Human Rights Action Update Jan. 17-23

Miriam, human rights defender, 1947-2012

For once, let us start off with some good news.

GOOD NEWS ON ANTI-GAY BILL IN UGANDA
Uganda’s president has refused to sign a bill that would impose harsh sentences for gay people, including life imprisonment, temporarily sidestepping a clash with foreign donors who have condemned the legislative push for years.

Some gay Ugandans have fled the country, saying they are being persecuted

 
Details can be found in the NYTimes or the BBC  web site. WE can only hope that the international pressure will continue to work and  that this issue can be put behind us and the gay people of Uganda.

BELARUS DEATH SENTENCE 
Belarus is the last country in Europe still carrying out executions: in 2012 it executed three men. Four death sentences, including Eduard Lykau’s, were pronounced in 2013: Rygor Yuzepchuk was sentenced on 24 April, Pavel Selyun on 12 June and Alyaksandr Haryunou was sentenced to death by a court in the city of Homel on 14 June. On 22 October, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus overturned the death sentence passed by the Homel Regional Court against Alyaksandr Harunou and returned the case for reconsideration. We have just been informed of a death sentence passed on a 53 year-old man, Eduard Lykau. Whatever heinous crimes he committed, we are still adamant in our opposition to capital punishment. Please act on this case to call for the commutation of the sentence.

INDONESIA 
Prisoners of conscience are being abused and may be tortured.. This is an Amnesty International case brought to our attention by Guy and Tilly. Thank you. All cases of abuse of prisoners and detainees must be dealt with firmly and quickly. It is indeed ironic that the prison director is named Liberty...

LABOR ISSUES

COLOMBIA TRADE UNION LEADERS BEATEN AND KILLED 
Óscar Arturo Orozco, a trade unionist in Colombia, is President of the Caldas branch of the Confederación Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT). He was recently brutally attacked while attending a peaceful demonstration, and is currently in hospital in a very serious condition. IndustriALL global union have launched a major global online protest campaign demanding an end to the attacks against trade unionists.  Please take a moment to send your message. Also trade union leaders have been killed. Most recently we've learned about Ever Luis Marín Rolong, a regional leader of the SINALTRACEBA brewery workers union who was murdered on January 4 by unknown gunmen who fired six times at him, as he was waiting for a bus in the town of Soledad.


The IUF has just launched an online protest campaign demanding an end to the murders and for the government to ensure the security of trade unionists at risk

Please open the link and act on these two campaigns.

RUSSIA
Leaders of the Aeroflot airline pilots association have been arrested as part of a union busting action on the part of the government. Please click to protest.