Tag Archives: Amnesty International ireland

This afternoon.

Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin 2.

A live blogathon organised by Grace Dyas (above left) of Amnesty International Ireland to raise awareness of the plight of Raif Badawi and Waleed Abu al-Khair.

Raif was jailed for 10 years and publicly flogged in 2012 after starting a website for social and political debate in Saudi Arabia while Waleed, a human rights lawyer, was  arrested in 2014. Both men are on hunger strike.

Supporters and bloggers, including Broadsheet on the Telly‘s Vanessa Foran (above right) and middle pic from left: Kieran Clifford, Louise Conway and Valentina Lops called on King Salman and Saudi authorities to free Raif and Waleed  “immediately and unconditionally”.

Amnesty International Ireland

Previously: Where Blogging Is A Crime

Tomorrow

Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin 2

To coincide with US Vice President’ Mike Pence’s visit to Ireland (which begins this evening)

Via Amnesty International Ireland:

Amnesty, with other NGOs and activist groups, are holding a ‘Disco outside the Dáil’ to celebrate all those who are being targeted by the Trump/ Pence administration’s policies.

Trump and Pence have spear-headed policies that target refugees and migrants, women, LGBTI people, amongst so many others, as well as pushing climate change denial and dangerous rhetoric against journalists and anyone who opposes them.

Tomorrow, 1-3pm.

No jeans or trainers.

All welcome.

Amnesty Ireland International

Liberty Hall in Dublin ahead of a visit by Aung San Suu Kyi in 2012

Amnesty International has withdrawn its Ambassador of Conscience Award from Aung San Suu Kyi “in light of her shameful betrayal of the values she once stood for”.

Last year, Dublin City Council stripped the Myanmar leader of her Freedom the City of Dublin award following her indifference to the persecution of her country’s Rohingya people.

Via Amnesty International:

Yesterday, Amnesty International’s Secretary General Kumi Naidoo wrote to Aung San Suu Kyi to inform her the organisation is revoking the 2009 award.

Half way through her term in office, and eight years after her release from house arrest, Naidoo expressed the organisation’s disappointment that she had not used her political and moral authority to safeguard human rights, justice or equality in Myanmar, citing her apparent indifference to atrocities committed by the Myanmar military and increasing intolerance of freedom of expression.

….When she was finally able to accept the award at an event held in Dublin in 2012, Aung San Suu Kyi asked Amnesty International to “not take either your eyes or your mind off us and help us to be the country where hope and history merges.”

Amnesty International Ireland chief Colm O’Gorman said:

“When we honoured Aung San Suu Kyi here in Dublin, it was for a Myanmar that would protect and defend the human rights of all. This is what Irish people in their tens of thousands had campaigned for decades to achieve.

We will continue to fight for justice and human rights in Myanmar – with or without her support.

Amnesty International took Aung San Suu Kyi’s request that day very seriously, which is why we will never look away from human rights violations in Myanmar.”

Amnesty International Ireland

Previousaly: Aung San Suu Kyi on Broadsheet

Rollingnews

Colm O’Gorman, of Amnesty International Ireland

Further to Amnesty International Ireland last year being told by the the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) to return a €137,000 donation to fund their campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment from George Soros’ Open Society Foundation…

Amnesty International Ireland is pleased that its judicial review action before the Irish High Court has been resolved on the basis that the Standards in Public Office Commission accepts that the process leading to the adoption of the decision it made in November 2017 was procedurally flawed.

This decision has now been quashed.

Amnesty International Ireland has been vindicated in our decision to challenge the decision. The Commission has also confirmed that Amnesty has at all times cooperated in our responses to its inquiries into the OSF grant.”

From a statement released by Amnesty International Ireland this afternoon.

Amnesty welcomes quashing of SIPO’s decision on OSF grant (Amnesty International Ireland)

Previously: Above The Law

Rollingnews

George Soros and Colm O’Gorman, of Amnesty International Ireland

Readers may recall how Amnesty International Ireland is continuing to resist demands by the the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) to return a €137,000 donation to fund their campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment from George Soros’ Open Society Foundation.

Yesterday.

Catherine Sanz and Michael Cogley, the Times Ireland edition, reported:

The OSF (Open Society Foundation) contradicted a statement issued by Sipo last Wednesday claiming that Sipo had received written confirmation from the donor that the funding was explicitly for political purposes. Sherry Perreault, head of ethics and lobbying at Sipo, said there had been “a bit of wordsmithing” from the OSF on the matter and that Sipo had verified documents relating to the donation.

