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Designation of Palestinian Rights Organisation as ‘Terrorist’ Groups Condemned

Please read these details we have received from Amnesty International about Palestine and take action on this if you wish.

Six Palestinian civil society organisations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory labelled ‘terrorist’ groups under 19 October military order .

Even publicly expressing support for the groups is now prohibited

Amnesty International are proud to work with their Palestinian partners … and stand with them in challenging this outrageous decision

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned a military order issued by the Israeli Defense Ministry declaring six Palestinian civil society organisations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to be “terrorist” groups.

The groups are Addameer, al-Haq, Defense for Children Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Bisan Center for Research and Development, and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees.

The designation, made on 19 October pursuant to a 2016 Israeli statute, effectively outlaws the activities of these civil society groups. It authorises the Israeli authorities to close their offices, seize their assets and arrest and jail their staff members, and it prohibits funding or even publicly expressing support for their activities.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, both of whom work closely with many of these groups, said in a joint statement:

This appalling and unjust decision is an attack by the Israeli government on the international human rights movement.

For decades, the Israeli authorities have systematically sought to muzzle human rights monitoring and punish those who criticise its repressive rule over Palestinians.

While staff members of our organisations have faced deportation and travel bans, Palestinian human rights defenders have always borne the brunt of the repression.

This decision is an alarming escalation that threatens to shut down the work of Palestine’s most prominent civil society organisations.

The decades-long failure of the international community to challenge grave Israeli human rights abuses and impose meaningful consequences for them has emboldened Israeli authorities to act in this brazen manner.

How the international community responds will be a true test of its resolve to protect human rights defenders.

We are proud to work with our Palestinian partners and have been doing so for decades. They represent the best of global civil society. We stand with them in challenging this outrageous decision.

Action

Suggested Tweets

Israeli authorities declared 6 Palestinian civil society organizations to be “terrorist organizations.” This appalling decision is an attack on the int'l human rights movement.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/10/israel-opt-designation-of-palestinian-civil-society-groups-as-terrorists-a-brazen-attack-on-human-rights/
and
For decades, Israel has systematically sought to muzzle human rights monitoring and punish those who criticize its repressive rule over Palestinians. How the int'l community responds will be a true test of its resolve to protect human rights defenders.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/10/israel-opt-designation-of-palestinian-civil-society-groups-as-terrorists-a-brazen-attack-on-human-rights/

You can visit the AIUK Middle East and Gulf Facebook page at – https://www.facebook.com/AmnestyMEG.org.uk/

Egypt: Life of arbitrarily detained activist in danger

Dear activists,

It is now 2 years since activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and human rights lawyer Mohamed el-Baqer were arbitrarily detained without charge or trial. This means that they have reached the deadline for being detained without a trial according to Egypt’s own laws.

Mohamed el-Baqer (also spelled Baker) studied at the Centre for Applied Human Rights at York University a few years ago, so Amnesty members in York know him and his wife.

Concerns are growing over Alaa Abdel Fattah’s life and wellbeing after his family and lawyer learned about his suicidal thoughts due to his unjust detention and cruel prison conditions.

Take Action

Please find in the below PDF further details and a template text to help you write your own campaign letter.

Photographs

Photos are available below (© Amnesty International – use unrestricted) to support the campaign can be downloaded below.

Social Media

Target:

  • President Abdelfatah al-Sisi: @AlsisiOfficial
  • Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: @MfaEgypt
  • Ministry of Interior: @moiegy

Suggested Tweet:

Call on @AlsisiOfficial to release Mohamed Baker and Alaa Abdel Fattah immediately and unconditionally and stop harassment of activists

Thank you for taking action at this time,

Protect the Children’s Right to Protest

News: UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Scotland

On 16 March 2021 the Scottish Parliament unanimously passed the UNCRC (Incorporation)(Scotland) Bill to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into Scottish law. This would make rights real in Scotland, making children’s rights in the convention a part of Scottish law and giving ministers and public bodies a duty to comply and to pay due regard to the convention. The incorporation of the UNCRC followed years of campaigning by children, young people and adult allies in Scotland.

