Human Rights Watch to Cuba: Stop Imprisoning Peaceful Dissidents

Six Sentenced in Summary Trials for Exercising Basic Rights

Three of the Six

June 1, 2011

(Washington, DC) - The conviction of six dissidents in summary trials for doing no more than exercising their fundamental rights highlights the continuing abuse of the criminal justice system to repress dissent in Cuba, Human Rights Watch said today. Raúl Castro's government should immediately release the prisoners, who were given sentences ranging from two to five years in prison, and cease all politically motivated repression against Cubans who exercise their fundamental freedoms, said Human Rights Watch.

Four people were sentenced on May 31, 2011, in Havana for distributing pamphlets criticizing Raúl and Fidel Castro, and two human rights defenders in Holguín were sentenced on May 24, charged with "insulting national symbols" and "disorder" for public acts that they denied had taken place.

"With this new round of prosecutions, the Castro government is sending a clear message to dissidents that the status quo has not changed in Cuba," said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. "Publicly criticizing the government can still earn you a harsh prison sentence."

Luis Enrique Labrador, 33; David Piloto, 40; Walfrido Rodríguez, 42; and Yordani Martínez, 23, were sentenced in Havana on May 31 on charges of contempt and public disorder. An official document addressed by the state prosecutor to the Criminal Court of Havana, a copy of which was obtained by Human Rights Watch, said the four were detained on January 14, when they went to Havana's Revolutionary Square and threw leaflets into the air with slogans such as "Down with the Castros."

When agents of the National Revolutionary Police arrived at the scene, the four men sat down on the ground, an act the prosecutor deemed "a defiant and provocative attitude...that interrupted the traffic flow." Martínez was sentenced to three years in prison, while the other three were each sentenced to five years, according to their families and human rights defenders in Cuba.

<a href="http://video.mx.msn.com/?mkt=es-mx&from={from}&vid=e9bda55f-af01-40bf-a222-1bd506cb4e8b&from=dest_es-mx&fg=dest" target="_new" title="Disidentes cubanos que lanzaron panfletos contra el Gobierno tendrán penas de 3 y 5 años">Video: Disidentes cubanos que lanzaron panfletos contra el Gobierno tendrán penas de 3 y 5 años</a>

Family members told Human Rights Watch that state security agents had visited their homes the day before the trial, warning relatives that if they "created a scene" and called attention to the hearing, the detainees would be left in pretrial detention indefinitely. One man's mother said she was fired in April on the grounds that she was "the mother of a counterrevolutionary." The families also told Human Rights Watch that Martínez and Piloto went on hunger strike in May in Valle Grande prison to demand they be put on trial. In response, they later told their families, they were handcuffed and beaten by a prison official.

In a taped interview with a Cuban human rights defender, Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva, which was later replayed for Human Rights Watch, Rodríguez called the trial a "a mockery." He said the judge simply rubber-stamped the prosecutor's recommended punishment, ignoring the defendants' arguments in their defense. Elizardo Sanchez, the director of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, an independent human rights group not recognized by the Cuban government, told Human Rights Watch that state security agents surrounded the local courthouse where the trial took place, preventing human rights defenders and other members of the public from attending.

On May 24, Marcos Maikel Lima Cruz, 33, and Antonio Michel Lima Cruz, 28, brothers who were members of a human rights group in Holguín called Pedro Luis Boitel - were sentenced to three and two years in prison respectively in a closed, summary trial. Their father, the independent journalist Marcos Antonio Lima Dalmau, said the two were arrested on December 25, 2010. Lima Dalmau, who was allowed to attend his sons' trial, said they were accused of insulting national symbols and causing public disorder for allegedly dancing naked in front of their house, and spitting, urinating, and stepping on a Cuban flag, which both denied.

Human Rights Watch believes that the charges were fabricated to prosecute the brothers in retaliation for their human rights work. Lima Dalmau said that one of the witnesses who testified in their trial - a neighbor - said he had accompanied police when they inspected the brothers' home, and had seen the flag hanging undamaged on a wall.

Cuba's laws empower the state to criminalize virtually all forms of dissent, and grant officials extraordinary authority to penalize people who try to exercise their basic rights. The Cuban Criminal Code penalizes anyone who "threatens, libels or slanders, defames, affronts or in any other way insults or offends, with the spoken word or in writing, the dignity or decorum of an authority, public functionary, or his agents or auxiliaries." The violations are punishable by one to three years in prison, if directed at high ranking officials. Such laws violate the right to freedom of expression recognized in article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights - signed by Cuba in 2008.

