| Home | Bookmark | Tell | Active petitions in over 75 countries | Follow GoPetition |
Petition Tag - hunger
1. Support UNICEF in the Horn of Africa 
The Horn of Africa - Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti and Eritrea - is currently facing the worst drought it has experienced in 60 years. This has brought on extreme famine and dug the area deeper into poverty.
Violence and conflict in the countries have also led to internal turmoil, corrupting the government. Without stable governments, there is no hope for these countries to get back on their feet anytime soon.
2. Help Starving Children in Somalia
I am deeply concerned by this famine. When 20 or 30 people die it makes a big headline, but in this recent famine, over 29,000 innocent children have died in Somalia so far and another two million children still need urgent assistance.
I believe that this tragedy is not receiving enough attention and the situation is being forgotten by people. We can't stop tsunami or earthquakes but we can prevent famine, as it is part of a human tragedy. We knew already three months before it started that this famine was coming. Now we are still required to work to prevent their death even months after the headlines have gone.
These children are like our children. The fact that they were born in another continent, doesn't mean that we shouldn't do anything about them. Adults have some choice in their life but children don't have any choice in this situation. They are the silent victims of hunger and need to be supported and have access to the basic human rights of food, health, and shelter until they get to stage that they can make their own decisions in life. It is sad that we have enough food for everyone on the planet; just the problem is that food is not shared appropriately.
3. Demand Dalton Mcguinty meet with Michael Schmidt & end his hunger strike!
"Michael Schmidt is now on the 24th day of his hunger strike for responsible food freedom. He is a farmer who has been relentlessly pursued by Health Canada for tending cows the old fashioned way. He refuses to put his animals on a conveyor belt and won’t allow them to be a cog in a wheel in some God forsaken factory. He won’t even cut their horns off, because it violates their nature to do so.
His farm is a heritage museum, a tribute to traditional, pre-modern foodways. It should be a national treasure. Instead, it is the scene of Canada’s national disgrace. Health bureaucrats, urged on by Canada’s conventional farmers are trying to destroy the farmer and take his farm away. They are bent on denying the people who depend on Michael’s farm. Their goal is to cut off their milk supply.
Michael’s food is produced privately, it does not go into the commercial food system. It is only available to his herd share investors, not the general public. His investors need this milk, often because they are struggling with serious health issues. They seek his milk as a remedy, and because of his meticulous animal husbandry and safety protocols, it is a good one.
Last year a judge vindicated Michael. This year an appeal by the state finds him to be a criminal.
One of the two documentaries made about this man is entitled, Michael Schmidt, Organic Hero or Bioterrorist. His government is treating him like the latter, but I can assure you he is the former. In fact, Michael Schmidt is considered a Hero of Sustainable Agriculture by Hartkeisonline.com.
Now, he is starving himself to wake society from its slumber. He is determined to die trying to get his government to be reasonable. He is asking for a meeting with the Ontario Premier, Dalton McGuinty.
In a blog post by Michael on the Bovine blog two days ago, there is a chilling sentence:
“I do not think that I can benefit of all this change coming towards us but I certainly can envision a better world for our children.” –Michael Schmidt
It sounds like Michael doesn’t expect to live through this episode!
Please, take a few minutes and make a call, send a fax, or email these Canadian officials. In the kindest way possible, ask for their help for this farmer, who, like Ghandi, is fighting for the rights of all people. We will get more with honey than with vinegar, so please make your request respectful of their office and with humility, for the love of Michael.
Michael’s willingness to sacrifice his life, speaks volumes for the love he carries in his heart for you and me, and our freedoms. Let’s not let him down in his darkest hour." - taken by an excerpt by Kimberly Hartke
----------------
Dalton Mcguinty's email form can be found at this address.
https://correspondence.premier.gov.on.ca/en/feedback/feedback.aspx
So if you would also petition him personally, that would be greatly appreciated, as this is an extremely time-sensitive issue.
The PUT FOOD IN THE BUDGET CAMPAIGN represents 30 communities across Ontario that promote the implementation of a $100 Healthy Food Supplement for all adults on social assistance in Ontario. The Supplement will serve as a down payment in closing the monthly income gap.
