Amnesty International Group 22 Pasadena/Caltech News
Volume XV Number 2, February 2008
UPCOMING EVENTS
Thursday, February 28, 7:30 PM. Monthly
Meeting. Caltech Y is located off San Pasqual
between Hill and Holliston, south side. You will
see two curving walls forming a gate to a path-
- our building is just beyond. Help us plan
future actions on Sudan, the 'War on Terror',
death penalty and more.
Tuesday, March 11, 7:30 PM. Letter writing
meeting at Caltech Athenaeum, corner of Hill
and California in Pasadena.
Sunday, March 16, 6:30 PM. Rights Readers
Human Rights Book Discussion Group at
Vromans Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd. in
Pasadena. 626-449-5320. The featured book is
"Unbowed: A Memoir", by Wangari Maathai.
COORDINATOR'S CORNER
Hi everyone,
In the newsletter this month, we are focusing on
the death penalty, having neglected this issue
lately! There are 2 actions in the newsletter re the
death penalty.. These actions were submitted by
Stevi, our Death Penalty person.
There is also information about sexual violence
against Native American women. "Maze of
Injustice", Amnesty's report on sexual violence
against Native American women in the USA is
available on the AIUSA website at:
http://amnestyusa.org/women/maze/report.pdf.
Group 22 members participated in the Doo Dah
parade, (now moved to January instead of the
traditional Sunday before Thanksgiving), in
grand style with the portable waterboarding
express! A flatbed truck outfitted with an old
bathtub, "Surfin' USA" blaring from the
speakers, 2 ominous looking plain-clothes CIA
types combing the crowd for "volunteers", and a
lot of fun! Photos can be seen on Group 22's
website at http://www.its.caltech.edu/-
aigp22/. This was our best entry so far in the
years we have been in the parade and everyone
had a lot of fun! (Not that we don't take torture
seriouslyÉdon't get the wrong idea.) Thanks to
all who helped out and participated, especially
to those wild and crazy guys Robert and Dan
(Marie-Helene's husband and friend!!)
Group 22's friend, Stop Genocide Now activist
Gabriel Stauring, was trapped in a hotel in Chad
while visiting Darfurian refugee camps in Chad's
capital in late January. Paula received an email
from him regarding the situation. It was a tense
few days before Stauring and co-workers were
able to be evacuated to a nearby military base,
then flown out of the country. To read Gabriel's
blog, go to http://www.stopgenocidenow.org.
Con Cari–o,
Kathy
RIGHTS READERS
Human Rights Book Discussion Group
Keep up with Rights Readers at
http://rightsreaders.blogspot.com
Next Rights Readers meeting:
Sunday, March 16, 6:30 PM
Vromans Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd.
In Pasadena
(See Upcoming Events section)
"Unbowed" by Wangari Maathai
In Unbowed, Nobel Prize winner Wangari
Maathai recounts her extraordinary journey from
her childhood in rural Kenya to the world stage.
When Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement
in 1977, she began a vital poor people's
environmental movement, focused on the
empowerment of women, that soon spread
across Africa. Persevering through run-ins with
the Kenyan government and personal losses, and
jailed and beaten on numerous occasions,
Maathai continued to fight tirelessly to save
Kenya's forests and to restore democracy to her
beloved country. Infused with her unique
luminosity of spirit, Wangari Maathai's
remarkable story of courage, faith, and the power
of persistence is destined to inspire generations to
come.
About the Author
Wangari Muta Maathai was born in Nyeri,
Kenya, in 1940. She is the founder of the Green
Belt Movement, which, through networks of rural
women, has planted over 30 million trees across
Kenya since 1977. In 2002, she was elected to
Kenya's Parliament in the first free elections in a
generation, and in 2003, she was appointed
Deputy Minister for the Environment and
Natural Resources. The Nobel Peace Prize
laureate of 2004, she has three grown children
and lives and works in Nairob.
STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
"MAZE OF INJUSTICE: THE FAILURE TO
PROTECT INDIGENOUS WOMEN FROM
SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN THE USA"
A summary of Amnesty International's findings
Sexual violence against Indigenous women in the
USA is widespread -- and especially brutal.
