January, 08 2009, 12:36pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Josefina Salomon, press officer, P: +44 207 413 5562, M: +44 7778 472 116,
jsalomon@amnesty.org
USA: Guantanamo Anniversary - Amnesty International's Events Across the World
In the context of the 7th anniversary of the first transfers of detainees to the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Amnesty International's members across the world will be challenging US President-elect Barack Obama to undertake concrete human rights reforms in his first 100 days in office.
INTERNATIONAL
In the context of the 7th anniversary of the first transfers of detainees to the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Amnesty International's members across the world will be challenging US President-elect Barack Obama to undertake concrete human rights reforms in his first 100 days in office. The recommendations include: to announce details of the plan for the closure of the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay; to issue a Presidential order banning torture as defined under international law; and to ensure an independent commission to investigate abuses committed by the US government in its "war on terror" is set up.
Amnesty International events include:
Vina del Mar, Chile
What: Activists will be wearing orange jumpsuits and read poems written by Guantanamo detainees.
When: Saturday 10 January 19:00 (Local Time).
Where: Vina del Mar, 1598 Jorge Montt street (near Monument of Larraguibel)
Contact: Virginie Houdmont, T: +56 2 2355945.
Ljubljana, Slovenia
What: Slovenian actors will be reading poems written by Guantanamo detainees.
When: Saturday 10 January, 11:00 (Local Time).
Where: Ljubljana (main square - Presernov trg)
Contact: Metka Naglic, T:+386 1 426 93 77
Helsinki , Finland
What: Amnesty International's activists will build a Guantanamo cell. A number of activists will come out of the cell one by one representing detainees. Signatures collected at the event will be sent to President-elect Obama.
When: Saturday 10 January, 12:00 (Local Time).
Where: Centre of Helsinki at Lasipalatsi on Simonkatu
Contact: Susanna Mehtonen, T +358 09 5860 4443 susanna.mehtonen@amnesty.fi
Ankara, Turkey
What: Street demonstration in Ankara with Amnesty International's activists wearing orange jumpsuits.
When: Sunday 11 January, 12:00 (Local Time).
Where: Yuksel Cad. Insan Haklari Heykeli Onu, Kizilay, Ankara.
Contact: Avi Haligua - avi@amnesty.org.tr, +90 533 921 10 12.
Madrid, Spain
What: Demonstration with activists wearing white masks
When: Sunday 11 January, 11:00 am (Local Time).
Where: US Embassy, Madrid
Contact: Esteban Beltran, Director of AI Spain, 00346707993102
Brussels, Belgium
What: Demonstration, including replica of Guantanamo cage. Orange suits filled with balloons will be released into the air.
When: Sunday 11 January, 11:00 am (Local Time).
Where: US Embassy, Brussels, Avenue des Arts, at the intersection with Rue Guimard.
Contact: Francoise Dieryck T:+32 497 02 81 13; Lore Van Welden T:+32 486 75 55 10
Copenhagen, Denmark
What: 600 people will gather near the US Embassy in Copenhagen. They will be wearing orange boiler suits and masks with pictures of some of those still held in Guantanamo. Some will be in chains. Everyone will walk to the Embassy where we former Guantanamo detainee Murat Kurnaz will collect the masks and deliver them to the Embassy.
When: Sunday 11 January, 14:00 (Local Time).
Where: Event will start at Osterport Station and end at the US Embassy, Dag Hammerskjolds alle.
Contact: Ole Hoff Lund, T:+45 26 83 81 84.
Montreal, Canada
What: Demonstration to US Embassy (1155 rue St-Alexandre).
When: Sunday 11 January, 11:00 (Local Time).
Where: Philips Square in Montreal, Quebec
Contact: Anne Ste-Marie, T: +1 514 268 4983.
For more information on these and other events or to organize an interview with one of Amnesty International's experts, please contact:
Josefina Salomon, press officer, P: +44 207 413 5562, M: +44 7778 472 116, jsalomon@amnesty.org
Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights for all. Our supporters are outraged by human rights abuses but inspired by hope for a better world - so we work to improve human rights through campaigning and international solidarity. We have more than 2.2 million members and subscribers in more than 150 countries and regions and we coordinate this support to act for justice on a wide range of issues.