"The dissidents were prosecuted on the basis of their political beliefs, and because they dared to exercise rights that all Cubans should enjoy," Vivanco said. "They should never have even been tried, let alone convicted."

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The Tiananmen Mothers speak out for their loved ones murdered in June of 1989

Brutal tyrants learn what they can get away with from the international response to other tyrants. Muammar Gaddafi believed that he could get away with mass murder because the world looked the other way in 1989 in Beijing and he observed in 2011 that "The unity of China was more important than those people on Tiananmen Square." Between 1915 and 1917 the Ottoman Turks murdered more than 1.5 million Armenians and like the Chinese communists in 1989 got away with it. This inspired Adolph Hitler to carry out his own holocaust stating in 1939: "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" The answer with regards to the June 4, 1989 massacre in China is the Tiananmen Mothers and those who wish to see their message reproduced far and wide. At the request of the Tiananmen Mothers, Human Rights in China (HRIC) has released the following essay that commemorates the victims of June Fourth on its 22nd anniversary reproduced here along with the 2006 video Tankman outlining what happened in solidarity with the Chinese people.

On the 22nd Anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre: The Souls of those Killed during June Fourth Shall Not Be Defiled; Their Families Shall Not be Dishonored

The Tiananmen Mothers

May 31, 2011

[Translation by Human Rights in China]

This year, we approach the 22nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Democracy Movement at a time when the fight for democracy, freedom, and human rights in North Africa and the Middle East is spreading like wildfire. As relatives of those killed in the 1989 movement, our memories are still fresh and our pain is unbearable when we look back at the tragic outcome of that unparalleled disaster.

We have always firmly believed that everything that happened during the June Fourth crackdown is engraved in the people’s hearts; the Chinese people, especially Beijingers, cannot forget the events of June Fourth. They cannot forget the men and women who were shot and crushed to death by the Chinese army troops. The June Fourth Massacre will not be forgotten, even though it has been downplayed and blocked among the people in China. It shall forever exist in people’s hearts. It has been indelibly etched into history.

On that frightful night of June 3, 1989, the Chinese army troops, protected by the darkness of night and following the way opened for them by tanks and armored vehicles, moved toward Tiananmen Square from all directions, strafing and chasing people to kill them as they advanced. Wherever they went, students and civilians suffered heavy casualties. When the student demonstrators withdrew orderly and peacefully from Tiananmen Square in the early morning of June 4, the army tanks pursued them from behind and crushed them, killing and seriously injuring more than a dozen students right there. Even on June 6, the government had not stopped their military action. That day, on Fuxingmenwai Street alone, three people were killed and three were critically injured; the youngest of the injured was only 13 years old. In an instant, the sky fell and the earth sank in the whole city of Beijing. Wailing and sobbing were heard everywhere. In an instant, young faces and handsome bodies, one after another, were turned to dust and vanished from the land where they had lived.

So far, we have spent 22 years and have documented 203 victims of June Fourth. There are still many victims we have not found, or whose relatives of whom we have no information.

Among the 203 known victims, some were beaten to death when protesting against the army’s use of violence against civilians; some were shot while rescuing the wounded or carrying the dead; some were chased by martial law troops into residential alleys and streets and killed; some were shot right in their own homes by stray bullets of the martial law troops; and some were shot and killed while taking photographs at the scene. Our repeated investigation and verification show that not a single one of the victims committed any violent act. They were all peaceful demonstrators and citizens.

We have the names, genders, ages, work units, and occupations of most of these victims. We have the home addresses, school names, and grade levels of all the students. They died tragically and majestically. We cannot help but sink into despair every time we think of them.

Let us who still live — your parents, your husbands and wives, your brothers and sisters, your sons and daughters — weep for you and mourn your passing! Let those who are middle-aged, but especially those who are young, stand in silent tribute and pay you their respect!

An old saying goes, “There is no avoiding the sins committed by the heavens, nor can man escape from paying for the sins he commits.” The June Fourth massacre was by no means a casual act, but an act with the highest level decision makers and direct executors. Some have since died, others still live. The sins they committed cannot escape scrutiny under law. As creditors of this huge historic debt, we all understand the unshakable law: “It is right and proper to repay a debt owed.”