According to US government statistics, Native
American and Alaska Native women are more
than 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually
assaulted than other women in the USA. Some
Indigenous women interviewed by Amnesty
International said they didn't know anyone in
their community who had not experienced sexual
violence. Though rape is always an act of
violence, there is evidence that Indigenous
women are more likely than other women to
suffer additional violence at the hands of their
attackers. According to the US Department of
Justice, in at least 86 per cent of the reported
cases of rape or sexual assault against American
Indian and Alaska Native women, survivors
report that the perpetrators are non-Native men.
Sexual violence against Indigenous women is the
result of a number of factors including a history
of widespread and egregious human rights
violations against Indigenous peoples in the
USA. Indigenous women were raped by settlers
and soldiers in many infamous episodes
including during the Trail of Tears and the Long
Walk. Such attacks were not random or
individual; they were tools of conquest and
colonization. The underlying attitudes towards
Indigenous peoples that supported these human
rights violations committed against them
continue to be present in society and culture in
the USA. They contribute to the present high
rates of sexual violence perpetrated against
Indigenous women and help to shield their
attackers from justice.
Treaties, the US Constitution and federal law
affirm a unique political and legal relationship
between federally recognized tribal nations and
the federal government. There are more than 550
federally recognized American Indian and
Alaska Native tribes in the USA. Federally
recognized Indian tribes are sovereign under US
law, with jurisdiction over their citizens and land
and maintaining government to government
relationships with each other and with the US
federal government. The federal government has
a legal responsibility to ensure protection of the
rights and wellbeing of Native American and
Alaska Native peoples. The federal government
has a unique legal relationship to the tribal
nations that includes a trust responsibility to
assist tribal governments in safeguarding the
lives of Indian women.
Tribal law enforcement agencies are chronically
under-funded Ð federal and state governments
provide significantly fewer resources for law
enforcement on tribal land than are provided for
comparable non-Native communities. The lack of
appropriate training in all police forces -- federal,
state and tribal -- also undermines survivors'
right to justice. Many officers don't have the
skills to ensure a full and accurate crime report.
Survivors of sexual violence are not guaranteed
access to adequate and timely sexual assault
forensic examinations which is caused in part by
the federal government's severe under-funding of
the Indian Health Service.
The Federal Government has also undermined the
authority of tribal governments to respond to
crimes committed on tribal land. Women who
come forward to report sexual violence are
caught in a jurisdictional maze that federal, state
and tribal police often cannot quickly sort out.
Three justice systems -- tribal, state and federal -
- are potentially involved in responding to sexual
violence against Indigenous women. Three main
factors determine which of these justice systems
has authority to prosecute such crimes:
- whether the victim is a member of a federally
recognized tribe or not;
- whether the accused is a member of a federally
recognized tribe or not; and
- whether the offence took place on tribal land or
not.
The answers to these questions are often not self-
evident and there can be significant delays while
police, lawyers and courts establish who has
jurisdiction over a particular crime. The result
can be such confusion and uncertainty that no
one intervenes and survivors of sexual violence
are denied access to justice.
Tribal prosecutors cannot prosecute crimes
committed by non-Native perpetrators. Tribal
courts are also prohibited from passing custodial
sentences that are in keeping with the seriousness
of the crimes of rape or other forms of sexual
violence. The maximum prison sentence tribal
courts can impose for crimes, including rape, is
one year. At the same time, the majority of rape
cases on tribal lands that are referred to the
federal courts are reportedly never brought to
trial.
As a consequence Indigenous women are being
denied justice. And the perpetrators are going
unpunished.
In failing to protect Indigenous women from
sexual violence, the USA is violating these
women's human rights. Indigenous women's
organizations and tribal authorities have brought
forward concrete proposals to help stop sexual
violence against Indigenous women Ð but the
federal government has failed to act.
Amnesty International is calling on the US
government to take the first steps to end sexual
violence against American Indian and Alaska
Native women:
- Work in collaboration with American Indian
and Alaska Native women to obtain a clear and
accurate understanding about the prevalence and
nature of sexual violence against Indigenous
women;
- Ensure that American Indian and Alaska
Native women have access to adequate and
timely sexual assault forensic examinations
without charge to the survivor.
- Provide resources to Indian tribes for additional
criminal justice and victim services to respond to
crimes of sexual violence against Native
American and Alaska Native women.
This report and action is part of the international
SVAW campaign project on stopping violence
against Indigenous women globally. This project
will encompass not only this current work on
sexual violence against Indigenous women in the
USA, but also ongoing work on AI Canada's
2004 report "Stolen Sisters: Discrimination and
Violence Against Indigenous Women in
Canada", and work now under development by
other sections and I.S. country teams.
