Activism Guide

End Gun Violence

Gun violence in the U.S. is a human rights crisis. Over 108 people die every day from gun violence. In 2017, more than 39,000 people were killed with firearms. Simply put, insufficient laws and unfettered access to guns are jeopardizing our right to live and to feel safe. You have the right to go about your daily life in security, free from fear. You have the right to be free from discrimination, including enduring disproportionate rates of violence based on the color of your skin. And most fundamentally: You have the right to live. No one’s rights can be considered secure as long as our leaders fail to do anything about gun violence. 

Congress returns on September 9th, and in the wake of the horrific and highly-publicized mass shootings during August, we expect the gun violence prevention debate to be front and center. This presents us with unique opportunities to pass good bills through Congress, but we must be wary: legislators may try to add amendments to otherwise good bills that would stigmatize communities, and we refuse to support progress at the expense of anyone’s human rights.

What you can do

• Priority: Help make universal background checks the law of the land. This is the first step in making sure that guns don’t fall into dangerous hands. It simply means that before the sale of any gun, the potential buyer is checked for violent criminal convictions, a history of domestic violence or other factors that might prohibit gun ownership. Universal background checks make a big difference: states with this policy in place have significantly less gun trafficking, 47% fewer women killed by an intimate partner in firearm-related violence and substantially fewer suicides using a gun. But while the House passed their universal background checks bill back in February, the Senate has failed to act for seven months. Here’s how you can help: 
• • Take our online action
  • Call your senators’ offices
  • Write to your local paper
  • Spread the word on social media
  • Use personal stories to demonstrate the human impact of these policies
• Help make hatred and bigotry less deadly

1. • Read about the intersection of hatred and gun violence
   • Host a campus conversation, including action opportunities from the resource above.
   • Make sure that your gun violence prevention advocacy is intersectional and advocates for solutions that respect the rights of all communities. We cannot accept progress at the expense of anyone’s human rights–this means that we must reject bills with amendments that stigmatize immigrant communities, persons with mental health conditions or any others. 

Resources

• Use all of the action resources hyperlinked above, and visit our homepage at www.amnestyusa.org/issues/gun-violence for more information. 
• Email [email protected] whenever you have questions, ideas or ways we can support your activism. 

#IWelcome: Refugee and Migrant Rights

Refugees around the world

Every day, all over the world, people are forced to make the most difficult decision of their lives — they are forced to flee their homeland to escape persecution and torture or other severe human rights abuses, armed conflict, and horrific violence. Many have no option but to seek resettlement in a new country they can call home. But governments around the world aren’t doing enough to help. The Trump administration has implemented a series of discriminatory and restrictive policies, starting with the Muslim ban and followed by successive refugee bans, cuts to refugee admissions, and the implementation of extreme vetting processes. These actions have not only choked refugee resettlement worldwide, but have also had dire consequences for tens of thousands of refugees and left the lives of many hanging in limbo. When intimidated by the state of the world, some build a taller wall; we’re building a longer table.

What you can do

1. Sign this email action and, with your Amnesty group, gather signatures for a petition demanding DHS keep its promise to resettle the Aziz family in the US! Malik, Sana, and their two sons Tariq and Yousef were forced to flee Iraq fearing for their lives because they were threatened and attacked for their Christian faith. Despite getting accepted for resettlement to the US in 2016, they have been stranded in Lebanon and stuck in limbo following the Muslim and refugee bans. They were finally told they would be able to resettle in Michigan in September this year, but at the last minute their case was thrown back into review and their lives into uncertainty. Tell the US government to keep its promise to the Aziz family! You can find hardcopy for petition signature collection here.
2. With your Amnesty group, gather signatures for a petition calling on your Members of Congress to support the National Origin-Based Anti-discrimination for Non-Immigrants Act, otherwise known as the “NO BAN” Act (H.R. 2214 & S. 1123), which would repeal Trump’s Muslim and refugee bans, the asylum ban, and prevent the Administration from setting such discriminatory bans in the future. You can find hardcopy for petition signature collection here
3. Use this toolkit to help us build a “longer table” with refugees and asylum seekers in your community.

Resources available

• Website: http://refugees.amnestyusa.org 
• Website: https://longertable.amnestyusa.org 
• Report: ‘The mountain is in front of us and the sea is behind us’: The Impact of US Policies on Refugees in Lebanon and Jordan (June 2019)
• Script to contact state and local officials about Executive Order 13888

SECURITY WITH HUMAN RIGHTS: GUANTANAMO BAY & CIVILIAN CASUALTIES FROM U.S. LETHAL STRIKES

Eighteen years after it was created to detain suspected “terrorists” beyond the reach of the law, the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center remains open and continues to imprison 40 Muslim men indefinitely, without charge or fair trial. One of those men is Toffiq al-Bihani, a 47-year old Yemeni man who has been in U.S. custody since 2002 and never even been charged with a crime. He was tortured by the CIA in Afghanistan and transferred to Guantanamo in 2003, where he has remained ever since. Although he was cleared by the Obama administration to leave the prison in 2010, Toffiq remains imprisoned there still. For the 18th anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo, we are asking members to take online action to Close Guantanamo and transfer Toffiq al-Bihani immediately.

Since President Trump took office, there’s been a dramatic increase in civilian killings from U.S. drone and other air strikes. Although the U.S. claims to investigate civilian deaths and injuries, the government has refused to acknowledge thousands of civilian deaths and injuries from U.S.-led air strikes that Amnesty International has documented. It has likewise refused to assist the survivors. Tell the U.S. government to conduct meaningful investigations of all claims of civilian casualties from U.S. lethal operations, and to provide compensation.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• With your Amnesty group, raise awareness about Toffiq al-Bihani’s case and U.S. drone strikes. Generate online actions for both cases and gather as many signatures as possible!

The Urgent Action Network and Case Commitment Initiative

Join the Urgent Action Network and take action to support individuals at risk, including political prisoners, prisoners of conscience, and human rights defenders. Are you an educator? Learn how to engage your students in human rights by using our Educator’s Guide. 

Resources

• Read the full Urgent Action on the IMN members to take action and report your action
• Join the Urgent Action Network
• Questions about the Case Commitment Initiative or anything else listed above? Email [email protected].