Chinese human rights activist jailed

Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia 胡嘉 has been jailed for "subversion" by the Chinese government.

He has long campaigned for the environment, religious freedom and for the rights of people with HIV and Aids.

BBC - Jail for Chinese rights activist

Sign the Reporters Sans Frontières petition.

When will the Chinese government realise that the more they suppress dissent, the more of it there will be, and the less impressed the rest of the world will be with their human rights record (both in China itself, and in Tibet)?

Stand with Tibet

I just signed an urgent petition calling on the Chinese government to respect human rights in Tibet and engage in meaningful dialogue with the Dalai Lama. This is really important.

Please sign the petition.

After nearly 50 years of Chinese rule, the Tibetans are sending out a global cry for change. But violence is spreading across Tibet and neighbouring regions, and the Chinese regime is right now considering a choice between increasing brutality or dialogue, that could determine the future of Tibet and China.

We can affect this historic choice. China does care about its international reputation. Its economy is totally dependent on "Made in China" exports that we all buy, and it is keen to make the Olympics in Beijing this summer a celebration of a new China that is a respected world power.

President Hu needs to hear that 'Brand China' and the Olympics can succeed only if he makes the right choice. But it will take an avalanche of global people power to get his attention. Click below to join me and sign a petition to President Hu calling for restraint in Tibet and dialogue with the Dalai Lama -- and tell absolutely everyone you can right away. The petition is organized by Avaaz, and they are urgently aiming to reach 1 million signatures to deliver directly to Chinese officials:

Please sign the petition.

Thank you so much for your help!

Save Fawza Falih: write a letter

The address to write to:

HRH King Abdullah bin Abd al-'Aziz Al Saud
Royal Court
Riyadh 11111
Saudi Arabia

Salutation: "Your Royal Highness"

See the letter from Human Rights Watch to King Abdullah.

Main points to include:

• The religious police who arrested and interrogated Fawza Falih and the judges who tried her in the northern town of Quraiyat never gave her the opportunity to prove her innocence against absurd charges that have no basis in law.
• The authorities failed to comply even with existing safeguards in the Saudi justice system.
• The judges relied on Fawza Falih's coerced confession and on the statements of witnesses who said she had "bewitched" them to convict her in April 2006.
• She retracted her confession in court, claiming it was extracted under duress, and that as an illiterate woman she did not understand the document she was forced to fingerprint.
  She also stated in her appeal that her interrogators beat her during her 35 days in detention at the hands of the religious police. At one point, she had to be hospitalized as a result of the beatings.
• The judges never investigated whether her confession was voluntary or reliable or investigated her allegations of torture.
  
• They never even made an inquiry as to whether she could have been responsible for allegedly supernatural occurrences, such as the sudden impotence of a man she is said to have "bewitched."
  
• They also broke Saudi law in multiple instances, ignoring legal rules on proper procedures in a trial.
  
• The judges did not sit as a panel of three, as required for cases involving the death penalty.
  
• They excluded Fawza Falih from most trial sessions and banned a relative who was acting as her legal representative from attending any session.
  
• The Law of Criminal Procedure of 2002 grants defendants the right to be tried in person, to have a lawyer present during interrogation and trial, and to cross-examine any prosecution witnesses. The law obliges law enforcement officers to treat detainees humanely. Fawzah Falih was denied all these rights.
• An appeals court ruled in September 2006 that Fawza Falih could not be sentenced to death for "witchcraft" as a crime against God because she had retracted her confession. The lower court judges then sentenced her to death on a "discretionary" basis, for the benefit of "public interest" and to "protect the creed, souls and property of this country."

Please write to King Abdullah and sign the petition.

Save Fawza Falih

HALT EXECUTION OF SAUDI WOMAN FOR "WITCHCRAFT" Petition

We are citizens of many countries appealing to you on behalf of Fawza Falih Muhammad Ali who has been sentenced to death by beheading for the alleged crimes of “witchcraft, recourse to jinn, and slaughter” of animals. The conviction of Fawza Falih for “witchcraft” is a travesty of justice.

BBC: Pleas for condemned Saudi 'witch'

The illiterate woman was detained by religious police in 2005 and allegedly beaten and forced to fingerprint a confession that she could not read.

This is like some medieval notion of justice, not what you would expect to be happening in the 21st century. I mean, I know Saudi Arabia is basically a medieval state, but I didn't even know they had the death penalty for witchcraft until I saw this. Please sign the petition. I am glad to see that people from lots of different faiths have signed the petition.

free the Korean aid workers

Urgent campaign to free the remaining South Korean aid workers who have been taken hostage by Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have already executed 2 hostages and are threatening to execute the rest this week, an action that could trigger a mass evacuation of life-giving humanitarian aid from all of Afghanistan.

The situation is desperate, but there is hope. The Taliban are all from the 'Pashtun' ethnic group, and observe a strict code called Pashtunwali. This code demands, above all else: "hospitality to all, especially guests and strangers". There are rumours of infighting among the Taliban over these kidnappings, because they clearly violate the code.

A global outcry for the Taliban to follow their own code would certainly be covered by media in Afghanistan and Pakistan where the Taliban are based – creating massive local pressure on them to free their prisoners. But these hostages are living under a 24 hour death sentence. We have seconds not minutes to act.

Please sign the petition


Thanks!