We have been steadfast in our difficult struggle over the past twenty some-odd years to restore the damaged reputations of the dead and to comfort the souls that have yet to find peace. We have written many times to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, asking them to give an earnest and responsible account of the killing of the innocent victims during June Fourth. We also urged the Standing Committee to change their attitude of indifference to the will of the people and their willful ignorance of the pleas of the families of the dead, and to open a direct and sincere dialogue about the victims of June Fourth with their families. But we have not received a reply to any of our requests.

In late February 2011, on the eve of the annual “Two Congresses” — the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) — a victim’s relatives who are among the Tiananmen Mothers group were contacted by the public security department in their district for so-called private communication and exchange of opinions. Soon after, in early April, the public security personnel had another talk with that family. The visitors did not speak of making the truth public, carrying out judicial investigations, or providing an explanation for the case of each victim. Instead, they only raised the question of how much to pay, emphasizing that this was meant for that individual case and not for the families in the group as a whole.

The Tiananmen Mothers have repeatedly appealed to the government over the past 16 years for dialogue, yet government authorities have ignored us. This year, the silence was finally broken. This should have been welcome. But what in fact does this belated response mean? If the authorities merely want to settle the June Fourth matter with money and to do it under the table, then what kind of results will this produce?

In 1995, we began making three demands to resolve the June Fourth issue: truth, compensation, and accountability. In 2006, in accordance with the circumstances at that time, we added a supplemental resolution: because resolving the June Fourth issue impartially requires a certain process, we can adopt the principle of tackling the simpler problems first. The issues with serious differences in opinion that cannot be readily agreed upon—for example, the true nature of the events of June Fourth—can be temporarily set aside. Instead, we can first settle the issues involving the basic rights and interests of the victims. There are six issues, including removing all surveillance and personal restrictions imposed upon the June Fourth victims and their families; allowing the families of the dead to mourn their loved ones without interference; and the relevant government departments’ providing pure humanitarian assistance to the victims experiencing hardships. This supplemental resolution has a basic principle and a bottom line. The bottom line is this: the souls of those killed during June Fourth shall not be defiled; their families shall not be dishonored. We hereby reiterate today: all matters can be discussed except these two.

Our door to dialogue with the government has remained open at all times. For any endeavor, it is always the start that is most difficult. As a show of good faith, the government should dispatch or appoint an official body to be responsible for the dialogue, rather than using the public security or state security personnel who monitor and follow us every day to “talk” with us. This is improper and pointless. So as to reflect the inclusive nature of the dialogue, we hope that, rather than individual discussions, the government will seek out many victims’ families—not one, not two, but three, four, or even a dialogue team organized by the victims’ families—for talks. We hope it will not be private communications, but an open dialogue, forthright and aboveboard, with all issues on the table, with no facts concealed or differences covered up, and one that strives to fulfill our responsibilities to the dead and to history. We harbor no illusions that the issues of June Fourth can be resolved in a single step. If there are discussions, then they should be real discussions, to resolve issues point by point, so as to ultimately arrive at a unanimous or basically unanimous conclusion.

Since the start of this year, demonstrations and protests calling for freedom and democracy have erupted in countries across the Middle East and North Africa. The Chinese government has referred to these popular protest movements categorically as “turmoil”; at no point has it mentioned the calls for freedom and democracy. Why? The answer is fear. It is afraid that the situation in the Middle East and North Africa will spread to mainland China, and worried that it will give rise to events similar to the 1989 Democracy Movement. The authorities have therefore tightened control on civil society and intensified repression, resulting in a serious deterioration of human rights in China; in particular, the situation since February of this year has been the worst since June Fourth. It has been the harshest period since June 4, 1989. Silence has reigned across the country. To our surprise, it was against this grim backdrop that public security agencies have initiated private, individual conversations and dialogues with some of the families of the June Fourth victims. How can this not be strange?

Signers:

