Group 133's Electronic Newsletter for April 2008 =============================================== Next Meeting: Tuesday, April 7, 2008 The Northeast Regional Office is still undergoing rennovations. Our monthly meeting will be in a special location: Physicians for Human Rights Office 2 Arrow Street, Suite 301 (Near Harvard Square), Cambridge, MA 02138 =============================================== THE STATUTE OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Adopted by the 25th International Council Meeting, Dakar, Senegal, August 17-25, 2001 VISION AND MISSION Amnesty International's vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. In pursuit of this vision, Amnesty International's mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of its work to promote all human rights. CORE VALUES Amnesty International forms a global community of human rights defenders with the principles of international solidarity, effective action for the individual victim, global coverage, the universality and indivisibility of human rights, impartiality and independence, and democracy and mutual respect. =============================================== CALENDAR *Tuesday, April 7th: Group 133 Monthly Meeting, 7pm Physicians for Human Rights Office, 2 Arrow Street, Suite 301, Cambridge *Wednesday 9 April 9th: Movie --VOICES FROM DARFUR, MIT Room 4-270 5:00PM *Sunday May 4: Harvard Square May Fair. =============================================== GROUP CONTACTS (NOTE: To avoid potential spamming, your newsletter editor has replaced searchable parts of email addresses with words.) Group Co-Coordinators: Kelly Turley, kellyturley-AT-excite-DOT-com Rick Roth, roth-AT-igc.apc-DOT-org Newsletter Editor: Tamara Jenkins, 617-267-7262, tamara_ann_jenkins-AT-yahoo-DOT-com Refugee Action Team Coordinator: Eric Aronson, 617-512-7526, eric-AT-amnesty133-DOT-org Urgent Action Letter Coordinator: Kirsten Burt, kirsten.burt-AT-comcast-dot-net Tabling Coordinator and New Member Coordinator: Becky Ticotsky, rticotsky-AT-wesleyan-DOT-edu Treasurer: Tina Huang, tinalhuang-AT-gmail-DOT-com Secretary: Tamara Jenkins, 617-267-7262, tamara_ann_jenkins-AT-yahoo-DOT-com For questions about the following issues, please contact these individuals: Tibet Actions: Rick Roth, roth-AT-igc.apc-DOT-org Death Penalty Actions: Molly Johnson,mollykj-AT-email-DOT-com or dp-AT-amnesty133-DOT-org Stop Violence Against Women Campaign Kelly Turley, kellyturley-AT-excite-DOT-com Amnesty International USA Northeast Regional Office 58 Day St, Davis Square Somerville, MA 02144 617-623-0202 aiusane@aiusa.org www.amnesty133.org Available Positions: * Tibet Action Team Coordinator * Death Penalty Abolition Team Coordinator * Human Rights & the Environment Coordinator * Media Coordinator * Communications Coordinator * Tabling Coordinator * Web Site Coordinator =============================================== Please join us for the March meeting of Amnesty International Group 133 ! Tuesday, March 11, 2008 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. ** Special Location: Physicians for Human Rights Office 2 Arrow Street, Suite 301 (Near Harvard Square), Cambridge, MA 02138 ** Agenda   •    Letter Writing •    Introductions and Amnesty Mandate •   Special Presentation: Taking Action for Human Rights in Burma (Myanmar) Shanti Maung is a student activist at Harvard University. She was born in Burma, and has been a leader on campus and beyond in the struggle for justice for the people of Burma. Shanti was in Burma this summer when the protests erupted, and since returning to the United States, Shanti has been organizing Harvard's Burma Action Movement and concerned citizens from the Boston communities to take action in solidarity with the people of Burma. She will speak to us about the current humanitarian and human rights situation in her home country, and what we can be do to promote human rights in Burma. Shanti also will have American Apparel t-shirts for sale for $20, to raise funds for the Aung Za Bu Monastery School in Yangon. For more details, please go to www.brightprism.com or e-mail Kelly for a flyer. •   Countdown to Get on the Bus for Human Rights 2008: Updates and Final Preparations •   Brief Action Team/Campaign Updates and Past and Future Events Our April meeting will be held at the Physicians for Human Rights Office. Special thanks to Danielle Fox for once again making the arrangements for us. Please click on the address above for a map of 2 Arrow Street, Cambridge. The meeting will be on the third floor, in the conference room. During the meeting, we will be preparing boxes of materials for Get on the Bus, and assembling folders for participants. Many hands make light work, so please come! Please e-mail me if you will be able to volunteer to bring refreshments to this meeting. Thank you to Eric for "catering" the March meeting.   ============================================== QUOTES “You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.” --Pearl S. Buck “The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.” --Thomas Jefferson ============================================== GROUP 133 ANNOUNCEMENTS Harvard Square May Fair is on Sunday May 4. Group133 needs volunteers for tabling. Contact Becky for more info. =============================================== REFUGEE ACTION TEAM For information on participating in human rights activism concerning refugees and immigrants, contact Eric at 617-512-7526. URGENT ACTION: GIVE COUNTRIES FUNDS TO HELP IRAQI REFUGEES: This month’s action asks our senators to support funding for countries that accept refugees in times of crisis. Countries that have admitted Iraqi refugees, such as Syria and Jordan, now find themselves unable to provide for those refugees. Without additional funds, borders may be closed and refugees may be forcibly returned. Your letters can make a difference. ONGOING EFFORTS TO HELP REFUGEE ACTION TEAM MEMBER FRANK ENWONWU: Refugee Action Team member FRANK ENWONWU, a Nigerian asylum-seeker, has