URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
To read the current Urgent Action newsletter, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/newslett.html
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For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa08910.pdf
21 April 2010
UA 89/10 Forcible Eviction
BRAZIL 250 Guarani-Kaiowa Indigenous people
Around 250 Guarani-Kaiowa Indigenous people are at risk of eviction from ancestral lands they recently occupied in the Brazilian midwest. If evicted they will be forced to live in precarious conditions by the side of a highway.
On 25 November 2009, the Guarani-Kaiowa community of Kurussu Amba, reoccupied a small part of their ancestral lands on farmlands by the Rio Verde river in the midwestern Brazilian municipality of Coronel Sapucaia. Until then, they had been encamped by the side of the MS-289 highway. On 10 March, a local judge issued an eviction order. Lawyers working on behalf of the Indigenous community lodged an appeal against the decision in the Regional Federal Court, but this appeal has not yet been heard. The Guarani-Kaiowa community of Kurussu Amba could be evicted at any time.
The community has lived by the side of the highway for four years, periodically staging reoccupations. During this period they have been subjected to constant threats and violence. In 2007, during another eviction following a reoccupation, Indigenous leader Xulita Lopes was shot dead by gunmen; later that year another Indigenous leader Ortiz Lopes was also shot dead. In November 2009, the community complained of threats from armed men.
Living conditions on the hard shoulder of the highway are extremely precarious, with inadequate supplies of food, water, basic sanitation and medical care. Since 2007, three children have died of malnutrition in the community.
The farmlands that the Kurussu Amba community are occupying should already have been identified by the authorities, as a part of an agreement between prosecutors, the federal government and indigenous leaders in 2007. However, a series of legal challenges has stalled this process, placing this community, along with many others, at risk of violent eviction and destitution.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Mato Grosso do Sul state contains some of the smallest, poorest and most densely populated Indigenous areas in Brazil: rural pockets of poverty surrounded by large soya and sugar cane plantations and cattle ranches where life is plagued by ill-health and squalid living conditions. Some 40,000 Guarani-Kaiowa Indigenous people live a precarious existence – social breakdown has led to high levels of violence, suicide and malnutrition. Frustrated at the slowness of the land demarcation process, the Guarani-Kaiowa have begun reoccupying ancestral lands, but have been subjected to intimidation and violent evictions.
In November 2007 the Ministry of Justice, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, FUNAI and 23 Indigenous leaders, signed an agreement (Termo de Ajustamento de Conduta, TAC) which commits FUNAI to identify 36 different Guarani-Kaiowa ancestral lands - including Kurussu Amba land - by April 2010, to be handed over. The state government and the farming lobby have opposed the process, exaggerating the amount of land that could be identified as Indigenous in the media, and repeatedly trying to block the process judicially. There are currently over 80 appeals being heard in the Regional Federal Court (Tribunal Regional Federal) involving Indigenous land in Mato Grosso do Sul.
The Kurussu Amba community is one of several Guarani-Kaiowa communities who have left the overcrowded reservations and set up shacks by the side of the highway, near their ancestral lands. They have been subject to repeated threats from gunmen linked to local farmers. Four community members have been shot and three killed since 2007. Investigations have been inadequate and no one has yet been prosecuted for these crimes. Small children, pregnant women and the elderly have been living for years in totally inadequate housing, with poor healthcare and no access to basic services, including water. The community has repeatedly denounced their situation to local and federal authorities. Lack of any concrete action has resulted in a several attempts to reoccupy their ancestral lands.
Indigenous peoples enjoy specific rights under international standards. The two key standards that deal with Indigenous Peoples’ rights are International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007. Brazil was an early participant in the UN Working Groups that drafted the Declaration and voted for its adoption, noting that Indigenous Peoples in Brazil “were crucial to the development of society at every level, including the development of spiritual and cultural life for all.”
Together, Convention No. 169 and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples provide a robust normative framework. They affirm Indigenous Peoples’ right to their traditional lands, along with their right to free, prior and informed consent in relation to developments that may affect these lands.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- Calling on the federal authorities to challenge all eviction orders which put Indigenous Peoples at risk of violence or destitution;
- Urging the authorities to thoroughly investigate all allegations of threats against the Kurussu Amba community, and guarantee their security;
- Urging the authorities to fulfill their obligations under the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Brazilian constitution by completing all outstanding land demarcations.
