London - Undemocratic, this is the right word describing the British electoral system which excludes its citizens living abroad and EU citizens in UK from general elections. Look at the electoral register and see people from Antigua, Bahamas, Botswana, Zimbabwe and all the Commonwealth countries can have their say on who rule the UK.
The ‘post-imperial’ electoral system gives ex colonies citizens the right to vote in the country which once exploited their own, and this is absolutely right and fair. But it is utterly unjust citizens from the neighbouring countries living in the UK and the British abroad (who lose the right to vote after a number of years) are excluded from the democratic process by the law since 1969. Why? Is it just for chance or this is the result of the British crossparty establishment's 'domestic defence policy'?
The answer is complex and touches the very founding process of democracy. Every political establishment, in every country, defends itself from whom considers, and wrongly classifies, as defector. This means those who flee their countries of origin are perceived as potential political defectors able to detect the structural, systemic failures of political systems in the countries they left: people emigrate when understand there is no hope for change. But why then Indian or Pakistani, for instance, living in the UK take part to national elections and have MPs representing their communities in the House of Commons while European origin and British expats don't?
Firstly because they are from former colonies and Commonwealth citizens, secondly because nearly all Commonwealth countries (except for Australia, Canada, New Zealand and perhaps few others), are not democracies comparable to the EU ones (exceptions here as well starting from Hungary) therefore people from Nigeria or Malawi have de facto a different political awareness and might not be able to promote changes in the structural system of an advanced democracy such as Britain.
Today the campaign to give British citizens living abroad and EU citizens in UK full political rights launched by Another Europe is Possible, The 3 Million and British in Europe marks a radical change in support of democracy in Great Britain, and goes far and beyond Brexit. The fight is for a fair and just society representing all and for a political system no longer allowed to hide and perpetrate exclusion in the name of a dead ‘post-imperialist’ establishment.
Let Us Vote: campaign and petition launched by Another Europe is Possible, British in Europe and The3Million
African unsustainable development between EU grants and China loans
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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL - List of some of the cases of violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 - Each name has been remembered in London in occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Declaration.
Article 2 – Equality of rights
HANA ABDI Iran A student arrested on 4 November 2007 and charged with ‘disrupting national security’ for her campaigning work for gender equality.
KRISTINE GARINA Latvia Overcame official hostility and physical harassment to set up the country’s first Gay Pride parade in Riga in 2005.
DAVID KATO Uganda A campaigner for gay rights murdered by persons unknown in January 2011.
LOUJAIN AL-HATHLOUL Saudi Arabia Detained in December 2014 for the offence of driving a car.
Article 3 – Right to life, liberty and security
JAMAL KHASHOGGI Saudi Arabia A journalist and critic of the Saudi regime, murdered by Saudi officials in their consulate in Istanbul in October 2018
MATSUMOTO KENJI Japan On death row since 1993, he has a longstanding intellectual disorder because of mercury poisoning
JUAN ALMONTE HERRERA Dominican Republic A member of the Dominican Committee on Human Rights who was abducted in the capital in 2009; he has not been seen since
ARTUR AKHMATKHANOV Russia A volunteer working for the Russian Chechen Friendship Society who disappeared in Grozny in 2003.
LILIA ALEJANDRA Mexico A young woman raped and murdered in Ciudad Juarez in February 2001, one of many such victims in this city.
ILIAS ALGABIT Niger One of three Tuareg men arrested and murdered by soldiers in August 1994, in apparent retaliation for earlier killings by rebels.
JORGE ALVAREZ NAVA Mexico A 19 year old student, one of a group of 43 trainee teachers abducted and murdered by persons unknown in the state of Guerrero in September 2014.
DJORDJE DJORIC Federal Republic of Yugoslavia A Serb reportedly detained in July 1998 by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army while driving a pregnant woman to hospital.
NADIA ANJUMA Afghanistan A poet beaten to death in Herat in 2005 by her husband.
DAKA ASANI Kosovo A member of the Roma community abducted on 1 August 1999 and later found murdered.
