Amnesty Essex Campaigns

Pussy Riot! Russian feminist punk rock band 3 members imprisoned in 2012, after “Punk Prayer”, for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” Amnesty International has designated the two remaining members, Nadezhda ‘Nadya’ Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, prisoners of conscience. In a more worrying recent development, Nadya has not been heard from for over two weeks since being moved to a Prison Hospital (after 9 day hunger strike)

Sri Lanka Campaign against decades of human rights abuses and war crimes, many directed against the Tamil community Not only historic abuses though; UN reports it is still carrying out enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture and many other abuses Government has banned all protests across the entire country for the upcoming Commonwealth Summit

Mikhail Kosenko Anti-Putin protestor who has been sent to a psychiatric hospital While he suffers from a “minor mental condition”, Kremlin psychologists diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia and classified him a danger to himself and others The verdict was immediately contested by a number of independent psychiatrists Many activists believe it is a return to the punitive psychiatry used against Soviet dissidents

Women’s rights in Afghanistan After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, women in Afghanistan have been able to gradually claim their basic human rights - including accessing work, school, and voting in local and national elections. Some have entered politics at great personal risk. Since the re-emergence of insurgency in 2005 by armed groups, including the Taliban, the basic human rights of women and girls are under attack once again. Amnesty are working at a grassroots level to make sure women’s rights do not go backwards in Afghanistan

Northern Ireland During ‘the troubles’ in Northern Ireland, more than 3,600 people were killed and more than 40,000 injured. In most cases, no one has ever been held responsible. Amnesty is calling for a comprehensive mechanism to be set up to review the conflict as a whole, establish the truth about outstanding human rights violations and determine responsibility.

Russia? Could just combine Pussy Riot, Mikhail Kosenko, gay rights and numerous other human rights abuses to concentrate on Russia?