New: #StandWithBelarus on Social Media
Since the widely disputed presidential election in August 2020, the Belarusian regime has engaged in a brutal crackdown on all forms of dissent, real or imaginary.
Last fall, a global petition against police brutality which saw 191,000 people from 144 countries and territories call for an end to police violence in Belarus. The visibility of that international action meant a great deal to people on the ground in Belarus struggling to defend human rights.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
- Take or create a picture of a flower.
- Write a solidarity message in support of Belarusian peaceful protesters.
- Post this image on your Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.
- Tag the Amnesty Canada social media @AmnestyNow (Twitter) and @AmnestyCanada (Facebook and Instagram) and we will share your posts. You can also tag the international social media at @amnesty (all platforms).
- Use hashtag #StandWithBelarus.
Read more about the current situation in Belarus and other actions you can take including solidarity cards.
New: #MyanmarSolidarity
Human rights defenders, activists, and journalists in Myanmar continue to face ongoing arrests, prosecutions and imprisonment solely in connection with their peaceful activities. The number and scale of arbitrary arrests and detentions sharply increased since 1 February, 2021 when the Myanmar military took over the country. Despite an amnesty in mid-April in which thousands of prisoners were released, new detentions continue to occur.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Use images of candles and post simple messages of solidarity on social media using the hashtags #MyanmarSolidarity #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar #Myanmar
Sample phrases:
- In solidarity with #Myanmar protesters who have been killed and others exercising their rights to peaceful assembly! #MyanmarSolidarity #WhatshappeninginMyanmar
- I am/we are thinking of the people from #Myanmar who have been killed for peacefully exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and their family. #MyanmarSolidarity #WhatshappeninginMyanmar
- Sending the people of #Myanmar my love and care #MyanmarSolidarity
- I am thinking of the people of #Myanmar #MyanmarSolidarity
- The #Myanmar security forces must immediately stop using lethal force against people peaceful protesters. #WhatshappeninginMyanmar
Messages with the hashtag #MyanmarNeverSilenced will be read out on a radio station broadcasting into Myanmar until mid-May (see tweet below for details).
New: Families separated in Xinjiang
Many Uyghur parents overseas have had to leave one or more children in the care of family members in Xinjiang. Some parents have since learned their children were taken to state-run “orphan camps” or boarding schools after the relatives taking care of them had been detained.
The mass detention campaign in Xinjiang has prevented Uyghur parents from returning to China to take care of their children themselves. It has also made it nearly impossible for them to bring children whose passports have been denied or confiscated out of China to be reunited with them.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Sign and share the online petition calling on China’s President Xi Jinping to ensure that children are allowed to leave China to be reunited as promptly as possible with their parents and siblings already living abroad, if that is preferred by them.
Read Amnesty’s latest research on Xinjiang:
Hearts and Lives Broken: The Nightmare of Uyghur Families Separated by Repression
China: Parents of missing Uyghur children describe horror of family separation
New: #BanTheScan Facial Recognition Technology and Anti-Black Racism & Policing
We’re in the midst of planning the next phase of work on Canada. In the meantime, you can sign up to become a DECODER and help research the location of cameras used to carry out surveillance in New York City.
Facial recognition technology (FRT) can track who we are, where we go, and who we know. The technology is being used by police and private companies all over the world, in ways that often erode our human rights.
In New York City, the use of facial recognition technology disproportionately impacts Black and other minority communities and threatens the right to protest. If we can stop authorities there from using this privacy-invasive and discriminatory technology, we will send a powerful message to governments across the world to do the same.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Read more about the issue and how you can get involved here.
New: #AFairShot the campaign for a #PeoplesVaccine
Everyone in the world should have access to a COVID-19 vaccine, no matter who they are or where they are from. But the leading pharmaceutical companies won’t deliver enough vaccines for even a fraction of the world’s population this year. On top of this, lower income countries are at the back of the line.
Billions of dollars of taxpayer’s money have been spent to help companies like AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer BioNTech to develop and produce vaccines. These vaccines belong to the people and must be shared.
One way that companies can do this is by joining the World Health Organisation’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), designed to pool resources between companies. So far, no company has joined it.
This isn’t a new idea. Twenty years ago, millions of people gained access to life-saving HIV treatment after leading pharma companies allowed others to produce low-cost ‘generic’ versions of HIV medicines.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Sign and share the online petition calling on pharmaceutical companies to share their knowledge and technology so that we can end the pandemic with no one left behind. Use the hashtags #AFairShot and the #PeoplesVaccine on social media.
Read more: G7 leaders are shooting themselves in the foot by failing to tackle global vaccine access
Ongoing: Close Guantanamo
The new administration in the US represents a fresh opportunity to press for closure of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. Forty men continue to be held there, with their lives in limbo despite court orders for many of them to be released. Some have been held for almost 20 years.
Amnesty has released new research on the ongoing human rights violations at Guantanamo Bay.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Sign and share the online petition to incoming President Joe Biden. Use the hashtag #CloseGuantanamo
Read more about the case of Mohamedou Slahi featured in the film The Mauritanian.
Ongoing: #FreeNavalny
The health of imprisoned opposition leader Aleksei Navalny continues to deteriorate. He recently ended a hunger strike after being granted access to a civilian doctor. Meanwhile, the Moscow City Prosecutor’s Office suspended the activities of Aleksei Navalny’s 34 regional offices until a court rules whether they should be banned as “extremist” alongside two other organizations created by Navalny: the Anti-Corruption Foundation and the Citizens’ Rights Protection Foundation. This move would effectively suppress the rights to freedom of expression and association for thousands.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Sign and share the online petition to President Vladimir Putin .
For more information: contact Hilary Homes, Crisis and Tactical Advisor (hhomes@amnesty.ca)