ASIL HASSAN ‘ASLEH Israel A 17 year old Palestinian, member of an Arab-Jewish friendship group, killed during a peaceful demonstration on 2 October 2000.
ANASTASIA BABUROVA Russia A journalist who died of wounds in January 2009 after being shot in central Moscow, in an attack in which a human rights lawyer was killed.
SHAMS-UL-DIN BALOCCH Pakistan A political activist abducted from an ambulance on 1 July 2010; one of the lawyers investigating his case was also abducted in February 2011.
MOAZZAM BEGG United States A British citizen, abducted from Pakistan and taken to Guantanamo Bay as part of the US’s ‘war on terror’.
NASIMA BIBI Pakistan One of several polio vaccination workers shot and killed in Karachi in December 2012.
TROY DAVIS USA On death row in Georgia since 1991 and executed in September 2011, although seven out of nine witnesses recanted their testimony against him
FAL DEEPAN Bangladesh A publisher, hacked to death in his office in Dhaka on 31 October 2015 by assailants armed with machetes.
AISHA IBRAHIM DUHULOW Somalia A rape victim reportedly stoned to death aged 13 on 27 October 2008 in front of hundreds of spectators in Kismayo, southern Somalia.
PRAGEETH EKNALIGODA Sri Lanka A journalist and cartoonist who disappeared prior to the January 2000 presidential election; fate unknown.
KAREN EMPENO Philippines A 24 year old woman abducted by armed men on 26 June 2006.
ALANA EZEQUIEL Brazil A 12 year old girl killed in March 2007 during a shootout between police and drugs gangs in a Rio slum.
FAISAL FARAZ Pakistan ‘Disappeared’ on 30 July 2005 during a bus journey to Peshawar.
BERTA CACERES Honduras An environmental campaigner and indigenous leader, murdered in March 2016.
SAHAR HUSSEIN AL-HAIDERI Iraq A campaigning journalist murdered in Mosul on 7 June 2008.
BENJALINE HERNANDEZ Philippines A 22 year old human rights worker, shot and killed by soldiers on 5 April 2002.
JAIRO BEDOYA HOYOS Colombia A member of an indigenous people’s organisation, abducted by paramilitaries on 2 March 2000.
REYHANEH JABBARI Iran Sentenced to death in 2009 after stabbing a man she claimed was trying to rape her, and executed by hanging on 25 October 2014.
RAMESHWAR JATAV India A dalit, mutilated and humiliated in public by a group of upper caste men n Naksoda
KHEDA KUNGAEVA Chechnya An 18 year old raped and murdered by Russian soldiers on 26 March 2000.
AMINA LAWAL Nigeria Sentenced to death by stoning by a Sharia court in March 2002 for allegedly bearing a child out of wedlock
NYAN LIN Thailand A Karen refugee, beaten to death by soldiers in March 1998 after disobeying a curfew.
CLAYTON LOCKETT USA A convicted murderer executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma on 29 April 2014, taking 43 minutes to die.
RIZANA NAFEEK Saudi Arabia A teenager from Sri Lanka sentenced to death in June 2007 after an unfair trial.
AUNG NAING Burma A journalist shot and killed by soldiers on 4 October 2014.
SOMCHAI NEELAPAIJIT Thailand A human rights lawyer who went missing on 12 March 2004 after speaking out about the alleged torture of some of his clients at the hands of the police.
BITONDO NYUMBA Democratic Republic of the Congo A widow attacked and raped by soldiers on 11 May 2005, so severely injured she died some six weeks later.
JORGE ORELLANA Honduras A television journalist shot and killed by an unknown assailant on 20 April 2010 as he left the TV studio.
FARZAN PARVEEN Pakistan A pregnant woman stoned and beaten to death outside a courthouse in Lahore on 27 May 2014 in a so-called ‘honour killing’.
NANCY PERALTA Guatemala A university student who was kidnapped, raped and murdered on 1 February 2002.
RASHID REHMAN Pakistan A lawyer, shot dead in Multan in May 2014 for defending a client accused of blasphemy.
