… A thoughtful article by Lauren Wolfe asking an important question: “Are Women Being Targeted in Syria?”
The Atlantic Monthly: “Are Women Being Targeted in Syria?”
Lauren Wolfe | Monday, December 10, 2012
“When Syrian armed forces have used indiscriminate air bombardment or artillery to attack civilian areas, these are war crimes,” said Sunjeev Bery, Amnesty International USA’s advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa.
Full article here or below.
The Washington Times
Guy Taylor | Monday, September 24, 2012
…“The behavior of an anti-Islam propagandist, as hurtful as it may be to the religious sensitivities of some Muslims, should not be used as a justification to curtail core freedoms or justify potential government repression,” said Sanjeev Bery, an advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International USA.
Full article here or below.
By Sulome Anderson | Foreign Policy
Monday, September 10, 2012
… Also in August, Amnesty International’s blog Livewire was targeted by another pro-Assad hacker group that accused the rebel army of committing massacres that have been linked to government forces. The attack, which was not claimed by any specific group of hackers, included a false blog post lamenting that “it is clear the Al Qaeda affiliated rebels are not going to stop their crimes. And with no accountability and a steady supply of weapons, why should they given they have come this far under NATO protection?”
Another one of the false posts was titled “Amnesty Calls on UN to stop the US, Qatar and Turkey funding and arming Syria Rebels,” and created the impression that Amnesty International was condemning NATO and the US for meddling in the Syrian civil war. Sanjeev Bery, Amnesty International’s USA advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa, explained the attack in an article published on the group’s website:
“It’s entirely possible that, given that we’ve been so forthright in criticizing the Syrian government for its crimes against humanity; that could conceivably make us the target of some kind of campaign.”
Across the Middle East and North Africa, the ousting of dictators has given way to the messy challenges of creating new governments and writing new rules. Tunisia was the first country in the ongoing wave of protests where protestors pushed a repressive ruler out of power. Now, an elected body is drafting a new constitution for the nation.
But there are troubling signs that the draft language for the Tunisian constitution does not adequately protect women’s human rights. You can help at this critical moment by signing this important Amnesty International statement to the Tunisian government.
In September, Tunisia’s National Constituent Assembly (NCA) will hold final discussions on draft constitutional language that has been prepared by its committees. That’s why the coming days are so important. The NCA had been elected in October of 2011 to write Tunisia’s post-dictatorship constitution.
By James Ball
Washington Post
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Excerpt:
“Amnesty International has been very blunt in the reporting that we’ve done and the eyewitness accounts that we’ve collected in Syria,” said Sanjeev Bery, Amnesty International USA’s advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa. “It’s entirely possible that, given that we’ve been so forthright in criticizing the Syrian government for its crimes against humanity, that could conceivably make us the target of some kind of campaign.
Bery said Amnesty’s position on the civil war in Syria has been clear.
“We are deeply concerned both about the continuing crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Syrian government through its forces as well as concerned by war crimes that have been committed both by the Syrian government armed forces and by some opposition forces,” he said.
Full article linked and pasted below.
Amnesty International Calls Verdict ‘Denial of Justice’
Contact: Carolyn Lang, clang@aiusa.org, 202-675-8759
(Washington, D.C.) — Amnesty International condemns an Israeli court’s verdict that the government of Israel bears no responsibility in the death of Rachel Corrie, saying the verdict continues the pattern of impunity for Israeli military violations against civilians and human rights defenders in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). The verdict shields Israeli military personnel from accountability and ignores deep flaws in the Israeli military’s internal investigation of Corrie’s death.
“Rachel Corrie was a peaceful American protestor who was killed while attempting to protect a Palestinian home from the crushing force of an Israeli military bulldozer,” said Sanjeev Bery, Middle East and North Africa advocacy director for Amnesty International USA.
“More than nine years after Corrie’s death, the Israeli authorities still have not delivered on promises to conduct a ‘thorough, credible and transparent’ investigation. Instead, an Israeli court has upheld the flawed military investigation and issued a verdict that once again shields the Israeli military from any accountability,” Bery said.
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