Flame, Issue 2, 2013

> HUMAN RIGHTS IN SRI LANKA> OUR 2013 HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER > ARMS TRADE TREATY CELEBRATIONS

IN THIS ISSUE

CRYING MERIVIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA

ISSUE 2 / 2013

LET US, NEW ZEALAND, BE THE ONES TO BREAK THE STALEMATE THAT HOLDS THE LIVES OF THESE MEN IN PERIL... The atmosphere in Guantanamo Bay is one of desperation. Caught up in a cruel twist of fate that has seen the detainees deprived of over ten years of their lives, they are now using their lives as a means to shine a spotlight on their injustice.

These men have lost hope of ever being released; a fact so aptly demonstrated by over 100 of the detainees on a hunger strike that has been going on for more than 100 days at the time of writing. They are starving themselves just to be heard and to be remembered.

Should we be surprised that these detainees are protesting their situation? No matter the initial trigger for this hunger strike, there is no escaping the backdrop to it – detainees being held for almost 11 years with no indication of when, if ever, they will be released. Maybe we should be more surprised that something on this scale hasn’t occurred sooner; after all, there’s only so much a person can take before they’ll try to reclaim their dignity.

Out of the 166 remaining Guantanamo detainees, 86 have been cleared for release, some over six years ago. These men will continue to be held until a third country steps forward to offer them refuge, or until they’re removed in a body bag. Nine detainees have died so far awaiting their freedom - the question that sits at the forefront of our minds is: how many more will die before action is taken?

Many of the men cannot go home to their own countries for fear of being tortured and killed, and United States law prevents them from being settled on American soil.

These obstacles have set President Obama back in fulfilling his promise to close Guantanamo Bay. But they’re not insurmountable; there is an avenue for Obama to uphold his promise and for the United States to meet its obligations under international law.

But the USA can’t do it alone.

If these men are to have any hope of resettlement, governments in third countries, like New Zealand, need to step forward to help the Obama Administration close Guantanamo.

We have an opportunity here to be part of something bigger than ourselves. What we’re suggesting: let us, New Zealand, be the ones to break the stalemate that holds the lives of these men in peril. Let us take a detainee cleared for release and bring hope back to Guantanamo.

02FLAMEISSUE 2 / 2013

EDITORIAL

3 Make Our Rights Law

4 Sorcery in Papua New Guinea

6 Human Rights Conference 2013

8 Take Action

10 Human Rights in Sri Lanka

11 Amnesty Briefs

12 Making History with the ATT

CONTENTS

CONTACT DETAILS Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand, 68 Grafton Road, Auckland, 1010

PO Box 5300, Wellesley St, Auckland, 1141

0800 AMNESTY (0800 266 378)

PASS IT ON When you’ve finished with your copy of Flame please pass it on to someone else so they can learn about Amnesty International. Visit www.amnesty.org.nz to see how you can support human rights.

Send all your comments and suggestions to: [email protected]

WWW.AMNESTY.ORG.NZ

CHAIRPERSON: Helen Shorthouse

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Grant Bayldon

EDITOR: Anita Harvey

ART DIRECTION + DESIGN: We Love Inc www.weloveinc.com COVER IMAGE: Banil came to the Antenatal Clinic of Port Moresby after having been sexually assaulted by her ex-boyfriend. The day after their separation, her former partner came to her parents’ house and threatening her with a knife, dragged Banil to a bush area. There he beat her and raped her. Banil’s father managed to find his daughter laying unconscious on the ground and brought her to the hospital © Vlad Sokhin

MIDORI KAGA ADVOCACY & RESEARCH INTERN AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND

TAKE ACTION - http://amn.st/16YSGLc

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nesty International/ Parisa Taghizadeh

OUR RIGHTS. OUR FUTURE. MAKE OUR RIGHTS LAW. Amnesty International believes that all of our human rights should be properly protected in New Zealand law.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights – the corner stone of human rights – not only sets out freedoms from oppression, like the right to freedom of expression and to a fair trial. It also sets out basic rights in areas like education, housing and healthcare. These are known as economic, social and cultural rights.

