Bahrain, Morocco, Abolition, Sudan

Dear Members and Friends,

 

  1.  Assistance to the victims of human trafficking

 

On the 16th May , one of our partner organisations in the Persian Gulf asked us to evacuate Miriam, a victim of trafficking who had just escaped her captors, exhausted, her face battered and bruised.

Mariam was desperate to return to her native country in central Africa.

Thanks to the agreement Vivere has with our partner organisation,we have the authority to arrange and pay for the plane trip.

Mariam arrived home safe and sound on the 21st May.

2°        Morocco

For the last 17 years, Vivere has been actively supporting Hayati, an organisation in the  southern part  Morocco which helps and supports single parents and their babies on a daily basis. These women would face destitution were it not for the work of Hayati. Le Monde, the well-known French newspaper, has published an article describing the everyday life, or rather struggle for survival, of these people. Please see the attached article.

 

3°       URGENT :  THE  ABOLITION  OF THE DEATH PENALTY AS APPLIED TO MINORS AT THE TIME OF THE CRIME

Amnesty International contacted us on the 17th May about the following case. Signing the petition at the bottom of the page can have a direct bearing on the outcome of the campaign we launched two years ago.

FORCED TO MARRY, RAPED AND CONDEMNED TO DEATH

MARRIED AGAINST HER WILL AND RAPED AT JUST 16

In Sudan children can be married off from the age of 10. In April 2017, Noura Hussein Hamad Daoud-16 years old- was forced to marry Abdulrahman Mohamed Hammad who was 27.

Noura refused to consummate the marriage. Her husband, along with several friends, beat her up and  violently raped her whilst his friends held her down. The following day, he tried to rape her again.She managed to get to the kitchen and grabbed a knife. Abdulrahman was fatally injured in the ensuing struggle and died from his injuries.

Noura sought refuge with her family but her father handed her in to the police. She was subsequently convicted of murder. A medical examination confirmed that she had also been injured in the struggle; she had been bitten and scratched badly. She has been locked up in the women’s prison in Omdurman since the 3rd May  2017. Her trial began in July 2017.

SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR SELF-DEFENCE

Noura was found guilty of homicide on the 29th April 2018. In his verdict, the judge applied a traditional interpretation of the law that does not recognise rape in marriage as a crime. The handing down of the exact sentence was postponed to a later date in order to give the relatives and friends of the deceased man an opportunity to decide whether to choose between financial compensation (as seen in the traditional practice of ‘diya’, or paying ‘blood money’)  or demanding the death sentence. The family has chosen the latter- the death sentence.

Please write to the Sudanese authorities to ask them for an immediate annulment of the death sentence for Noura, and to change the law so that the legal age of marriage is changed from 10 to 18 years old.

 https://www.amnesty.be/je-veux-agir/agir-en-ligne/petitions/article/mariee-de-force-violee-et-condamnee-a-mort

Thank you,

Vivere