been issued a final order of removal, and faces possible torture and/or execution by organized crime syndicates if he is forcibly returned to Nigeria. Frank and his son, Brian (a US citizen), are now homeless. Eric is working with Frank’s attorney to try to organize a meeting with Senator John Kerry, which would include Brian, Frank’s sister and possibly some AI student members. Eric also circulated a letter to Senator Kerry, at the March monthly meeting, via the AI 133 Google group and the Northeast Regional Office, and to Refugee Immigration Ministry. Eric also contacted US Rep. Michael Capuano’s office. Kelly generously offered her time and expertise at the Mass. Coalition for the Homeless to work with Frank on housing. BUSH VETOES WATERBOARDING BAN: On March 8, President Bush vetoed an intelligence authorization bill that would have outlawed waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods. In votes that mostly followed party lines, the measure had passed in the House of Representatives by 222-119 in December, and in the Senate by 51-45 in February. Supporters of the legislation were unable to rally enough votes to override the President’s veto (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-veto9mar09,1,218858.story). GUANTÁNAMO ATTORNEYS DEMAND REPATRIATION OF PRISONERS TO YEMEN: On March 12, more than 30 attorneys representing prisoners from Yemen who are detained at Guantánamo Bay issued a statement calling for those prisoners to be released and repatriated to Yemen, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights (http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0312-18.htm). The attorneys stated in a press release that the prisoners were not in danger of being tortured if they returned to Yemen. 95 Yemeni nationals are currently detained at Guantánamo; they constitute over one third of the total number of prisoners there. According to CCR attorney Pardiss Kebriaei, most “have been detained without any charge and in brutal conditions for over six years. It is unacceptable that the Yemeni and U.S. governments have not come to an agreement to bring these men home. There is absolutely nothing which should prevent their return to Yemen.” The US government had claimed that the detainees’ lawyers opposed their repatriation because Yemeni officials have refused to sign a statement pledging that the prisoners would not be tortured if returned to Yemen. MOAZZAM BEGG TO SPEAK AT AGM: Former Guantánamo detainee MOAZZAM BEGG will be featured, live via video telecast, as a plenary speaker at this year’s Annual General Meeting of AIUSA, which happens April 25-28 in Arlington, VA. Begg, who grew up in Birmingham, England, was arrested in Pakistan in 2002. He spent over three years in detention, in Kandahar and at Bagram air base in Afghanistan, and then at Guantánamo for two years. While in detention, he was interrogated more than 300 times. He reports that he was tortured, and that he witnessed the torture and murder by interrogators of other prisoners. He was released without charge in January 2005. Begg is a spokesperson for the human rights organization Cageprisoners. His memoir is: Enemy Combatant: My Imprisonment at Guantánamo, Bagram, and Kandahar. =============================================== Minutes from March 2008 meeting 1. Guest Speaker: Carmen Russell; The Lives of the Restaveks: Child Slavery in Haiti. There are over 300,000 indentured child servants in Haiti. Out of a country of 8.7 million, 80% live in dire poverty, and 2/3 of the population are unemployed. For more information or for his slide show, go to carmenrussell.net. 2. GOTB announcements: 186 people are registered 3. “Devil Came on Horseback” had more than 150 people in attendance! 4. Rick wrote and received $4500 for an IEF grant for Group 133!!! 5. Group 133 donated over $200 to FRANK ENWONWU, a Nigerian asylum-seeker. Eric thanked everyone for their generosity. 6. AGM is April 25th in Washington DC. 7. May 4th is Mayfair in Harvard Square 8. Thanks, Eric, for the great munchies!!! =============================================== Senator Edward M. Kennedy 317 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Fax: 202-224-2417 Dear Senator Kennedy: I am contacting you about appropriations for humanitarian and emergency accounts affecting refugees around the world. As the numbers of displaced and persecuted people around the world increase, so must the U.S.’s resources dedicated to humanitarian assistance. Funding for the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), Migration and Refugee Admissions (MRA), and Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance (ERMA) must expand along with our commitment to protect the most vulnerable. Of particular concern this year is the Iraqi displacement crisis: millions have been uprooted by the conflict in Iraq. Those who have been able to leave the country are finding it harder and harder to enter other countries for protection. Those who do make it to relative safety outside of Iraq are often left with little assistance for their day-to-day needs and no prospects for a long-term solution. The U.S.’s financial assistance to such countries can help create meaningful protection space for those fleeing Iraq. To ensure the U.S.’s long term commitment to displaced Iraqis regardless of the size of our presence in the region, this funding should be made a part of the regular appropriations process, rather than solely arising out of the ERMA account. Please give your full support to robust funding for humanitarian accounts with programs that save refugees’ lives. We all worked hard last year to create positive legislative change for Iraqi refugees, but until that work bears fruit it is essential that we continue the general programming that saves so many lives. Thank you for your prompt attention to these urgent concerns. Sincerely, Address: Cc: Senator John Kerry 304 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Fax: 202-224-8525