New Zealand has signed up to these rights internationally, but we’ve never actually put them into our own Bill of Rights alongside civil rights and political rights.

When rights are not adequately protected it’s much harder to check new laws and policies to ensure they don’t breach these rights. A strong Bill of Rights which protects all our rights would allow us to put human rights at the centre of discussions about tough issues, like how we address the fact that up to 270,000 New Zealand children are living in poverty, or that we have third world rates of rheumatic fever.

Find out more about getting all human rights protected in New Zealand law at:

www.amnesty.org.nz/makerightslaw



MAKE OUR RIGHTS LAW

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nesty International/ Parisa Taghizadeh

It was the death of a boy that prompted the attack on 20-year-old Kepari Leniata. Accused of being a witch and causing his death, Kepari was stripped, tied up, doused in petrol and burned alive in February by relatives of the boy in the city of Mount Hagen, central Papua New Guinea.

Her brutal killing shocked people across the world, yet this type of violence is par for the course in Papua New Guinea, where vigilante attacks on so-called witches occur with alarming frequency.

In fact, accusations of witchcraft are often used as a pretext for assaulting women. Behind the salacious headlines lurks another story. As Amnesty Media Awards 2013 nominee Vlad Sokhin captures so poignantly in these images, the casual brutality against women and girls, and a government that is taking the wrong direction in addressing this systemic violence is a toxic mix.


PAPUA NEW GUINEA

TOXIC BREW

“ IF A WOMAN IS ACCUSED OF SORCERY, THEY CAN DO ANYTHING TO HER AND NO ONE WILL STOP THEM.”A WOMAN SPEAKING TO AMNESTY IN MARCH 2013, GOROKA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Rasta was accused of sorcery by people from her village, after the death of a young man in 2003. Villagers attacked her with axes and bush knives during the funeral, cutting off her hand. A study by the Melanesian Institute found that women are six times more likely to be accused of sorcery than men.

Hellen, aged 38, lost her leg when her husband hacked it off in a drunken rage in 2005 – in front of their young children. In a rare instance of justice, her husband was later arrested and jailed for the attack. In many such cases, a man can offer compensation to the woman’s family for the 'damage' caused, making it difficult to pursue a court case. Domestic violence affects more than two thirds of women in Papua New Guinea.

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Weapons confiscated from Raskol gang members during attacks on women, Top Town Police Station, Sexual Offences Squad, Lae town, Morobe province. Raskol gangs rule over slum settlements in the capital, Port Moresby, and are responsible for numerous killings, rapes and other assaults on women and girls.

We have been strongly calling on the government in Papua New Guinea (PNG) to act on this horrific violence and in May the Sorcery Act was repealed. However, at the same time, the government put in place new laws to expand the use of the death penalty to a wider set of crimes, including sorcery related murder, signalling a move towards resuming executions - a horrific and regressive step.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION - http://amn.st/14vzaCw

See more of Vlad Sokhin’s work at www.vladsokhin.com/projects/crying-meri


05FLAMEISSUE 2 / 2013A staff member at a clinic helps 19-year-old Kimberly, January 2012. Kimberly had been raped by three men in 8 Mile Settlement, Port Moresby, after the driver of the taxi she was taking allowed two other men to enter the car en route. They took her to an isolated area where she was sexually abused for 24 hours. A 1993 study found that 55% of women in Papua New Guinea have been raped.

The beautiful landscape of Papua New Guinea’s highlands belies the desperate reality of life for women and girls in the region.

Richard Bal shows off the disfigured ear of his wife, Agita, in the Morobe block of Port Moresby. In December 2010, after coming home drunk, Richard took a bush-knife and cut off half of Agita’s left ear. He spent one night in the police station and was released the next morning due to 'insufficient evidence' to initiate criminal proceedings. Agita’s relatives did not allow her to leave Richard, having received 500 kina compensation from him for the 'potential damage' caused.