APPEALS TO:
Federal Minister of Justice
Exmo. Sr. Tarso Genro
Esplanada dos Ministerios,
Bloco ‘‘T’‘
70712-902 - Brasilia/DF BRAZIL
Fax: 011 55 61 3322 6817
Salutation: Exmo. Sr. Ministro
Federal Human Rights Secretary
Secretaria Especial de Direitos Humanos
Exmo. Secretario Especial
Sr. Paulo de Tarso Vannuchi
Esplanada dos Ministerios - Bloco ‘‘T’‘ - 4ยบ andar,
70064-900 - Brasilia/DF BRAZIL
Fax: 011 55 61 3226 7980
Salutation: Exmo. Sr. Secretario
COPIES TO:
Conselho Indigenista Missionario, (CIMI – local NGO)
CIMI Regional Mato Grosso do Sul
Av. Afonso Pena,
1557 Sala 208 Bl.B
79002-070 Campo Grande/MS BRAZIL
Ambassador Antonio de Aguiar Patriota
Brazilian Embassy
3006 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington DC 20008
Fax: 1 202 238 2827
Email: ambassador@brasilemb.org
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 2 June 2010.
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Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights.
This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including contact information and stop action date (if applicable). Thank you for your help with this appeal.
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Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 202.544.0200
Fax: 202.675.8566
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END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
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URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
To read the current Urgent Action newsletter, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/newslett.html
----------------------------------
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa08810.pdf
21 April 2010
UA 88/10 Imminent execution
IRAN Hossein Khezri (m)
Zeynab Jalalian (f)
Hossein Khezri, a 28-year-old man, and Zeynab Jalalian, a 27-year-old woman, both members of Iran’s Kurdish minority, are feared to be at imminent risk of execution. Both were convicted of “enmity against God”, in separate cases, for membership of the Party for Free Life of Kurdistan.
Hossein Khezri was arrested in Kermanshah in 2008, held in detention facilities under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence and Revolutionary Guards, and was later sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court in Oromieh, north-west Iran, for “enmity against God” (“moharebeh”). His sentence was upheld in or around August 2009. He said he was tortured and asked for an investigation, but his request was denied in March 2010. On 11 April 2010, he was moved from Oromieh Central Prison to an unknown location, raising fears that his execution may be imminent.
Zeynab Jalalian, from Maku, a town in the north-west of Iran, was sentenced to death for “enmity against God” around January 2009 by Kermanshah Revolutionary Court. Before that, she had spent eight months in a Ministry of Intelligence detention facility, during which time her family had no information concerning her fate. She is reported not to have been granted access to a lawyer during her trial, which she said lasted only a few minutes. Zeynab Jalalian’s death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court on 26 November 2009.
In early March 2010, Zeynab Jalalian was moved from Kermanshah Prison to an unknown location, possibly a detention facility of the Ministry of Intelligence. After several weeks, in late March 2010, she was transferred to Section 209 of Evin Prison in Tehran. The precise reasons for her transfer are unknown, but the website Reporters and Human Rights Activists in Iran has reported that she said she is awaiting execution.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Zaynab Jalalian wrote a letter the day after her sentence was confirmed, which was published on the internet. In the letter, she claimed to have been tortured, and she said: “I asked the Judge if I could say good-bye to my mother. He told me “shut up.” The Judge rejected my appeal and refused to let me to see my mother.”
Kurds, who are one of Iran’s many minority groups, live mainly in the west and north-west of the country, in the province of Kordestan and neighboring provinces bordering Kurdish areas of Turkey and Iraq. They experience religious, economic and cultural discrimination (for further information see Iran: Human Rights Abuses against the Kurdish minority, July 2008, Index MDE 13/008/2008). For many years, Kurdish organizations such as the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) and the Marxist group, Komala, conducted armed struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Party for Free Life of Kurdistan (known by its Kurdish acronym PJAK), formed in 2004, aims to establish in Iran a “democratic system in which all citizens: Iranians, Kurds, Azarbaijanis, Baluch, Turkmans, Arabs and all other ethnic groups within the framework of the democratic system can govern themselves”. It has carried out armed attacks against Iranian security forces, but declared a unilateral ceasefire in 2009.
