DOCSLIB.ORG

Lgbt Ally Toolkit

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Lgbt Ally Toolkit LGBT ALLY TOOLKIT Ally is a verb, not a noun. Contents • Letter of Introduction …………………………………………………………………………….3 • Strengthening Your Community…………………………………………………………………4 • Acting As An Ally …………………………………………………………………………………5 • LGBT Rights Issues & Campaigns • LGBT Rights in the US …………………………………………………………………..6 • Urgent Action: Free Rosmit Mantilla…………………………………………………….7 Additional resources available at www.amnestyusa.org/lgbt 2 Dear Amnesty Activist, Amnesty International believes that all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, should be able to enjoy the full range of human rights, without exception. However, every day, across the globe, people face discrimination, violence, imprisonment, torture or even execution because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, or their work to advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals. Persecution on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, real or perceived, violates the basic tenets of international human rights law as described in Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.” The LGBT community and its allies have had victories in the past several years, including the 2015 Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges that legalized marriage equality throughout the U.S. There has also been devastating tragedy with the mass shooting in Orlando’s Pulse nightclub. On June 12, 2016, the murder of 49 people, many of them LGBT people and people of color, demonstrated an utter contempt for human life. All people should be able to live safely and without fear of violence because of who they are, who they are attracted to, or who they love. In many countries, the refusal of governments to address violence committed against LGBT people creates a culture of impunity where such abuses can continue and escalate. Often, state authorities themselves commit such abuses. Across the globe, 75 countries still criminalize same-sex consensual relations between adults, and others effectively criminalize same-sex activity by imposing anti-LGBT “propaganda” laws, and limiting a person’s ability to change their gender identity on legal documents. Among other concerns, Amnesty International calls on states to: 1) Ensure all allegations and reports of human rights violations based on sexual orientation or gender identity are promptly and impartially investigated, and that perpetrators are held accountable and brought to justice. 2) Take all necessary legislative and administrative measures to prohibit and eliminate prejudice at every stage of the administration of justice, and 3) protect human rights defenders at risk because of their work on sexual orientation and gender identity. Amnesty International is also committed to educating and preparing activists to speak out about these cases. The Ally Toolkit provides background information, advice on community outreach and inclusion, and highlights actions you can take in response to specific instances of human rights abuse experienced by LGBT people. With a stronger background and vocabulary, Amnesty activists will be able to support LGBT human rights in their communities and across the world. Sincerely, The AIUSA LGBT Human Rights Coordination Group For more information contact the Coordination Group at [email protected] or find us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/AIUSALGBT) or Twitter (https://twitter.com/AIUSALGBT). 3 Strengthening Your Community It’s important for non-LGBT folks to learn how to be a good ally for the LGBT human rights movement, or for LGBT people to further educate themselves. Reach out to the LGBT community and make connections to strengthen your advocacy work. Be open and responsive to the needs and concerns of the community. Stand together for human rights! BEING AN ALLY Listen to LGBT voices Be willing to talk Be open-minded Confront your own prejudices about gender-appropriate roles and behaviors Don't assume that all your friends and co-workers are straight Speak out against statements and jokes that attack LGBT people Defend your LGBT friends against discrimination Use non-gender specific language and learn about the diversity of gender and sexuality Learn about LGBT inequality and policy Issues Educate yourself about LGBT histories, cultures, and concerns ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE Write letters to your political representatives