These men call their gang “Dirty Dons 585” and admit to rapes and armed robberies in the Port Moresby area. They say two-thirds of their victims are women.

Gandhi said: "Be the change you wish to see in the world," and I think this optimism aptly describes the atmosphere that took over the University of Auckland’s Business School for the 2013 Human Rights Conference.

On 4 May more than 150 human rights defenders, inspirational thinkers and human rights experts converged on Auckland for Amnesty’s first Human Rights Conference in NZ, which was held in conjunction with the NZ Centre for Human Rights.

With eight speakers on a variety of human rights issues, there were many highlights over the day which was designed to inspire, inform and turn human rights issues into part of everyday conversation in New Zealand.

Here are just a few of my highlights:

"The case for an accounting of what really happened inside Sri Lanka between January and May 2009, shrouded from the kind of scrutiny we now see in Syria, remains urgent." - Gordon Weiss

Former UN Spokesperson in Sri Lanka, author and current expert consultant with International Criminal Evidence Project, Gordon Weiss kicked off the conference with his discussion about the accountability in Sri Lanka.

Weiss captivated the audience as he spoke with authority about the reasons why Sri Lanka and more importantly its people, needed accountability for what has happened there.

“The Sri Lankan government has given a written undertaking to account for what had happened at the end of the war and, despite numerous ‘make-believe’ reports, it has effectively done almost nothing, no accountability," he said.

Weiss is a captivating speaker, with an enthralling presence. I was personally impressed by his approach to the topic.

He concluded by stating that, "judging on the small timescale of the past 20 years, international justice processes take time, but they happen.”

"I say with all the conviction that I can muster that it's our solemn duty as human rights defenders to give a voice to the voiceless women of the Pacific." - Graham Leung

Graham Leung, former Fiji Human Rights Commissioner, spoke with great humility when discussing the epidemic violence against women in the Pacific.

"...behind every statistic is a human face, a battered wife, a broken home, a bruised daughter, a shattered dream; there is pain, torment and grief."

He said that, yes this is sickening, but there is hope. People are no longer turning a blind eye to this abuse, and talking about it is the first step to making change happen.

"Women deserve no less than men."

A panel session with former National MP Aussie Malcolm, Green MP Jan Logie and former Green MP Keith Locke on how to change their minds was certainly intriguing.

"Some of the key points with the campaign was the messaging. In the public forum – who can oppose marriage equality?- Jan Logie

Green MP Jan Logie, spoke of the effectiveness of the Marriage Equality campaign in New Zealand. She went on to say that it is the framing and wording of your messages that is really important and will help to get your politician's support.

HUMAN RIGHTS CONFERENCE

Chloe Vaughan reports on Amnesty International’s Human Rights Conference.


BE THE CHANGEHUMAN RIGHTS CONFERENCE 2013

"I was involved with the East Timor campaign and it seemed like nothing was happening when in fact you were setting the groundwork and the movement built up from there." - Keith Locke

Former Green MP Keith Locke said patience was key when trying to change anyone’s mind and politicians were no exception. He freely admitted that campaigning takes time and he mentioned the nuclear free and Arms Trade Treaty campaigns as examples.

Professor Margaret Bedggood's discussion of how to make human rights a keystone in New Zealand's constitution through the Bill of Rights Act was thought provoking.

"We could be on the cusp of change if New Zealand chooses to include these (economic, social and cultural) rights (in a revised version of the Bill of Rights)." - Margaret Bedggood

To do this she said it was important to "put Human Rights at the centre of the conversation."

She said that NZ currently has no protection for economic, social and cultural rights in the Bill of Rights and this needs to change.

The Human Rights Conference was an incredible forum to meet and learn from human rights activists. Gandhi's words speak volumes about the attendees at the conference because as human rights activists, they live by these words with every action they take and every petition they sign. These individuals are being the change they wish to see in the world.