熊辉 Xiong Hui 韩国刚 Han Guogang 石峰 Shi Feng
庞梅清 Pang Meiqing 黄宁 Huang Ning 王伯冬 Wang Bodong
张志强 Zhang Zhiqiang 赵金锁 Zhao Jinsuo 孔维真 Sun Weizhen
刘保东 Liu Baodong 陆玉宝 Lu Yubao 陆马生 Lu Masheng
齐志英 Qi Zhiying 方桂珍 Fang Guizhen 肖书兰 Xiao Shulan
葛桂荣 Ge Guirong 郑秀村 Zheng Xiucun 王惠蓉 Wang Huirong
邢承礼 Xing Chengli 桂德兰 Gui Delan 王运启 Wang Yunqi
黄雪芬 Huang Xuefen 王琳 Wang Lin 刘乾 Liu Qian
朱镜蓉 Zhu Jingrong 金亚喜Jin Yaxi 周国林 Zhou Guolin
杨子明 Yang Ziming 王争强 Wang Zhengqiang 吴立虹 Wu Lihong
宁书平 Ning Shuping 郭达显 Guo Daxian 曹云兰 Cao Yunlan
隋立松 Sui Lisong 王广明 Wang Guangming 冯淑兰 Feng Shulan
穆怀兰 Mu Huailan 付媛媛 Fu Yuanyuan 孙淑芳 Sun Shufang
刘建兰 Liu Jianlan 王连 Wang Lian 李春山 Li Chunshan
蒋艳琴 Jiang Yanqin 何凤亭 He Fengting 谭淑琴 Tan Shuqin
肖宗友 Xiao Zongyou 乔秀兰 Qiao Xiulan 张桂荣 Zhang Guirong
雷勇 Lei Yong (127 people)

丁子霖 Ding Zilin	张先玲 Zhang Xianling	周淑庄Zhou Shuzhuang
李雪文 Li Xuewen	徐珏 Xu Yu	尹敏 Yin Min
杜东旭 Du Dongxu	宋秀玲 Song Xiuling	于清 Yu Qing
郭丽英 Guo Liying	蒋培坤 Jiang Peikun	王范地 Wang Fandi
袁可志 Yuan Kezhi	赵廷杰 Zhao Tingjie	吴定富 Wu Dingfu
钱普泰 Qian Putai	孙承康 Sun Chengkang	尤维洁 You Weijie
黄金平 Huang Jinping	贺田凤 He Tianfeng	孟淑英 Meng Shuying
袁淑敏 Yuan Shumin	刘梅花 Liu Meihua	谢京花 Xie Jinghua
马雪琴 Ma Xueqin	邝瑞荣 Kuang Ruirong	张艳秋 Zhang Yanqiu
张树森 Zhang Shusen	杨大榕 Yang Darong	刘秀臣 Liu Xiuchen
沈桂芳 Shen Guifang	谢京荣 Xie Jingrong	孙宁 Sun Ning
王文华 Wang Wenhua	金贞玉 Jin Zhenyu	要福荣 Yao Furong
孟淑珍 Meng Shuzhen	田淑玲 Tian Shuling	邵秋风 Shao Qiufeng
王桂荣 Wang Guirong	谭汉凤 Tan Hanfeng	孙恒尧 Sun Hengyao
陈梅 Chen Mei	周燕 Zhou Yan	李桂英 Li Guiying
徐宝艳 Xu Baoyan	狄孟奇 Di Mengqi	杨银山 Yang Yinshan
管卫东 Guan Weidong	高婕 Gao Jie	索秀女 Suo Xiunü
刘淑琴 Liu Shuqin	王培靖 Wang Peijing	王双兰 Wang Shuanglan
张振霞 Zhang Zhenxia	祝枝弟 Zhu Zhidi	刘天媛 Liu Tianyuan
潘木治 Pan Muzhi	黄定英 Huang Dingying	何瑞田 He Ruitian
程淑珍 Cheng Shuzhen	轧伟林 Zha Weilin	郝义传 Hao Yichuan
萧昌宜 Xiao Changyi	任金宝 Ren Jinbao	田维炎 Tian Weiyan
杨志玉 Yang Zhiyu	齐国香 Qi Guoxiang	李显远 Li Xianyuan
张彩凤 Zhang Caifeng	王玉芹 Wang Yuqin	韩淑香 Han Shuxiang
曹长先 Cao Changxian	方政 Fang Zheng	齐志勇 Qi Zhiyong
冯友祥 Feng Youxiang	何兴才 He Xingcai	刘仁安 Liu Renan
熊辉 Xiong Hui	韩国刚 Han Guogang	石峰 Shi Feng
庞梅清 Pang Meiqing	黄宁 Huang Ning	王伯冬 Wang Bodong
张志强 Zhang Zhiqiang	赵金锁 Zhao Jinsuo	孔维真 Sun Weizhen
刘保东 Liu Baodong	陆玉宝 Lu Yubao	陆马生 Lu Masheng
齐志英 Qi Zhiying	方桂珍 Fang Guizhen	肖书兰 Xiao Shulan
葛桂荣 Ge Guirong	郑秀村 Zheng Xiucun	王惠蓉 Wang Huirong
邢承礼 Xing Chengli	桂德兰 Gui Delan	王运启 Wang Yunqi
黄雪芬 Huang Xuefen	王琳 Wang Lin	刘 乾 Liu Qian
朱镜蓉 Zhu Jingrong	金亚喜 Jin Yaxi	周国林 Zhou Guolin
杨子明 Yang Ziming	王争强 Wang Zhengqiang	吴立虹 Wu Lihong
宁书平 Ning Shuping	郭达显 Guo Daxian	曹云兰 Cao Yunlan
隋立松 Sui Lisong	王广明 Wang Guangming	冯淑兰 Feng Shulan
穆怀兰 Mu Huailan	付媛媛 Fu Yuanyuan	孙淑芳 Sun Shufang
刘建兰 Liu Jianlan	王连 Wang Lian	李春山 Li Chunshan
蒋艳琴 Jiang Yanqin	何凤亭 He Fengting	谭淑琴 Tan Shuqin
肖宗友 Xiao Zongyou	乔秀兰 Qiao Xiulan	张桂荣 Zhang Guirong
雷勇 Lei Yong		(127 names)