CEDRIC MAUDUIT France A 41 year old civil servant among those murdered by terrorists at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris on 13 November 2015.
JULIANO MER-KHAMIS Israel/Palestine An actor and theatre director, shot and killed by masked gunmen in Jenin in the West Bank on 4 April 2011.
SHIMATSU SHINJI Japan One of three condemned prisoners executed in June 1998 having spent more than 10 years in a single cell with no contact with other prisoners
KAROL SENDREI Slovakia A member of the Romani community, he died in police custody on 6 July 2001 after being beaten while tied to a radiator
MAHMUT YILDIZ Turkey A 16 year old who died of a brain haemorrhage in December 1997 while in incommunicado detention at Siirt Gendarmerie Regimental HQ. His death certificate said death was caused by ‘trauma from a blunt instrument’.
Article 4 – Right to freedom from slavery
ADINA Uganda A young woman from Kampala, trafficked to the UK and kept imprisoned in a house for two years, where she was forced to cook and clean, and was raped by her captors
BIRAM DAR ABEID Mauritania The president of the anti-slavery organisation Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement, he and a colleague were arrested in August 2018.
NADIA MURAD Iraq The joint-winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for her campaigning on violence against women, she was abducted by ISIS in August 2014 with other Yazidi women and used as a sex slave.
Article 5 – Right to freedom from torture
MAGNALDO DE AGUIAR Brazil A 15 year old boy in Recife who received third degree burns after being thrown into an acid container by military police in February 1999
DELARAM ALI Iran A social worker injured by police during a public protest
in June 2007, later sentenced to 30 months jail.
AMEEN AYODELE Togo A Nigerian member of Amnesty arrested and tortured during a visit to Togo in May 1999.
ARNOLD BLANCO Venezuela A 15 year old boy whose ribs were broken after a beating by policemen in Caracas in July 1996.
ANQUILING DIABONE Senegal A human rights activist who fled the country in October 1999 after being assaulted and verbally abused by soldiers at a military checkpoint.
SOPHIA DOLAR Kenya One of a group of human rights activists arrested in March 2000 and charged with ‘unlawful assembly’; ill-treated in prison before being released.
SUMI KHAN Bangladesh Seriously wounded by unknown assailants on 27 April 2004, having written newspaper articles about attacks on members of minority communities.
OLGA KITOVA Russia An investigative journalist arrested and beaten up by a group of policemen on 21 March 2001.
SANJIV KUMAR KARNA Nepal A 24 year old student arrested and beaten by security forces on 8 October 2003 – fate unknown.
BARBARA ITALIA MENDEZ Mexico One of 26 women assaulted by police officers in San Salvador Atenca on 4 May 2006.
IBRAHIM LAKU Lebanon An asylum-seeker from Sudan, beaten and seriously injured in July 2000.
EHAMPARAM WIJIKALA Sri Lanka A Tamil woman raped by two members of a special police unit on 19 March 2001.
ABU OMAR Egypt Abducted in Milan in February 2003 and taken to Cairo via a US military base in Germany – detained in secret and allegedly tortured.
ADRIAN VASQUEZ LAGUNES Mexico A torture victim for whom Amnesty worked in its Stop Torture campaign, released in December 2015
TSVETALIN PEROV Bulgaria A 16 year old Roma who suffered serious burns in April 2000 while in police custody.
Article 9 – Right to freedom from arbitrary arrest or detention
MUHAMMAD HASAN MUSTAFA AL-NAJJAR Israel/Occupied Territories A secondary school student arrested in November 2002 and held in detention centres for over a year without charge or trial
IDRIS ABA’ERE Eritrea Arrested in October 2001 and held in incommunicado detention after calling for democratic reform
ASMA AHMED Sudan A human rights lawyer detained for over a month without charge in 2013, released following an Amnesty urgent action
SADDEK AICHOUNI Algeria Arrested at his home in Algiers on 2 October 1998, though no reason was given and no warrant was produced. Fate unknown.
AZHDAR AMANMURADOV Turkmenistan Held in detention without trial for several months for his role in organising peaceful anti-government demonstration in July 1995.