Amnesty International’s Dove Awards celebrate individuals and groups in New Zealand who are outstanding in their human rights work. This year they went to:

Neil McKinnon, also known as 'Amnesty's man in Timaru', was awarded the 2013 Individual Dove Award. Neil is an inspiration and is a champion fundraiser.

"The Dove Award is one of the most special things that I have ever received."

The New Plymouth Group was awarded the 2013 Dove Team Award and it was heartening to see how excited group member Karen Wells was to accept the award on behalf of her group.

"It is really fantastic that our work has been recognised already and it really makes me want to do more."

The Avondale College group were recognised for their ongoing work to promote and protect human rights when they were awarded the 2013 Dove Youth Award.

AVONDALE COLLEGE GROUP CO-LEADER OMAR SHAHIN.

" It feels like what we were doing in the group is evidence that what we do affects not just us but other people as well."



DOVE AWARDS

CHLOE IS THE MEDIA INTERN AT AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL NZ.

PLEASE WRITECall for the immediate and unconditional release of Nasrin Sotoudeh on the grounds that she has been imprisoned solely for exercising her freedom of expression and association, including her work as a lawyer and legitimate human rights work. Call for the conviction and sentence against Nasrin Sotoudeh to be overturned. And allow Nasrin to have regular access to her family and lawyers of her choosing.

Send appeals to: The Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Leader of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei The Office of the Supreme Leader Islamic Republic Street End of Shahid Keshvar Doust Street, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

Email: [email protected] Twitter: @khamenei_ir

Salutation: Your Excellency

© P

ayva

nd.c

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NASRIN SOTOUDEH

HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER IMPRISONED IN IRAN

WHO

WHAT

Nasrin Sotoudeh is a prominent human rights lawyer and a mother of two children, who is serving a six year prison sentence in Evin Prison, Tehran. Nasrin is widely respected for her efforts on behalf of juveniles facing the death penalty and for her representation of prisoners of conscience and human rights defenders, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi.

Her imprisonment is based solely on her peacefully exercising her rights to freedom of expression and association, including her work as a defence lawyer representing her clients and her advocacy efforts on behalf of human rights.

BACKGROUND WHAT CAN YOU DOBACKGROUND

#1


TAKE ACTION

PLEASE WRITECall on the Inspector General of Police to ensure that a full and impartial investigation into Prageeth Eknaligoda’s disappearance is conducted immediately. Urge him to make public the findings of the investigation and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice in proceedings meeting international fair trial standards.

Send appeals to:N.K. Illangakoon Inspector General of Police (IGP) New Secretariat, Colombo 1, Sri Lanka

Fax: +94 11 2 440440 Email: [email protected]

Salutation: Dear Inspector General

Ali Mahmoud Othman was arrested in March 2012 in Aleppo province and remains held at an unconfirmed location. He was part of an activist network running the make-shift Homs media centre providing footage to other news outlets and aided foreign journalists moving in and out of Homs during the army’s assault on Baba Amr neighbourhood in February 2012.

Prageeth Eknaligoda went missing in the lead up to the January 2010 presidential elections. He was an outspoken critic of the government. He had recently published a positive analysis of political opposition candidate, Sarath Fonseka. Amnesty International remains concerned that Prageeth may have been subjected to enforced disappearance because of his work.

© Private© Baba Amro News

BACKGROUND BACKGROUND

WHAT WHATWHO WHO

#2 #3

JOURNALIST STILL MISSING IN SRI LANKA

CITIZEN JOURNALIST DISAPPEARED IN SYRIA

PRAGEETH EKNALIGODA

ALI MAHMOUD OTHMAN

PLEASE WRITEUrge the Syrian authorities to immediately inform Ali Mahmoud Othman’s family of his fate. Call on them to ensure that he is protected from torture and other ill-treatment and granted immediate access to his family, a lawyer of his choice and all necessary medical care.

Send appeals to:His Excellency Bashar Ja’afari Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations 820 Second Avenue, 15th Floor (Between 43rd Street and 44th Street) New York, NY 10017, USA

Salutation: Your Excellency

WHAT CAN YOU DOWHAT CAN YOU DO


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TAKE ACTION

Kumar was 16 when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) – an armed opposition group fighting since 1983 for an independent Tamil state – forcibly recruited him in January 2008. He was eventually captured by the Sri Lankan army in April 2009, in the last weeks of Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war. A child soldier, he was given no psychological treatment.

Instead, he was held without charge or trial for 18 months and repeatedly tortured.

I was burnt all over my body with cigarettes,” said Kumar. “I was also kicked all over the body. They kept me in a dark cell with no windows, where I had to sleep on the floor.”

Kumar’s experience is not unique. The government won its 26-year war against the LTTE in May 2009, but the abuses that became entrenched over that period persist. The war was once used as an excuse to detain people without evidence or warrants and hold them for years. Today, criticism of government policies could earn you the same treatment.

Legalised abuseJournalists, lawyers, grassroots activists – anyone who dares to criticize the authorities – can be picked up under arcane security laws and detained for years without access to the outside world.

The Prevention of Terrorism Act – a hangover from the 1980s – is one of the main legal tools deployed by the government to silence its critics. Under it, people can be arrested without charge or trial and held for up to 18 months under a detention order, or indefinitely pending trial. Locked in a sinister limbo and denied the right to a lawyer, they are left vulnerable to torture – despite a

constitutional ban on the practice.

In 2009, journalist J.S. Tissainayagam was convicted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and sentenced to 20 years’ hard labour for criticizing the military’s treatment of civilians during the war. He had been in pre-trial detention since his arrest in March 2008. His conviction was based on a confession that he said was made under duress. In June 2010, he was pardoned and went into exile.

Bundled into white vansSometimes the authorities eschew legal avenues altogether, harassing and assaulting their critics through anonymous means. Stories of people being bundled into white vans and later dumped, or never seen again, are alarmingly frequent.

Poddala Jayantha, an outspoken critic of the government’s treatment of journalists and head of the Sri Lankan Working Journalists Association, was kidnapped in a suburban street in the capital, Colombo, by unidentified men in a white van and tortured in June 2009.

“They used a piece of wood to smash the fingers on my right hand until they bled. They said, ‘This will stop you from writing’,” recalled Poddala as he spoke to Amnesty in March.

Some weeks before his ordeal, Poddala and a fellow journalist were summoned to a meeting with Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary and brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. “He was sitting in front of us,” recalled Poddala, “He said, ‘If you don’t stop this, something will happen to you.’”

“This” referred to Poddala and his colleagues’ reporting. “We wrote about corruption within the army. We wrote about the rights of Tamil people, so they

labelled us as supporters of the LTTE,” he said. “They didn’t like us talking about the rights of the Tamils.”

Poddala fled the country with his family in December 2009. He was lucky to escape with his life. Fellow journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda disappeared in January 2010, and has not been seen since (Take Action for Prageeth on Page 9).

Intolerance and fearA climate of intolerance and fear continues to sweep the island as the government’s stranglehold on the population grows ever tighter. In March, Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake was impeached after declaring a government bill unconstitutional.

Lawyers working on torture and other human rights cases have been targeted and harassed. Meanwhile, the cases of Kumar, Poddala and the many activists who have disappeared have not been independently or credibly investigated.

Yet the authorities claim that their human rights record has improved – a claim reinforced by their selection as hosts of the November meeting of Commonwealth leaders. "It is a whitewash of immense proportions" says Poddala.

“I can’t understand why the Commonwealth has decided to do this,” he told us, “because no civil society organisation is allowed to function there. There are no human rights in Sri Lanka.”

ACT NOWAmnesty International will launch a global campaign urging Sri Lanka to "Tell the Truth" on 26 June to coincide with the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. Take Action at amnesty.org.nz/srilanka

As Sri Lanka gears up to host a meeting of Commonwealth Leaders in November, testimonies from torture survivors, and the absence of justice in their cases, challenge the government’s claims to human rights progress.

Family members protest against the disappearance of their relatives in Colombo Sri Lanka © Vikalpasl.

'THERE ARE NO HUMAN RIGHTS IN SRI LANKA’

FLAMEISSUE 2 / 2013

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SRI LANKA / TORTURE

Marilyn Waring’s human rights journey has been an eventful one.

From being at the forefront of speaking up on numerous issues, such as women’s rights, a nuclear free New Zealand and third gender people, she has always put others at the forefront of her work.

And it is because of this, that Marilyn is tireless in her work for human rights, not just in the past and present, but also for the future - that she was awarded this year’s Human Rights Defender Award.

“Marilyn has long been known for her work to develop young leaders in many fields,” said Grant Bayldon, Executive Director at Amnesty International.

Amnesty was delighted to honour Marilyn as the 2013 Award winner and commended her for being an early advocate for same sex marriage, her work to end violence against women and as an activist for the rights of the unpaid and ‘invisible’ workers.

“I feel that I was born on the right side of the tracks and it’s my job to work for other people to have access to dignity and equality,” said Marilyn.

"I know scores of wonderful people who exert huge energy in the field of human rights, and to be numbered with them through receiving this award is very special.”

Marilyn said that Amnesty was a very early initiation in her activism, and she remembers going to meetings as a young student in the back room of the church she attended in Wellington.

In an interview with TV3’s Firstline presenter Rachel Smalley, she said "None of us are ever going to be free while women are still beaten, until we can get a hold of changing male behaviour around domestic violence.

"You can work in every other sort of equal opportunity area you like, but until we overcome that we're not making real progress.”

Other nominees for the 2013 Human Rights Defender Award included Fiji women’s advocate, Roshika Deo; Tamil human rights advocate, Mr A Theva Rajan; Former Minister of Immigration and refugee advocate, Hon Aussie Malcolm; inaugural President of the Refugee Council of New Zealand, Dr Nagalingam Rasalingam; and founding member of the Child Poverty Action Group, Susan St John.

Bishop Peter Sutton hongi-ing the Dalai Lama in 1996 © MARTIN DE RUYTER/FAIRFAX NZ

One of Amnesty International NZ’s kaumatua passed in March this year. Bishop Peter Sutton will be well known to many Amnesty members.

"He was a humble man", said Margaret Taylor, Amnesty's Activism Support Manager. "When you were in the room with him, whether one-on-one or in a crowd hundreds strong, he was the only one wondering if he had done enough. The rest of us were in awe of his huge contribution to human rights and the humour and wisdom he offered."

Amnesty International would particularly like to pay tribute to this gentle giant of Amnesty who started our first religious faiths network and ensured that when Amnesty protested, whether in Nelson, Wellington, or Auckland, we were regularly joined by our brothers and sisters from across the faiths spectrum.

The 2013 Secret Policeman’s Ball was a barrel of laughs. Thanks to everyone who came along and to the talented comedians who gave their time. Check out the rest of the pics here – http://amn.st/195U10Y

© Amnesty International / Yvonne Shearer

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AMNESTY BRIEFS

MARILYN WARING - 2013 HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER

A TRIBUTE TO BISHOP PETER SUTTON

For more than 20 years Amnesty International has been working towards the world having a bulletproof Arms Trade Treaty.

And finally in March all the hard work paid off, when the United Nations passed the treaty 156 to three.

This treaty holds human rights issues at its core, so we now have a platform from which we can work to eliminate the unregulated trade of small arms.

On the opening day of the treaty signing, in early June, 67 nations, including NZ, signed the landmark agreement at the United Nations in New York.

Thank you to everyone who played a role in this campaign.

Together we’ve made history.

WE DID IT!©

UN

Photo/A

lbert Gonzalez Farran

Documents

Flame, Issue 2, 2013