In accordance with suggestions by our friends, we’re also including the following names of our fellow signers from previous years who have passed away so as to respect their wishes:

吴学汉 Wu Xuehan	苏冰娴 Su Bingxian	姚瑞生 Yao Ruisheng
杨世鈺 Yang Shiyu	袁长录 Yuan Changlu	周淑珍 Zhou Shuzhen
王国先 Wang Guoxian	包玉田 Bao Yutian	林景培 Lin Jingpei
寇玉生 Kou Yusheng	孟金秀 Meng Jinxiu	张俊生 Zhang Junsheng
吴守琴 Wu Shouqin	周治刚 Zhou Zhigang	孙秀芝 Sun Xiuzhi
罗让 Luo Rang	严光汉 Yan Guanghan	李贞英 Li Zhenying
邝涤清 Kuang Diqing	段宏炳 Duan Hongbing	刘春林 Liu Chunlin
张耀祖 Zhang Yaozu	李淑娟 Li Shujuan	(23 people)

http://www.hrichina.org/content/5349

Remembering the 1989 Beijing massacre and demanding justice

Around the world activities are planned to remember the Chinese people massacred by Chinese communist troops on June 4, 1989 following demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. Online you can demonstrate your solidarity with the Tiananmen Mothers by signing a petition at Fill the Square. In London a flash mob and vigil are being organized for the 22nd Anniversary Remembrance of the 1989 Beijing massacre. The Laogai Research Foundation in Washington D.C. is organizing In Memory of Tiananmen a commemoration and film screening of the documentary "Tankman" on June 3 at 6:30pm and in New York City on June 4 beginning at 12 noon E.S.T. Initiatives for China is organizing an event at the United Nations. More information on the activity at the United Nations below.



Victims and Families to Attend Commemoration of June 4th Movement at the United Nations.

Reporting from the office of Initiatives for China – On June 4th, 2011, Madam Xu Liping, widow of victim of the June 4th Movement, Yu Di, will join in the commemoration for the 22nd anniversary of the June 4th Movement, that will take place at the United Nations in New York. Bullets extracted from late Mr Yu Di will also be exhibited.

Born January 1st, 1957, in the city of Jixi, Heilongjiang Province, Yu Di was an assistant engineer at the Beijing Solar Energy Research Institute, a military veteran, member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a university graduate with several awards for his research. At 2am in the morning, on June 4th, 1989, the military troops confronted civilians between the areas of Nan Chi Zi to the Museum of History, and opened fire four times. In the first round of fire, bullets penetrated Yu Di’s his lower left rib through his upper right. The bullets shot through eight of his major organs, including liver, kidneys, lungs and spine. He was sent to Peking Union Medical College Hospital and operated on four times. He lost one kidney and had part of his liver removed. In the end, the severity of the injuries caused widespread infection. He died of multiple organ failure on June 30th, at the age of 32.

After Yu Di passed, his wife, Madam Xu Liping was left with their four year-old son. Life was difficult for Madam Xu and her son, who had only each other. However, she always took part in public events providing aid to victims of the June 4th Movement.

Recently, Madam Xu arrived in the United States. After she saw drafts of open letters – regarding the Chinese government’s serious and on-going human rights violations – to the Secretary-General of the United Nations by Dr. Yang Jianli, Madam Xu decided to join in the June 4th memorial event at the UN.

It is known that after Yu Di’s passing, Madam Xu Liping preserved the bullets extracted from her husband’s body. These bullets will be displayed at the June 4th memorial event, to honor those who lost their lives at the Tiananmen Massacre in Beijing.