ABEL ACHA APONG Cameroon One of a group of men held without charge or trial since September 1995 after collecting signatures calling for a referendum on independence for the country’s Anglophone province.
SURYA BASTAKOTI Nepal Released in April 2004 after spending a month in detention, where he was blindfolded and beaten.
FRED BAUMA and YVES MAKWAMBALA Democratic Republic of Congo Arrested and detained after a press conference for a youth movement in March 2015
TIAN CHUA Malaysia Vice-President of the National Justice Party, one of a group of members arrested in April 2001 under legislation allowing indefinite detention without charge or trial.
SHAFIK REHMAN Bangladesh A journalist and opposition supporter and the subject of an Amnesty urgent action, released in September 2016 after four months in detention without charge
SHIN SUK-JA North Korea A South Korean woman imprisoned in North Korea after her husband defected from the country.
HASSAN ABDUL SAID Iraq A Guantanamo Bay detainee who has not been seen since being handed over to the Iraqi authorities in January 2009.
Article 10 – Right to fair trial
TUN AUNG Burma Community leader imprisoned after an unfair trial, having tried to calm a crowd during rioting
FRANCOIS-XAVIER BYUMA Rwanda A human rights activist sentenced to 19 years’ in jail in May 2007 after an unfair trial.
PATRICK OKOROAFOR Nigeria Imprisoned for 17 years for armed robbery after an unfair trial; freed from jail in April 2012
BOM SAMNANG Cambodia Given 20 years’ jail after an unfair trial in August 2005, even though at an earlier trial his case was dismissed for lack of evidence.
OGULSAPAN MURADOVA Turkmenistan Sentenced to six years in prison after an unfair trial in August 2006, believed to have died in custody.
MAKHBUBA KASYMOVA Uzbekistan An opposition politician and human rights activist, she was sentenced to 5 years’ imprisonment in May 1999 for ‘failing to report a crime’ after drugs and a hand grenade were planted in her flat. Freed in December 2000.
Article 12 - Right to Private life
MALAK AL-SHEHRI Saudi Arabia A young woman arrested in December 2016 after tweeting a photograph of herself unveiled and not wearing a body-length robe
KATIA BENGANA Algeria A 16 year old schoolgirl murdered in February 1994 for not appearing veiled in public.
SOFIENE CHOURABI Tunisia Arrested on 5 August 2012 for drinking alcohol on a beach.
KHAMISA SAWADI Saudi Arabia A 75 year old woman sentenced to flogging and imprisonment in December 2009 for being in the company of men who were not related to her
JONAS KIMIE and FRANKY NDOME Cameroon Arrested in 2011 for ‘looking gay’ when wearing women’s clothing, detained for one year but then acquitted.
ZAKI SAYID ZAKI ABD AL-MALAK Egypt Sentenced to three years’ jail in 2001 for ‘habitual debauchery’, a charge often used against gay people.
STEVEN MONJEZA Malawi A gay man beaten in custody after being detained in December 2009 for ‘gross indecency’.
JEAN-CLAUDE MBEDE Cameroon Arrested in March 2011 and jailed for ‘homosexuality and attempted homosexuality’ on the so-called evidence of text messages sent to a male friend.
Article 13 – Right to freedom of movement and the right to leave one’s country
JOSIF NOLL Romania A Romanian of German extraction, imprisoned for three years in the early 1980s for crossing the border without a permit
AHMED MANSOOR United Arab Emirates The winner of a human rights award in 2015, he was banned from travelling to Switzerland to receive his prize.
CYRIL ALMEIDA Pakistan The assistant editor of Dawn newspaper, he was placed on Pakistan’s Exit Control List in 2016 after the Prime Minister’s office took exception to a front page report he wrote on tensions between the government and the military.
ABDUL FATOMA Sierra Leone Arrested in January 2017 after he challenged the government and the Anti-Corruption Commission about their lack of accountability, he was prevented from travelling following his arrest and although he was not charged he had to surrender his passport for 45 days.
