• Do not deport Wadih Chourey back to Lebanon
    Wadih came to the United Kingdom in 1997 because his life was in danger from the various gangs operating in Beirut who were victimising him because of his Down's syndrome. He has lived in Twickenham, London, since his arrival and was looked after by his parents and is now being looked after by his brother. He cannot cook and needs help with washing and dressing himself. His life would be in danger on two counts: firstly he will not be able to look after himself and secondly from violence. News story here: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/man-downs-syndrome-faces-being-4131650
    82,275 of 100,000 Signatures
    Created by Yvonne Parmenter
  • Support for victims of sexual abuse
    Based on data from the ‘Crime Survey for England and Wales’ around 473,000 adults were victims of sexual offences (around 404,000 females and 72,000 males) on average per year from 2009-2012 (Sexual Offending in England and Wales, 2013). 90% of victims of the most serious sexual offences reported they knew the perpetrator, yet only 15 per cent of victims of such offences said that they had reported it to the police. Stating that it was ‘embarrassing’, they ‘didn’t think the police could do much to help’, that the incident was ‘too trivial or not worth reporting’, or that they saw it as a ‘private/family matter and not police business’. We must learn from the tragic case of Frances Andrade, who tragically died at her home in Guildford, Surrey in January 2013, just a week after giving evidence in court about historical sexual abuse by her former choirmaster. Her husband, Levine Andrade, 59, found his wife, known as Fran, dead at 8am on 24 January last year. He said, "Apart from the trial bringing it all back up she felt the defence barrister seemed to be attacking her personally. "It got her completely down and she felt completely defenceless. I think she felt she was not prepared enough for the trial. She was not expecting to be attacked personally and have to answer so many direct questions in public. Much more needs to be done to provide and promote professional high-quality support services to help victims move on with their lives. Only when victims have sufficient support can they make the choice to go through the criminal justice system. More importantly victims must have sufficient professional support to endure the often lengthy and protracted court process. In the policy 'Ending violence against women and girls in the UK' it stated that the government would part-fund 87 independent sexual violence advisers and pledging £1.2 million for 3 years from 2012 to improve services. The problem is this funding will end in 2015 and 87 part-funded ISVA's are far from adequate for the number of victims we have in the UK. We need to put this on the public and government agenda before the next elections.
    645 of 800 Signatures
    Created by Yehudis Goldsobel
  • Great Britain to help stop religious persecution in Iraq
    Britain has unfinished business in Iraq, from the errors of 1914 to 1932 and the debacle of 2003 to the religious genocide against Christians and other groups right now.
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    Created by mark dury
  • Don't sentence Israel to death
    The sight of people crammed into bomb shelters, waiting for the scream of the rocket to pass overhead and praying their country's military defence systems hold strong, is now an everyday occurence in Israel. Yet there are currently active campaigns to weaken those very defences keeping these families alive day after day. A current petition asking the Prime Minister to stop the sales of British-made weapon-parts to Israel has cited the controversial Sayeeda Warsi who called the British policy on the Gaza crisis "morally indefensible". Yet there can be little more morally indefensible than an attempt to withold Israel's means to defend itself against a barrage of rocket attacks from a terrorist organisation with one clear aim - to destroy Israel and kill the entire Jewish population. There are claims that the anti-Israel petition to which we object was sent to over one million people in an email which opens with an evocative description of "men, women and innocent children being killed, injured and driven from their homes" at the hands of Israel. The deaths of so many civilians in Gaza is tragic and heartbreaking. But there is incontrovertible evidence to show that the innocent casualties would have been greatly reduced had Hamas not repeatedly used Palestinian children and civilians as human shields. It is widely accepted that Hamas is using schools and hospitals as rocket launch sites, and there is clear evidence to show that well over a hundred of Hamas' rockets have misfired and landed within Gaza. There is also absolute proof that Israel routinely warns civilians in Gaza ahead of any military attack on the area, by leaflet and telephone. There can be no doubt that responsibility for a great many unnecessary deaths rests within Gaza itself. The petition to which we object has cherry-picked messages only from anti-Israel politicians, like the very worst of the biased, propagandist media. There are many other politicians and respected figures who have spoken up in public support of Israel and who could equally be cited. Ex-Prime Minister and Peace Envoy to the Middle East, Tony Blair said: "If 80 rockets would be fired upon the citizens of Great Britain, no way I wouldn't be taking action. If an Israeli prime minister would fail to take action, people would say that this is unacceptable". What do you think would happen if Israel's weapons were blocked? What would happen if they lost their means to defend themselves from terrorists firing rockets into their country and tunnelling into their towns for the sole purpose of killing as many Israelis as possible? The death count in the Middle East would not be reduced. It would increase. But it would be Israelis dying. Jews instead of Arabs. The frightening and difficult question is whether Jewish deaths seem to be more acceptable to some than Arab deaths. The number of innocent people in Gaza who have been killed is sad and terrible. But the unequal comparison of numbers of Arab deaths versus numbers of Israeli deaths is being manipulated into an indicator of victim versus aggressor. In fact the only reason more Israelis haven't been killed is because of Israel's Iron Dome defence system, which shoots rockets out of the sky. Without their sophisticated defences a huge number of Israelis would have been killed in this current conflict. The frightening fact is that it seems a great many people would be happier if the Israeli death count were in the hundreds or thousands too. Over recent weeks there has been a sharp rise in open and violent anti-semitism across Europe and the rest of the world. This is the issue that campaigning organisations should be tackling. When they choose instead to add fuel to an already out-of-control fire, spreading half-truths and prejudice and adding to the anti-Israel and anti-semitic propaganda filling our newspapers and inboxes, they are contributing to an already volatile and dangerous situation. We therefore urge the Prime Minister to disregard the petition calling for him to withdraw support from Israel. If David Cameron bows to pressure to stop the sale of weapons-parts to Israel, he will be denying the right of the only democratic state in the Middle East to defend itself from terrorist attack. In the words of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel." You can contact us at [email protected] Any anti-semitic or threatening emails received will be forwarded to the police as appropriate.
