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Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
Stefan Simanowitz
@StefSimanowitz
"Action, like a sacrament, is the visible form of an invisible spirit" (bell hooks) || @amnesty || Easily distracte
@littlegravitas@c.im 🇺🇦 🇪🇺 💙 #FBPE Profile picture Dame Chris🌟🇺🇦😷 #RejoinEU #FBPE #GTTO🔶️ Profile picture DLlewellyn Profile picture Hugh Sainsbury #FBPE @HughSainsbury@mastodon.green Profile picture Roger Boaden 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🇪🇺 #IAmEuropean Profile picture 37 subscribed
May 19 • 6 tweets • 5 min read
1/. #BREAKING: “Greece Says It Doesn’t Ditch Migrants at Sea. It Was Caught in the Act”

@nytimes video evidence shows asylum seekers, including children, being rounded up after arriving on #Lesvos, taken to sea + abandoned on a dinghy by Greek coast guard nytimes.com/2023/05/19/wor… 2/. This does not come as a surprise

In 2021, @amnesty documented how the Greek authorities are conducting illegal pushbacks at land & sea

These are not random instances

"Violent pushbacks have become the de facto Greek border policy" Amnesty concludes bit.ly/3MDXzSq
May 2 • 12 tweets • 13 min read
1/. In the centre of the swirling madness of London traffic there’s a green oasis: Buckingham Palace Gardens

At his #Coronation, we hope #KingCharles will announce the creation of a new London park - #QueenElizabeyhMemorialGardens - a gift to the nation👇
2/. The proposal - a decade in the making - is to use a strip of the gardens to create a park that would be a legacy to the Queen & transform this congested corner of London

Arched entrances would be cut into the wall & a new fence would built to ensure Palace security & privacy Image
Apr 21 • 4 tweets • 8 min read
It’s #EarthDay2023 & #TheBigOne has begun

Four days of non-violent protest, organised by @ExtinctionR supported by 200+ organisations including @FoEint, @Greenpeace, @ecotricity, @pcs_union, @GlobalJusticeUK, @CNDuk, @NHSworkersSayNo, @patagonia & more 👉
extinctionrebellion.uk/the-big-one/ Image This #EarthDay show of solidarity should motivate everyone to engage in the campaign to protect us from the devastating impact of climate change

“@amnesty salutes everyone who is helping to promote the protection of our planet & human rights” @MartaSchaaf
amnesty.org/en/latest/news…
Apr 2 • 7 tweets • 7 min read
1/. Today marks 3 years since the govt INSTRUCTED hospitals to send people “who may have #COVID19” to care homes WITHOUT TESTING

The govt KNEW about asymptomatic transmission in Jan/Feb 2020

Tens of thousands died

Which minister signed this off…& why?

See #CareHomeScandal👇 2/. “They cover-up crime with scandal & cover-up malice with incompetence. They want to project an image of being inept, instead of as having a cruel & well-defined plan” @sarahkendzior

Last week marked the 3rd anniversary of the US “nursing home scandal”

Parallel strategies?👇
Apr 1 • 6 tweets • 7 min read
#BREAKING: Scientists have released photographs of what is thought to be a the first recorded unicorn, discovered in a remote part of the Galápagos Islands

The creature - nicknamed ‘the Rainbow Unicorn” due to its colourful tusk - is believed to a cross between a narwhal & a dog An intn’l team of scientists from the Charles Darwin Foundation said in a statement:

“For thousands of years, each mating season, blessings of Narwhals have come ashore at this remote beach

Being mammals, it appears that they successfully bred with dogs”
Mar 27 • 7 tweets • 7 min read
Q. What’s the worst day of the year for dictators, despots & populists?

A. Tmw ‘cos @amnesty release our annual report on the state of #HumanRights in 156 countries

DM me for a copy
(Video👇featuring @NazaninBoniadi, @angeliquekidjo @itspetergabriel @U2)
“It’s easy to feel hopeless in the face of atrocities & abuses but throughout the last year, people have shown we’re not powerless. We need less hypocrisy, less cynicism, & more action by all states to promote & protect all rights” @AgnesCallamard @amnesty
Mar 18 • 13 tweets • 13 min read
85/. #OTD 20 years ago, Iraq rejected the US ultimatum for Saddam Hussein & his sons to leave the country

The UN was obliged to pull its arms inspector out of the country

A massive military force was amassed around Iraqi borders

The stage was set for war
#IraqInvasion #IraqWar Image 86/. “As the US prepares to attack Iraq, it is doing so on the basis of a number of allegations against Saddam Hussein that have been challenged - & in some cases disproved - by the UN, European govts & even US intel reports”

#OTD this @washingtonpost story was buried on page 13 Image
Mar 7 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
1/. Tmw, Amnesty Turkey's former Chair Taner Kılıç & Amnesty Turkey's ex-director, İdil Eser, Özlem will be back in court facing absurd "terrorism" charges

@amnesty & @aforgutu will be there to demand their acquittal after almost 6 years of judicial farce
amnesty.org/en/latest/news… 2/. These politically-motivated prosecutions aim to silence critical voices in Turkey

Over the course of 12 hearings, every allegation levelled against these human rights activists was repeatedly & comprehensively proven baseless

It’s taken a heavy toll
Mar 3 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
1/. On 5 March 2020, the BBC reported that a 70 year-old woman in Reading had became the first Briton to die of COVID19

Three years on - this Sunday - we mark #CovidMemorialDay by lighting a candle at 7pm & observing a minute's silence to honour the dead
covidmemorialday.org.uk 2/. One doesn’t truly recover from loss. If you are lucky, you will heal from loss. But never completely

Shakespeare warns that if we fail to "give sorrow words the grief will o-er wrought heart & bid it break"

#CovidMemorialDay we give our sorrow words
amnesty.org/en/latest/news…
Mar 1 • 8 tweets • 8 min read
Leaked emails show Matt Hancock ignored advice to test all people entering care homes during the pandemic

On 13/5/20, I broke the #CareHomeScandal👇

Three years on, these leaks reveal Hancock decided not to make it mandatory to test those entering care homes from the community! Image “We stuck to the science like glue” @BorisJohnson

“We were guided by the science. We didn't always follow the science" HANCOCK

Cod behavioural science gave us “behavioural/lockdown fatigue”

Asymptomatic spread was ignored

Many errors were made…but these weren’t ‘mistakes’👇 ImageImageImageImage
Feb 25 • 8 tweets • 6 min read
Anyone on Twitter know what this might be?

A square of metal (iron?) embedded two feet beneath the soil, pulled up by a 350 year old fallen tree, on the ancient thoroughl-fare (now Mill Lane) that ran beside the River Fleet (Highgate Brook) UPDATE: After some delicate excavation, it seems as if the ancient iron square exposed by the fallen oak is attached to an iron post (gate post?)

For a history of the River Fleet - London’s most beautiful subterranean waterway - see below👇
Feb 15 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
1/. Last Sept, far-right Giorgia Meloni became Italy’s PM

Among her targets are refugees & migrants - a go to scapegoat for populists & neo-fascists

Today a decree will be voted on

If passed it will hinder NGO rescues at sea & result in returns to Libya
2/. The legislation risks resulting in more deaths at sea & is being introduced in tandem with a new ‘distant ports’ policy requiring NGO ships to disembark rescued people far from where they're rescued

The policy was ruled "unlawful" by an Italian court thelocal.it/20230213/itali…
Feb 13 • 9 tweets • 6 min read
1/. A week ago, 2 powerful earthquakes shook the region near the Turkish-Syrian border, claiming tens of thousands of lives & opening 190-mile-long fissure

Humanitarian crises that result from natural disasters can create human rights issues & exacerbate existing vulnerabilities 2/. After any natural disaster, the free flow of information is critical

So why did the authorities in Turkey restrict Twitter?