LATEST NEWS
Gaza Mourns Beloved Child Singer Hassan Ayyad, Killed in Israeli Airstrike
The 14-year-old boy was one of numerous children slain by Israeli bombing since Monday in what UNICEF has called "the most dangerous place in the world to be a child."
May 06, 2025
A famed 14-year-old singer was among scores of Palestinians killed by Israel Defense Forces airstrikes across the Gaza Strip since Monday as bombing and starvation fueled by Israel's ongoing siege continued to ravage the coastal enclave.
Hassan Ayyad—who was known for his songs about life and death in Gaza during Israel's genocidal assault and siege—was killed in an IDF airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp. Video shared widely on social media showed Ayyad singing in a haunting voice, sometimes accompanied by his father, Alaa Ayyad.
"The child who sang of death has now joined those he mourned."
"Gaza is dying, blind in the eyes of America," Ayyad intones in one clip. "With the warplanes, we tasted the flavor of death, an airstrike from land and sea. They blocked the crossings—people are dying from hunger. Bear witness, world, to what they've done."
Reacting to the boy's killing, Alaa Ayyad told Palestinian journalist Essa Syam that "Hassan was my heat, my soul, my son... my only son."
"What can I tell you about Hassan? Hassan is everything," Ayyad continued. "I ask everyone to pray for mercy for his soul."
Responding to Ayyad's killing, Gaza journalist Mahmoud Bassam wrote Monday on the social media site X that "Hassan was martyred moments ago in an Israeli airstrike, raising the death toll to over 60 since dawn."
"The child who sang of death has now joined those he mourned—his farewell was as noble as his words," Bassam added.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Tuesday that at least 22 people including numerous children were killed and more than 50 others wounded when Israeli airstrikes targeted a school-turned-shelter, this one in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.n
"The Bureij massacre is a heinous war crime that requires the prosecution of the occupation's leaders in international courts as war criminals," Hamas, which rules Gaza and led the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, said in a statement.
More than 185,000 Palestinians have been killed, wounded, or left missing by Israel's 578-day assault and siege on Gaza. Most of the territory's more than 2 million inhabitants have also been forcibly displaced, often multiple times, while mass starvation is rampant due to Israel's tightened blockade.
Israeli officials said Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump does not object to Operation Gideon's Chariots, a full-scale invasion, conquest, and ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip that Israel is expected to launch after Trump visits the Middle East later this month.
On Tuesday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he envisions Gaza "entirely destroyed" and ethnically cleansed of its more than 2 million inhabitants.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Monday that Israeli forces have killed at least 16,278 children in Gaza since October 2023—a rate of one child killed every 40 minutes. The ministry said it has recorded 57 children who have died from malnutrition amid Israel's "complete siege" of Gaza, which has fueled mass starvation and illness and is part of an International Court of Justice genocide case against Israel led by South Africa.
Last year, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres added Israel to his so-called "List of Shame" of countries that kill and injure children during wars and other armed conflicts. This, after the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) called Gaza the "world's most dangerous place to be a child."
A 2024 survey of more than 500 Gazan children conducted by the Gaza-based Community Training Center for Crisis Management and supported by the War Child Alliance
found that nearly all children in the embattled Palestinian enclave believed their death was imminent—and nearly half said they wanted to die.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Sanders Raises Alarm Over GOP Crypto Bill Designed to 'Enrich Trump and His Billionaire Backers'
"Congress is moving quickly to pass the GENIUS Act, which may make a bad situation much worse," said Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
May 06, 2025
As the Republican Senate majority leader plows ahead with a plan to hold a vote on a cryptocurrency bill, Sen. Bernie Sanders is planning a Wednesday conversation with industry experts regarding the proposed legislation, which his office warns would "enrich Trump and his billionaire backers."
The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act would create a regulatory framework for a type of cryptocurrency called stablecoins. Sanders' (I-Vt.) office said in a Tuesday statement that the bill "threatens the stability of our financial system" and "makes it easier for President [Donald] Trump and his family to continue to engage in corrupt dealmaking enabled through their cryptocurrency, to the great benefit of themselves and their tech oligarch backers."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), another critic of the GENIUS Act, has argued it could facilitate illicit activity and provide little protection for consumer funds.