ZULKIFLEE ANWAR ULHAQUE Malaysia A cartoonist and government critic, he was informed of a travel ban on him in October 2016 when about to leave Kuala Lumpur Airport for Singapore; he was given no lawful or valid reason for the travel ban.
FRAY TOMAS GONZALEZ Mexico A Catholic priest who ran a migrants’ shelter in Tenosique and who along with his staff was harassed and threatened for his work, in 2013
LEE SU-JUNG North Korea A mother forcibly returned, with her four year old son, from China to North Korea in November 2017 and at risk of arbitrary detention and torture
Article 14 – right to seek asylum
AYLAN KURDI Turkey A 3 year old Syrian refugee who drowned off the
Turkish coast in September 2015.
Article 15 – right to nationality
ABDULHADI KHALAF Bahrain Deprived of his citizenship in November 2012, allegedly for damaging state security, although no further explanation was given and he was not allowed to challenge the decision
MAUNG TUN KHIN Burma A Rohingya from Rakhine state who, along with other Rohingyas, was denied a national scrutiny card, the proof of citizenship, in the 1990s.
YOLANDA ALCINO Dominican Republic One of hundreds of people of Haitian descent unable to register the birth of her children in 2016 because of new naturalisation, and facing discrimination and the threat deportation
Article 16 – the right to marry and not to be forced into marriage
MARIA Burkina Faso A 13 year old girl forced by her father in 2016 to marry a 70 year old man who already had five wives
MEJGON Afghanistan At the age of 11 her father sold her to a 60 year old man in exchange for two boxes of heroin; she was taken to Iran and forced into drug-smuggling until she managed to escape.
NOURA HUSSEIN Sudan A 16 year old girl forced into marriage by her father in 2017; she stabbed her husband after he had repeatedly tried to rape her; the death penalty imposed on her was rescinded in June 2018
Article 17 – the right to property
CORONADO AVILA Honduras The recipient of death threats in March 2000 after working for peasant land rights.
ARABIA SHAWAMREH Palestine A woman whose home was demolished by Israeli forces four times between July 1998 and April 2003
OBTILIA EUGENIO MANUEL Mexico A campaigner for the rights of indigenous peoples, and as such the recipient of an anonymous death threat on 9 December 2004.
MAXIMA ACUNA Peru Criminal charges against this subsistence farmer standing up against a mining giant were dropped in May 2017.
Article 18 – the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion
BU DONGWEI China A Falun Gong practitioner arrested in May 2006 for exercising the right to religious freedom and sentenced to two and a half years of Re-education through labour, effectively a form of administrative detention
NGUYEN VAN LY Vietnam A Catholic priest sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for his outspoken views on religious freedom and human rights
VEPA TUVAKOV Turkmenistan A Jehovah’s Witness sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment in 2004 for refusing to serve in the army on grounds of conscience
THICH THIEN MINH Vietnam A Buddhist monk imprisoned in 1986 for peacefully exercising his right to religious freedom
MOON MYUNG-JIN South Korea A conscientious objector imprisoned for 18 months in 2011 for refusing to undertake compulsory military service
ABUNE ANTONIOS Eritrea The elderly Patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, detained in May 2007 after resisting government interference in religious matters.
YOUSUF ALI Pakistan A religious mystic sentenced to death for blasphemy on 5 August 2000.
RAIF BADAWI Saudi Arabia In January 2015 he received 50 of a projected 1000 lashes (plus a fine, plus a jail sentence) for apostasy and ‘insulting Islam through electronic channels’.
HELEN BERHANE Eritrea Arrested on 13 May 2004 and held without charge or trial in a shipping container as a member of an outlawed minority church – now free.
CHEN ZHENPING China Sentenced to eight years in jail in August 2008 for practising Falun Gong.
AVIJIT ROY Bangladesh An atheist, stabbed to death in public in February 2015.
ASHRAF FAYADH Saudi Arabia A Palestinian poet sentenced to death in November 2015 for ‘promoting atheism’ through his poetry.