QUALITY HEALTH CARE FOR NATIVE
AMERICAN AND ALASKA NATIVE
WOMEN
It is essential that health service facilities have the
staff, resources and expertise to ensure the
accurate, sensitive and confidential collection of
evidence in cases of sexual violence and secure
storage of this evidence until it is handed over to
law enforcement officials. Health professionals
also have a key role to play in providing
survivors of sexual violence with any additional
medical attention they may need, including
treatment for any injuries and for sexually
transmitted infections as well as emergency
contraception.
A key step in ending the maze of injustice for
Native American and Alaska Native women is
making sure that they have free access to sexual
assault forensic examinations conducted by
Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners. The Indian
Health Service (IHS) must adopt and implement
standardized policies and protocols for handling
cases of sexual violence at all IHS emergency
rooms. These policies and protocols should be
developed in cooperation with Indigenous
women's rights defenders and implemented by
trained medical personnel in the form of Sexual
Assault Violence Nurse Examiners.
TAKE ACTION FOR NATIVE AMERICAN
WOMEN
Sample Letter
Robert G. McSwain - Acting Director
Indian Health Service
The Reyes Building
801 Thompson Avenue, Ste. 400
Rockville, MD 20852-1627
Dear Mr. McSwain,
I have recently become aware of an Amnesty
International report, conducted during 2005 and
2006 in consultation with Native American and
Alaska Native organizations, which profiles the
horrendous rates of sexual violence against
Indigenous women in the USA. The report,
"Maze of Injustice: The failure to protect Native
American and Alaska Native women from
sexual violence in the USA," found that
Indigenous women suffer disproportionately
high levels of rape and sexual violence.
According to the Justice Department, Native
American and Alaska Native women are 2.5
times more likely to be raped than women in the
United States in general, and this statistic is
widely considered to be a low estimate. The
Amnesty International report unraveled many of
the reasons why Indigenous women are at such
high risk for sexual violence and why they are
continuously denied justice. One main factor
was lack of accessible and comprehensive
medical services and response to survivors.
Indian Health Service (IHS) is the
principle and, in some areas, sole provider of
health services for Native American and Alaska
Native people. Reports to Amnesty International
indicate that many IHS facilities lack clear
protocols for treating victims of sexual violence
and do not provide consistent access to sexual
assault forensic examinations (also known as
"rape kits") and other related health services,
such as testing for sexually-transmitted infection,
pregnancy testing, emergency contraception and
culturally appropriate support services. The
report found that the IHS has not prioritized the
implementation of programs involving Sexual
Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs)-registered
nurses with advance education and clinical
preparation in forensic examinations of victims
of sexual violence-throughout its facilities. IHS's
lack of consistent protocols and services are
inexcusable barriers to Indigenous survivors and
advocates dealing with crisis.
A key step in ending the maze of injustice for
Native American and Alaska Native women is
making sure that they have free access to sexual
assault forensic examinations conducted by
Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners. The IHS must
adopt and implement standardized policies and
protocols for handling cases of sexual violence at
all IHS emergency rooms. These policies and
protocols should be developed in cooperation
with Indigenous women's rights defenders and
implemented by trained medical personnel in the
form of Sexual Assault Violence Nurse
Examiners.
I know that IHS' main concern is to provide high
quality health service to Native American and
Alaska Native people, therefore I thank you in
advance for your active support to help unravel
this maze of injustice.
Sincerely, (your name and address)
DEATH PENALTY ACTION
IRAN
12 February 2008
UA 38/08 Death sentence/Unfair trial/Torture
IRAN Ya'qub Mehrnehad (m), aged 28, member
of Iran's Baluchi minority Baluchi cultural and
civil rights activist Ya'qub Mehrnehad was
sentenced to death in early February, for an
unknown offense, after an unfair trial conducted
behind closed doors. He has allegedly been
tortured. His appeal before the Supreme Court
has been scheduled for 17 February, denying him
the minimum 20 days normally given in Iran for
him to prepare his appeal.
His trial began on 25 December 2007 before a
court in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-
Baluchistan province. This may have been a
special court set up in the city in May 2006, and
it is unclear if it operates as a branch of the
Revolutionary Court it would be governed by the
General and Revolutionary Court procedures, but
it may be operating outside that framework.