    4,062 of 5,000 Signatures
    Created by Lizi Jackson
  • Help the Yazidi People In Iraq
    On Sunday the town of Sinjar in Iraq fell to ISIS. This is home to the Yazidi people. (The Yazidi are an ancient people with distinct religious beliefs. Citizens of this religion are peaceful people who acknowledge all principles and humanitarian values and respect all religions,) Many of the people fled to the mountains to escape. They are now surrounded by ISIS, who have cut off any routes of escape. Many are thought to be children. Many have already been killed. We need to offer them support. This is a race against time to help these people. International communities need to act immediately. You can email Philip Hammond here: [email protected] I have set up a just giving page if you can help financially. I have chosen Christian Aid as they are one of the few charities on the ground at the moment. Please visit http://www.justgiving.com/owner-email/pleasesponsor/sally-newing-iraq
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    Created by sally newing
  • The British government must protect its citizens from the death penalty
    A competent lawyer is key to avoiding a death sentence. One of the greatest challenges we face in our work is the absence of, or restrictions to, legal aid in certain jurisdictions. This means that the poorest and most vulnerable individuals cannot secure lawyers, are at far greater risk of being sentenced to death, and are then unable to appeal their sentences. The British government opposes the death penalty and says it is pushing for worldwide abolition. Yet it is the only government in the western world willing to stand back and watch as its own citizens face the firing squad in a foreign country, refusing to loan citizens money, even when they have nowhere else to turn. There are not many people in this situation, but the few who are are in countries without functioning legal aid systems. In these countries, death sentences are handed out for minor drug offences, blasphemy, or adultery. Trials are often unfair, and prisoners without lawyers are routinely tortured. A helping hand from our government could mean the difference between life and death. We have long been appealing to the British government to step in and assist nationals facing the death penalty overseas, who have no other means of obtaining legal representation. Most abolitionist states - and a number of retentionist - step in to prevent their nationals from being executed by funding local lawyers. This means that their citizens' rights are upheld, and they are able to defend themselves when their lives are at stake. The British government, too, must show that it is serious about opposing the death penalty, and about protecting its citizens abroad.
    1,839 of 2,000 Signatures
    Created by Matthew Leidecker
  • David Cameron why will you not publicly condemn Israel for slaughter of civilians?
    War crimes may have been committed, the country need to know the the British government are in no way complicit and condemn such actions.
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    Created by Philip Wall
  • Protect people from becoming unwittingly involved in murder - Ban organ tourism to China
    Dear friends, please take time to read this, I wish for you to be aware of this terrible crime which is often being ignored and kept from the media. It really does affect us all. Killed for Organs: China’s Secret State Transplant Business “It’s being called “abhorrent” and a “crime against humanity.” Allegations of forced organ harvesting in China started to surface in 2006. Since then, mounting evidence suggests these allegations are true—and even worse than originally suspected.”… innocent people are losing their lives, the largest group being the spiritual practice of Falun Gong. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvAOOwvJMZs Here is a useful link:- Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) aims to provide the medical community and society with objective findings of unethical and illegal organ harvesting. Organ harvesting, the removal of organs from a donor, without obtaining prior free and voluntary consent, is considered a crime against humanity, as well as a threat to medical science in general. www.dafoh.org/petition-to-the-united-nations
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    Created by Becky James
  • Stop America topping up Israel's bombs
    If Philip Hammond could pressure America to stop supplying additional arms to Israel as the massacre uses up Israel's stock, maybe Israel would have a weaponless space to think about how dangerous they are making the world for all of us Israelis do not apparently see pictures of the devastation. I hope that America does, and that Americans may not be too happy that their government is implicated in massacres that will probably be shown to be war crimes
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    Created by Alison Brown
  • Stop the Gaza killings
    Innocent people, particularly children, are being killed in this conflict and a refusal to recognise Palestine as a sovereign state legitimises these killings. Palestine is not a political or ideological football, it is a country that is the home of suffering people.
    92 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Fraser Conway
  • Take action against The Sun Newspaper
    This 4 year old child is shown, named, along with his parents and home town. What long-term effects is this likely to have on the child? http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jul/29/the-sundevil-satan-boy-outrage-chest
    8,897 of 9,000 Signatures
    Created by Pam Laurance
  • please help save our transport and escorts for special need adults
    the transport provide a safe mode of travel for our disabled sons and daughters they are from the time they are picked up their eyes their voices and our carers they know everything about them,some of our special ones have fits some choke, some have behaviour problems and will try to get out of their seats how could a driver be able to attend to these problems if they arose without an escort, without our escorts the transport cannot be viable due to the danger posed by just having a driver as the drivers main concern is to drive without distraction , we as parents are given an extra few hours when our sons and daughters are picked up and this time is precious as we are able to have a little me time . we know that when the transport is finished some of our parents will have to give up work and then their son or daughter would more than likely end up with not being able to go to their day centres which is vital for us as it gives them some independence and time to be with their friends please every one take an hour out of your day and put on a blind fold put ear plugs in and put tape over your mouths sit in a wheel chair and this will let you see how vulnerable our sons and daughters are and how restricted their lives are so please I implore you as a mum to 3 sons one is autistic and my other 2 boys are totally dependent for all their needs please help us get this overturned before a tradgic accident happens
    1,169 of 2,000 Signatures
    Created by noreen bailey