In: Amnesty International, 2019
In the aftermath of Jair Bolsonaro’s election on an openly anti-human rights agenda, a climate of fear remains in Brazil. Yet, young people are rising up and making their voices heard. Amnesty International met seven human rights activists who reveal what life is like in Salvador, Brazil, and how they’re tackling violence against women, racism and homophobia.
YouTube Video
UCLA Latin American Institute
In Brazil, which has the second largest Black population in the world, Brazilian police kill at least six times more people annually than the US police, and most of those dying are young Black men. In the video an interdisciplinary panels of Brazilian and US scholars examine the development of Black Brazilian mobilization against police violence, and compare police violence in Brazil with the position in the US and South Africa. The video then focuses on how Black LGBTQ+ Brazilians are affected by police violence.
See also: https://www.thedialogue.org/events/online-event-race-and-policing-in-the-us-and-brazil/
Reports on Inter-American Dialogue event 'Race and Policing in the US and Brazil' examining what recent cases of police violence revealed about systemic racism in both countries.
In: Red Pepper, 2018, pp. 14-34
Analysis of the new small unions that are mobilizing workers not previously organized, such as domestic workers (often migrants), and older unions extending their reach to cover young workers in fast food chains, delivering food or driving for Uber. The contributors discuss what is distinctive about the style of the unionism - for example its decentralised leadership and willingness to en gage in occupations, and its support from other campaigning groups. The focus is on the UK but within a context of global solidarity with similar campaigns. There is also a timeline from 2008 to 2018 highlighting key struggles including by the long established major unions.
In: Abortion Rights Campaign, 2018
A submission advocating the need for the people of Northern Ireland to access free, safe and legal local abortions facilities regardless of their ability, ethnicity, income level, migration status, or geographic location.
In: TeleSur, 2018
Rita Segato, an Argentine-Brazilian academic and one of the most celebrated Latin American feminists, comments on the biases still affecting cases of femicide in Latin America due to the hyper machismo culture. She also discusses the need to unite academics working in the field of Communication, journalists and editors in order to promote discourses that encourage women to be seen as political actors rather than merely as victims.
In: Economist, 2018, pp. 16-16
Argues that movements sparked by alleged rape accusations could be the most powerful force for equality since women's suffrage' and discusses their impact and challenges in politics and business in the US.
See also more detailed articles on the same issue: ‘#MeToo and politics; Truth and Consequences', pp. 36-37, and 'American business after Weinstein: Behind closed doors', pp. 59-60.
In: New Internationalist, 2019
This article, drawing on material from the online socialist publication Notes from Below, focuses on the increasing reliance of capitalism today, with the growth of internet retail and the 'gig' economy, on transnational supply chains, and migrant workers. It starts by noting the disruptive effects of the French 'Yellow Vests' demonstrations blocking roundabouts on such chains. It also comments on how Italian grass roots unions Si Cobas and ADL have since 2008 used strikes and blockades to target the chain of distribution centres., leading to the arrest of the national coordinator of Si Cobas in 2017, and how workers in Amazon distribution centres in Italy, Spain and Germany have coordinated strike action. Concludes by noting how Uber drivers, mostly migrants, communicating via mobile phones have coordinated resistance. (See 'The wave of worker resistance in European food platforms 2016-7', Notes from Below, Jan 2018, nin.tl/FoodPlatforms)
https://newint.org/features/2019/02/11/uber-drivers-world-unite
In: amnesty International, 2019
Amnesty International pays tribute to the Irish campaigners that led to the revolutionary referendum that repealed the Eight Amendment (25-26 May 2018), thus legalising abortion. It also highlights the human rights violation that women in Northern Ireland faced because of the harsh and restrictive anti-abortion law then applicable.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/05/ireland-one-year-since-vote-to-end-abortion-ban/
2017
TRT World journalist, Dimitri O’Donnell interviews Adriana Cely Verdadero, a women’s rights activist, and Ana Guezmes Garcia, a representative of UN Women Colombia, who provide background to the exhibition dedicated to the victims of femicide in Colombia and the gaps the social and political systems need to fill. Published on 16 December 2017 on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=92&v=op5DDnrqzz0
In: Amnesty International, 2019
This link includes some of the campaigns and articles on abortion advocacy by Amnesty International. The most interesting articles have been selected to give a sense of how the campaigns developed since 2017. But users should keep accessing it to look for further material Amnesty International will upload in the future.
See a poll conducted by Amnesty International on whether Northern Ireland should change its abortion law published on 30 November 2018
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/northern-ireland-abortion-law-poll.
