Group 133's Electronic Newsletter for July 2008 =============================================== Next Meeting: Tuesday, July 8, 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, July 8th: Group 133 Monthly Meeting, 7pm Physicians for Human Rights Office, 2 Arrow Street, Suite 301, Cambridge =============================================== 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 JULY MEETING OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL GROUP 133 ! Tuesday, July 8, 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: Human Rights at Home: Fair Housing and the Work to End Housing Discrimination- Justin Monteiro, Testing Coordinator, Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston. Through a combination of testing, case advocacy, training, community outreach, public policy advocacy, and research, the Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston works to end housing discrimination and promote open communities throughout five Eastern Massachusetts counties. Justin will talk to us about the work of the center, and what we can do to help end housing discrimination. For more information about the Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston, please go to www.bostonfairhousing.org. • Get on the Bus for Human Rights: Update on the Year-Round Action Team- Anna Phelan • Brief Action Team/Campaign Updates • Past and Future Events Our July 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. Please e-mail me if you will be able to volunteer to bring refreshments to this meeting. ============================================== FAIR HOUSING CENTER OF GREATER BOSTON Founded in 1998, the Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston (www.bostonfairhousing.org) is the only comprehensive fair housing organization working to eliminate housing discrimination and promote open communities throughout the region. The FHCGB pursues its mission in Suffolk, Norfolk, Middlesex, Essex and Plymouth counties through offering a full tool kit of fair housing services: Testing, Case Advocacy, Training, Community Outreach, Policy Advocacy, and Research. Funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, foundation and corporate donors, and individual supporters, the FHCGB works to break the silence surrounding housing discrimination, to offer recourse to people harmed by discrimination, and educate and inform housing professionals and residents of their rights and responsibilities. TESTING: The FHCGB is the region’s sole source of housing discrimination testing. Testing provides a credible picture of how and if discrimination occurs using a controlled method of documenting variations in the treatment of home seekers by housing providers. For more information about our testing program, or to volunteer to be a housing discrimination tester, contact Justin Monteiro at (617) 399-0491 ext. 106, or, jmonteiro@bostonfairhousing.org. CASE ADVOCACY: The FHCGB fields hundreds of inquires annually from people who don’t have the knowledge and/or means to advocate for themselves. We provide full case advocacy, including testing for proof of discrimination, representing complainants throughout HUD’s or Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination’s (MCAD’s) processes, and securing pro bono legal counsel if litigation is required. If you or someone you know may have experienced housing discrimination, contact Carinel Ramirez at (617) 399-0491 ext. 104, or, cramirez@bostonfairhousing.org. If your organization would like to request fair housing brochures (available in 10 languages) or would like to discuss setting up a short informational meeting with a staff member, contact Justin Monteiro at (617) 399-0491 ext. 106, or, jmonteiro@bostonfairhousing.org. Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston 59 Temple Place, Ste 1105, Boston, MA 02111 Ph: (617) 399-0491 ? Fax: (617) 399-0492 www.bostonfairhousing.org =============================================== REFUGEE ACTION TEAM For information on participating in human rights activism concerning refugees and immigrants, contact Eric at 617-512-7526. URGENT ACTION: 820 ASYLUM-SEEKERS IN ERITREA: This month’s action concerns some 820 asylum-seekers in Eritrea, many of whom were recently deported from Egypt. AI believes they are at grave risk of incommunicado detention, torture and other forms of ill-treatment. Your letters can help protect them. REFUGEE ACTION TEAM MEMBER FRANK ENWONWU LOSES APPEAL: Refugee Action Team member FRANK ENWONWU, a Nigerian asylum-seeker at risk of forcible removal, recently found out his appeal was denied by the US Board of Immigration Appeals. Speaking at the June meeting of Group 133, he said he will file another motion with the US Circuit Court of Appeals. Eric and Nate are pursuing Congressional outreach. SUPREME COURT GRANTS HABEAS RIGHTS TO GUANTANAMO DETAINEES: In a landmark decision (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/washington/13scotus.html), the Supreme Court ruled on June 12 that prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have a constitutional right to challenge their detention in federal court. The 5-4 decision, Boumediene v. Bush, restored habeas rights that were stripped from detainees by the Military Commissions Act of 2006. CIRCUIT COURT: UIGHUR CANNOT BE HELD AS ENEMY COMBATANT: On June 23, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the Pentagon was wrong to classify a Chinese Muslim as an enemy combatant (http://www.miamiherald.com/guantanamo/story/580115.html). The ethnic Uighur detainee, Huzaifa Parhat, has been held for more than six years in solitary confinement in Camp X-ray at Guantanamo Bay. 18 out of 24 Uighurs originally detained at Guantanamo were apparently captured by Pakistani bounty hunters. They had fled to Afghanistan to escape persecution, and to Pakistan following US bombing (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-worthington/six-years-late-court-thro_b_109078.html). McCLATCHY INVESTIGATION FINDS MANY DETAINEES INNOCENT: An eight month investigation in eleven countries by the McClatchy news corporation has revealed that possibly hundreds of individuals detained by the US military in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan and elsewhere had been falsely arrested and imprisoned, McClatchy reported on June 15 (http://www.mcclatchydc.com/detainees/story/38773.html). After reviewing thousands of pages of U.S. military tribunal documents and other records the investigation found that at least dozens of detainees had been picked up on the basis of flimsy or fabricated evidence, old personal scores or bounty payments. Many were ordinary criminals or innocent villagers, with no ties to terrorist activities. Despite the lack of evidence for holding these prisoners, investigators reported, US soldiers abused or mistreated