Support project: Amnesty International

Amnesty International (AI) is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights.

AI’s vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards.

Firth gets serious for prison film

20 Januari 2008, AP.

St Trinian's actor Colin Firth got serious for his latest project.

The star produced a documentary about American prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has been on death row for 25 years for murder.

In Prison My Whole Life sees William Francome go on a journey to understand the case. Firth's wife Livia also acts as producer.

"I was attracted to the unlikely journey of a white English boy going on a journey to meet a black American man of a completely different generation who's been incarcerated all his life," he said.

"I wanted to try and see where that journey led. The film is premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.

Firth and his wife both have strong feelings on the death penalty.

"Without any hesitation or question, there's no argument for it at all," he said.

"I've heard it argued for vigorously but I don't think any of those arguments touch the sides. It's an utter obscenity in every conceivable case.

"It's nothing to do with how heinous the crime is. It's wrong for the state to kill - to be given a licence to do that is just wrong. It's wrong for us to be a part of that and to use that as an instrument of justice."

***

Animated slideshow of stories about the death penalty

around the world narrated by Colin Firth.

Click image above to go to the slideshow or click here

Info thanks to the State Policy Director from www.ncadp.org

Death Penalty: Hard Hitting Mumia Abu-Jamal Film Launched

13 September 2007, Amnesty International UK

'In Prison My Whole Life' will screen during London Film Festival.

A new documentary film on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal will screen at the London Film Festival next month. The film has the support of Amnesty International as part of its international campaign to abolish the death penalty.

The feature-length documentary, 'In Prison My Whole Life', examines the controversial case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther Party activist who has been in prison for murder in the United States since 1981, much of that time facing a death sentence. There are serious doubts about the fairness of Mumia Abu-Jamal's original trial and he is currently appealing against his conviction. Amnesty international is calling for fresh trial.

The 90-minute film profiles Mumia Abu-Jamal's case through the eyes of 25-year-year-old William Francome, born on the day of Abu-Jamal's arrest. 'In Prison My Whole Life' was directed by Marc Evans and produced by Livia Firth and Nick Goodwin Self. The acclaimed actor Colin Firth is the film's executive producer. The film also features interviews with writers Alice Walker and Noam Chomsky, as well as the musicians Mos Def, Snoop Dogg and Steve Earle.

Livia Firth said:

'The film illustrates another example of the many reasons why the death penalty is never an acceptable form of punishment.

'Amnesty International has contributed to the making of the film, having previously called for a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal and we are thrilled that they have agreed to support the film as part of their ongoing worldwide campaign against capital punishment.'

Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:

'It's shocking that the US justice system has repeatedly failed to address the appalling violation of Mumia Abu-Jamal's fundamental fair trial rights.

'We've documented Mumia Abu-Jamal's plight several times before and we strongly welcome this film as a fresh opportunity to focus attention on his situation. We hope that the film's viewers will back our call for a fair retrial for Mumia Abu-Jamal - and also support our work opposing the death penalty in the US and around the world.'

'In Prison My Whole Life' screens simultaneously at The Times bfi London Film Festival and at Rome's International Film Festival on Thursday 25 October.

Protesters angered by ‘human cargo’ to the Congo

Church Times,

1 March 2007, by Rachel Harden

Father David, Colin and mother Shirley Firth

Click image to enlarge

Senior church leaders, campaigning groups, and an award-winning actor have joined forces to attack the Government’s asylum policy. On Monday, 38 asylum-seekers were deported back to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The Bishop of Durham, Dr Tom Wright, who was involved with a case in Stockton-on-Tees, said it was deplorable how the asylum-seekers had been treated. Speaking on Tuesday, he said he was still unsure whether all the asylum-seekers from Stockton had been deported, since four people had been let off the plane at the last minute. In his view, their treatment, which included dawn raids, had been deplorable.

”The point is that many who were sent back, mostly women and children, have made their homes in this country.

We have been informed that, instead of being sent back to an agreed airport in the Congo, another one was chosen which was heavily guarded. It is scary to think what may have happened to them.

”These are law-abiding citizens who looked for asylum in this country with good reason. We may be celebrating the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, but here we are shipping Africans as human cargo.“

On Monday, an Early Day Motion was put forward to stop the deportations, which were originally scheduled on a flight from Gatwick but changed at the last minute to Stansted.

A spokesman for the Bishop of Ripon & Leeds, the Rt Revd John Packer, said that he was very disappointed that a campaign to stop a Congolese woman, Aseng, and her children being deported from Leeds had failed. She and her family had been living in the city for four years.

Bishop Packer had written to the Home Office Minister Baroness Scotland about the case. He said that Aseng was terrified about being forced to return because of her ethnicity and the ongoing violence in the country.

In the past ten years, an estimated four million people have died from war-related causes, and more than two million are refugees within their own country.

The Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Revd Michael Scott-Joynt, has also been campaigning on behalf of asylum-seekers within his diocese, which is linked with the DRC.

Shirley Firth, mother of the actor Colin Firth, and member of the Winchester and Southampton Visitors Group, said: ”Of course we are thrilled that Pierre, one young man we had been campaigning for, has been allowed a review, but what about the others?“

Colin Firth wrote to The Independent about Pierre, a nurse who was imprisoned after refusing to give large doses of morphine to senior officials who had been arrested after the President’s murder. His brother bribed guards, and Pierre escaped to the UK in 2002.