asking them to support legislation that positively affects LGBT people! When discriminatory laws are raised in your communities, express your concern by: Starting a letter writing campaign Calling your representatives Use visual markers on your car, in your home, or at workplace, to show your support Identify local businesses who are LGBT friendly Join an LGBT community group, support ally programs or start one in your area. Activities could include: Hosting a speaker — invite LGBT advocates to speak Hosting a LGBT film night Planning a vigil and inviting other groups and organizations Tabling at your school, community events, street fairs, etc. Support Amnesty LGBT urgent actions and cases! 4 “Hope will never be silent.” -Harvey Milk Do Your Homework and Stay Informed. Learn about the diversity of gender and sexuality, LGBT history, culture, inequality, and policy issues. Listen to the THINGS TO DO: experiences and voices of LGBT people. Sometimes, this means listening without commenting. Reflect on what you learn and hear. Don’t Make Assumptions. Don’t make assumptions about anyone’s gender, sexuality, or identity. Don’t assume that your friends, family members, co-workers, etc. are straight or identify as male or female. Gender, sexuality, and identity exist on a spectrum. Think About Your Own Identity. How do you identify your own gender and sexuality? What does your identity mean about how you interact with the world? How might your identity and experiences be different from someone else’s? Understand Your Privilege. Having privilege does not mean that your life has been easy, that you are wealthy, or that you’ve never struggled or worked hard. Privilege means that there are issues and struggles you will never have to experience or think about just because of who you are. This means that as straight and/or cisgender allies, you have rights and privileges that LGBT people do not. How can you use your privilege to educate others and work on LGBT rights? You Will Make Mistakes. It’s Ok. Listening to and supporting marginalized communities is a learning process that takes time and work. Often, this means we are working on correcting problematic behavior, and mistakes are bound to happen. It’s ok! Don’t get defensive; listen. Be accountable, apologize, recognize what happened and why, and keep on working. STEP UP, STEP BACK Step up: Speak up about LGBT rights and remember, those rights aren’t limited to marriage equality. They include youth homelessness, workplace discrimination, health care access, disproportionate violence against trans women of color, and more. Fight against LGBT discrimination. Speak out against statements and jokes that attack LGBT people. Have conversations about prejudices, challenge conceptions about gender roles and behaviors. Step back: When LGBT people are speaking and sharing their experiences and stories. Listen, listen, listen. Don’t speak over LGBT voices, make sure you are not taking credit for what LGBT communities are saying or the work they have done. Use your privilege to promote LGBT voices instead of speaking on their behalf. 5 LGBT Rights in the US While the Supreme Court’s ruling that same-sex couples have the same right to marriage as heterosexual couples in Obergefell v. Hodges in June 2015 represented a long-awaited victory for LGBT rights, there are still more obstacles for the LGBT community when it comes to full equality under the law. Currently, there are no federal protections against employment discrimination for LGBT workers, neither are there comprehensive federal laws protecting the LGBT community from other forms of discrimination: so, an LGBT person can get married to the partner of their choosing in all fifty states, but can still be be fired from their job, kicked out of their home, or denied access to health care, depending on the state where they live. LEARN MORE TAKE ACTION • Good news! On July 23rd, 2015, The Equality Act • Call your Congressman or Senator to support the was introduced in Congress, which would amend the Equality Act. To find your Congressional Civil Rights Act of 1964 to explicitly prohibit representative, go to www.house.gov/representatives/ discrimination based on sexual orientation and find/. To find your Senator’s contact information, go to gender identity on a federal level. To learn more www.senate.gov/senators/contact/. about the Equality Act, check out www.hrc.org/ campaigns/support-the-equality-act/ • Testify! If your local or state government is attempting to pass anti-LGBT laws, like those allowing • What is the status of your state’s nondiscrimination discrimination in public accommodations (often laws? Check out transequality.org/issues/resources/ referred to as “bathroom bills”), Religious Freedom map-state-transgender-non-discrimination-laws Restoration Acts (RFRAs), or other forms of discrimination, organize with your local LGBT • For information on discrimination against LGBT community and testify why you oppose discrimination individuals ranging from employment to credit, check against LGBT people. out the Center for American Progress’s video series
