Group 48 will be tabling all day at the Festival Romani. We need volunteers to staff the table for the day. We will collect signatures for petitions and spread the word for human rights. Come out for an hour or more and enjoy the festival. Add a comment below including the time you are available if you are interested.
Festival Romani
Saturday, August 17th, 10am-8pm
Sellwood Riverfront Park
1 SE Spokane Street
Suggested donation $10-20
by Zeke Johnson, AIUSA Security & Human Rights Program Director
June 26 is International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. Amnesty activists have marked this solemn and important day for years, demanding that governments around the world end–and ensure accountability for–torture and other ill-treatment.
This year, I invite you to join me in taking action to close Guantanamo. We are at a pivotal moment in the campaign and need more pressure than ever for real change – especially on each and every Senator, as they will soon debate and vote on Guantanamo transfer provisions in the next National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). We also have to keep the pressure on President Obama to transfer cleared detainees, NOW.
What began as a peaceful demonstration to save a park in Istanbul has turned into a terrible wave of police repression against protesters throughout Turkey.
More than 100,000 people have turned out to protest the shockingly excessive measures used by police to disperse peaceful demonstrators. Amateur video footage from one demonstration shows police officers kicking seemingly defenseless protestors and beating them with batons.
This is an escalating human rights crisis. Thousands of protesters have been injured, many seriously, and there is at least one confirmed death.
In fact, the use of tear gas in closed areas is now becoming a health risk for protesters and bystanders alike. Not only have police used tear gas canisters as a weapon by deliberately firing them directly at nonviolent protestors, but tear gas has also been fired directly into homes, businesses and even at the entrance of a hospital. Video footage has also captured very young children being treated for the effects of tear gas.
AIUSA Group 48 