Human rights defender Nguyen Thuy Hanh has been released from politically motivated imprisonment in
UK ANOTHER BLOW TO TROUBLES ACT
Core parts of the Troubles Act, including a new body to carry out investigations, are unlawful, the Belfast Court of Appeal has ruled. This is another victory in the campaign to scrap the controversial law and support victims’ rights to truth, justice and reparations.
The 2023 Act allows a conditional amnesty for offences committed during the 30-year Troubles in Northern Ireland, which ended with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The Act also bans relevant inquests and future civil actions.
Victims of the Troubles and their families, supported by Amnesty, are challenging the Troubles Act. Earlier this year the Belfast High Court ruled in the victims’ favour (see Amnesty Magazine, summer issue) saying that immunity from prosecution does not comply with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Belfast Court of Appeal, a higher court, has now ruled that the Act gives the UK government too much veto power over the disclosure of material. It also condemned the body set up to probe Troubles cases, the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, saying it failed to provide for effective participation by victims. The government says it will appeal the judgment. Amnesty is disappointed with this decision, which backtracks on a manifesto promise to repeal and replace the Act.
Viet Nam, which remains one of the most dangerous places for activists in Asia. Nguyen Thuy Hanh worked tirelessly to support people who have been unjustly detained, despite police beatings and years of harassment. In Afghanistan education activists Ahmad Fahim Azimi and Seddiqullah Afghan were released after several months of arbitrary detention. The pair were accused of working against the Taliban. In Cambodia, trade union leader Chhim Sithar, who was sentenced to two years in prison in May 2023, has also been released. She had been convicted of ‘incitement to commit a felony or disturb social security’ – a charge often used by the Cambodian authorities to punish strike action.
WRITE FOR RIGHTS The court
condemned the body set up to probe Troubles cases
PHOTO
Families affected by the Troubles and their supporters welcome the Court of Appeal decision © PA/Alamy
W4R 2020 POLICE IN THE DOCK Three people who were police commanders in Chile during the violent repression of protests in 2019 are facing criminal investigation. Under their leadership, two people died and thousands suffered serious injuries, including irreversible eye damage, following police use of shotguns loaded with metal and rubber pellets to disperse demonstrations. One of those blinded in the demonstrations over rising prices and inequality was Gustavo Gatica, who featured in our 2020 Write for Rights campaign. Amnesty International contributed background information to the criminal investigation.
W4R 2023 SAFETY IN NEW YORK Maung Sawyeddollah (Write for Rights 2023) rose to prominence campaigning for reparations from Facebook owner Meta after the platform’s algorithms amplified anti- Rohingya sentiment in Myanmar. Thousands of the ethnic Muslim group were killed, raped and tortured by Myanmar’s army in 2017. Sawyeddollah and his family, along with many other Rohingya, lost everything, but were able to escape to a refugee camp in Bangladesh.
Sawyeddollah still faced security risks, however, and Amnesty has been working with others to get him to safety. In August 2024 Sawyeddollah landed in the USA and is now enrolled as an international student at New York University.
Write for Rights 2024 See page 12 WINTER 2024 AMNESTY 7
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