“There was documentary evidence received by the commission which was verified by the donor,” she said. “By virtue of verifying this information, the donor essentially clarified the intent.”

Fund backs Amnesty’s defiance of watchdog (Catherine Sanz, Michael Cogley, The Times Ireland edition)

Further to this…

Jonathan Birchall, Lead Communications Officer at OSF in New York, has released the following statement:

“The Open Society Foundation wishes to clarify that it has at no time confirmed to Ireland’s Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) that a €137,000 grant given by our Women’s Rights Program to Amnesty International Ireland (AI) in 2016 was for political purposes.

“Open Society has written to the regulator asking for any public statements to the contrary to be corrected.

“The grant in question was to fund AI’s My Body My Rights campaign, which seeks to mobilize support for a repeal of the 8th Amendment to the Irish Constitution, which effectively bans all forms of abortion in Ireland in violation of women’s and girls’ human rights.

“In asserting that the grant was for “political purposes” SIPO’s head of ethics and lobbying, Sherry Perreault, was quoted in The Times of Ireland on December 20 as saying that there was “documentary evidence received by the commission which was verified by the donor” which “essentially clarified the intent.”

“The Open Society Foundations is concerned that the regulator may be referring to internal documents that were stolen from our servers and illegally published on the DC Leaks website in 2016, reportedly by hackers working for the Russian government seeking to publicly discredit our human rights work around the world.

“As Open Society has noted to SIPOC in correspondence, these documents were not dispositive of our intent as a donor. Rather, they were part of an ongoing discussion on how best to strengthen women’s reproductive rights across Europe.

“In addition, it was Amnesty who first approached Open Society, in a general call for expressions of interest for a grant that was not specific to abortion.

“Furthermore, the legal scope of the grant given to Amnesty International is determined by the language of the grant agreement, and not by any other document. The Open Society Foundations trusts that SIPO will rely only on this document to determine whether the terms of this grant comply with Irish law.”

Previously: Above The Law

This afternoon.

Egypt Embassy, Elgin Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4

A Protest to mark Fourth Anniversary of Ibrahim Halawa’s Arrest.

Amnesty International, USI and Unite Against Racism members gathered outside the Egyption Embassy calling for the release of Ibrahim, 21, from Firhouse, Dubin 24.

He was 17 when he was arrested during protests in support of Mohammed Mursi, who had been ousted from power in a military coup.

In a statement, his family said:

“Today we say that four years is too much – four years in an Egyptian prison, four years of a mass trial, four years of hope of freedom that never came true, four years of waiting.

One day is too much, four years is torture. We miss our brother desperately.“

Previously: Ibrahim Halawa on Broadsheet

Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

Amnesty

An Amnesty International Ireland video shows a worried woman comforting a sick child, when a voiceover says:

“Should checking her purse come before his check-up?”

But it’s not allowed to be screened on Irish TV.

However, Pippa Woolnough explains:

“We’re not allowed to screen it on any channel because the Broadcasting Act 2009 prohibits any ads calling for changes to the laws of the land (which is interesting in and of itself).”

“Our ad is seeking the Constitutional Convention to examine the possibility of greater protections for economic, social and cultural rights in Bunreacht na hÉireann, so clearly falls foul of the legislation.”

“However, of additional interest is that the Government has already signed up to international treaties promising to protect these rights (e.g. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ratified in 1989), and successive Irish governments have pledged to deliver those social and economic rights since the 1919 Democratic Programme.”

“So really, this ad is only asking for something the Government has already pledged to do.”

Constitutional Convention Regional Meetings

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More than a hundred journalists, bloggers and media workers were killed in 2012 and this is a very small way of remembering them.

 

Justin Moran, Amnesty International Ireland.

 

Members of the National Union of Journalists Ireland and Amnesty International Ireland lay a wreath at The Veronica Guerin memorial in Dublin Castle to mark World Press Freedom Day.

From left:  Barry McCall (NUJ) Jim Aughney (NUJ) Ashling Seely, Amnesty International. Seamus Dooley (NUJ), Noeleen Hartigan of Amnesty International, Gerry Curron (NUJ) Martin Fitzpatrick (NUJ), Des Coughlan (NUJ) and Tony Jones (NUJ).

(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)