Furthermore, in June 2006 it was announced that
a "special judicial complex for security affairs"
had begun work and that a recommendation had
been made to the Judiciary to establish a branch
of the Supreme Court in the complex in order to
expedite the implementation of sentences and to
reduce the time between the commission of
crimes and the implementation of sentences.
Amnesty International is concerned that
Ya'qub Mehrnehad may be in imminent danger of
execution. Ya'qub Mehrnehad is the head of a
government-registered NGO, "The Voice of
Justice Young People's Society", which
specializes in organizing events such as concerts
and educational courses for young Baluchi
people. He was arrested in early May 2007 along
with six other members of the association after
they attended a meeting in the Provincial Office
of Culture and Islamic Guidance, which the
Governor of Zahedan reportedly attended. The
six other men were later released. The exact
reasons for his arrest are not known although
some newspaper reports in July 2007 mentioned
that a man identified as Ya'qub M. was being
detained on suspicion of "aiding Abdolmalek
Rigi", the head of a Baluchi armed group,
Jondallah, also known as the Iranian Peoples'
Resistance Movement. Five months after his
arrest, Ya'qub Mehrnehad was allowed visits
from his lawyer and his family, who said
afterwards that he had been tortured, had lost
about 15kg and was unable to keep his balance.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Iran's Baluchi minority live mainly in the south-
east of the country, and are believed to make up
between one and three percent of the total
population of around 70 million. Mainly Sunni
Muslims, they have for many years complained
of discrimination by the authorities. Jondallah
has carried out a number of armed attacks on
Iranian officials and has sometimes taken
hostages and killed them. It reportedly seeks to
defend the rights of the Baluchi people, though
government officials have claimed that it is
involved in drug smuggling and terrorist
activities and has ties to foreign governments.
Attacks by Jondallah have been followed by
widespread arrests of members of the Baluchi
minority. According to a 15 March 2007 BBC
report, Sistan-Baluchistan television said that at
least two people had been hanged in
connection with a 14 February 2007 attack on a
bus carrying Revolutionary Guards. At least 17
other people are reported to have been either
sentenced to death or executed in connection with
a March 2006 attack in Tasuki, in which up to 22
people were reportedly killed. In an interview
with the Iranian newspaper 'Ayyaran on 17
March 2007, parliamentarian Hossein Ali
Shahryari said prisons in Sistan-Baluchistan
province held more than 700 people under
sentence of death. In 2007, at least 312 people
were executed in Iran, and the true figure may be
considerably higher. There was a marked rise in
the number of Baluchis executed. For further
information please see: Iran: Human Rights
Abuses against the Baluchi Minority, September
2007:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MD
E13/104/2007.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send
appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- calling on the authorities not to carry out the
death sentence against Ya'qub Mehrnehad;
- asking for details of the charges against Ya'qub
Mehrnehad and his trial;
- expressing concern at reports that Ya'qub
Mehrnehad has been tortured, and has lost 15kg
and cannot keep his balance as a result, and
reminding the authorities of their responsibility to
ensure that he has access to adequate medical
treatment;
- stating that Amnesty International recognizes
the right and responsibility of governments to
bring to justice those suspected of criminal
offenses, but opposes the death penalty as the
ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading
punishment.
APPEALS TO:
Leader of the Islamic Republic
His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed 'Ali Khamenei
The Office of the Supreme Leader,
Islamic Republic Street - Shahid Keshvar Doust
Street
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info@leader.ir
Salutation: Your Excellency
Head of the Judiciary
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh / Office of
the Head of the Judiciary
Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e
Jomhouri,
Tehran 1316814737, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info@dadgostary-tehran.ir (In the
subject line write: FAO Ayatollah Shahroudi)
Salutation: Your Excellency
Minister of Intelligence
Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie
Ministry of Intelligence, Second Negarestan
Street,
Pasdaran Avenue,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Salutation: Your Excellency
COPIES TO:
President
His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan
Intersection,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
via website: www.president.ir/email/
Speaker of Parliament
His Excellency Gholamali Haddad Adel
Majles-e Shoura-ye Eslami, Baharestan Square,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: 011 98 21 3355 6408
Email: hadadadel@majlis.ir
(Ask for your message to be passed to the Article
90 Commission)
Iran does not presently have an embassy in the
United States. Instead, please send copies to:
Iranian Interests Section
Embassy of Pakistan
2209 Wisconsin Ave NW
Washington DC 20007
Fax: 1 202 965 1073
Email: requests@daftar.org
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if
sending appeals after 25 March 2008.