The scope of capital crimes in Iran is broad, and includes “enmity against God”, often imposed for armed opposition to the state, but can include other national security offenses such as espionage. Two Kurdish men – Ehsan Fattahian and Fasih Yasmani - have been executed for such alleged offenses since November 2009 (see UA: 271/09 and follow ups and Iran: Halt executions of Kurdish and other political prisoners, 12 January 2010, Index: MDE 13/007/2010)
At least 18 other Kurdish men and one other Kurdish woman are believed to be on death row in connection with their alleged membership of and activities for banned Kurdish organizations. They include Farzad Kamangar, Farhad Vakili, Habibollah Latifi, Sherko Moarefi, Ali Haydarian, Anvar Rostami, Rostam Arkiya, Mostafa Salimi, Hassan Talai, Iraj Mohammadi, Rashid Akhkandi, Mohammad Amin Agoushi, Ahmad Pouladkani, Sayed Sami Hosseini, Sayed Jamal Mohammadi, Mohammad Amin Abdolahi, Ghader Mohamadzadeh, Aziz Mohammadzadeh and Shirin Alam-Hoei. Some have had their prison sentences increased to death sentences on appeal. For further information on some of the Kurds on death row for political offenses, see Iran: Worsening repression of dissent as election approaches, February 2009, MDE 13/012/2009: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE13/012/2009/en
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- Urging the Iranian authorities not to execute Hossein Khezri and Zeynab Jalalian;
- Calling on them to commute their death sentences and to retry them in fair proceedings in line with international law and to disregard any evidence obtained under torture or other ill-treatment;
- Stating that Amnesty International recognizes the right and responsibility of governments to bring to justice, in conformity with international standards for fair trial, those suspected of criminal offenses, but opposes the death penalty as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
APPEALS TO:
Leader of the Islamic Republic
Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei
The Office of the Supreme Leader
Islamic Republic Street – End of Shahid Keshvar Doust
Street, Tehran,
ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN
Email: info_leader@leader.ir
via website: http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/index.php?p=letter (English)
Salutation: Your Excellency
Head of the Judiciary
Ayatollah Sadeqh Larijani
Office of the Head of the Judiciary
Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri,
Tehran, 1316814737
ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN
Email: Via website: http://www.dadiran.ir/tabid/75/Default.aspx
First starred box: your given name;
Second starred box: your family name;
Third starred box: your email address
Salutation: Your Excellency
COPIES TO:
Secretary General, High Council for Human Rights
Mohammad Javad Larijani
Howzeh Riassat-e Ghoveh Ghazaiyeh
Pasteur St, Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhuri
Tehran 1316814737
ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN
Fax: 011 98 21 3390 4986
Email: bia.judi@yahoo.com (In subject line: FAO Mohammad Javad Larijani)
Iran does not presently have an embassy in the United States. Instead, please send copies to:
Iranian Interests Section
2209 Wisconsin Ave NW
Washington DC 20007
Phone: 202 965 4990
Fax: 1 202 965 1073
Email: requests@daftar.org
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 2 June 2010.
----------------------------------
Tip of the Month:
Write as soon as you can. Try to write as close as possible to the date a case is issued.
** POSTAGE RATES **
Within the United States:
$0.28 - Postcards
$0.44 - Letters and Cards (up to 1 oz.)
To Canada:
$0.75 - Postcards
$0.75 - Airmail Letters and Cards (up to 1 oz.)
To Mexico:
$0.79 - Postcards
$0.79 - Airmail Letters and Cards (up to 1 oz.)
To all other destination countries:
$0.98 - Postcards
$0.98 - Airmail Letters and Cards (up to 1 oz.)
Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights.
This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including contact information and stop action date (if applicable). Thank you for your help with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl
Washington DC 20003
Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 202.544.0200
Fax: 202.675.8566
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END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
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