We open this press release with some good news coming from Europe.

In October the European Union achieved an initial deal to legally require its member countries to cut their GHG emissions 40% below their 1990 levels by 2030. It’s the first substantive offer from any member of the international community ahead of the United Nations climate talks that will be held in Paris in 2015.

Here in Citizens Rights Watch we will keep raising our voices and use the tool of political shame (naming and shaming), activism, raising awareness, and publicizing crucial information, in order to push the leaders of the world towards taking action in tackling climate change.

We have to admit that this is a positive step towards the implementation of the long held promises of the international community to take action. In CRW, we raise our voices in stressing the need to see more of that attitude in Paris 2015.

Citizens Rights Watch (CRW) or  ‘The Citizens’ is a new organization, made from the people for the people.

We are determined to make a difference and offer a new and alternative platform for any citizen to raise her/his voice against injustices or violation of fundamental human rights.

We are in the process of organizational design, creating a plan of action, and setting goals. We intent on keeping everything in the public domain, because it is our founding principle to keep an open invitation extended to all the people that may wish to work with us. You are all welcome to follow our work, online, since the communicational tools of the World Wide Web is the common paramount of our work. We plan on using the new technologies and create new tools for defending human rights. The power of direct and fast communication between individuals all around the world is an unprecedented reality, and we intent of using this power to the maximum way possible.

You can follow our work through our website, twitter, or Facebook. You can register for our newsletter, or send us a message at any given time. Feel free to be an observer, a member, or become an activist with us.

In the present press release, we need to publicize our plans in order to initiate campaigns for specific human rights issues.

This is an open call for human rights defenders, activists, workers and friends to come on board and work with us.

Namely, we intent into mobilizing a team of experts to work, design and coordinate campaigns on:

 
1. Counter-terrorism.
2. Enforced disappearances;
3. Police brutality;
4. Individuals in danger;
5. Human Trafficking;
6. Torture;
7. Refugees;
8. LGBTI;
9. Women;
10. Children;
11. Fair trial;
12. Acid attacks;
13. Palestine;
14. Climate justice;

If you have expertise in any of the above areas, or if you wish to work on these campaigns, please email us, and express your interest.

We are open to ideas and suggestions, so feel free to communicate any urgent human rights issues that you believe needs a targeted campaign.

We also invite reporting of special cases, while it should be clarified that due to the large number of reported cases, we will make a selection and prioritize, in accordance to our resources, time-planning and urgency, and we will work on supporting the people involved, through legal and human rights consultation.

We also plan on creating a network of Human Rights organizations in order to collaborate in naming and shaming human rights violating organizations and States.

So please contact us if you wish to join our network of human rights partners & defenders.

Towards that direction here in Citizens Rights Watch we have also expressed our support to the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots; we just signed an agreement to collaborate with GEM, the Global Education Magazine, to advance and contribute to the protection of international human rights; we are in close communication with a number of international human rights related NGOs; and we extent an open call if you are representing a human rights institution to contact us, and join us in our work to defend human rights across the globe.

We intent on having an opening conference in London, UK in the first months of 2015, where we will present our organization to the media, we will publish our governing Statute, and our plan of action for 2015-16. We will introduce our founding partners to the world, we will initiate officially our special human rights campaigns, we will welcome all new members and campaigners, we will invite donors and supporters, and we will have open elections for our governing body.

YOU ARE ALL WELCOME TO JOIN US!!

Thank you!

Dr. Zoi Aliozi

Citizens Rights Watch

Secretary-General

zoi@citizensrw.org

Useful links:

http://www.citizensrw.org/

https://twitter.com/CitizensRW

https://www.facebook.com/CitizensRW

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_Rights_Watch

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