dissent.  In Shakespeare’s Henry the Sixth, part 2, a character says “the first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”  Apparently, the Turkish government has found an alternative they believe to be equally effective.

If you are interested in the issue of Human Rights in Turkey, consider joining us on our Turkey Regional Action Network on Facebook.

Pawiak Prison Museum in Warsaw, Poland.

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the Pawiak Prison Museum in Warsaw, Poland.

During the Nazi occupation of Poland in World War II Pawiak was the largest political prison in the country – approximately 100,000 prisoners passed through its cells.

37,000 of those men and women died in Pawiak – many under interrogation by the Gestapo. Another 60,000 were sent to German concentration camps. Very few survived the war.

The museum is most famous for the bronze memorial tree fixed with mourning plates commemorating the lives of some of those who died inside. The tree was the last surviving relic of the prison yard.

When the tree died in the 1980s the Polish government filled it with concrete. This bought it another 10 years but it continued to deteriorate and was finally replaced with a bronze replica. It is an extraordinarily affecting monument.

The Nazis blew up the prison itself during their retreat from Poland – presumably to erase any evidence of their crimes. Now only the basement of one building remains and its cells house exhibits about life in Pawiak under Nazi occupation.

In a small exhibition space at the end of the basement cell block you find a series of displays about the prison’s history. Most of the inmates were held there because the Nazis suspected they had ties to the Polish underground.

The inmates had information the Nazis wanted and they weren’t inhibited about using any method they could think of to get it. As the museum guidebook puts it:

“No law was respected inside prison.”

I came across sketches made by former prison inmates of interrogations conducted by the Gestapo and was stunned to see two scenes in particular that resembled the enhanced interrogation techniques approved by the Bush administration for use on suspected terrorists.

In the first picture a prisoner lies huddled in a ball on the floor of an office while two dogs tear at his clothes, a third dog is being held back in reserve by a uniformed Nazi. The image irresistibly calls to mind Abu Ghraib:

In the next picture an inmate lies strapped to a board while two Nazis pour water down his throat. Although the method differs slightly, it is an all too familiar variant of the waterboarding technique used in CIA black sites on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

Now, I want to be very clear – my point is not to equate the War on Terror and the Nazi occupation of Poland. I do not think that is a comparison you can make. However, the two coercive techniques depicted in the Pawiak museum were used deliberatively by US personnel and that should make every US citizen feel very uncomfortable.

In an election season in which aspirant Presidential candidates can – without any apparent backlash – express support for the reintroduction of interrogation techniques like waterboarding, it is instructive to consider how these techniques are perceived by others around the world.

So, the next time someone tells you that waterboarding isn’t torture, think of the inmates of Pawiak Prison. They knew torture when they saw it.

By Lisa Schechtman, Amnesty USA’s Women’s Human Rights Coordination Group

Before you keep reading, let’s be clear: this blog is about the universal human right to the highest attainable standard of health, the package of services it takes to be well—and the ability to afford it.  It’s also about the implications of the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s decision to stop providing grants to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America for breast cancer screening.  Because too often, women’s health falls victim to agendas that prevent women from exercising their human rights.  It’s about the big picture.

According to Planned Parenthood, the vast majority of its services are the provision of information and education about health, well-being and sexuality; prevention of and response to gender-based violence; prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS; and family planning counseling and supplies. These services are provided to both men and women, of all ages, of all income levels. They are part of basic health care.

It was a Planned Parenthood clinic that helped diagnose my auto-immune disease after running standard blood work during a regular check-up more than ten years ago. Yes, I am among the one in five American women who has depended on a Planned Parenthood clinic. Why? Because I got good, comprehensive care—and I could afford it. I got the same annual exam I get now at a more expensive private practice paid for by my health insurance. This is what the right to the highest attainable standard of health means: Equal care for all.

Across the country, Planned Parenthood’s 800 clinics are available to anyone who needs them, offering non-discriminatory, affordable access to quality, comprehensive care. Planned Parenthood indicates that more than 75% of its patients in the U.S. live on incomes the equivalent of $33,000 a year for a family of four, or less. For them, Planned Parenthood or an equivalent clinic may be their only choice.

The human right to health is universal, basic, and often a matter of life and death. But for many people in this country and around the world, it is a luxury. Planned Parenthood and thousands of other community-based clinics across the country seek to treat all people equally, and ensure the highest attainable standard of health for everyone who comes to them for care. Breast cancer screenings are part of comprehensive health care for all women. A significant funding cut, regardless of the source or the service it paid for, threatens the big picture.

Amnesty International’s Demand Dignity Campaign focuses on violations of human rights that stem from poverty. All too often, one of these is a violation of the right to health. So, as an organization that fights to protect all rights for all people everywhere, we stand with Planned Parenthood—not because of any one service they provide, but because of all of them.

To learn more about the Demand Dignity Campaign, find us on Facebook. And, if you’d like to stay in touch with us about our Women’s Human Rights Work, join our network, too.