Amnesty International (Israel)

Health Professionals Network

This is the home page of the Health Professionals Network of Amnesty International (Israel).

Index

• What is an Amnesty International Health Professionals Network group?
• How do we act?
• Join our group's letter sending!
  Print and send our monthly letters for February 2001. We condemn the torture of PKK supporter Fatma Tokmak, and that of her two years old son.
  Dr. Than Aung is supposed to be released, after 4 yours of imprisonment. We ask for details about his release.
  
  See previous letters.
  
• Letter Sending - group activity
• Other activities
• Myanmar action file
• Latest accomplishments
• How can you help?
• How can you support us on line?
• How to contact us?
• Learn more about Amnesty International and Prisoners of Conscience
• View Our Guestbook
• Sign Our Guestbook
• Links to related pages

What is an Amnesty International (AI) Health Professionals Network Group?

AI Health Professionals Network groups consist of health professionals - doctors, dentists, nurses, physiotherapists, psychologists, social workers, medical students and others - who work together within the AI mandate to oppose violations of human rights. They're all volunteers.

How do we act?

• We send letters to influential people all over the world on behalf of people whose rights are endangered.
• We send letters of support to those professionals (individuals and organizations) which are under pressure to cooperate with those who endanger human rights.
• We provide info to others on human rights at desks in public places.
• We organize meetings, lectures, panels, etc. for the medical professions and the general public on human rights.
• We publish info in the local media and the professional medical literature.
• We have monthly meetings in which we enrich volunteers on human rights and discuss our plans.

Activities

May 17. Monthly volunteer meeting.
April 26. Dinner with AI directors from all over the world.

March 22. Monthly volunteer meeting with presentation of film on Myanmar.

Feb. 25. One of our volunteers met with Mr. Ulmert, Head of the Municipality of Jerusalem, who signed on the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

Feb. 22. Monthly volunteer meeting at which we planned strategies for the work with our Myanmar-action file.

Jan. 25. Monthly volunteer meeting which will be devoted to getting to know the specific hardships as concerning human rights in Myanmar.

Dec. 23. Monthly volunteer meeting at which the last projects were evaluated and first info was provided on the Myanmar action file.

Dec. 14. Introductory evening for new volunteers.

Dec. 10. We facilitated a panel on physicians and torture on Human Rights' Day, at the Medical School in Jerusalem. There was an interesting discussion among the participants of the pannel, among them people from the Committee Against Torture, Physicians for Human Rights.
About 130 people attended.
At the same day and place we had an info-desk. The volunteers standing at the info-dek were almost kicked out by leaders of the student organization, who erroneously believed that AI is a political organization.

Still at the same day, a representative of our Network was invited to the President, Mr. Weizman, who signed on the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
Dec. 3. We had a meeting with the Turkish composer and human rights activist Shanar in the bookshop/restaurant Tmol Shilshom, Jerusalem, in which he spoke about his experience in Turkey.

Myanmar Action File

We're working on a project, concerning a medical doctor arrested in Myanmar, who was declared a prisoner of conscience.
Although the official authorities claim that Dr. Than Aung was arrested for causing the death of a person by negligence, Amnesty International believes that he's detained solely because of the non-violent expressions of his political beliefs.
He was imprisoned on April 1997 for four years.
Amnesty International considers Dr. Than Aung to be a prisoner of conscience and calls for his immediate release.
In the mean time, hundreds of letters regarding his case were sent to officials in Myanmar, to Newspapers in Asia, and to the Myanmar Embassador in Israel.
People who are interested in this project are welcome to contact us.
Learn more about the situation in Myanmar.

Latest accomplishments

• Turkish students who were arrested and jailed for many years, after demonstrating against high university fees, had their sentences reduced. Our group was among several groups who worked on their behalf.
• An elderly prisoner of conscience from Korea, on behalf of whom we wrote letters to various officials, was released.

How can you help?

• You're welcome to become one of the many members or donors of Amnesty International, and contribute to human rights.
• You can buy AI shirts, posters, and publications on human rights in many countries of the world.
• If you're living in Israel and belong to those working or studying in the medical professions or feel affiliated with the medical professions, you can help with signing or writing letters, give info at a desk, publish on human rights in a professional magazine, and more... Just contact us!
• If you're living in another country or do not affiliate with the medical professions, and want to be actively involved, you can still do a lot , but we will refer you to another Network of Amnesty International.

Links to other sites on the Web

AI International Secretariat (England)
AI United States
AI Israel
AI Human Rights Sites
Physicians for Human Rights

More news soon.

Our e-mail address is: aihealth@hotmail.com .
Mail us directly to: Health Professionals
The e-mail address of the Israeli section of Amnesty International is: amnesty@netvision.net.il .
For more info, you can contact our main branch in Tel Aviv, Israel;
tel. 00-972-3-5603357; fax. 00-972-3-5603391

The following is the number of times this home-page was visited since April 5,1998: