Sharing Our Hope For Peaceful Tomorrows With Amal
From left to right: Alja & Liv Rodriguez, Leila Murphy and Caitlyn Hynes waiting to give Amal her shawl. Our messages of peace and hope were handwritten on the feathers of its wings.
"...Although our trauma and struggles may take on different forms and have different origins we have a common experience. Our connection - our meeting - shows that by standing together in solidarity, we can continue to learn from one another, helping others to grow and heal in peace. We ALL have hope for Peaceful Tomorrows."
Words of Welcome from PT's Project Director, Elizabeth Miller (see image below)
CLICK HERE to read the entire statement
IMPRESSIONS OF AMAL: "Amal does not walk ... she floats. She dances with such grace, she listens with intention, she is curious, eager to meet humans around her. ....HER EYES glimmer and sparkle in the dark in front of the illuminated Battery Park apartments where people settle in to rest from the week on a Friday night. HER SILENCE is the silence of a child refugee tossed about by climate change and political events beyond its control. Amal's speechless helplessness comes through loud and clear...."
CLICK HERE to read the entire statement.
ONGOING COMMITTEE WORK:
The Afghanistan Committee has welcomed two recent moves towards returning all $7 billion of Afghan central bank funds held in the US to the Afghan people. First, on the $3.5 billion that is tied up in litigation by some 9/11 family members, we were pleased to see a recommendation by the magistrate judge "that victims and survivors of the September 11 attacks not be allowed to seize billions of dollars of assets belonging to Afghanistan's central bank to satisfy court judgments they obtained against the Taliban." Peaceful Tomorrows member, Leila Murphy's comments were featured in the New York Times. We are cautiously optimistic about the news that the US is transferring the remaining $3.5 billion to a new Afghan Fund with the ultimate goal that it will be returned to a functional Afghan central bank. As our member Kelly Campbell was quoted on NPR recently, "the idea that [Afghans] are on the brink of famine and that we would be holding onto their money for any purpose is just wrong." Feel free to reach out to find out more.
The Rule of Law Committee has been focused on areas of advocacy regarding Guantánamo. We continue to meet with both the prosecution and defense teams for updates. Additionally, we intend to focus our efforts on establishing accountability for torture, transferring detainees who have not been or will not be charged with a crime, and pursuing plea deals. For more information about committee meeting times or other details, please feel free to reach out.
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