However, the UK Government is challenging aspects of the Bill, arguing that some parts go beyond the limited powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament, particularly where the Scottish courts are interpreting laws made by the UK Parliament. If the challenge is successful this may result in amendments to some aspects of the Bill.

The challenge was heard by the Supreme Court on 28 and 29 June and judgment is awaited. We will bring you news of the decision as soon as it is announced.

Read more from the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland.

Find out more about the Supreme Court Case

Action: Children’s Right to Protest

The right to protest Is a fundamental right and a vital way for children to make their voices heard in a democracy, particularly when they can’t vote. Over recent years we have seen children and young people joining protests to tackle important issues such as racism and climate change.

Anna, a member of our network, joined the School Strikes for Climate as a child in 2019 and described how the strikes ‘gave me an opportunity to make my voice heard and it gave millions of children around the world a voice too.’

We are very concerned about the impact that the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bull will have on children’s right to protest. The Bill has been described as an assault on our freedoms, threatening the right to peaceful protest by giving the police more powers to restrict, criminalise and shut down peaceful protest. The Bill has been passed in the House of Commons and is now in the House of Lords, with the date for Second Reading still to be confirmed.

Take Action

Children’s Citizenship Rights in the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court will begin a two-day hearing (23rd June) to decide whether the regulations setting the fee for children to register their British citizenship are unlawful.

The case is brought by the Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens (PRCBC) and an individual child, born in the UK, for whom the fee is standing in the way of securing her right to British citizenship.

Children who have the right to register as British citizens are currently charged an extortionate fee of £1,012, despite the Home Office itself acknowledging that the administration costs are only £372. This means the Home Office is making a £640 profit from charging a fee for children’s rights.

This huge profit-making fee can effectively leave children priced out of their rights. There are around 120,000 children in the UK who have the right to register and are affected by this fee, many of whom were born in the UK. Preventing children from accessing their right to register as British citizens may mean they miss out on opportunities such as higher education and travel, and may even face difficulties accessing healthcare or employment.

In 2019 the High Court found evidence that the fee prevents many children registering British citizenship, leaving them feeling “alienated, excluded, isolated, ‘second-best’, insecure and not fully assimilated into the culture and social fabric of the UK”. In February this year, the Court of Appeal ruled the fee unlawful because it was set without considering children’s best interests. Now the Supreme Court will consider the lawfulness of making the exercise of a child’s right to be registered as a British citizen conditional on their payment of £1,012.

Amnesty has also intervened in the case to address the rights to British citizenship of stateless children, to whom the fee also applies.

Read more details

Denmark: Refugees at risk of return to Syria

At least 380 refugees in Denmark, including children, have been told by the Danish Immigration Service that they must return to Syria and had their temporary protection status and residence permits revoked. This is because Denmark has deemed Damascus and the surrounding areas safe for return.

Many of the refugees are still waiting for their case to be finally decided on appeal. Amnesty International understands that 39 people have already received a final decision on their case and are at risk of being deported as soon as Denmark re-establishes diplomatic ties with the Syrian regime.

Amnesty International is concerned that those returning to Syria could face torture, enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention. Research has found civilians returned to government-controlled areas, including Damascus, are requested to go through a ‘security clearance’ involving interrogation by Syrian security forces, whom Amnesty International consider responsible for widespread and systematic human rights violations.

Amnesty International’s Europe Director, Nils Muižnieks said:

Forcing these refugees, some of them children, back to Syria, even indirectly, would put them at real risk of torture and other serious abuses.

Take Action

Please write to the Danish Minister of Immigration and Integration calling for the ongoing protection of Syrian refugees in Denmark.

View the full action details at Amnesty.org

Read more

Read more about this campaign at Amnesty.org