MARKUS GIROTH Indonesia One of a group of 10 elderly men released in March 1999, having spent more than 30 years in detention as a supposed member of the Indonesian Communist Party.
BOUBA OULD HASSENA Mauritius One of three opposition political figures given 5 years’ jail in June 2001 for ‘conspiracy to commit acts of sabotage and terrorism’.
Article 19 – The right to freedom of opinion and expression
IDIL ESER Turkey The chair of Amnesty Turkey, arrested in July 2017 and facing trial with nine other human rights activists for alleged terrorism.
AGNES UWIMANA NKUSI Rwanda The editor of the newspaper Umurabyo, sentenced to four years’ imprisonment in 2010 for publishing articles referring to public insecurity ahead of an election and alleging corruption in government
FABIAN NSUE NGUEMA OBONO Equatorial Guinea Released in October 2003 having been imprisoned for publishing a communique criticising the government; he was reportedly severely tortured in prison
MOHAMMED ABBOU Tunisia A lawyer jailed after posting articles online critical of the government, he was freed in July 2007 after more than three years in prison.
MOHAMMED AL-AJAMI Qatar A poet, freed after serving four years for ‘insulting the Emir’
ISMAIL ADYLOV Uzbekistan An active member of a local human rights organisation, given 6 years in jail in September 1999 for ‘attempting to overthrow the constitutional order’ –released on 3 July 2001.
MALEK ADLY Egypt A human rights defender released in August 2016 after four months in detention
HASHEM AGHAJARI Iran An academic sentenced to death on 6 November 2002 after making a public speech attacking theocratic government.
TMOHAMMED AL-AJAMI Qatar Detained in November 2011 and charged with writing poetry critical of the ruler and government.
MARIA ALEKHINA Russia A member of the female punk rock group Pussy Riot jailed in August 2012 after singing protest songs in Moscow’s main Orthodox cathedral.
ALIOUM AMINOU Cameroon Arrested by security forces on 21 October 1998 after taking photographs of the corpses of people thought to have been extra-judicially executed.
YURI BANDAZHEVSKY Belarus Sentenced to 8 years’ jail in June 2001 or accepting bribes, but thought to have been targeted because of his criticism of the regime’s response to the Chernobyl disaster.
MUHAMMED BEKZHANOV Uzbekistan A journalist freed in February 2016 after 17 years behind bars.
EL HADJ BAGNOU BONKOUKOU Niger President of the Human Rights Defence League of Niger, sentenced to two years’ jail in October 1996 after criticising he ruler of the country during a newspaper interview.
LENA HENDRY Malaysia Fined in March 2017 for screening an ‘unapproved’ documentary.
RAY CHOTO Zimbabwe One of two journalists from The Standard newspaper arrested and tortured in January 1999 after reporting that a plot against the government had been foiled.
PETER GRESTE Egypt An Australian journalist sentenced to seven years in prison on 23 June 2014 for news reporting ‘damaging to national security’, now free.
SAEED JADDAD Oman Freed in August 2016, nine months into a one year sentence for blogging about protests in Dhofar province in 2011.
HAYTHAM AL-MALEH Syria An elderly lawyer arrested in Damascus in October 2009 after discussing human rights on a European television programme.
HICHAM MANSOURI Morocco Freed in January 2016 after serving a prison term on trumped up charges relating to a project to train people to use smartphones for citizen journalism
KALAFI MOALA Tonga The editor of the Tonga Times, jailed in September 1996 after publishing an article criticizing the Minister of Justice.
ALAN MORISON and CHUTIMA SIDASATHIAN Thailand Journalists charged with criminal defamation after reproducing parts of an article on human trafficking, but acquitted
SAIDATI MUKAKABIBI Rwanda A journalist imprisoned for three years for publishing articles critical of the government; released in June 2013
ELENA VARELA LOPEZ Chile Arrested in May 2008 while making a film documentary about conflict between lumber companies and indigenous communities.
JOAO ZABA Angola Arrested in May 2001 after having put on the internet an opinion piece supporting the independence of the enclave of Cabinda – freed in September 2001.
