This week Tony Lloyd signed a Book of Commitment in the House of Commons, in doing so pledging his commitment to Holocaust Memorial Day and honouring those who died during the Holocaust.
Friday January 27th marked the 67th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi concentration and extermination camp which is the site of the largest mass murder in history – and in the weeks running up to the day, the Holocaust Educational Trust placed a Book of Commitment in the House of Commons, giving MPs the chance to honour those who were persecuted and killed during their Holocaust and encouraging constituents to actively speak out against prejudice and bigotry today.
In the weeks around Holocaust Memorial Day, thousands of commemorative events will be arranged by schools, faith groups and community organisations across the country, remembering all the victims of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides. This year, people will also be encouraged to take a stand against racism and prejudice today – and to speak out against hatred wherever they encounter it.
Putin loses credibility but wins seats. The big loser – the Russian people. Even on these results it is a serious blow to Vladimir Putin and those who operate with him.
I saw a ballot box which had been left unsealed allowing votes to be added and removed without altering the total. Local observers had tried to get this fixed without success until International Observers – my Danish colleague and I insisted. The local official was very anxious we saw this as “just an oversight”.
Elsewhere a police officer tried to stop us entering a polling station and asked us to go to the police station to confirm our status. I refused and in this case the local polling official was helpful and we were able to observe. Another colleague was physically prevented from entering the place where local results were totalled to give the regional totals and where fraud is very possible. In the end by complaining loudly and to the higher authorities, he was allowed in.
All these give credibility to the widespread complaints of opposition politicians that fraud was widespread.
Tony is currently in Russia as an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly official observer.
A few months ago I was in Cairo and saw the hope that was inspired by the Arab Spring. Democratic countries in Europe have both a self-interest and a moral obligation to support the changes it will bring, both in enforcing the rule of law and respect for human rights. Sadly we did not always do this in the past. When Mohammed Bouazizi, a street trader in Tunisia killed himself because he could no longer endure abuse by the authorities and could not speak for himself it became obvious that we had remained silent for too long when we should have spoken out for people like him and against that abuse.
That Israel has the right to defend itself goes rightly unquestioned by the overwhelming majority of people in Britain. That Israel takes the right to collectively punish all Palestinians in Gaza cannot be. Even the words ‘collective punishment’ disguise the cynical dehumanisation of those trapped in what is now the world’s biggest prison camp.
From our media it is easy to see Israel gallantly defending itself against attack from Islamic extremists drawn from the Bin Laden textbook who deserve only harsh response. The reality is different – brutally so.
Parliament heard passionate pleas for the Palestinians to be granted recognition as a state and admission to the United Nations as MPs prepared for the conference season. Almost 100 MPs of all parties have now signed a Commons motion calling on the UK to back the Palestinian state and polls show that 71% of UK voters believe Palestine should be recognised as a state.
Middle East minister Alistair Burt told MPs at a special one-hour debate that the Government still has not made up its mind how to vote – saying it depended on the exact wording of the Palestinian motion which is expected to be tabled next week. The Palestinians can apply to the UN General Assembly for recognition as a state, giving them the right to attend UN meetings and join UN organisations, or they can apply to the UN Security Council for full membership.
This week former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw backed the Commons motion tabled by Labour’s Ann Clwyd calling for Palestinian admission to the UN. In a letter to MPs he said:
“I did this because of the urgency of making it clear both to the Government and to my constituents how important it is that we, as a country, make the right decision on this.
“I’m as firm as anyone about Israel’s rights to security, as a sovereign state. We all understand the fears that Israelis have for their security, but it will not enhance their security to deny the right of self-determination permanently to the Palestinians. The World Bank, the UN, the EU and the IMF have all assessed the progress of the Palestinian Authority and judged it to be ready for statehood.”
Picture below are: (in the front row, left to right) Elfyn Llwyd (Plaid Cymru), Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour), Jeremy Corbyn (Labour), Cathy Jamieson (Labour), Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat(, Joan Ruddock (Labour), Sir Gerald Kaufman (Labour), (back row) AlexCunningham (Labour), Lisa Nandy (Labour), Ian Mearns (Labour), Virendra Sharma (Labour), Tony Lloyd (Labour), Andy Slaughter (Labour), Nia Griffith (Labour), Alan Whitehead (Labour, (middle row) Lyn Brown (Labour), Ann Clwyd (Labour), Jim Sheridan (Labour), (seated) Ann Begg (Labour).
Manchester Chinese Archive has been named Volunteering Project of 2011 by the UK archive sector. At an award ceremony at the Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester the volunteers who gave their time, enthusiasm and skills were praised for their outstanding commitment to a genuinely innovative and important community project. Tribute was also paid to the role of the Manchester institutions involved: Manchester Chinese Centre, Manchester Archives & Local Studies (MALS) and MOSI.
Tony Lloyd MP thanked the Archives and Records Association of UK and Ireland for giving their ‘prestigious’ annual volunteering award to Manchester volunteers.
The Manchester Chinese Archive project tells the story of the Chinese community in Greater Manchester. Over more than a year, a diverse group of volunteers conducted over 55 oral history interviews and undertook their own research. They photographed and filmed community events and catalogued photographs and documents which were donated or loaned by the community. An exhibition was developed – which is on show, free of charge, at MOSI until 16 January 2012 – as well as a website and digital photograph archive, a publication and a series of learning events.
