Urgent Action 1-22-11

URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA

To learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
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For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa01211.pdf

21 January 2011

UA 12/11 Fear for safety

HONDURAS Alexander David Sánchez Álvarez (m)

Human rights defender Alexander David Sánchez Álvarez was threatened by unknown individuals using pistols on two occasions in the last week. Amnesty International believes that he has been targeted because of his human rights work on behalf of LGBT persons, and that his life is at risk.

On 14 January Alex David Sánchez Álvarez, a nurse and LGBT rights activist was standing with fellow LGBT activists outside the office of the Colectivo Violeta, an LGBT organization, when a white car with the number plate PCC1964 pulled up. A man got out and walked towards Alex and took out a pistol. He pointed the pistol at Alex and his friend and said “Ustedes nos faltan” (“You are the ones we are missing”). They reported the incident to the local police.
On 19 January, Alex David Sánchez Álvarez was walking to work at the Centro de Prevención, Tratamiento y Rehabilitación de las Víctimas de la Tortura y sus Familiares (Centre for the Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims and their Families, CPTRT) where he works as a nurse. As he crossed the road just two and half blocks away from the office a motorbike pulled up with two men on the back of it. As they drove past, one of the men struck Alex across the face with a pistol, leaving a mark just below his right eye. The two men then drove off at speed. Alex reported the incident to the Special Prosecutor for Human Rights the same day. No protection has been offered to Alex, despite concerns for his safety.

Alex David Sánchez Álvarez has been very active in the LGBT community, working and volunteering for a number of LGBT and human rights organizations. He has also participated in protests against the coup d’etat of 28 June 2009.

According to local organizations, since 7 January alone, 3 persons belonging to the LGBT community have been killed. The murders of at least 11 LGBT persons were documented by Honduran NGOs last year. On 20 January 2011, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) stated it is “deeply concerned about serious threats, acts of violence and murders against members of the transgender community in Honduras, in particular the rising number of killings of members of the LGBT community”. In December 2009 LGBT activist Walter Trochez was murdered following repeated threats and surviving a previous attempt on his life.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Amnesty International in its 2010 report on Honduras highlighted the sharp rise in the number of killings of transgender women following the June 2009 coup. Between 2003 and March 2009, human rights organizations had registered 17 cases of killings of transgender women. Between the end of June and December 2009, 12 such cases were reported by local human rights organizations. No data was available at the time about investigations into these killings.

In a case documented by Amnesty International, in December 2009, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender human rights activist Walter Trochez was murdered in Tegucigalpa. Nine days earlier, he had escaped after being abducted by several masked men demanding the names and addresses of members of the movement opposing the coup d’etat. His captors reportedly told him they had orders to kill him. The investigations on this case have not brought to indictments or convictions.

In April 2010, Amnesty expressed its concern on the situation of LGBT people in Honduras in its Submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review – Ninth Session of the UPR Working Group of the Human Rights Council (AI Index: AMR 37/005/2010). The document is available at: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR37/005/2010/en/79e58f10-220d-40ff-ab81-464b56aa439b/amr370052010en.pdf

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- Calling for an independent, thorough and impartial investigation into the threats made against Alex David Sánchez Álvarez, with the results made public and those responsible brought to justice;
- Urging that the authorities take immediate steps to fully provide appropriate protection to Alex David Sánchez Álvarez in accordance with his wishes;
- Reminding the authorities that human rights defenders have a right to carry out their activities without any unfair restrictions or fear of reprisals, as set out in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.

APPEALS TO:

Minister for Justice and Human Rights
Ana Pineda
Ministra de Justicia y Derechos Humanos
Casa Presidencial
Boulevard Juan Pablo Segundo
Palacio José Cecilio del Valle
Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.
HONDURAS
Fax: 011 504 2290 5129
Salutation: Estimada Sra. Ministra

Sr. Luis Alberto Rubí
Fiscal General de la República
Lomas del Guijarro, Avenida República Dominicana
Edificio Lomas Plaza II
Tegucigalpa, HONDURAS
Fax: 011 504 221 5667
Salutation: Dear Attorney General

COPIES TO:

NGO
Centro de Prevención, Tratamiento y Rehabilitación de las Victimas de Torturas y sus Familiares (CPTRT)
Colonia Palmira,
Avenida República de Brasil, Casa #2340
E-mail: cptrt@cablecolor.hn
Fax: 011 504 22367273

Ambassador Roberto Flores Bermudez
Embassy of Honduras
3007 Tilden St. NW Suite 4M
Washington DC 20008
Fax: 1 202 966 9751
Email: lprado@hondurasemb.org

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 02 March 2011.

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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
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http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 202.509.8193
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END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
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URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA

To learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
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21 January 2011

Further information of on UA 139/10 (23 June 2010) and follow up (28 September 2010) – Legal Concern

RUSSIA Yurii Samodurov (m)
Andrei Yerofeev (m)

On 4 October 2010, the Moscow City Court upheld on appeal the decision made by the Taganskii court on 12 July to convict Yurii Samodurov and Andrei Yerofeev for “inciting hatred or enmity” and “denigration of human dignity” and to fine them 200,000 and 150,000 roubles (USD$6.673,21 and USD$5,004,90) respectively.

Yurii Samodurov, former director of the Sakharov Museum, and Andrei Yerofeev, former head of the department for contemporary art at the State Tretiakov Gallery, were charged under Article 282(2) of the Russian Criminal Code and put on trial in Taganskii District Court for organizing a contemporary art exhibition in Moscow in 2007.

The exhibition Forbidden Art 2006 gathered together a number of works of art that had been refused inclusion at various exhibitions in 2006. It contained works by some of Russia’s most well-known contemporary artists, such as Ilya Kabakov, Alexander Kosolapov, the group Blue Noses, Aleksandr Savko and Mikhail Roginskii. The art presented included a photomontage of a photograph of a frame of an icon and a photo of caviar inside the icon. Other examples incorporated reproductions of religious paintings with the figure of Mickey Mouse inserted.

The prosecution claimed that Yuri Samodurov and Andrei Yerofeev had arranged the exhibition in such a way that it denigrates Christianity, and especially the Russian Orthodox faith, and incites hatred against Orthodox and other Christians. Amnesty International believes that the exhibition Forbidden Art 2006 does not incite hatred. The organizers of the exhibition were peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression and they should not have been prosecuted.

Following the Moscow City Court decision, the sentence has come into force and the men’s lawyer has indicated that they intend to appeal the decision further at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

As the judicial process appears to have been exhausted locally within the Russian Federation, no further action is required from the UA network at this stage.

Many thanks to all who sent appeals. No further action is requested from the UA network.

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END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
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