Load more

Recommended publications
  • DELEGASI DPR-RI 137Th IPU GENERAL ASSEMBLY and RELATED MEETINGS 14 – 18 OKTOBER 2017 ST
    LAPORAN DELEGASI DPR-RI 137th IPU GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND RELATED MEETINGS 14 – 18 OKTOBER 2017 ST. PETERSBURG - RUSIA BADAN KERJA SAMA ANTAR PARLEMEN DEWAN PERWAKILAN RAKYAT REPUBLIK INDONESIA 2017 ©Badan Kerja Sama Antar-Parlemen DPR RI 2017 Badan Kerja Sama Antar-Parlemen (BKSAP) adalah alat kelengkapan DPR RI yang bertugas membina, mengembangkan dan meningkatkan hubungan persahabatan dan kerja sama an- tara DPR RI dengan parlemen-parlemen negara lain baik secara bilateral maupun multilateral, termasuk organisasi regional/ internasional yang menghimpun parlemen-parlemen dan/atau anggota-anggota parlemen negara lain. Lebih lanjut lihat: www.dpr.go.id Semua pertanyaan tentang hak dan izin, termasuk hak-hak tambahan sekaligus saran dan masukan dialamatkan ke: Sekretariat Kerja Sama Organisasi Internasional Biro Kerja Sama Antar-Parlemen Sekretariat Jenderal DPR RI Gedung Nusantara III Lantai 6 Jl. Jend. Gatot Subroto Jakarta 10270 Indonesia +62 21 5175835, +62 21 5715813 +62 21 5732132 [email protected] Kata Pengantar Assalamualaikum Wr. Wb. Salam sejahtera untuk kita semua, Pertemuan Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) ke-137 mengusung tema “Promoting Cultural Pluralism and Peace through Inter-faith and Inter-ethnic Dialogue” diselenggarakan di St. Petersburg, Rusia pada Oktober 2017. Secara global, tema tersebut sangat relevan karena terkait dengan dinamika politik yang terjadi selama tahun 2017. Di Indonesia, tahun politik diwarnai gesekan antarkelompok dan berkembangnya isu-isu SARA. Ini pelajaran berharga, mengingatkan kita semua akan pentingnya keberagaman, toleransi, dan sikap saling menghormati. Sementara itu di dunia internasional, kita dikagetkan oleh konfik yang terjadi di wilayah Rakhine, Myanmar yang menimbulkan ribuan korban jiwa dari etnis Muslim Rohingya dan ratusan ribu pengungsi. Peristiwa tersebut tidak hanya menimbulkan gejolak internasional, tetapi juga menimbulkan keprihatinan masyarakat Indonesia.
    [Show full text]
  • Venezuela Decision Adopted Unanimously by the IPU Governing Council at Its 204Th Session (Doha, 10 April 2019)
    Venezuela Decision adopted unanimously by the IPU Governing Council at its 204th session (Doha, 10 April 2019) Venezuela’s Speaker of the National Assembly Juan Guaidó speaks before a crowd of opposition supporters during an open meeting in Caraballeda, Venezuela, on 13 January 2019 © Yuri CORTEZ/AFP VEN-10 - Biagio Pilieri VEN-48 - Yanet Fermin (Ms.) VEN-11 - José Sánchez Montiel VEN-49 - Dinorah Figuera (Ms.) VEN-12 - Hernán Claret Alemán VEN-50 - Winston Flores VEN-13 - Richard Blanco VEN-51 - Omar González VEN-16 - Julio Borges VEN-52 - Stalin González VEN-19 - Nora Bracho (Ms.) VEN-53 - Juan Guaidó VEN-20 - Ismael Garcia VEN-54 - Tomás Guanipa VEN-22 - William Dávila VEN-55 - José Guerra VEN-24 - Nirma Guarulla (Ms.) VEN-56 - Freddy Guevara VEN-25 - Julio Ygarza VEN-57 - Rafael Guzmán VEN-26 - Romel Guzamana VEN-58 - María G. Hernández (Ms.) VEN-27 - Rosmit Mantilla VEN-59 - Piero Maroun VEN-28 - Enzo Prieto VEN-60 - Juan A. Mejía VEN-29 - Gilberto Sojo VEN-61 - Julio Montoya VEN-30 - Gilber Caro VEN-62 - José M. Olivares VEN-31 - Luis Florido VEN-63 - Carlos Paparoni VEN-32 - Eudoro González VEN-64 - Miguel Pizarro VEN-33 - Jorge Millán VEN-65 - Henry Ramos Allup VEN-34 - Armando Armas VEN-66 - Juan Requesens VEN-35 - Américo De Grazia VEN-67 - Luis E. Rondón VEN-36 - Luis Padilla VEN-68 - Bolivia Suárez (Ms.) VEN-37 - José Regnault VEN-69 - Carlos Valero VEN-38 - Dennis Fernández (Ms.) VEN-70 - Milagro Valero (Ms.) VEN-39 - Olivia Lozano (Ms.) VEN-71 - German Ferrer VEN-40 - Delsa Solórzano (Ms.) VEN-72 - Adriana d'Elia (Ms.) VEN-41
    [Show full text]
  • 2015 Annual Report As Per Article 59(10) of Its Rules of Procedure and Asked That the State to Submit Its Observations Within One Month
    CHAPTER IV.B VENEZUELA I. INTRODUCTION 1. The Commission has closely followed the human rights situation in Venezuela and, through its various monitoring mechanisms, has observed a series of structural situations that affect the enjoyment and exercise of human rights in that country. Accordingly, the Commission has observed and has repeatedly made statements in its previous reports on Venezuela on structural situations such as the provisional nature of judges and prosecutors, which weakens the judicial branch and leads to its lack of independence and impartiality. The Commission has considered that this structural flaw has a negative impact on the right of access to justice and due process, and thus is one of the weakest points of Venezuelan democracy. Along these same lines, as the lack of independence and autonomy of the judicial branch vis-à-vis the political branches of government is one of the most fragile points that has been identified, the IACHR is concerned about the use of the punitive power of the State to harass and stigmatize human rights defenders and journalists, and to criminally prosecute political dissidents and disqualify several of its leaders from holding office. 2. In addition, the IACHR has identified as matters of concern the regulatory amendments that imply legal and regulatory restrictions—in particular, through passage of Special Powers Acts (Leyes Habilitantes), which in recent years have been used to effect the reform of criminal statutes, as well as to assign public safety and domestic law enforcement responsibilities to the military. The Inter-American Commission has also stated that the high degree of impunity in Venezuela, the serious public safety situation, and the violence in penal institutions are factors that impose particular constraints on the inhabitants’ exercise of the human rights to life, humane treatment, and access to justice, among other rights.
    [Show full text]
  • The Impact of Human Rights Abuses and Emigration in Venezuela
    The University of Akron IdeaExchange@UAkron Williams Honors College, Honors Research The Dr. Gary B. and Pamela S. Williams Honors Projects College Summer 2021 The Impact of Human Rights Abuses and Emigration in Venezuela Caroline Hanna [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects Part of the International Relations Commons Please take a moment to share how this work helps you through this survey. Your feedback will be important as we plan further development of our repository. Recommended Citation Hanna, Caroline, "The Impact of Human Rights Abuses and Emigration in Venezuela" (2021). Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects. 1439. https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/honors_research_projects/1439 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by The Dr. Gary B. and Pamela S. Williams Honors College at IdeaExchange@UAkron, the institutional repository of The University of Akron in Akron, Ohio, USA. It has been accepted for inclusion in Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects by an authorized administrator of IdeaExchange@UAkron. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. The Impact of Human Rights Abuses and Emigration in Venezuela Caroline Hanna Honors Research Project – Political Science Introduction This research paper analyzes the connection between human rights abuses committed by the Nicolas Maduro regime and the high levels of emigration. These human rights issues are addressed by the research
    [Show full text]
  • LA FÓRMULA PERFECTA PARA APUNTALAR LA DICTADURA Asedio a La Asamblea Nacional De Venezuela
    LA FÓRMULA PERFECTA PARA APUNTALAR LA DICTADURA Asedio a la Asamblea Nacional de Venezuela Enero 2020 La fórmula perfecta para apuntalar la dictadura Asedio a la Asamblea Nacional de Venezuela AN: Asamblea Nacional ANC: Asamblea Nacional Constituyente CEPAZ: Centro de Justicia y Paz CIDH: Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos CPI: Corte Penal Internacional GLOSARIO CRBV: Constitución de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela DGCIM: Dirección General de Contrainteligencia Militar FAES: Fuerza de Acciones Especiales GNB: Guardia Nacional Bolivariana LOTTT: Ley Orgánica del Trabajo, los Trabajadores y las Trabajadoras OEA: Organización de Estados Americanos ONAPRE: Oficina Nacional de Presupuesto SEBIN: Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia Nacional TSJ: Tribunal Supremo de Justicia UIP: Unión Inter-Parlamentaria Mundial 2 La fórmula perfecta para apuntalar la dictadura Asedio a la Asamblea Nacional de Venezuela Resumen Ejecutivo.................................................................................... 4 Capítulo I Desmantelamiento de la Asamblea Nacional.............................................. 7 ÍNDICE Capítulo II Patrones de persecución................................................................................ 20 Capítulo IIII Conclusiones ................................................................................................... 34 3 Resumen Ejecutivo Desde el año 2015, el Centro de Justicia y Paz (CEPAZ) ha elaborado tres informes en los que da cuen- ta de las reiteradas y sistematizadas prácticas de
    [Show full text]
  • “Political Persecution in Venezuela”
    Report to the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations on the occasion of the 4th Periodic Review Report of the Venezuelan State in the 114th session of June 2015, on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights “POLITICAL PERSECUTION IN VENEZUELA” Systematization of patterns of persecution to Venezuelan political dissidents Geneva, june 2015 0 Presentation This report was prepared by the organization CEPAZ Justice and Peace Center, for the Human Rights Committee on the occasion of examination performed in Venezuela Fourth Report on the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This report is focused on patterns of persecution of individuals and groups for political reasons, corresponding to Articles 2, 9, 14, 19 and 25 of the Covenant. Center for Justice and Peace, CEPAZ: organization that since its creation, promotes citizen activism for human rights and has made systematic monitoring, analysis, reporting, dissemination and training on the situation of human rights in Venezuela, with the permanent references to the covenants and conventions that make up the International Human Rights System. www.cepaz.org.ve [email protected] 1 INDEX ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................................... 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ......................................................................................................................... 6 POLITICAL PERSECUTION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON HUMAN RIGHTS ..............................................
    [Show full text]
  • Venezuela Submission to the United Nations Human Rights Committee
    VENEZUELA SUBMISSION TO THE UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE 114TH SESSION, 29 JUNE - 24 JULY 2015 Amnesty International Publications First published in 2015 by Amnesty International Publications International Secretariat Peter Benenson House 1 Easton Street London WC1X 0DW United Kingdom www.amnesty.org © Amnesty International Publications 2015 Index: AMR 53/1769/2015 Original Language: English Printed by Amnesty International, International Secretariat, United Kingdom All rights reserved. This publication is copyright, but may be reproduced by any method without fee for advocacy, campaigning and teaching purposes, but not for resale. The copyright holders request that all such use be registered with them for impact assessment purposes. For copying in any other circumstances, or for reuse in other publications, or for translation or adaptation, prior written permission must be obtained from the publishers, and a fee may be payable. To request permission, or for any other inquiries, please contact [email protected] Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 3 million supporters, members and activists in more than 150 countries and territories who campaign to end grave abuses of human rights. Our vision is for every person to enjoy all the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. We are independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion and are funded mainly by our membership and public donations. CONTENTS Introduction .................................................................................................................. 5 Measures to prevent torture and other ill-treatment (Article 7) ........................................... 6 Recommendations to the Venezuelan authorities ........................................................... 7 Human right violations in the context of protests (Articles 2, 6, 7, 9, 14, 19, 21 and 22) ...