The Peterloo Massacre is one of the greatest tragedies of Manchester’s history. On August 16 1819 a peaceful crowd came to ask for very basic civil and political rights such as the right to vote. They, the forces of law and order, turned the drunken yeomen on the crowd, killing many and leaving many more wounded.
The audience also heard about five political prisoners who would have liked to have been present to speak about the struggle for freedom in their countries but are currently being held in prison. You can read their stories here.
On July 6-9, parliamentarians from OSCE member states gathered together for the annual conference of its Parliamentary Assembly, which was held in Belgrade. Among several agenda items, some of them strictly dealing with the usual OSCE bureaucratic protocol, the human rights situation in countries of the former Soviet Union was featured prominently. Uta Zapf, OSCE PA’s Rapporteur on Belarus held a special briefing on the post-election crackdown in that country, where she invited Belarusian and Russian civil society activists. Kimmo Kiljunen, OSCE PA’s Representative on Central Asia, addressed the plenary session and later spoke at an NGO briefing about the results of the work the International Independent Commission for Inquiry into the interethnic violence which took place in southern Kyrgyzstan in June 2010. Joining him at the briefing were NGOs and an anti-torture activist who urged eradication of torture in the OSCE area.
This was Kiljunen’s farewell appearance at the Assembly both as Chair of the Commission, which just finished its work, and as a member of the Finnish delegation, following his loss in Finland’s last parliamentary elections. Kiljunen prefaced his speech at the plenary by acknowledging the great emotional toll that his work as chair of the Commission took on him. He proceeded to express his doubts regarding the Kyrgyz government’s political will to deal with the aftermath of the tragedy in a balanced and fair way. As he noted, the overwhelming majority of destroyed homes and of casualties during the June 2010 events were ethnic Uzbeks. Ethnic Uzbeks continue to be underrepresented in Kyrgyzstan’s government. For as long as the Kyrgyz government continues to resist calls for a credible effort of interethnic reconciliation, the future of Kyrgyzstan will remain bleak, was Kiljunen’s pessimistic prognosis. As soon as the diplomat finished his speech, the Kyrgyz delegation went on offensive, challenging the credibility of the Commission and the validity of its findings. The delegation’s head, Kanatbek Isaev, characterized the commission’s report as “subjective,” going as far as to accuse its members of having a “pro-Uzbek” bias. A female member of the delegation became so emotional during her retort that she appeared to be screaming by the time she finished. Among her complaints: the suggestion proposed by outside experts to change the name of the country from the “Kyrgyz Republic” to “Republic of Kyrgyzstan,” in order to better reflect the country’s multi-ethnic character.
Among several speakers who took the floor following the emotional outburst by the Kyrgyz delegation was Viola von Cramon-Taubadel, a member of the Green Party from the German delegation, who defended the Commission and its report and urged the Kyrgyz side to abide by its international commitments in protecting its ethnic minorities from discrimination.
Ethnic discrimination, torture and other assaults on human rights in the OSCE area was the subject of a special NGO briefing which took place on the second day of the conference. The briefing was organized by a prominent local human rights group, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia. Joining Kimmo Kiljunen were Tony Lloyd, chairman of the Labor faction of the British Parliament and long-standing critic of the use of torture and other illegal interrogation techniques in the global war on terror; Judita Popovic, Vice President of the Serbian Parliament; Vitaly Ponomarev, Memorial Human Rights Center; and Petr Afanassenko, a torture victim and anti-torture activist who worked as a bodyguard for former Kazakh Prime Minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin.
Tony Lloyd deplored the practice of extraordinary renditions in the prosecution of the war on terror, citing egregious individual cases which are a violation of international standards. He lent support to Amnesty International’s 12-point program to eradicate torture, urging the OSCE community to go even further in its implementation.
Petr Afanassenko, who is originally from Kazakhstan and currently residing in Belgium, shared with the audience his personal story of enduring torture at the hands of the former high-level Kazakhstani official and former member of the Kazakh President’s family, Rakhat Aliyev. Echoing Tony Lloyd’s appeal for countries to abide by the principle of inadmissibility of evidence obtained under torture, Afanassenko told the audience about Mr. Aliyev’s efforts to discredit Kazhegeldin by forcing him to sign a self-incriminating confession under the influence of psychotropic drugs and various kinds of physical and psychological duress. Having filed a civil lawsuit against Aliyev in a Vienna court, Afanassenko claims to represent a group effort by individuals who were victims of Aliyev’s. Apart from his personal goal of obtaining damages for the loss of his career and health, Afanassenko hopes to send the following message to Aliyev and other torturers: “There is no place for you in democratic Europe.” Together with other human rights activists at the conference, Afanassenko delivered a letter addressed to the head of the delegation of Austria to the OSCE PA, Barbara Prammer, urging the Austrian government to order a thorough investigation into the criminal charges against Aliyev. A recent article in the leading Viennese newspaper, Wiener Zeitung, quoted members of the European Parliament expressing dismay with Austria’s failure to take action regarding the grave charges against Mr. Aliyev, including his alleged responsibility for the murder of two bank employees whose bodies have recently been found, after missing for several years.
Participants in the briefing noted the irony of legitimate refugees from Central Asian countries facing obstacles in obtaining asylum in EU countries, while human rights abusers like Aliyev seem to be able to find safe haven using their unlimited wealth and influence. Vitaly Ponomarev finished the briefing by drawing attention to the plight of the 28 Muslim refugees who were recently extradited from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan. He urged the repeal of the 1992 Minsk Convention signed by members of the CIS, which contravenes the UN Committee against Torture and the internationally recognized principle of non-refoulement.
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