Amnesty International & The Basel Peace Office – 2017-12-10 20:16:53
https://act.amnestyusa.org/page/14314/action/1
Honoring the 69th Anniversary of Human Rights Day
Amnesty International
(December 10, 2017) — Take action and celebrate Human Rights Day by asking that the Egyptian government release Hanan Badr el-Din, who has been searching for her missing husband since July 2013. Her latest attempt to get information about her husband has seen her arrested — take action now to ask for Hanan Badr el-Din’s release immediately.
Today is Human Rights Day, the 69th Anniversary of the day the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It’s a day to remember all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
Every year, we celebrate Human Rights Day with our Write for Rights campaign. Hundreds of thousands of people all over the world send a letter and sign a petition on behalf of someone they’ve never met, as part of Write for Rights.
Letter writing has always been at the heart of Amnesty International’s human rights campaigning, and 55+ years of human rights activism shows us that it still works. Our messages help convince government officials to release people imprisoned for expressing their opinion and standing up for human rights.
Hanan searched for her husband at police stations, prisons, hospitals and morgues. No one could tell her what had happened to him. Her husband is one of hundreds of people missing at the hands of Egypt’s security forces.
Every day, an estimated three to four people — mostly political activists, students, protesters, even school children as young as 14 — are taken by Egyptian police or military, never to be seen again. Yet the Egyptian government claims that disappearances don’t exist in the country.
Hanan was not dissuaded in her search to find her husband, and we will not be dissuaded in petitioning for her release. Celebrate Human Rights Day by asking that the Egyptian government release Hanan Badr el-Din, who has been searching for her missing husband since July 2013. Her latest attempt to get information about her husband has seen her arrested.
ACTION: take action now to ask for Hanan Badr el-Din’s release immediately.
Honoring World Human Rights Day
The Basel Peace Office
GENEVA (December 10, 2017) — The Basel Peace Office encourages you to honor Human Rights Day today.
Prague Youth Appeal to World Leaders
On November 29, young academics, policy analysts and activists from around the world released an appeal focusing on the rights of current and future generations to a world free from the threat of nuclear weapons, and urging world leaders to reduce the risks of nuclear weapons being used and support United Nations initiatives for nuclear disarmament.
The appeal [reposted below] was adopted at the conclusion of an international conference Reaching High for a Nuclear-Weapons-Free World, which was held at Charles University in Prague, organized by the Abolition 2000 Youth Network and co-sponsored by the Basel Peace Office.
The appeal calls in particular on world leaders to attend the 2018 UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament and use the occasion to make concrete progress on nuclear disarmament.
Reach High for a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World
Youth appeal to world leaders to participate constructively
in the 2018 UN High Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament
Participants of the Reaching High conference* in Prague, November 27-29, 2017 express our;
1. Alarm at the risks of nuclear weapons use by accident, miscalculation or intent, especially in these times of increasing conflict;
2. Concern at the catastrophic human, economic and environmental consequences the use of nuclear weapons would have, possibly ending civilization as we know it;
3. Sorrow at the extensive impact already caused by the production and testing of nuclear weapons on human health and the environment, and the fact that such impact will last for generations;
4. Agreement with the notion that ‘There are no right hands for wrong weapons’ and that nuclear weapons are wrong weapons as they could not be used without affecting civilians, the environment and future generations;
5. Opposition to the $100 billion spent annually on nuclear weapons, when such funds are sorely needed for climate protection, to achieve the sustainable development goals, and for other social and economic need;
6. Support for efforts to slash nuclear weapons spending directly through budget allocations and indirectly through ending investments of public funds and banks in nuclear weapons corporations;
7. Affirmation that the goal of nuclear disarmament is a universal goal that transcends differences in politics, nationalities, religions, cultures and ages;
8. Insistence that nuclear weapon states and their allies fulfill their obligation to nuclear disarmament by replacing nuclear deterrence with common security approaches, such as those outlined in the UN Charter of diplomacy, negotiation, mediation, adjudication and application of international law;
9. Highlight the important role of civil society, including all ages from youth to seniors, in the promotion of nuclear disarmament and participation in international disarmament forums such as the 2018 UN High- Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament;
10. Encourage governments to work with civil society organisations to educate and engage public in nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament as agreed by governments in the final report of the United Nations Study on Disarmament and Nonproliferation Education.
And in particular we call on:
1. All governments to participate at the highest level (Prime Minister, President, Foreign Minister or Minister for Disarmament) in the 2018 UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament;
2. Non-nuclear countries to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the 2018 UN High- Level Conference, if they have not already done so, in order to secure 100 signatories by the end of the conference;
3. Nuclear reliant countries (nuclear armed countries and their allies) to adopt a declaration at the conference to never use nuclear weapons first, and to ensure that all nuclear weapons systems are taken off high-readiness to use, and to commit to negotiations on phased nuclear disarmament.
* The Reaching High for a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World conference, held at the Charles University in Prague, included university students, young academics, policy analysts and activists from Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Portugal, Russia, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the United States. The conference was organised by the Abolition 2000 Youth Network. Co-sponsored by the Basel Peace Office, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament (PNND), Prague Vision Institute for Sustainable Security, Centre for Security Policy at Charles University (SBP) and UNFOLD ZERO.
International Declaration on Nuclear Weapons/Power,
Human Rights and Trans-generational Crimes
The Basel Peace Office co-hosted an international conference in Basel from September 14-17 on Human Rights, Future Generations and Crimes in the Nuclear Age.
The conference brought together doctors, lawyers, scientists and nuclear experts from 27 countries to consider the human and environmental impacts of uranium mining, nuclear testing, nuclear weapons use (against Hiroshima and Nagasaki), nuclear power production and nuclear accidents, as well as the risks to current and future generations from potential nuclear weapons use, further accidents and nuclear waste.
The conference adopted the Basel Declaration on human rights and trans-generational crimes resulting from nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. The declaration draws from the scientific evidence presented to the conference, and the application of international law, to conclude that:
‘the risks and impacts of nuclear weapons, depleted uranium weapons and nuclear energy, which are both transnational and trans-generational, constitute a violation of human rights, a transgression of international humanitarian and environmental law, and a crime against future generations.’
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