ZUNAR Malaysia The pen-name of a professional cartoonist, facing jail in the wake of cartoons he tweeted on 10 February 2015.
FARAJ SARKOUHI Iran After a secret trial in June 1997, he was given one year in jail for ‘disseminating propaganda against the Islamic Republic’, but was released in January 1998 and allowed to settle in Germany.
JABBAR SAVALAN Azerbaijan A youth activist and blogger jailed on a trumped-up drugs charge in May 2011; released on Boxing Day 2011 following a presidential pardon.
AKBAR GANJI Iran A journalist, released in March 2006 after serving six years in jail for ‘spreading propaganda’.
FRANCOIS GAYIBOR Togo A member of the Togolese Association for the Defence and Promotion of Human Rights, arrested in May 1999 and accused of sending false information to foreign organisations.
NURBERDI NURMAMEDOV Turkmenistan The joint leader of the political opposition, jailed for five years in February 2000 for ‘hooliganism’.
GRIGORY PASKO Russia Arrested in Vladivostock in 1997 and put on trial for espionage in January 1999 after filming the illegal dumping of nuclear waste.
HOUNDJO MAWUDZRO Togo A student activist, arrested on 7 November 2001 on charges of ‘defamation of character and false accusation’ and held in the severely overcrowded Lome prison.
AMADOU SCATTRED JANNEH Gambia Sentenced to life imprisonment after being arrested for possession of T-shirts with the slogan ‘End dictatorship now’ – released in September 2012
SIHEM BEN SEDRINE Tunisia The winner of an Amnesty award for human rights journalism, jailed in June 2001 for ‘spreading false information intended to undermine public order’.
Three AL-SUWAIDI sisters United Arab Emirates Released after three months in secret detention for tweeting about their prisoner of conscience brother
MAM SONANDO Cambodia An independent radio owner sentenced to 20 years for ‘insurrection’ in October 2012, although Amnesty believed he had been exercising his right to freedom of expression; freed on appeal in March 2013
J S TISSAINAYAGAM Sri Lanka Given 20 years’ hard labour in 2009 for inciting racial disharmony in his writings as a journalist.
SHI TAO China A journalist and poet sentenced for 10 years for sending an e-mail to a pro-democracy website in the USA, released after serving eight years in 2013
YOYOK EKO WIDODO Indonesia A street musician given three years in jail in April 2003 for ‘insulting the President’.
MARIA RESSA Philippines A journalist facing persistent government harassment, named, among other journalists, as one of Time Magazine’s people of the year in December 2018
Article 20 – the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association
MIKALAY ASTREYKA Belarus A member of the independent election-monitoring group Initiative released after being imprisoned in 2007 for running an unregistered organisation
FACHO BALLAM Chad A veterinary surgeon, arrested and held without charge in October 1998 as a member of Alternative 94, an organisation calling for political debate.
YORM BOPHA Cambodia Jailed in September 2012 after an unfair trial after leading a peaceful protest against forced evictions; released on bail in November 2013
MARIA CHIN ABDULLAH Malaysia Arrested in November 2016 after helping to organise a peaceful demonstration against government corruption.
ZMITSER DASHKEVICH Belarus A leader of the youth opposition movement Young Front imprisoned for 18 months in 2006 for participating in an activity of an unregistered non-governmental organisation
ALI HUSSAIN DOSSA Sudan A Member of Parliament arrested and beaten in March 2000 after hosting a meeting about human rights abuses in the province of Darfur.
LOUISA SAKER Algeria In March 2008 she was convicted of taking part in an unauthorised march in her capacity as head of the Association of the Families of the Disappeared.
JALILA AL-SALMAN Bahrain A teacher who was arrested, tortured and jailed after taking part in a peaceful pro-democracy protest early in 2011; now free.
AZZAA HILAL AHMAD SULEIMAN Egypt A woman assaulted by soldiers while attending a peaceful protest in Tahrir Square in December 2011.
