UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL

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RE: UA13/00 and UA16/00: "Save Kartini from being Stoned to Death"

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Indonesian national sentenced to death by stoning

UPDATE: Kartini's stoning sentence commuted
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Dear Friends,

Kartini is free at last! The appeals court in the United Arab Emirates has commuted her "death by stoning" sentence, and she has been joyfully reunited with her husband and two sons in her small village in Karawang district, Indonesia.

At first it seemed that in spite of the commuted sentence Kartini would be detained for longer in jail, but she was suddenly released. No doubt the immense international letter-writing pressure contributed to this early release as well as to the overturning of her sentence. Also vital to her release were the Indonesian migrant workers' organisations and the Indonesian government.

"The most happy one for me is my husband (Warsin) and two sons, who have accepted me again after we have been separated for 18 months. I never thought that I could go back to Indonesia. I got the good news on Monday [1st of May]", said Kartini upon her return. Asked about her future by a reporter from Kompas (the Indonesian newspaper that covered her return home), Kartini, 36, replied "Suddenly my feeling is that I am old already. Who would want to employ me? I do not want to go back to work again in the UAE. Honestly, which mother would not feel upset and sad because she has to leave her child to live with other people there [in the UAE]. However, Naidah [the baby she gave birth to in prison] is my child, my own blood relative."

Many migrant women workers around the world suffer from the combination of unscrupulous agents in their home country, employers who refuse to even pay minimum wages, and the isolation of not being able to leave their place of work. Many do not know their rights nor how to defend them; many are abused by their employers; some are held in a form of prison for up to a year before even being sent overseas, and then forced to pay the entire first year's wages to the agent who kept them in detention. Even for those who have the minimum conditions, most of their meagre income is sent home to provide for their extended family who may have no other form of income.

AHRC wishes to thank everyone who passed on information about Kartini's situation, wrote letters, organised petitions, covered the story in the media and offered all types of assistance. Kartini's story proves that human rights know no cultural boundaries, that barbarism is barbarism no matter where it is practiced, and that ordinary people can make a very big difference through simple actions.

Please forward this good news to all of your friends and networks who you informed of the Urgent Appeal. Please let them know that they can make just as big a difference in many other cases of human rights violations by joining the AHRC Urgent Appeals mailing list. Simply REPLY to this update at the email address <ua@ahrchk.org> with the word 'Subscribe' in the subject line, or write to the address provided below.

Celebrate today, because Kartini is alive and free thanks to a small but very effective action by many compassionate people around the world! A beautiful picture of Kartini reunited with her husband can be found at the Kompas website:
http://www.kompas.com/kompas-cetak/0005/07/UTAMA/kend01.htm