many of them, at Guantanamo Bay and in prisons at Bagram and Kandahar in Afghanistan, where mistreatment of prisoners was “a regular feature.” The report also documents how the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo increased support for extremist Islamic groups. SENATE INVESTIGATION REVEALS PENTAGON LAWYERS PLANNED PRISONER ABUSE: According to the results of a Senate investigation disclosed in an Armed Services Committee hearing on June 17, Defense Department attorneys after 9/11 actively sought abusive means of interrogating prisoners, despite being warned by a number of lawyers that the methods were inappropriate and illegal. Among other things, the investigation (led by Senator Carl Levin) revealed that the office of general counsel William Haynes sought information in July 2002 about the “Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape” (SERE) program used to train soldiers on resisting enemy interrogations, so that the techniques could be reverse engineered to assist US interrogators. Haynes’ office received a list of methods, such as sensory deprivation, sleep disruption and stress positions. Several of those methods were later approved for use on prisoners by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Lt. Colonel Diane Beaver wrote a memo in October 2002 in which she asserted that abusive measures could be used on detainees at Guantanamo because they were not prisoners of war. She recommended using 20-hour interrogations, extended isolation and “waterboarding.” She also stated in a meeting that same month that abusive tactics should be kept hidden from the International Committee of the Red Cross (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080618/ap_on_go_co/detainees_treatment). Also at that meeting, senior CIA attorney John Fredman said that harsh treatment only constituted torture if a detainee died. According to an article this month by Vanity Fair reporter Katherine Eban (http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/politics-and-po/), the Senate hearing also revealed that psychologists played a major role in the military’s use of abusive practices. “Military psychologists introduced, taught, and monitored the tactics of psychological torture” used by interrogators at Guantanamo and later authorized by the Pentagon for use at Abu Ghraib, Eban wrote. Psychologists James Elmer Mitchell and Bruce Jessen reportedly instructed CIA interrogators to use abusive techniques from the SERE program, even though their efficacy in the interrogation of foreign nationals had not been scientifically demonstrated. SUPREME COURT WILL RULE ON DETAINEE LAWSUIT AGAINST ASHCROFT: The Supreme Court announced on June 16 it will decide whether or not former Attorney General John Ashcroft and former FBI chief Robert Mueller must face a lawsuit by a former detainee. The detainee, Javaid Iqbal, a Pakistani Muslim, spent close to six months in solitary confinement in New York in 2002. He claims that Ashcroft, Mueller and other US officials discriminated against detainees because of their race and religion by keeping them in highly restrictive detention conditions. At issue in the case, Ashcroft v. Iqbal, is whether or not high-ranking officials may be held legally liable for the actions of their subordinates. In a separate case, Dada v. Mukasey, the court ruled that an immigrant may withdraw a voluntary departure agreement (http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/20080617_Can_detainee_sue_Ashcroft__FBI_.html). ICE SPEEDS UP DEPORTATION OF JAILED IMMIGRANTS: The federal bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has begun deporting incarcerated immigrants even before their sentences are completed, according to National Public Radio (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90864847). Immigrants are now offered the opportunity to get out of jail early if they agree to be deported. Although the policy primarily focuses on immigrants with serious criminal records, other jailed immigrants are being fingerprinted to facilitate subsequent deportation. Immigrant advocates point out that, since immigrants do not have the legal right to an attorney, some may choose deportation even if they might have succeeded in challenging their removal. ============================================== GROUP 133 MINUTES FROM JUNE 10TH Special Presentation: Human Rights in Chechnya and Russia- Eliza Moussaeva and Jane Lezina. Eliza Moussaeva and Evgenia (Jane) Lezina both are Sakharov Fellows at Harvard University's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. A long-time friend of Group 133, Eliza received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Moscow Pedagogical University. She is a human rights researcher at Memorial in Ingushetia and Chechnya, and expert for the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights in Vienna. They spoke about the human rights violations happening in Chechyna, and showed a video regarding a secret prison that has since been destroyed. Eliza said that if there are different punishments for degrees of murder, there should be different punishments for degrees of torture. She has interviewed survivors of torture that have detailed horrific crimes. As of now, not a single crime linked to enforced disappearances has been prosecuted. It is still very unsafe for journalists. Thus there are few articles in the press about Chechyna. =============================================== His Excellency President Issayas Afewerki Office of the President PO Box 257 Asmara ERITREA Fax: 011 2911 123 788 Your Excellency: I am extremely concerned about the nearly 820 asylum-seekers in Eritrea. These include, for example, two asylum-seekers deported by German authorities on 14 May and all those forcibly returned by Egyptian authorities since 11 June. Amnesty International believes these asylum-seekers are at grave risk of incommunicado detention, torture and other forms of ill-treatment. I respectfully request that you publicly disclose the names and location of all Eritreans forcibly returned from Egypt since 11 June. I urge you to ensure that returned asylum-seekers are not detained, tortured or otherwise ill-treated. I hope you will keep in mind that enforced disappearances, torture and other forms of ill-treatment are prohibited under international law, including the Convention Against Torture, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Thank you for your attention to this issue. Sincerely, Address: Copies to: Ms Fawzia Hashim Ministry of Justice PO Box 241, Asmara ERITREA Fax: 011 2911 126 422 Commissioner of Police Ministry of Internal Affairs PO Box 1223, Asmara ERITREA Ambassador Ghirmai Ghebremariam Embassy of the State of Eritrea 1708 New Hampshire Ave., NW Washington, DC 20009 Fax: 1-202-319-1304 embassyeritrea@embassyeritrea.org