With regards to the June 4th Massacre and the question of human rights, Madam Xu Liping has this to say, ‘Is mere appealing, reason for death? Is mere difference of political opinion, reason to be silenced? Is investigating the truth, reason to be imprisoned? Even more astonishing, not long ago, at the crackdown of civilians, Libyan leader Gaddafi cites June 4th as a model…” Madam Xu hopes the international community will pay attention to the question of human rights in China.

With regards to the question of the United Nations’ investigation and sanction of people responsible for June 4th violation of human rights in China, Madam Xu asks, “ When the citizens’ lives are insecure or regarded as valueless, where is the “responsibility” in the proclamation to the world of being a “large and responsible nation”? Where is the “air of a large nation” that is being shown to the world? As a member of the UN Security Council, with the audacity to declare and pledge the “security of humanity”, shouldn’t one reflect on one’s contribution and role to the security of humanity over the past 22 years?”

According to information from spokesperson of Initiative for China, Dr Yang Jianli, Mr Fang Zheng, who was disabled as a result of the June 4th Movement, will also participate in the event on June 4th, 2011, that will begin in the afternoon at the United Nations. In 1989, Fang Zheng saved a schoolmate as he was withdrawing from Tiananmen Square. A tank from the martial troop ran over Fang Zheng’s legs and as a result, both his legs had to be amputated. After the June 4th Movement, he was under long-term surveillance. In early 2009, with help from a human rights organization – Humanitarian China, Fang Zheng arrived in the United States.

Dr Yang Jianli said that this commemoration would be attended by the media, as well as international human rights organizations. All are welcomed to join, to commemorate those who lost their lives in the June 4th Movement, and to express their wish that the Chinese government will improve on human rights. The event will begin at noon on June 4th, 2011. – Zhao Guoyu

http://www.chinaeweekly.com/FileView.aspx?FileIdq=1574

Amnesty International at 50: Change Minds. Change Laws. Change Lives.

One man’s outrage at the imprisonment of two students for raising a toast to freedom changed the world for the better.


Produced by Award winning documentary film maker, Jeff Dupre and Show of Force, this powerful film captures 50 years of Amnesty International's work.

On the 28th of May 1961 an article appeared in The Observer that captured the imagination of ordinary men and women around the world.

Written by London lawyer Peter Benenson, The Forgotten Prisoners called for an international campaign for the release of thousands of people who had been jailed because of their political or religious beliefs. They were given the name ‘prisoners of conscience.’That call for justice a half decade ago was the birth of Amnesty International, a human rights group which has since grown into a global organisation with over three million supporters in 150 countries. In recognition of our human rights campaigning, in 1977 we were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

[...]

Peter Benenson said that the impetus for The Forgotten Prisoners was a newspaper article he read about two students jailed for seven years in dictator Antonio Salazar’s Portugal simply for raising their glasses and toasting freedom. At the time he said he wanted to “mobilise world opinion” about the human rights abuses being committed by governments around the world against those citizens whose opinions differed to theirs.

Amnesty International at 50: Global call to action aims to tip scales against repression and injustice

Amnesty International is marking its 50th anniversary with the launch of a Global Call to Action designed to help tip the scales against repression and injustice, with events held in almost 60 countries in every region of the world.

The anniversary comes against the backdrop of a changing human rights landscape, as people across the Middle East and North Africa courageously confront oppression, tyranny and corruption – often in the face of bloodshed and state violence.

With these protests dramatically demonstrating the need for international solidarity on human rights, Amnesty International’s new Global Call to Action includes a digital “Earth Candle” – a significant online breakthrough that allows activists for the first time to see an overview of the organization’s worldwide actions, and how their own actions add to this force for change.

This is accompanied by a new drive – “Be one more, ask one more, act once more” – that aims to achieve a huge collective impact worldwide. It urges everyone – including Amnesty International’s three million members and supporters in more than 150 countries and territories – to encourage at least one other person to take action for human rights.

The launch of the global initiative will see, dozens of countries from Argentina to Ghana to Turkey to New Zealand holding a symbolic toast to freedom. This global event pays tribute to the tale of two Portuguese students imprisoned for raising their glasses to liberty – an injustice that so outraged British lawyer Peter Benenson that he launched Amnesty International on 28 May 1961.

“Since the Amnesty International candle first shone a light on the world’s hellholes, there has been a human rights revolution. The call for freedom, justice and dignity has moved from the margins and is now a truly global demand,” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International Secretary General.