In February, the advocacy group Consumer Reports warned that the bill lacked consumer protections and could inadvertently allow large tech companies to enter the banking space, as in create currencies, without being subject to the same scrutiny that is applied to traditional banks.
"Under the Trump administration, we have seen a coordinated effort to boost the cryptocurrency industry to directly benefit President Trump and his oligarch allies," said Sanders on Tuesday. He also highlighted that Trump this week promoted a scheduled private dinner for the top holders of the $TRUMP meme coin, effectively soliciting purchases of the crypto token that now accounts for a substantial portion of his net worth.
Also, a stablecoin launched by Trump's World Liberty Financial crypto venture is going to be used by an investment firm backed by the government of Abu Dhabi to complete a $2 billion business deal, according to The New York Times.
"If that's not a troubling form of corruption, I don't know what is," said Sanders of the two cases.
The latest revelations regarding Trump and cryptocurrency appear to have diminished the GENIUS Act's chances of passage, according to The American Prospect.
The GENIUS Act had enjoyed support from a handful of Democratic senators, but a number of them backed off from supporting the bill in its current form over the weekend, writing in a statement that they wanted to see stronger provisions on anti-money laundering, national security, and other issues. "But reading between the lines, it was clearly the Trump corruption that soured them," the Prospect reported.
Sanders said that "in the face of this corruption, you might hope that Congress would step in to clamp down on corruption. Instead, Congress is moving quickly to pass the GENIUS Act, which may make a bad situation much worse."
Axiosreported Tuesday afternoon that Warren and another GENIUS Act critic, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), will introduce the End Crypto Corruption Act on Tuesday. The proposal would bar the president, vice president, members of Congress, and their immediate families from issuing digital assets, like stablecoins, perAxios.
Sanders' conversation will be with Sacha Haworth, the executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, a group aimed at reining in Big Tech, and Corey Frayer, the director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America, a consumer research and advocacy organization.
The conversation will be livestreamed on his Facebook, X, and YouTube, and through Act.tv.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Pakistan Retaliates After Indian Missile Strikes Kill Child
"The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan," said a spokesperson for the United Nations secretary-general.
May 06, 2025
This is a developing story… Please check back for possible updates...
Pakistan retaliated after Indian missile strikes killed at least three people, including a child, and wounded a dozen others early Wednesday local time—further escalating tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations that have risen since last month's Kashmir massacre.
Karachi-based Geo Newsreported that "Pakistan shot down two Indian Air Force (IAF) jets early Wednesday in retaliatory strikes following Indian missile attacks on cities in Punjab and Azad Kashmir," which is administered by Pakistan.
Citing security sources, the outlet added that Pakistan's military also "destroyed an Indian Army brigade headquarters" and launched a missile strike that "wiped out an enemy post in the Dhundial sector of the Line of Control" in Kashmir.
Pakistan's Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, director general of Inter-Services Public Relations, said that "Pakistani armed forces are giving a befitting response to Indian aggression."
Before the retaliation, the Indian Ministry of Defense said in a statement that "India has launched Operation Sindoor, a precise and restrained response to the barbaric Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 lives, including one Nepali citizen."
India has blamed Pakistan for the April 22 attack in which armed militants killed tourists in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, while the Pakistani government has called for a "neutral" probe.
The Indian ministry claimed Wednesday that "focused strikes were carried out on nine terrorist infrastructure sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, targeting the roots of cross-border terror planning."
"Importantly, no Pakistani military facilities were hit, reflecting India's calibrated and nonescalatory approach," the ministry added. "This operation underscores India's resolve to hold perpetrators accountable while avoiding unnecessary provocation."
A spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said that the U.N. chief "is very concerned about the Indian military operations across the Line of Control and international border. He calls for maximum military restraint from both countries."
"The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan," the spokesperson added, according toReuters.
Guterres has repeatedly expressed concern about mounting tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors since last month.
"Now is the time for maximum restraint and stepping back from the brink," he said Monday. "Make no mistake: A military solution is no solution. And I offer my good offices to both governments in the service of peace. The United Nations stands ready to support any initiative that promotes de-escalation, diplomacy, and a renewed commitment to peace."
Asked about the escalation at the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump said: "It's a shame... I just hope it ends very quickly."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular