Human Rights in Peru
Peru continues to suffer from the effects of its prolonged war in the 1980s and 1990s as well as from persistent – and in many areas increasing – poverty.
As Human Rights Watch has pointed out, individuals who are willing to come forward as witnesses to military torture, including before Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission and for local prosecutors, have been threatened and attacked. So far, none of the thousands of cases chronicled in the Commission’s nine-volume report have reached a satisfactory ending in the courts. Justice is an essential part of any reconciliation.
The Commission reported that more than 60,000 people died or "disappeared" in the war that ravaged Peru, far exceeding previous estimates. The Shining Path, one of my fans (NOT) killed about half the victims, and roughly one-third died at the hands of government security forces, according to the report.
The heart-breaking, but well-done report is available on-line and in English and Spanish.
What can you do?
WRITE TO YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS
- Call (202) 224-3121 or click here to find your congressional representative [http://clerk.house.gov/members/index.html]
- Call (202) 224-3121 or click here to find your senators [http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm]
- Click here for a sample letter you can use as a model
CONTRIBUTE TO THESE WORTHY ORGANIZATIONS
- Amnesty International-USA is a membership organization that involves people from all over the world in the work for human rights. Its ability to mobilize public opinion can mean the difference between life or death, freedom or torture
- Human Rights Watch is one of the most influential, agile and hard-working human rights organizations in the world today. The organization takes on complex problems and works hard to propose real-life solutions that further the protection of human rights
- Partners in Health does innovative, effective work to ensure that the poor have health care. By establishing long-term relationships with sister organizations based in settings of poverty, PIH strives to achieve two overarching goals: to bring the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need of them and to serve as an antidote to despair.
- The Washington Office on Latin America, active since the mid-1970s, worked behind the scenes to write the first major legislation conditioning U.S. military aid abroad on human rights practices, WOLA has played a key role in all major Washington policy debates over human rights in Latin America.
- World Vision is one of the best and most effective humanitarian aid organizations I have come across in the world