But despite progress, human rights violations are at the heart of key challenges facing the world today.

Governments are failing to uphold the promises of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and are fuelling or ignoring violations. Almost two-thirds of humanity lacks access to justice; abuses are driving and deepening poverty; discrimination against women is rife; and in the last year alone Amnesty International has documented torture and ill-treatment in at least 98 countries.

Salil Shetty said that activism is a powerful force for change, as shown by the brave protestors in the Arab Spring.

“We can offer something that the forces of repression can never contain or silence: people united in common action; the sharp and powerful rallying of public opinion; the lighting of one candle at a time until millions of candles expose injustice, and create pressure for change,” he said.

Amnesty International will this year focus on six areas where people power can create real improvements: freedom of expression, abolition of the death penalty, reproductive rights for women and girls in Nicaragua, ensuring international justice in the Democratic Republic of Congo, corporate accountability in the Niger Delta, and ending injustice and oppression in the Middle East and North Africa.

For half a century Amnesty International – the world’s largest human rights organization – has borne witness to abuses and atrocities, has offered hope to the oppressed and forgotten, and has campaigned with innovation and determination for justice.

It has played a leading role in making torturers international outlaws, in ending the untouchable status of leaders accused of human rights crimes, in the creation of the International Criminal Court and in achieving unstoppable momentum towards a death penalty-free world.

In 1977, Amnesty International was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Throughout its history, Amnesty International has evolved and adapted to meet the challenges presented by a rapidly changing world. Its on-going work for prisoners of conscience – tens of thousands of whom have been released since 1961 – is now accompanied by action to uphold the whole spectrum of rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“Today people worldwide are increasingly expressing their desire for both political and economic rights – showing that despite the claims of some governments, rights cannot be ranked or traded. All rights – whether socio-economic or political – must be respected together if we are to achieve freedom from fear and want,” said Salil Shetty.

The challenge remains above all to hold states – which have ultimate responsibility for delivering human rights – accountable. But corporations and armed groups must also fully respect human rights and be held accountable for their actions.

“50 years of standing up to tyranny and injustice has shown that change is possible and that people united in common action across borders and beliefs can achieve extraordinary things. Every individual can make a difference, but millions standing together and uniting against injustice can change the world,” said Salil Shetty.

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Adolfo Rivero Caro: Human Rights Pioneer & A Prisoner to His Conscience

Remembering my friend Adolfo Rivero Caro on the 50th Anniversary of the Founding of Amnesty International

I am saddened to announce that Adolfo Rivero Caro has passed away. He was one of the founders of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights, a former prisoner of conscience, a newspaper columnist, author and a friend I'd known since the early 1990s. He was a man of firm convictions and the courage to both debate them and live them out in the public arena. He was an intellectual.

Adolfo Rivero Caro born into a life of privilege, son of a journalist, sent to the best schools absorbed and analyzed the information about him and despite the personal consequences embraced Marxist-Leninist ideas in his youth and joined the revolutionary underground against the then Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in the 1950s.

When the Communist revolution achieved power in Cuba and displayed its arbitrary and dictatorial characteristics, despite a comfortable post as a professor of Marxist philosophy at the University of Havana in 1968 he was one of the authors of a profound left wing critique of the Cuban revolution. It was the first substantial break with the communist party from its own ranks. Once again Adolfo Rivero's conscience demanded that he denounce injustices and challenge them.

Others that joined him in this endeavor such as Modesto Arocha and Ricardo Bofill would face detentions and prison but would also become lifelong friends and found a human rights movement. Later he would write about the forgotten right: the right to property.



Over the 75 years of his life he evolved politically from a Marxist-Leninist in his youth to a founder of the Cuban human rights movement in his middle age and into a Cuban neoconservative and public intellectual in his later years. Towards the end of his life he began to focus on the Gramscian cultural war in the United States and went beyond neoconservatism. However, he always remained a vigilant defender and activist for Cuba's freedom movement. In an essay titled "Cuba: The Unnecessary Revolution" he offered the following analysis:

It is very difficult to overthrow a totalitarian dictatorship. Nobody has ever done it. Cubans have fought. Thousands have died in front of the firing squads and hundreds of thousands have languished in the Cuban gulag for resisting Castro's regime. Mario Chanes de Armas, Fidel Castro's companion in the assault on the Moncada Barracks, became the longest-standing political prisoner in the world, at thirty years in jail, for opposing Castro's dictatorship.