According to @IndexCensorship, the Twitter throttling - which lasted 12 hours - “was a direct response to political criticism"
indexoncensorship.org/2023/02/the-sh…
Feb 11 • 7 tweets • 5 min read
1/. “To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects & enhances the freedom of others” (#Mandela)

#OTD 33 years ago, Nelson Mandela stepped out of Victor Verster prison
after 27 years behind bars in South Africa
aljazeera.com/amp/opinions/2… 2/. On that day, no one knew what Mandela looked like let alone what kind of man he had become

Some activists feared that he might have ’gone soft’

Others - reared on a daily diet of fear & propaganda - feared Mandela would be an angry & vengeful figure
Jan 30 • 103 tweets • 91 min read
1/. On 19 March, it’ll be 20 years since the start of the #IraqWar

50 days before war, #OTD in 2003, Bush said “the 16 words”

“The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa”

It was a lie, based on a forgery 2/. The documents claiming Iraq was attempting to procure uranium from Niger date from 2001 & were obvious forgeries

They’d already been investigated & debunked

The CIA & State Dept had raised doubts about their legitimacy…at least 14 times

The IAEA judged them to be forged
Jan 29 • 5 tweets • 6 min read
#KingCharles inherited 45,667 acres of land (without having to pay inheritance tax)

The Crown owns 226,000 acres across the UK

After the #Queen died, we unveiled our proposal for a new memorial park in London: the #QueenElizabethMemorialGardens

All we need is 2 acres of land👇 ImageImageImageImage Our vision is to create a place of tranquility in a walled garden carved from a sliver of the 42-acre Buckingham Palace Gardens: a living legacy to #QueenElizabeth

It’ll also be an act of care towards London & its ecosystem #QueenElizabethMemorialGardens
standard.co.uk/reveller/attra…
Jan 27 • 6 tweets • 5 min read
1/. This week, in 3 consecutive days, 3 prominent human rights defenders were killed

Rwandan journalist John Williams Ntwali was killed in an ‘auto accident’

Swazi lawyer Thulani Maseko was shot

Cameroonian journalist Martinez Zogo was found by a road theafricareport.com/279711/cameroo… 2/ “Thulani Maseko was not an ordinary human rights lawyer; he was the epitome of human rights law. He humbly lived faithful to his calling until his last breath. His bravery, resilience, humility & humanity will continue to encourage all who knew him” @Follow_SALC #ThulaniMaseko
Jan 26 • 6 tweets • 7 min read
Exactly 20 years ago, George W Bush told Saudi ambassador Prince Bandar & that he plans to go to war with Iraq

He only told Secretary Powell two days later

On 20/1/03, Bush signed a presidential directive giving Pentagon control over postwar Iraq
#IraqWar #IraqWar20 #Iraq ImageImageImageImage #OTD 20 years ago the UN announced

“It would appear…Iraq had decided in principle to…bring the disarmament task to completion…Weapons inspectors have examined 106 locations & found no evidence that Iraq revived its nuclear weapons programme”

No WMDs, no justification for war ImageImage
Jan 23 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
1/. The body of Cameroonian journalist, Martinez Zogo, who regularly spoke out about corruption, was found on the outskirts of Yaoundé ystdy

His murder can be added to a growing list of journalists killed with impunity in Cameroon. #JournalismIsNotACrime
amnesty.org/en/latest/news… 2/. In 2020, @amnesty called for an independent investigation into the forced disappearance & murder in detention of journalist, Samuel Ajiekah Abuwe

It took 10mths for Cameroonian authorities to admit he'd died in detention & findings of an investigation haven't been published
Jan 15 • 4 tweets • 5 min read
Braverman tells a Holocaust survivor she won’t apologise for ‘invasion’ rhetoric

@FreefromTorture post the video

@ukhomeoffice ask for the clip to be removed

“To deploy the PR function of a govt dept to misrepresent & shut down accountability is truly terrifying” FFT’s @Sile79 ImageImageImageImage Here’s the full exchange between Joan Salter, a holocaust survivor, & @SuellaBraverman, in which Ms Salter asks Braverman not to use words like “swarm” & “invasion” when talking about asylum seekers

The clip was edited, but there was no misrepresentation
Jan 9 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
1/. “Saving lives is not a crime”

Tmw, two humanitarian workers @sean_binder_ & @SarahMardini44 will go on trial in Greece

They face +25 years in jail

Their “crime”?

Saving refugees & asylum seekers at sea

Sara’s story is told in a new @netflix film👇
2/. Sarah & Seán did what any of us should do if we were in their position

Helping people at risk of drowning

This trial reveals how Greek authorities will go to extreme lengths to deter humanitarian assistance and discourage refugees from seeking safety amnesty.eu/news/greece-fa…