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About me

I work for the Advocacy team as the advocacy assistant.

Likes: Afghan food, the gym, travelling, London, all other foods, dancing, winning, and more food.

Find me on twitter @FreshtaSharif

Latest post
Feb 2 2016 5:03PM
The UK must recognise Eritreans as the refugees that they are

We have all heard about the terrible situation in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq causing people to risk their lives and make the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean. However, what I have sadly come to realise is that not so many...

About me

I'm the campaigner for Amnesty's Human Rights Defenders Programme.

Latest post
Nov 12 2015 12:25PM
India is muzzling its critics and harassing its NGOs: will Cameron speak out?

David Cameron has had a busy few weeks. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has just arrived in London to much fanfare, hot on the heels of visits from China’s Xi Jinping and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Reached London...

About me

Dr Shao Jiang is a survivor of Tiananmen Square. He has spent the last 26 years since then calling for justice for the victims and relatives – his friends - of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

On Tuesday, he joined an Amnesty demo along the Mall leading to Buckingham Palace. We, the human rights protestors, were massively outnumbered by thousands of pro-China fans, bussed in from around the country and kitted out with merchandise apparently sent via the Chinese embassy, from China as diplomatic cargo. But undeterred we set out our protest area, raised our placards and Shao Jiang unfurled a massive banner which displayed the iconic ‘Tank Man’ photograph.

I was surprised when Shao Jiang told me that, iconic as it might be to us, many of the pro-China demonstrators who had grown up in China would most likely never have seen the image.

That disparity of knowledge between the two countries is hard to appreciate. But for Shao Jiang, who has spent much of the last two decades living in exile, it must be an ever-present reality. If he were in China he would be treated as a criminal. Here in the UK he is a hero. A veteran democracy fighter. Or at least, that’s what he had been seen as, before now.

But on Wednesday Shao Jiang was arrested. At the time he stood alone in front of an ominous convoy of black cars which were ferrying the Chinese President Xi Jinping to his next royal appointment. In each hand Shao Jiang held a sign, one read; ‘end autocracy’ the other; ‘democracy now’. It hardly needs pointing out that his solitary protest bore remarkable similarities to the Tank Man photograph. He was wrestled, detained and arrested at the scene.

Shao Jiang has been charged with ‘conspiracy to commit a public order offence’ and his laptop, phone - as well as all his wife’s personal electrical equipment - have been confiscated by the police. He has now been released on bail, but with conditions. He has tweeted those conditions which include not going near Chequers, and staying more than 100 meters away from President Xi Jinping, to avoid further harassment of the ‘victim’. The victim, to be clear, is President Xi Jinping.

An odd end to an odd week. One in which the UK government greeted the President of China - the country which executes more people than the rest of the world put together – with the sort of homecoming parade you might expect for a victorious sports team. And one in which -   at the end of it   - saw the arrest of a Tiananmen survivor for a peaceful protest, and term the Chinese President a victim. It’s hardly the sort of summary that makes you proud to be British.

This week was an opportunity to show our Chinese visitor how the right to protest is valued in this country. Sad then, that we have shown how it is criminalised. I hope that common sense will prevail and the charges will be dropped, as well as all of Shao Jiang’s possessions returned – and of course his wife’s too.

Show your solidarity for Shao Jiang on twitter at and make it clear he’s not standing all alone.

 

kem

About me

I'm the Individuals at Risk Manager and alongside Amy S and Sara (blogging soon!), I look after our case work on individuals and communities at risk Urgent Action Network and will blogging on the great work you're doing to help us protect people whose human rights are at risk.

Latest post
Aug 12 2015 12:59PM
Raif Badawi, Saudi Arabia's political football

Football is, for some, an obsession. In the UK, it’s a sport that gets lots of people’s emotions going and in the office, now that the football season has begun, conversations about tactics and scorelines will start up once again too...

About me

I'm one of the USA country coordinators for Amnesty UK, working largely on Guantánamo campaign work. Here I'll be blogging about human rights issues in the USA, Canada and the Caribbean.

Latest post
Aug 2 2015 8:32PM
A solitary hope?

Torture has written some of the bloodiest lines of history. The heretic’s fork, the Judas cradle and other medieval devices might be museum curios now, but Amnesty has evidence of torture in 141 countries during the last five years. It...