10, 000 + Ontarians and 50 MPPs of all political parties have completed the 'Do the Math' Budget Survey which calculates the monthly living costs for a single individual. The average monthly cost arrived at was $1,350. The current poverty line for a single individual is approximately $1,600/month. An individual on social assistance receives $592 per month. Once rent is paid, there is little if anything left, forcing thousands of Ontarians to rely on already over burdened food banks.
The basic needs allowance is set far below actual market costs. This negligence has created a widespread food insecurity crisis and increase in chronic illness related to poor nutrition. These issues are a cost to society, where as putting money in the hands of low-income individuals will immediately benefit our communities ("How paying people’s way out of poverty can help us all" Globe & Mail)
The government has created its Social Assistance Review to evaluate the true cost of living in communities across Ontario and we are asking them to establish a new benchmark for income adequacy in setting benefit rates. In the meantime, individuals living in deep poverty cannot afford to wait any longer to have a place to live and enough money to purchase healthy food.
The PUT FOOD IN THE BUDGET CAMPAIGN is in partnership with Association of Local Public Health Agencies, Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition (ISARC), and Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario.
5. Help starving Somalian people
People children women and men are starving to death in Somalia while we enjoy wasting food in developed countries they are human being they have the right to live with dignity and pride they first of all the right to live. we suck their resources and in exchange we give them nothing but poverty and humiliation. Stop that!!!
If only those rich Arabs who are wasting their money in financing some club without even gaining anything help your brothers first save those people from dying!
EchoGreen has been around for years with an intention to Do Something. We are a growing group of writers, musicians, singer songwriters, artists, media producers and web consultants. It's been a long time coming, the need is here.
Recently, as oil leaks into our oceans and we have images of tar rain pouring onto our bodies, homes, vehicles, animals and gardens, we cry for the dolphins, as it rains and we decide, the time is now.
EchoGreen will be sponsoring several petitions with the voice of those who are at one with the earth and its ways in the old way mixed with the new way.
The old way being, feeling the vibration of the earth and the beings, in other words, feeling their life, their voices and their feelings reverberate through our beings, while hearing the voice of the earth as if it is speaking our language and an animate object. Earth is an animate object, we often, have just lost our ability to hear what it has to say. She/it/he is talking to many of us at once. And we have something to say via our translations.
Whereas the new way is through media, through business, through the grid and the economy of the West, speaking out to the people who can make the difference because they have the economy and consumption at their fingertips.
We are the people, we are the change, we are the ones we have been waiting for and we are here. Let's take it for the big one, let's do what we can. Let's petition to businesses, to governments, to presidents, to the people. Let's make our voices loud and clear and let's take a stand.
We live, we eat, we release our waste, we breath, we love, we think, we feel, we dance, we laugh and we play, just as we all do or want to do.
It's time to do this without hurting the earth and others. What can we do? Whatever it is, you know inside you. Start by signing and making petitions and sending them to companies, making them popular. Campaigns are big and our voice can be heard. Do it from the heart and with integrity. Do it with true knowledge about what is best. For instance, how can we be mobile yet not consume oil? How can we receive food yet not have it inefficiently trucked across America? How can we save the seeds and not spread disease? How can we be healthy happy and harmonious?
We can do it. Let's do it, one at a time, before we can no longer breath, eat or stand.
7. Expunge the Poverty, Feed the Hungry
Poverty and Hunger have been creating havoc in our country for many years. Today our world is home to 6.7 billion people. About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations, that is one person dies every three and a half seconds.
This is enough to elucidate the gravity of the issue.
Now all we need, is a vision; of a paucity-free world,
Where Paucity is Past and Hunger is History. That’s the mission of this petition. To work towards that goal as our sole aim.
8. Petition to Pass AB 1057: The Food Stamp Modernization Act
Due to the fact that the California Food Stamp program is inefficient and inaccessible, we are petitioning to pass The Food Stamp Modernization Act.
