The Situation in Syria

After being occupied for a couple of months with other activities, I've finally got back to continuing my blog with the intention of regularly updating it. If you wish to receive an automatic notification when I update it, please let me know. Please read through the last few posts since I have made alterations to them.

One of the main themes recently has been the events in Syria and unfortunately the situation has barely changed with atrocities happening on a daily basis. Amnesty are urging the Russian Government to take more action through this appeal.

http://action.amnesty.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1194&ea.campaign.id=13500

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Political Asylum in Ecuador

With all the media concentrating on Julian Assange and the role of Ecuador in offering him Political Asylum, you maybe interested to know that Ecuador is involved in a similar case of political asylum but taking a different stance. Aliaksandr Barankov has allegedly revealed evidence of corruption at the highest level but the Belarus authorities are accusing him of fraud which he says are bogus charges. Originally, he was granted political asylum but he has now been arrested and it is very likely that he will be sent back to Belarus where campaigners fear he may be unfairly tried and possibly given the death penalty. Below is a report from the Guardian and a link to the Government of Ecuador should you wish to write something.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/21/ecuador-belarus-extradite-aliaksandr-barankov

http://www.presidencia.gob.ec/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=2&Itemid=115
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Conscientious Objectors

After reading an Amnesty report on the individual mentioned on the website below, I decided to investigate whether there are many people sent to prison for refusing to do national military service. This site has lots of information and under the Programmes and Projects section you can find out about more individuals (the majority refusing because of religious views it appears) and click on the links to send emails to the relevant authorities.

http://wri-irg.org/node/15102.

Masai Evictions

After receiving an alert from AVAAZ, which I have covered in one of my first posts, I thought that this petition was worth mentioning. There are background reports from 3 years ago but I imagine this is an ongoing issue. If you wish to receive alerts from Avaaz, please look at their website in more detail.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_maasai/?bkJqcab&v=17059
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38 Degrees

This UK based website says it is not politically motivated and appears to have been set up by people wanting to make changes to a number of issues in society. It is regularly updated and sometimes deals with human rights issues particularly those affecting the United Kingdom.

www.38degrees.org.uk
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Eyes on Syria

Amnesty USA have started this site tracking the abuses in Syria that are happening almost on a daily basis. There is a Take Action section to urge Russia to change their stance on the situation.

www.eyesonsyria.org
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Ethical Traveller

Although this site is mainly used to give you information about travelling (particularly with an A -Z guide of all countries), it also tries to allow you to make ethical choices in your trips. There are not many campaigns but look under the "Act" section to take part.

http://www.ethicaltraveler.org
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Cultural Survival

In many countries, indiginous communities often face discrimination or live in poverty. The site below tries to highlight the plight of many of these groups. There are a few actions you can participate in and there is plenty of information that usually does not make it into the mainstream media.

http://www.culturalsurvival.org
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Anti-Trafficking Alliance

Here is another site about trafficking with an action linked to the upcoming Olympics. Go to the Act section and then you can take action.

www.atalliance.org.uk/
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Rainforest Action Network

Here is a site to take action on issues affecting the rainforests.

http://ran.org/
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