Taking action together for Human Rights
At Amnesty we love a good Twitter action. You may have taken part in some of our recent social media campaigns for Troy Davis, for Eynulla Fatullayev or for 2 Saudi protestors. We’ve rattled leaders of countries like Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev by using social media as a tool for change, and we’ll do it again as we keep highlighting human rights abuses. Read full post
We’re extremely sad to hear that today Idaho authorities chose to restart executions in the state, by executing Paul Rhoades with a lethal injection.
Thank you to all of you who took action and shared this post. It is never in vain: the more people that realise that executions continue take place daily around the world, the more we can work towards abolition of the death penalty. We’ve removed the tweet buttons to Governor Otter, feel free instead to share our film with our arguments against the death penalty.
This Friday, State authorities in Idaho plan to execute their first prisoner for 17 years. Idaho has only executed two people in the last 50 years, but on Friday it will buck international trend by reinstating the ultimate inhumane punishment.
54 year-old Paul Rhoades was arrested nearly 25 years ago. Over the course of that quarter century he has repented for his crimes and is seeking life without parole. Many current and former inmates have expressed the difference that Paul has made to their lives, persuading them to turn away from violence and criminality.
No one deserves to be punished by death. Idaho authorities could stop the execution at any point before Friday – and continue as they have for the past 17 years, without State executions.
It’s time for us to join the campaign our colleagues in the States have been running to stop the execution.
Please take a few minutes to use your social media accounts to urge the Governor of the State of Idaho not to carry out this execution. Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter has a Facebook page and a Twitter account. Please join us and politely but firmly ask him to stop the execution of Paul Rhoades.
Send the Governor of Idaho a tweet, or drop him a message on his Facebook page. Don’t forget to ask your friends to do the same:
Send both of the following tweets – one to the Governor, one asking your followers to help:
.@ButchOtter, Idaho hasn’t executed anyone in 17 years. Please don’t restart with #PaulRhoades on Friday, stop the execution.
Join me and ask the Governor of Idaho not to execute after a 17 year hiatus. The #DeathPenalty isn’t the answer.
To leave a message, go to the Governor’s official Facebook page, and leave a message on his wall. Be polite – we suggest a message like this:
Mr. Governor, I’d like to ask that you reconsider the execution of Paul Rhodes. Whilst I don’t want to downplay the seriousness of his crimes, he has tried to make amends during his prison sentence despite his difficult background. Since the last execution in Idaho 17 years ago, support for the death penalty is at a 40-year low. Please don’t resume executions.
Then, share this blog post with your Facebook friends. 
It’s the ultimate in cruel and unusual punishment. It reduces the state to the role of a killer. In the 17 years since Idaho last executed a prisoner, 40 countries have abolished the death penalty. The world is moving away from the death penalty with good reason and 16 US states have now abolished the death penalty. The Governor of the most recent to do so – Illinois – said “If the system can’t be guaranteed, 100% error-free, then we shouldn’t have the system. It cannot stand.”
We’ve had an unprecedented amount of support so far, and the Georgia Board of Paroles and Pardons can still stop this. We’ve a new action here – email the board and please ask your friends and colleagues to do the same by sharing this on Twitter and Facebook:
Troy Davis has spent over 20 years on death row in Georgia, USA, for a murder he has always stated he did not commit. His case is riven with doubt. No physical evidence links Troy to the crime. 7 of the 9 witnesses have changed or retracted their testimony, with some citing police coercion. Witnesses have identified another suspect. Yet despite this, Troy Davis now has an execution date: Wednesday 21 September at 7pm US time. We firmly believe that no one should face the death penalty. The irrevocable nature of execution is too risky when doubt exists — and there are so many doubts around Troy’s guilt. We’ve campaigned for Troy to be taken off death row for 6 years, and with your help and the support of thousands of people around the globe, we’ve helped Troy avoid 3 scheduled executions in the past. We need your help to do that again. We’ve not got a lot of time. There are 3 ways you can make a difference right now.
Yes, it’s true, Eynulla Fatullayev has been freed under presidential pardon. What a rollercoaster of a couple of days!
On Tuesday, we launched a twitter action to free Eynulla Fatullayev, the Azerbaijani journalist who has been jailed since 2007 for trumped-up charges designed to silence his critical reporting of the Government. With the help of Jon Snow and John Mulholland, we asked you to take a picture of yourself with the message “Eynulla Fatullayev Azad Et!” – Free Eynulla Fatullayev in Azeri – to send directly to @presidentaz. You did us proud and started tweeting your photos, retweeting, and sending messages of support.
We’d obviously got some people in Azerbaijan rattled. During the Media Awards, photoshopped versions of the pictures we’d just taken were tweeted back at us with pro-Azerbaijan messages – you may have received some yourself.
Not that the messages and pictures were going to hold us back. We were fully expecting this to be the continuation of a long campaign – we’ve worked hard for years to free Eynulla – and then this afternoon we started to hear rumours that Eynulla Fatullayev was to be pardoned. At Amnesty, we’re very wary of rumours until we can confirm everything, and then the happy news came from one of our campaigners.
This was a great turn of events, especially so shortly after our mass tweet action! Eynulla gave our campaigner Max this message for everyone who has campaigned for his release:
“I am very happy to be released. I am extremely grateful to Amnesty International, who have campaigned since the beginning. In my opinion you saved me. Thank you to all those who tweeted.”
Over 800 tweets were sent to @presidentaz since Tuesday, and we know that without making a noise, be it by protests, letter-writing or mass-tweeting, we could never get any prisoner of conscience released. So thank you.
I’ll leave you with a video taken today of Eynulla with his family. It’s in Azeri, but the sentiment and the emotion are crystal clear.
One in four local authorities leave female victims of violence without the specialised support they need. Scary, isn’t it?
Find out how the flashmob went to spread this message for International Women’s Day
Of course, this campaign has a concrete action.
End Violence Against Women’s new website ‘Map of Gaps’ shows exactly which services for women escaping violence are lacking where.
See what services are missing in your local area, and email your MP directly on Mapofgaps.org – it’s that easy to make a big difference.
Violence against women affects women globally, cutting across boundaries of wealth, race, and culture. Here are a couple of actions relating to women outside the UK.
The most common impact of conflict on women is the use of rape as a weapon of war. In fact, it is now more dangerous to be a woman than to be a soldier in modern conflict.
Justine Masika Bihamba and her family have been attacked because of her work as coordinator of a women’s human rights organisation in the Congo. Although they can identify the soldiers, they have still not been arrested. Take action now
Women in Iran are second-class citizens in the family and before the courts – yet more than 60% of university students are women and they work in all kinds of jobs.
Many Iranian women want to challenge this discrimination and they have asked the international community to support them in their struggle. Sign the petition to end discriminatory laws in Iran
To do even more or to take action on our other campaigns then register at ProtectTheHuman.com