The Food Stamp program is needed to provide Californians under a certain income level with proper support for a healthy lifestyle. In fact, California has one of the lowest percentages of participation in the Food Stamp program in the United States. By modifying the system, 108,000 more Californians will be able to receive food stamps.
Currently, the Food Stamp system is wasteful and inefficiently bureaucratic. Families have to make an average of five visits to the registration office to complete all the steps to obtain food stamps, which decreases the amount of time they can spend working and supporting themselves.
Workers have to continually update databases unnecessarily, which increases the cost and wates time. By modernizing the system, the state of California will pay less toward the Food Stamp program while families in need receive more benefits. The state could save up to $50 million, which will help reclaim the $2 billion in federal funds that California is currently losing and it will in turn pump millions into our struggling economy.
9. Support Fill the Dome Awareness
In June 2007, student council leaders from each of the Fargo-Moorhead area High Schools got together and formed the Metro Student Council Ambassadors.
As a group, they wanted to do something big, something to highlight their senior year of high school. A couple of phone calls, lots of donations and few espressos later, Fill The Dome was born. The goal? Fill the entire floor of the Fargodome (80,000 sq. ft) with food for local food pantries.
This year, Fill the Dome is in its third year of operation and students are even more motivated to do something great. The goals for this years event are: 75 tons of food, $75,000, and 7,500 signatures of awareness for hunger.
10. Support Superfood For The Hungry
Plumpy’nut is a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) used by Doctors Without Borders to treat malnourished children in Niger - successfully.
It is a simple solution for countries where hunger is widespread, it is a simple solution for the next tsunami or earthquake victims, or for any population cut off from food.
These foil packets of life saving nutrition could be dropped from planes. But there isn't enough of it being produced.
11. Camel Power Now
In April, 2006, The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) published a report hailing camel’s milk as a new superfood: “Prospects are bright for camel dairy products which are highly nutritious... camel milk is three times as rich in Vitamin C as cow’s milk, with high concentrations of iron, unsaturated fatty acids and B vitamins. It is currently prescribed for patients in Russia, Kazakhstan and India, while in Africa, it may be recommended for treating AIDS.”
The Animals Shelter of Katerini exists from 2000. The new Mayor that was elected in October 2006 threatens with killing of dogs.
In the shelter exist 250 dogs in sordid situation. Do not exist food, medicines and daily die the dogs closed in their cages.
It has prohibited the entry in and and we were afraid for the killing of 250 dogs.
13. End Child Labor Involved in the Manufacturing of Tobacco Products
The tobacco industries’ human rights abuses must not be ignored. Child labor is apparent in many tobacco growing and manufacturing countries.
In Malawi in Africa, 78% of children between 10-14 years old work either full-time or part-time with their parents on the tobacco farms.
In one State of Brazil 520,000 (five hundred and twenty thousand) children under 18 work in the tobacco fields. 170,000 of these children are under the age of 14.
In the Sinaloa Valleys of Mexico, 200,000 indigenous migrant workers harvest tobacco each year. 50,000 of them are children between the ages of 5-14. The young children cut and bundle the tobacco leaves putting themselves at greater risk of absorbing pesticides and nicotine from the tobacco leaves through their skin, and these toxins lead to several diseases that have led to death. Bonded labor is also akin to child labor.
In India, children are forced to roll beedis (a type of handmade cigarette) typically with terrible working conditions in order to pay off debt accrued by their families (usually because of medical expenses, funeral costs, or inherited debt from the death of parent). The children are robbed of a childhood, abused and contract diseases from working with tobacco.
According to the article “Understanding Bonded Child Labour in Asia:” “Children involved in beedi-rolling (a kind of cigarette) suffer from high rates of tuberculosis and other lung diseases.” Not only is the tobacco industry employing children in the production of tobacco, but the industry is also abusing and killing children through the abhorrent working conditions they experience and the exposure to deadly chemicals.
The tobacco industry is taking advantage of and killing children worldwide; it cannot be ignore by our government.
14. Hold Tobacco Industries Accountable for their Human Rights Abuses Overseas
Tougher tobacco control laws in the US are driving the industry to market more aggressively to the rest of the world, especially the developing world.
Thus, the tobacco industry is having a larger impact than ever on poverty, internationally.