Despite the above pessimism, Adolfo Rivero Caro stood up and defied the totalitarian system in 1968 when that meant losing your job, imprisonment, your family destroyed and the possibility of an extrajudicial death. Within Cuba's prisons Adolfo founded along with Ricardo Bofill and others in 1976 the Cuban Committee for Human Rights. In 2006 on the thirtieth anniversary of its founding in the essay Anniversary he described the precarious beginnings of the movement:

Our human rights movement emerged as a strictly Cuban initiative that for a long time lacked almost all sympathy or solidarity abroad. Everyone had a hard time believing that open defiance of the regime itself could only be a clever provocation. Gradually, however, Ricardo Bofill's suicidal stubbornness convinced a few supporters of the importance of the utility of the human rights issue as a weapon in the struggle against the totalitarian dictatorship of Fidel Castro.

Adolfo beginning in 1968 would struggle on for 20 years departing Cuba in 1988 for exile in France arriving in Miami in 1989 but he never forgot those who stayed behind to carry on the struggle:

Today there are hundreds of dissidents who struggle within the country despite being fired from work, jailed, beaten and constantly harassed. There are independent journalists, teachers, doctors, lawyers, architects, librarians, and even political parties. You can ask for their names, their addresses. [...] Dissidents in Cuba show the way of the future. All of them should be released immediately and unconditionally. While Castro and its communist dictatorship remains in power, there is no hope for real change.

Adolfo recognized that the struggle to overthrow a totalitarian dictatorship was difficult but that as long as the regime and the Castros endured there would be no change. It was the dissident movement he helped to found that challenged the dictatorship and its totalitarian nature by merely existing. He also observed the importance of the Cuban exile community stating:

Outside Cuba, the Cuban Exile Community has not forgotten its homeland and simply melted with the population of the greatest country in the world, the United States of America. Though that would be a natural option and though probably very few will ever return to Cuba, it would also mean to turn its back on their homeland and its noble people. That will never happen. They need us. One day, Cuba will be free. Communism has already lost. The future belongs to democracy.

Over the past few years we met a handful of times, often when a mutual friend David Landau was visiting him in town, and we vigorously debated US foreign policy. ( Adolfo was a supporter of President George W. Bush's policies whereas I tended more towards Ron Paul's policies prescriptions with some notable exceptions). Let me also say for the record that Adolfo reproduced a couple of my essays on his website: Abandoned Battlefield(2001) and The Final Chapter (2003). He encouraged young activists to engage in the battle of ideas giving his time and challenging underlying assumptions in debate and dialogue.

In 1996 Adolfo Rivero Caro provided a detailed lecture on the origins and development of the Cuban Communist Party to the Free Cuba Foundation, an FIU student group, and described his own role in the communist underground and participation in the early days of the Revolution. He also told us about his brother Emilio-Adolfo Rivero Caro who had also been involved in the struggle against Fulgencio Batista but was part of the anti-communist resistance to the dictatorship. Emilio-Adolfo left Cuba, returned and was captured during the Bay of Pigs in 1961.

Adolfo Rivero described how he was approached by "comrades" within the regime and asked what should be done with his captured brother Emilio-Adolfo and he told us that he had asked them to have his brother executed by firing squad believing that it was more humane then 30 years in one of the Castro regime's prisons. Courageous, truthful and disregarding the consequences of what others might say or think he provided a group of students a deep understanding of the kind of system operating in Cuba and its brutal nature.

I regret that I hadn't spoken with Adolfo in months and although I knew that he had health troubles did not appreciate the full gravity of his condition. Until very near the end he kept writing and his opinion pieces appeared in El Nuevo Herald and on his website Neoliberalismo. Adolfo's passing has taught me a vital lesson: Do not take your friends for granted nor believe that maintaining contact through cyberspace is a suitable measure of keeping up to date.

Today, there will be a wake for Adolfo Rivero Caro at 4:00pm that coincides with the 50th anniversary of the founding of Amnesty International. It was Amnesty that coined the term "prisoner of conscience" in 1961. Adolfo Rivero Caro was a prisoner of conscience in Cuba together with other members of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights among them: Ricardo Bofill, Sebastian Arcos Bergnes, and Gustavo Arcos Bergnes all imprisoned for defending human rights and dignity.

Agree or disagree with Adolfo Rivero Caro's positions over the years but never doubt that in addition to having been a prisoner of conscience under the Castro regime that he was a prisoner to his conscience throughout his life and always spoke truth to power no matter how unpopular or dangerous. He will be greatly missed. Requiescat in pace.