    [Show full text]
  • URGENT ACTION OPPOSITION LEADER SENTENCED UNJUSTLY Opposition Leader Leopoldo López Has Been Sentenced to 13 Years and 9 Months in Prison
    Further information on UA: 33/14 Index: AMR 53/2449/2015 Venezuela Date: 17 September 2015 URGENT ACTION OPPOSITION LEADER SENTENCED UNJUSTLY Opposition leader Leopoldo López has been sentenced to 13 years and 9 months in prison. He is a prisoner of conscience and must be released immediately and unconditionally. On 10 September Leopoldo López was found guilty of inciting violence during an anti-government protest on 12 February 2014. He was sentenced to 13 years and 9 months in prison for the charges of conspiracy, incitement to commit a crime, arson, and damage to public property. Leopoldo López, leader of opposition party Popular Will (Voluntad Popular), has been in detention since 18 February 2014 at CENAPROMIL (Centro Nacional de Procesados Militares), a military prison in Los Teques, on the outskirts of the capital, Caracas. The charges against Leopoldo López were never adequately substantiated and the prison sentence against him is politically motivated. In August 2014, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said that Leopoldo López’s detention was arbitrary and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights urged the authorities to release him immediately. Christian Holdack, Demian Martín and Ángel González, who were tried alongside Leopoldo López, were also found guilty but will spend their sentences outside of prison. Please write immediately in Spanish or your own language: Calling on the authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Leopoldo López, as he is a prisoner of conscience who was arbitrarily detained and sentenced without any credible evidence against him; Urging them to ensure that those still detained since the 2014 protests do not remain in detention arbitrarily.
    [Show full text]
  • URGENT ACTION OPPOSITION LEADER SENTENCED UNJUSTLY Opposition Leader Leopoldo López Has Been Sentenced to 13 Years and 9 Months in Prison
    Further information on UA: 33/14 Index: AMR 53/2449/2015 Venezuela Date: 17 September 2015 URGENT ACTION OPPOSITION LEADER SENTENCED UNJUSTLY Opposition leader Leopoldo López has been sentenced to 13 years and 9 months in prison. He is a prisoner of conscience and must be released immediately and unconditionally. On 10 September Leopoldo López was found guilty of inciting violence during an anti-government protest on 12 February 2014. He was sentenced to 13 years and 9 months in prison for the charges of conspiracy, incitement to commit a crime, arson, and damage to public property. Leopoldo López, leader of opposition party Popular Will (Voluntad Popular), has been in detention since 18 February 2014 at CENAPROMIL (Centro Nacional de Procesados Militares), a military prison in Los Teques, on the outskirts of the capital, Caracas. The charges against Leopoldo López were never adequately substantiated and the prison sentence against him is politically motivated. In August 2014, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said that Leopoldo López’s detention was arbitrary and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights urged the authorities to release him immediately. Christian Holdack, Demian Martín and Ángel González, who were tried alongside Leopoldo López, were also found guilty but will spend their sentences outside of prison. Please write immediately in Spanish or your own language: Calling on the authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Leopoldo López, as he is a prisoner of conscience who was arbitrarily detained and sentenced without any credible evidence against him; Urging them to ensure that those still detained since the 2014 protests do not remain in detention arbitrarily.
    [Show full text]
  • URGENT ACTION Amnesty International
    INDEX : AMR 53/3303/2016 ISSUE DATE: 22 JANUARY 2016 URGENT ACTION UA 020/16 PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE AT RISK VENEZUELA Opposition member, LGBTI activist and prisoner of conscience Rosmit Mantilla is at risk of being transferred to a common prison where his physical integrity may be in jeopardy. On 20 January, Rosmit Mantilla’s lawyer learned that the public prosecutor on his case had requested that he be transferred to a prison following an incident in the National Bolivarian Intelligence Service headquarters in Caracas, the capital, where he is currently held. A judge must now rule on whether to grant the transfer. According to his lawyer, on 15 January Rosmit Mantilla and three other detainees protested to demand health care for another inmate who was feeling unwell. During the protests the authorities claimed that the prisoners damaged security cameras. The four men were charged with damages to the security cameras. Prison conditions in Venezuela are notoriously harsh and Rosmit Mantilla’s lawyer fears that if he is transferred his physical security might be at serious risk, especially since he is a well known lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender and intersex (LGBTI) activist. Rosmit Mantilla, a member of the opposition political party Popular Will (Voluntad Popular), has been detained in the National Bolivarian Intelligence Service headquarters since 2 May 2014 on charges linked to the anti-government protests of 2014. He is a prisoner of conscience who has not used or advocated violence and is being tried in spite of the lack of any solid evidence against him. He must be immediately and unconditionally released.
    [Show full text]
  • The Repression Clock: Repression the Regimes Autocratic Behind a Strategy
    Woodrow WilsonWoodrow Center Reports on the Americas • #40 THE REPRESSION CLOCK: A STRATEGY BEHIND AUTOCRATIC REGIMES BY ALFREDO ROMERO The Repression Clock: A Strategy Behind Autocratic Regimes Alfredo Romero The Repression Clock: A Strategy Behind Autocratic Regimes Alfredo Romero July 2020 www.wilsoncenter.org/lap The Latin American Program celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2017. The Program fosters new research, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among a broad range of stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan forum, the Latin American Pro- gram serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action. It aims to inform the most critical debates of the day and propose innovative solutions to the region’s most vexing challenges. The Latin American Program conducts public events in Washington, D.C. and in the region, in partnership with prominent scholarly and policy institutions. Available from: Latin American Program Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars One Woodrow Wilson Plaza 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20004-3027 wilsoncenter.org/lap © 2020, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars ISBN: 978-1-938027-92-5 ii The Wilson Center, chartered by Congress as the official memorial to Presi- dent Woodrow Wilson, is the nation’s key nonpartisan policy forum for tackling global issues through independent research and open dialogue to inform action- able ideas for the policy community. Conclusions or opinions expressed in Center publications and programs are those of the authors and speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Center staff, fellows, trustees, advisory groups, or any individuals or organizations that provide financial support to the Center.
    [Show full text]
  • THE RULE-OF-LAW FAÇADE a Playbook for Regimes
    May 10, 2016 Alfredo Romero THE RULE-OF-LAW FAÇADE A playbook for regimes By Alfredo Romero1 Introduction The governments of Venezuela, Ethiopia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia or Azerbaijan—among others— have developed a “playbook”2 or a game plan for surreptitiously obstructing formal democratic institutions and repurposing them for political persecution and imprisonment. These regimes use the national criminal justice system for systematically violating the civil, political, and human rights of individuals for unfair political reasons. These regimes keep up a careful façade: their leaders systematically imprison and persecute their political opponents or whoever they consider as politically inconvenient, while making sweeping claims that their actions uphold the “rule of law.” Tactics employed by the governments include fabricated criminal charges, threats against noncompliant judges and prosecutors, concealment and invalidation of exculpatory defense evidence, gross due process violations, illegal seizure of assets, demonization in the media, and years of illegal incarceration under inhumane and unconstitutional conditions. Notwithstanding that purely authoritarian regimes (eg. Cuba or North Korea) may use their own rule-of-law-façade, this paper focuses on competitive authoritarian regimes, as defined by Steven 1 Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Law Professor of Universidad Central de Venezuela, Law School. Executive Director of the NGO Foro Penal Venezolano. The author would like to thank Kathryn Sikkink, Sanderijn Cels and Katrin Kinzelback for their invaluable insights and comments on this paper; and Sanderijn Cels and Hannah Flamm for her research assistance and collaboration in writing this work. 2 A playbook is a notebook used in sports, like football, which contains a game plan or a diagram with a range of possible set of plays and tactics for a team.
    [Show full text]