DEATH PENALTY ACTION
AFGHANISTAN
12 February 2008
UA 39/08 Death Penalty
AFGHANISTAN Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh (m),
student and journalist University student and
journalist. Perwiz Kambakhsh was sentenced to
death on a charge of blasphemy on 22 January in
the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif in Balkh
province. Before the trial began, local religious
leaders had called for him to be executed for
causing offense to Islam. His trial took place in a
closed session of the provincial lower court and
he had no legal representation. Perwiz
Kambakhsh was convicted under the blasphemy
laws for allegedly downloading material from the
internet that examined the role of women in
Islam and distributing it at Balkh University. His
brother Yaqub Ibrahimi has filed an appeal on his
behalf. If the appeal is rejected by both the
Appeal
Court and the Supreme Court, his sentence will
be passed for review to President Karzai, who
under the Constitution is authorized to approve
it, commute the sentence or pardon Perwiz
Kambakhsh altogether. Perwiz Kambakhsh
reportedly said that the court consisted of three
judges and an attorney. He was handed the
written death sentence before he had a chance to
defend himself and then escorted from the room
by armed guards and returned to prison. Perwiz
Kambakhsh, who also works for a local
newspaper in Mazar-e-Sharif, has denied all
charges against him saying that his confession
was coerced. The case against Perwiz
Kambakhsh appears to be politically motivated,
aimed at stopping his brother Yaqub Ibrahimi -
also a journalist who works for the Institute for
War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) a charity
providing
training and capacity building for local media -
from publishing articles critical of local power
holders. Perwiz was arrested in November 2007
after Yaqui published a series of articles voicing
concerns about local leaders.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Fifteen people were executed in October 2007, the
first executions in Afghanistan for three years.
The 15 were gunned down as they attempted to
flee the execution and one person sentenced to
death allegedly bribed his way out of the
execution. The executions were immediately
followed by a 10-day hunger strike by some
prisoners in Pule-Charkhi prison. The prisoners
said that the executions were not based on fair
and transparent trials, that some were politically
motivated and that at least one person escaped
execution by paying bribes. Between 70 and 110
people are believed to remain on death row. The
death sentence against Perwiz Kambakhsh comes
despite the UN General Assembly's adoption of
a resolution (18 December 2007) calling for a
worldwide moratorium on the use of the death
penalty and at a time when a total of 135
countries have abolished the death penalty in law
or practice. Amnesty International opposes the
death penalty in all cases. The death penalty is a
symptom of a culture of violence, and not a
solution to it. It has not been shown to have any
greater deterrent effect than other punishments,
and is known to have been carried out on the
innocent. The death penalty is the ultimate form
of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and
a violation of the right to life, a right proclaimed
in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and other international human rights
instruments.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send
appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- calling on President Karzai to use his powers to
pardon Perwiz Kambakhsh;
- expressing concern that the court proceedings
fell far below international fair trial standards;
- expressing concern that the charges against
Perwiz Kambakhsh appear to have been brought
for political reasons ;
- calling on President Karzai to re-introduce an
immediate moratorium on all executions in
Afghanistan, as called for in the recent UN
General Assembly resolution that was passed,
with a view to an eventual abolition of the death
penalty in line with the worldwide trend.
APPEALS TO:
Please Note:
It is difficult to get letters and emails to
Afghanistan. Please send appeals to the
Ambassador of Afghanistan, and ask that they
be forwarded to President Karzai, Attorney
General Abdul Jabar Sabit and Minister of Justice
Sarwar Danish.
Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad
Embassy of Afghanistan
2341 Wyoming Avenue NW
Washington DC 20008
Fax: 1 202 483 6488
Email: info@embassyofafghanistan.org
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if
sending appeals after 25 March 2008.
LETTER COUNT
US/Torture: 8
POC: 1
DP (Singapore): 2
Other UAs: 6
Total: 17
To add your letters to the total contact
lwkamp@gmail.com
Amnesty International Group 22
The Caltech Y
Mail Code 5-62
Pasadena, CA 91125
www.its.caltech.edu/~aigp22/
http://rightsreaders.blogspot.com
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.