On Wednesday, the Home Office confirmed that 38 people had ”successfully been deported“ to the DRC, but said it could not comment on individual cases.

Firth's intervention helps Congolese nurse

28 February 2007

Actor COLIN FIRTH is delighted his campaign to help a Congolese nurse avoid deportation from Britain has been successful. Known only as Pierre - which is not his real name - the nurse was one of 40 asylum-seekers being sent back to the Democratic Republic of Congo on a chartered flight yesterday (26 februari 2007).

But a legal appeal for four members of the group, including Pierre, which was supported by Firth and five bishops, was successful.

Firth's mother Shirley, president of an asylum-seekers support group, was thrilled at the outcome. She said, "I am overjoyed because we have worked so hard for him. He had a very good case and would have been in danger if he had been sent back.

"There is a culture of disbelief at the Home Office in assessing applications from refugees. It doesn't always try to get at what the truth is."

Firth became involved in the campaign after hearing of nurse Pierre's plight through his mother. The refugee fled the Congo after refusing to inject lethal doses of morphine into dissident soldiers and feared for his life if he was forced to return. The Refugee Council said, "This shows that if you have got a friend on the outside you have a better chance of avoiding deportation. "But a lot of people don't have such a friend."

Colin Firth makes plea for nurse 'facing murder' in Congo

The Independent

26 February 2007, by Andrew Johnson

The actor Colin Firth has joined forces with five bishops to denounce the Government for deporting about 40 Congo nationals on a chartered flight to Kinshasa today.

Firth told The Independent that he was particularly concerned about the fate of a nurse on the flight from Gatwick, which would also carry 19 children. " Nobody likes an actor with a cause," he said, "least of all me. But there is good reason to believe this guy is at risk. He is certain that if he returns he will be murdered."

The nurse, who fears for his life if his real name or a photograph is published, fled the Democratic Republic of Congo five years ago after the assassination of former president Laurent Desire Kabila. He was working in the Congolese army as a nurse at a military hospital.

After the president's assassination a number of officers were rounded up and locked in military cells at the camp. "The military commandant gave us the order to inject a strong dose of morphine in all the arrested officers," the nurse, who calls himself Pierre, said. "There were three of us. We refused to carry out the order because we did not want to kill innocent officers.

From that moment my life has been in danger. The commandant had us arrested, beaten and thrown into prison."

Pierre managed to escape to Kenya after his brother bribed some of the prison guards. From there he made his way to England, where he has spent the past five years, mostly sleeping on the floor of friends' homes and depending on charity after his first claim for asylum was refused.

Firth became aware of his case through his mother, Shirley, who is president of the Southampton and Winchester Visitors' Group, which offers emotional and financial support to asylum-seekers.

He said: "It just makes me so furious. There's going to be 19 kids on this flight, a chartered plane because they don't want kids kicking and screaming on a commercial flight when they bundle them out through the backdoor.

"This man has been exemplary. To me it's just basic civilisation to help people. I find this incredibly painful to see how we dismiss the most desperate people in our society. It's easily done. It plays to the tabloids, to the middle-England xenophobes. It just makes me furious. And all from a government we once had such high hopes for."

A spokesman for the Home Office would not comment on individual cases.

We must stop a deportation that is likely to end in murder

The Independent

26 February 2007, by Colin Firth

Click image to enlarge

Sir: Pierre was a nurse in a military hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

After the murder of President Kabila, officers were arrested, and Pierre and a doctor were asked to give powerful doses of morphine to them. They refused, and were arrested, beaten and imprisoned.

Pierre escaped because his brother bribed the guards, and he managed to get to the UK in 2002.

Now he is in Oakington Detention Centre, near Cambridge. He faces deportation today, on a HO-chartered flight to the DRC.

Pierre is certain that if he is returned he will be murdered.

In 2004, police stopped a car, driven by another Congolese, in which Pierre was a passenger. He was arrested because he was not carrying documents, and held to await removal. Through BID (Bail for Immigration Detainees) he was granted a bail hearing.

The notification stated he was being detained because he had arrived without proper documents, and because he "had tried to obtain money by false pretences using a credit card".

But police told BID South there was no record against him. BID sent a fax to York House for the hearing. The adjudicator said the immigration service should never have mentioned documents because all asylum-seekers came in on false documents and there was no stain on his character. Because of letters of unqualified recommendation by those who knew Pierre, he was given bail without need for sureties.

Since then he has observed all restrictions imposed on him and reported weekly to police. He is also engaged to a woman from the DRC who has exceptional leave to remain. His detention notice includes unsubstantiated charges: "You have previously failed or refused to leave the UK when required to do so." There is no evidence of this. It also reads: "You have not produced satisfactory evidence of your identity, nationality or lawful basis to be in the UK."

People who flee their country never do, as the adjudicator had pointed out. But the HO obviously thinks he is Congolese, or they wouldn't be deporting him there.

It is imperative that this particular deportation is stopped.

COLIN FIRTH

LONDON NW6

Video in broadband and dialup (2001):

Colin congratulates Amnesty International with its 40th anniversary

(together with an Amnesty International appeal).

Quote from Colin Firth:

"I was in Argentina working on a film connected with the dictatorship...and encountered people who had been tortured...If I had been sitting in a cell by myself there would be so little hope. The words Amnesty International kept going around in my head as the only hope for a lot of people."