Tobacco contributes to: poverty, malnutrition and hunger (diverting land from food use as well as diverting money from purchasing food), increased health costs, premature death, illiteracy (less money available for education), financial slavery (for many tobacco farmers), and child labor. All of these factors have added to the tobacco industries’ death toll of millions of lives every year.
Poverty and hunger are two of the largest repercussions of the tobacco industry worldwide. In December 2004, the World Health Organization announced: “Tobacco and poverty are inextricably linked. Many studies have shown that in the poorest households in some low-income countries as much as 10% of total household expenditure is on tobacco.” Also, land under tobacco cultivation around the world today could feed 10-12 million people each year if planted in food crops instead. In Bangladesh, 350 children are dying each day due to diversion of money from food to tobacco; over 10.5 million currently malnurished people in Bangladesh could have an adequate diet if the money spent on tobacco was spent on food instead.
The tobacco industry plays a large role in the poverty and hunger worldwide; our government must take action to help the poor and the starving not only in the US but also worldwide.
The tobacco industry also takes advantage of third world countries through the production of tobacco. Tobacco farmers and their families have been the victims of environmental destruction of their lands, economic slavery to the industry, limited opportunities, poor (often dangerous) working conditions, and even the poisoning of their children. Many tobacco farmers, specifically in Nigeria, find themselves and their families in an endless cycle of poverty because of their contracts with British American Tobacco: these farmers worker harder and harder every year only to find themselves falling farther into debt with BAT. Similar situations are apparent in Mexico and Malawi where tobacco proves to be a crop that makes its farmers poorer rather than garnishing a profit.
Part of the vicious cycle the farmers experience is due to the fact that the tobacco industry has struck up agreements with governments of third world countries to keep it as a commercial crop even though it destroys local economy.
Farmers and their families are not only poverty-stricken by the tobacco industry but also killed by growing the plant. Tobacco requires several applications of pesticides to grow a commercial crop, and they are often applied by unprotected farmers and their families, including young children. Pesticide poisoning is common and taken for granted. The runoff from the fields can poison wells and other water supplies.
The tobacco industries’ human rights abuses must not be ignored. Child labor is apparent in many tobacco growing and manufacturing countries. In Malawi in Africa, 78% of children between 10-14 years old work either full-time or part-time with their parents on the tobacco farms. In one State of Brazil 520,000 (five hundred and twenty thousand) children under 18 work in the tobacco fields. 170,000 of these children are under the age of 14. In the Sinaloa Valleys of Mexico, 200,000 indigenous migrant workers harvest tobacco each year. 50,000 of them are children between the ages of 5-14. The young children cut and bundle the tobacco leaves putting themselves at greater risk of absorbing pesticides and nicotine from the tobacco leaves through their skin, and these toxins lead to several diseases that have led to death.
Bonded labor is also akin to child labor. In India, children are forced to roll beedis (a type of handmade cigarette) typically with terrible working conditions in order to pay off debt accrued by their families (usually because of medical expenses, funeral costs, or inherited debt from the death of parent). The children are not only robbed of a childhood, but they are also abused and contract diseases from working with tobacco.
According to the article “Understanding Bonded Child Labour in Asia:” “Children involved in beedi-rolling (a kind of cigarette) suffer from high rates of tuberculosis and other lung diseases.” Not only is the tobacco industry employing children in the production of tobacco, but the industry is also abusing and killing children through the abhorrent working conditions they experience and the exposure to deadly chemicals.
Overall, while the US is working to tighten tobacco control laws, the tobacco industry is now looking elsewhere to take advantage of unsuspecting people. The tobacco industry performs many human rights abuses including utilizing child labor and increasing hunger and poverty worldwide.
The US has done something to protect our citizens from the tobacco industry, and now it is up to our government to prevent these industries from attacking those less fortunate.
15. END THIS WAR!
STOP THIS WAR! Petition
Sign this Petition to oppose this war! Something must be done about this now.
Too many soldiers are dying, and many are getting captured and murdered. We
have larger concerns than war. Bush is not making the right decisions, and
does not listen to his own nation. We can’t win this war. We must fight other
wars like pollution, global warming, AIDS and hunger around the world. Did you
know that if we used all the spending money from this war, we would have
enough to end world hunger? So why are we still fighting?! We spend about
31% on current military, which is about $727 billion.* Sign it today!
16. Protect Sahariyas' From Mariginalization and exploitation
Sambhav is an NGO working among the sahariya tribal for last 16 years. It has been trying to change the living conditions of this community. It believes that community mobilization and understanding the cause of poverty are crucial elements of this change.
It is our hope that our petition will help in highlighting the plight of these extremelly marginalize and vulnerbale communities.
www.sambhavindia.org
17. FEED THE WORLD!
At a course I did during the holidays I heard that we produce twice as much food as we need to feed everyone in the world. Twice as much. I'm not sure wether that is true or not but I know for sure that we have enough food to feed the world.
If this is the case,why do we obestity epidemic in the 'Western World' while children in Africa starve? Why do we let over half the world starve while we sit with infront of the T.V stuffing our faces with twice as much food as these childeren will see in a week?
This behaviour does not mean a situation where everybody wins, or even one where one side wins and the other loses. This is a lose lose situation. While in the third world they die of hunger we eat ourselves to death.
This can easily be stopped by sending more of our food and resourses to developing countries, along with officals to make sure this is made into a fair deal.
Please sign this petition if you wouldlike to see an end to people diying of hunger in the third world.
18. Label Genetically Engineered Food
May 14, 2006
My 10th grade World Affairs class is engaging in a Global Activism project. My topic is about Genetically Engineered Food.
I chose this topic because I personally wanted to know what is in the food I am eating and I want others to know as well. There is a law in progress called, "The Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act." It is a law making it illegal to not label foods with genetically engineered ingredients.
Many brands that have genetically engineered products are General Mill, Nabisco, and Hunts. I am not telling you to boycott these products but to help me to encourage citizens to be aware of what they are eating and what is in their food. There is a lack of testing of these products and not enough information on their effects. A couple of effects are that they may increase the risk of allergenic reactions or may carry unpredictable toxins.
On a global scale, GE foods are benefiting investing companies and not the consumers. Some researchers believe that it will stop world hunger. This is impossible if the people who are poverty stricken cannot afford it. So why are we still continuing to make the companies richer while others are dying from hunger? 600 million people are undernourished.
All in all, I am asking that you support me by signing my petition for the passing of "The Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act."
19. From African Union to Zimbabwe - Prosecute Mugabe
May 7, 2006
Harare - Zimbabwe state security agents stepped up the use of torture against civilians whilst African Union is watching, with 19 cases of torture reported in the month of March alone against only three cases recorded the previous two months, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum (ZHRF) said this week. The Commission for people and human rights in the African Union have been told but nothing is being done. Why?
Torture is outlawed in Zimbabwe and the Harare government has in the past denied reports by the ZHRF,even South African government has said there is no evidance of violenca in Zimbabwe, but churches and pro-democracy groups said that the army and police routinely commit torture against perceived opposition supporters. "The month of March saw a rise in incidents of torture," said the Forum, in a report on political violence in the month of March that was released earlier this week but made available to Zim Online on Friday.
Please sign for your voice is power. If you do not sign Mugabe will then do it again, kill more and more. Freely, because no one is saying anything and South Africa is supporting him.
20. Human Rights for Guantanamo Detainees
At least 210 detainees have been on hunger strike since 11 August in protest at their conditions. An earlier hunger strike was stopped when the US authorities promised some changes. They reneged on these promises and the detainees have resumed their protest.
Anyone familiar with the Irish hunger strikes of the 1980s will realise that these detainees are at a critical stage - it's a matter of life and death. Please contact your civil representatives in European, national, regional and local bodies and urge them to press the American authorities, as a matter of urgency, to release those held without detention and allow families, medical practitioners and democratic representatives access to these detainees.
Detainees have now been held at Guantanamo for over three years without proper access to a due process of law. Their families are refused access and they are not even allowed proper access to their legal representatives and where that access is allowed unreasonable restrictions are placed on the lawyers concerned.
This situation needs to be resolved and proper rule of law established in places that are used as prisons by the American administraion and its allies.
This is a call on Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, to demand release of Akbar Ganji.
To: Mr Tony Blair, The British Prime Minister
We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned about the condition of Mr. Akbar Ganji, the Iranian investigative journalist and a prominent advocate of human rights and civil society who has been in prison for the past five years. Mr. Ganji was arrested on April 22, 2000 following his participation in an academic and cultural conference held at the Heinrich Böll Institute in Berlin, April 7-9, 2000. He was sentenced on January 13, 2001 to 10 years' imprisonment plus five years' internal exile.
On May 15, 2001 an appellate court reduced Ganji's sentence on appeal to six months' imprisonment and overturned his sentence of five years in exile. The Supreme Court, however, overturned the appellate court's decision and referred the case to a different appeals court. On July 16, 2001 Ganji was again sentenced to six years in prison on charges of collecting confidential information that harms national security and spreading propaganda against the Islamic regime by attending the Berlin conference.
As Ms. Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Laureate and Mr. Ganji's attorney, reported Ganji started a hunger strike on May 19, 2005 and ended on May 25th in order to give the opportunity to authorities to respond to his concerns. Mr. Ganji has suffered from asthma for a few years and now shows serious symptoms of illness such as severe coughing. Mr. Ganji's illness is not responding to his old medications and he needs to be re-examined in short order. Ms. Ebadi has asked Judicial authorities several times, on his behalf, to allow him to be seen and treated by outside physicians, but unfortunately these requests have been all rejected. His health is now deteriorating and his return to another hunger strike that is reported by his wife will further jeopardize his life.
We express our astonishment that a person, who has served his country, has devoted his life to the improvement of civil society and has come to be known as one of the most vocal and respected journalists of his time should be treated in this way. Mr. Ganji is an honorable member of the PEN Canada and continues his work and writing even from inside the prison wards. It appears that major reason for keeping Ganji in prison might be due to a series of articles he had written as an investigative journalist implicating leading Iranian political figures in the 1998 murders of several dissidents and intellectuals.
We believe that Mr. Ganji is held in violation of his right to freedom of expression, as guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Constitution of the Islamic Republic.
We are very disturbed by the health and prison conditions of Mr. Ganji. We demand that Akbar Ganji be released immediately and unconditionally and charges against him dropped. In addition we urge you to ensure that he receives immediate and proper medical treatment while his release is being processed.
22. Keep Aqua Teen Hunger Force On The Air!
WHAT THE HELL! August 15th is the last episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force! If this is true let's protest to keep it on the air.
23. End the African Food Crisis
I am having the student body at my elementary school sign a petition to send to President Bush in support of ending world hunger.
24. Freedom for Jorge Luis García Pérez (Antúnez)
Posted on Tue, Feb. 19, 2008
A Hobson's choice: Exile or prison
Jorge Luis García Pérez, known as Antúnez, served out his 17-year term, which ended last year (2007). A former sugar-cane cutter, he was sent to prison for standing in a public square and calling for democratic change. Beyond being harassed and beaten, he has been detained eight times since he was freed in April. Although he has arrangements to come to the United States for medical treatment, he insists he will not leave Cuba unless his return is guaranteed by the regime.
The number of political prisoners declines as Cuba tries to improve its image. Yet the repression, like the dictatorship, has not changed.
The international community must continue to press for democratic change in Cuba.
© 2008 Miami Herald Media Company.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/v-print/story/424061.html
-----------------------------------------
Prisoner of Conscience Profile:
Confined to punishment cells. Due to the frequent beatings that he has suffered he has bone fractures, and is suffering from kidney failure caused by hypoglycemia.
Biography: Jorge Luis García Pérez (Antúnez) was born on October 10, 1964. The economic situation of his home and the delicate health of his mother forced him to study at the ESBEC (Basic Secondary Schools in the Fields) and the IPUEC (Pre-university School in the Fields). This is where he first began to question the legitimacy of the dictatorship in Cuba. The process of auto-liberation began when he had the opportunity to read about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
From that moment on he began a process of rejecting all the indoctrination that was taught in the school, and for that reason he was criticized and sanctioned by the school. Because of this, and the desperate need to earn money to alleviate the economic misery his family lived in. Jorge Luis understood that his dream of becoming an attorney was just that a dream. To support his family he worked in jobs that involved heavy manual labor: as a sugar cane cutter, a construction worker and a farm laborer. He was fired from these jobs, simply because he was verbally critical of the dictatorship running his country.
At this point Jorge Luis began to be monitored closely by the Cuban government. After six months working at the Cuban Atomic Plant in Juraguá, Cienfuegos he was fired after being investigated by the Ministry of Labor, which classified him as "disaffected to the revolutionary process" in other words disaffected with the dictatorship.
During the last days of 1983, while chatting with friends at the XX Anniversary Square in the city of Placetas in Cuba Antúnez said that the sole individual responsible for the death of 23 Cubans in combat with the US Army in Grenada was Fidel Castro.
He was immediately beaten down by agents of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR). He was taken from there to the Department of Instruction of the State Security Police in Santa Clara, where he was released after being issued a "warning. " But the intimidation and repression didn't stop Jorge Luis' will to speak his mind as a free man. On March 15, 1990, nearly seven years later at the same XX Anniversary Square listening to an official radio transmission calling for the IV Congress of the Communist Party, he began to raise his voice and shout that "communism is a utopian error " and "we want and we need reforms like those taking place in Eastern Europe". He was immediately physically assaulted by agents of the PNR and State Security Police, who took him again to the headquarters in Santa Clara, where he was charged for "oral enemy propaganda". He was charged with the "crime" of speaking his mind openly and without fear.
That is how Jorge Luis García Pérez (Antúnez) began his long and courageous fight for freedom as a prisoner of conscience. In June of the same year, already imprisoned in the Provincial Prison of Santa Clara, he was sentenced to 6 years in prison. His response to this unjust sentence was to start a hunger strike that lasted 21 days.
This was the first of many occasions that Jorge Luis appealed to this method of protest against the innumerable brutal beatings, being locked away in punishment cells without access to water or sunlight, and the offenses directed against him for being of African descent. Despite all this the dictatorship has failed to break the spirit of this young prisoner of conscience. On February 19, 1991 Antúnez declared himself a "Preso Plantado", which is a political prisoner who refuses to wear the same uniform as non-political prisoners and rejected "Communist Re-education."
Among Antunez's numerous acts of rebellion and protest one stands out above the others. It was his daring escape from Las Grimas prison, in Placetas, on October 17, 1992. Captured later in the larger prison that is Cuba, and returned to prison. In 1995, held in Kilo 8 Maximum Security Prison, known by the nickname of "Se me perdió la llaves" (I have lost my keys), he founded along with other prisoners of conscience, an organization called Pedro Luis Boitel Political Prisoner's Movement, dedicated to denouncing the situation of political prisoners inside the dictatorship's prisons and to promote civil disobedience in response to the brutality of their jailers.
The life of Jorge Luis García Pérez (Antúnez), has been one of a commitment to freedom and the courage to exercise it and defend it. A young man (actually only 32 years old), of African descent and from modest economic origins has faced hatred both racially and politically motivated directed at him with the full force of a totalitarian dictatorship. His sole defenses have been his humanity, his courage, his commitment to defending his fundamental human rights and liberties. Ironically under the tyranny operating Cuba his defense and exercise of his personal freedom has under the perversion of the law there and the denial of justice been held against him by the dictatorship as his only crime.
At the time of this writing Antúnez's health has been steadily deteriorating due to beatings, hunger strikes, and lack of medical attention that he has suffered over the years of his imprisonment since 1991. In addition to the bone fractures he is having difficulty breathing and has a lung tumor which the prison authorities claim is not malignant, but refuse to allow him to see a cancer specialist as his health deteriorates. To protest this medical neglect Antúnez has been on a hunger strike since the beginning of April below is a translation of the story that appeared in the newspaper on April 25 about his deteriorating condition. Please speak up for him and demand his freedom and at the very least adequate medical care while held in the dictatorship's prison.
Provisional Prison Nieves Morejón,
Located in: Sancti Spiritus.
Case # 4 of 1990
Charge: Oral Enemy Propaganda
Case #5 of 1993
Charge: "Enemy Propaganda and Tentative Sabotage"
Concurring Sanctions: 15 years in prison
Age: 37
Home Mailing Address: Séptima del Sur # 3 entre Paseo de Martí y Primera del Este.
Placetas,Villa Clara CUBA
Telphone: (42) 8-3228
Relative: Berta Antúnez (sister)
Profession: Qualified Worker
25. Save Life of Student Leader Nestor Rodríguez Lobaina
On August 21, 2001 we were informed that Nestor Rodríguez Lobaina, president of the organization Young Cubans for Democracy, had been savagely beaten in the Guantanamo prison were he is serving a six year prison term for his activities as political dissident. During the beating he suffered a fractured jaw and contusions through out his body. He was transferred to the provincial hospital in Guantanamo. Arriving at the hospital he received another beating despite his head being sealed in plaster and leaving him immobilized. A guard named Manuel hopped on top of him and beat him. He was then placed in a punishment cell without lighting or air-conditioning, nor had he been fed for the previous day.
Amnesty International Urgent Action 169/99 Prisoner of conscience
CUBA Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina
Political activist Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina was arbitrarily arrested on 11 July 1999, and his whereabouts are now unknown. Amnesty International considers him a prisoner of conscience, detained solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression. Under harsh new legislation aimed at silencing dissent, he could face a long prison sentence.
Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina, who is president of the Movimiento de Jovenes Cubanos por la Democracia (MJCD), Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy, was arrested at the MJCD coordinator's home in Santiago de Cuba. It is believed he was arrested because he had begun a hunger strike in solidarity with a group of dissidents in Havana known as the Ayunantes de Tamarindo 34, Tamarindo 34 Hunger-strikers, who began a 40-day hunger strike on 7 June to demand the release of all political prisoners and respect for human rights in Cuba.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina has been arrested several times. He was last detained for several days in February and March 1999. He was detained from 7-15 December 1998 after making a personal protest at the Cuban government's refusal to let him leave the country to attend a conference in Paris marking the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (see UA 307/98, AMR 25/28/98, 9 December 1998, and follow-up, AMR 25/29/98, 18 December 1998). He had previously been arrested in April 1997 and sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment for "disrespect", and "resisting authority", after criticising the Fourteenth Youth and Student Festival.
He was also arrested on 6 June 1996, reportedly in connection with the MJCD's peaceful attempts to organize a movement for university reform in the capital. He was sentenced to 12 months' "restricted liberty", as well as five years of "destierro", internal exile or confinement, in his home town of Baracoa, Guantanamo province.
On 16 February 1999 Cuba's National Assembly passed tough new legislation aimed at combatting political dissent, called the "Ley de Proteccion de la Independencia Nacional y la Economia de Cuba", "Law for the Protection of the National Independence and Economy of Cuba". Under this new law, dissidents and journalists deemed to be working against the Cuban state reportedly face up to 20 years' imprisonment. The law calls for seven to 15 years' imprisonment for passing information to the United States that could be used to bolster anti-Cuban measures such as the US economic blockade of the island, rising to 20 years if the information is acquired surreptitiously. The legislation also bans the ownership, distribution or reproduction of "subversive materials" from the US government, and proposes jail terms of up to five years for collaborating with radio and TV stations and publications deemed to be assisting US policy.
26. Change U.S. Policy to Save North Korean Refugee Children in China
This Petition was started to lobby for the change of prohibitive U.S. Policy that makes it virtually impossible for North Korean refugees, in particular the young orphaned children, who are currently living in fear and hiding in China, to seek asylum and resettlement in the U.S. Countless thousands of these young children live on the streets under the constant threat of hunger, exploitation, abuse, arrest and repatriation. Recent crackdowns by the Chinese, who treat these refugees as illegal aliens, have worsened the situation, and immediate action is critical to saving these fragile lives.