See also https://www.amnesty.org.uk/abortion-poll-research-majority-people-northern-ireland-want-decriminalise for a poll conducted in May 2017 on the same issue.
See the open letter to Prime minister Theresa May to change ‘cruel’ Northern Ireland abortion law published on 21 November 2018
Link to pro-abortion campaigns led by Amnesty International, including links to the 2019 campaign #NowForNI, a campaign organised on the occasion of the celebration of the first anniversary of the repeal of the Eight Amendment in Ireland which led to the legalisation of abortion in the Irish Republic.
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/safe-abortions-northern-ireland
See the petition for obtaining the legalisation of abortion in Ireland published on 16 February 2017.
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/ireland-abortion-laws-repeal-eighth-amendment
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/issues/Abortion-in-Ireland-and-Northern-Ireland
In: The Elders, 2020
The Elders, a lobbying group for the environment chaired by Mary Robinson (former President of Ireland) joined leading climate experts to mark the fifth anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement at a virtual conference. This was also hosted by Project Syndicate and the European Investment Bank and includes a two hour video clip of the panel discussion.
https://theelders.org/news/paris-2030-call-climate-leadership
In: Amazon Frontlines, 2019
As part of the indigenous movement across the Amazon, thousands of indigenous women demonstrated in Brazil’s capital city in August 2019, joining the first Indigenous Women’s March. Carrying banners with the slogan “Territory: our body, our spirit”, women took to the streets to make their voices heard and to denounce the policies of Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, which have set the stage for escalating violations of indigenous rights, racism, violence and the most alarming Amazon deforestation rates in recent memory.
http://www.amazonfrontlines.org/chronicles/indigenous-women-march-brazil/
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean – ECLAC2017
Joint initiative between the government of Cuba, ECLAC and the Federation of Cuban Women that saw government authorities, international officials and representatives of civil society in Havana assess the existing policies in favour of gender equality and women’s rights that have been implemented over the past 40 years in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. They also debated the main challenges that lie ahead.
In: New Internationalist, 2021, pp. 38-39
Brief but informative overview of the historical background and socio-economic conditions in the country, plus a summary of political developments since 1991.
In: Europa.eu, 2018
Highlights the initiatives undertaken by the EU and the UN in Guatemala and Mexico to tackle violence against women and girls. Other Latin American countries that are part of the project are El Salvador, Argentina and Honduras.
Veterans For Peace
2017
Campaign by Veterans For Peace (founded in the US in 1985) to support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons for divestment from corporations manufacturing nuclear weapons, and their endorsement of the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017. Their campaigns include: ‘The Golden Rule’ educational project, ‘Disarm Trident’, and ‘Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.
https://www.veteransforpeace.org/take-action/abolish-nuclear-weapons
Originally published: 2007
Peace Insight, lunched in 2007 by Peace Direct, links local groups engaged in peacebuilding in conflicts around the world - about 2,000 in 2021- with each other and with international bodies. It also provides expert analysis and commentary on conflicts.
In: The Conversation, 2020
Explores briefly the Fridays for Future movement and its interconnection with the struggle against systemic racism.
See also: FridaysforFuture website page: https://fridaysforfuture.org/what-we-do-/activist-speeches
See also: 'Young voices on the Frontlines of Climate Change', The Elders' Blog, https://theelders.org//intergenerational-climate-blogs
An update of experiences of climate activists from both the Global North and the Global South.
In: El Pais, 2019
Reports that five out of six men involved in a gang rape of a 14-year old girl were convicted of sexual abuse of a minor, rather than the more serious crime of sexual assault; the girl was for part of the time in an 'unconscious state'. The report also provides an update on the Pamplona case, noting the the Spanish Supreme Court ruled the men were guilty of rape and raised their prison sentences to 15 years. El Pais records in addition that the commission created after the Pamplona case to revise the legal definition of sexual violence has reported, and recommended eliminating the lesser charge of sexual abuse; but the Socialist Party government has not yet acted.
https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/10/31/inenglish/1572525418_791189.html
In: New Internationalist, 2018, pp. 12-25
Originally published: March 2018
Introductory article by Amy Hall summarises the growth of BLM in the USA, discusses its global potential and spread to other countries, and notes the relevance of BLM in the UK. Jamilah King comments on the US movement, both on its strengths and the divisions within it. Other articles examine how BLM relates to a history of 'a policy of black extermination' in Brazil, and to the struggle by Aboriginal people in Australia.