SHAHLA LAHIJI Iran A publisher detained in April 2000 after taking part in a debate on political reform in Iran during a conference in Germany
MA KHIN KHIN LEH Burma A school teacher, arrested and jailed in 1999 after trying to arrange a peaceful demonstration: freed in February 2009
Article 21 – Right to take part in elections
ALPHA CONDE Guinea Arrested in December 1998, the day after he had come third in a presidential election, and given five years’ jail in September 2000 after an unfair trial.
ALEXANDER KOZULIN Belarus Jailed for five and a half years in March 2006 for his role in organising protests after a disputed election.
OXANA RADU Moldova A member of a group detained and ill-treated in Chisinau in April 2009 after protesting against fraudulent election results.
PATRICK NABANYAMA Zimbabwe One of a number of supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change kidnapped in June 2000, prior to a national election.
LATSAMI KHAMPHOUI Laos Arrested in October 1990 and not tried until November 1992, not allowed a defence lawyer, given 14 years in jail for ‘making preparations to stage a rebellion’, ie advocating multi-party democracy
Article 23 – the right to work and to join a trade union
MASRI SEBAYANG and five others Indonesia Trade union leaders imprisoned in 2005 after a strike and demonstration at a palm oil plantation owned by the Musim Mas company
GILBERT MAREMBO and MICHAEL KANDUKUTI Zimbabwe Two officers of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions who were assaulted by police in March 2007 during a search of their offices
ATILAY AYCIN Turkey President of the Turkish air industry workers’ union imprisoned for 20 months in 1995 for spreading ‘separatist propaganda’
BOLAT ATABAEV Kazakhstan Released from detention in July 2012 after being charged with ‘inciting social discord’ for speaking out on behalf of striking oil workers; released from detention in July 2012, the charges having been dropped.
ALYAKSANDR BUKHVOSTOV Belarus A trade unionist detained by police in Minsk in October 2003 after peacefully protesting about government interference in union affairs.
DAN BYUNG-HO South Korea President of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, sentenced to two years in jail in March 2002 for ‘obstruction to business’ after helping organise strikes in protest at mass redundancies.
GERTRUDE HAMBIRA Zimbabwe A trade union leader forced into hiding in February 2010 after intimidation by the police.
THI MNH HANH Vietnam A labour activist jailed for handing out leaflets; freed in 2014
MUSA DLAMINI Swaziland Secretary-General of the country’s National Association of Teachers, severely beaten by members of the security forces on 14 November 2000.
SAMUEL MORALES Colombia A trade unionist arrested on 5 August 2004 by a military unit, in an operation in which three other trade unionists were shot in the back.
Article 24 - Right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
GHONCHEH GHAVAMI Iran An Anglo-American woman detained in June 2014 after trying to watch a men’s volleyball match, released on bail on 23 November.
Article 26 – Right to education
MALALA YOUSUFZAI Pakistan A 14 year old girl shot on a school bus in October 2012 after blogging about the rights of girls to go to school.
KARIMA Afghanistan A teenage girl forced by her family to stop attending school in Afghanistan in 2016, as hundreds of schools closed as a result of Taliban pressure.
Article 27- The right to participate in the cultural life of the community
TASHI WANGCHUK China Arbitrarily detained for over 18 months in 2016 for promoting the Tibetan language, but charged with ‘inciting separatism’
KHALED ASA’AD Syria An 82 year old archaeologist murdered in September 2015 by so-called ‘Islamic State’ after trying to protect antiquities in the city of Palmyra.
NGAWANG CHOEPHEL Tibet An ethnomusicologist, arrested in August 1995 after trying to make a film on Tibetan performing arts and given 18 years’ jail after a secret trial…released in January 2002.
HRANT DINK Turkey An ethnic Armenian journalist murdered in January 2007 having written an article about the past history of Armenians in Turkey.
TOHTI TUNYAZ China A historian, an ethnic Uighur, sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment in 2001 for carrying out research into Uighur history
TANIA BRUGUERA Cuba An artist, taken into custody in December 2018 while on her way to a demonstration against a proposed law which would require artists and musicians to have a government-issued licence