Sherwan Taha Ameen graduated from the School of Education at the University of Glasgow with a Master’s in Teaching Adults in 2015. Jwan Hussein, his wife, also graduated rom UoG in 2015 with a Master’s of Science in Forensic Toxicology. They live in the north of Iraq, in Duhok, with their two children.  Sherwan has been working at Nawroz University in Duhok as an English Language Lecturer (see http://web.nawroz.edu.krd/adp/2016-2017/members/28/)  as working as an adult educator. He has also taking part in international projects, including with the Pascal Observatory’s Learning Cities Network (see http://lcn.pascalobservatory.org/participants/city-duhok ) which itself collaborates closely with UNESCO. 

Sherwan is part of what has been described by Amnesty International as human rights abuse in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. According to investigations by Amnesty International, ‘In mid-August 2020, widespread protests erupted in the KR-I, mainly in Sulaimaniyah, Duhok and Erbil, demanding an end to corruption, better public services, and the payment of overdue salaries of government employees. In the aftermath, authorities in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) launched a mass campaign of arrests against activists, protesters and journalists covering the protests under the pretext of preserving “national security”’  (see https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2021/06/kurdistan-region-of-iraq-arbitrary-arrests-and-enforced-disappearance-of-activists-and-journalists/

He was arrested in September 2020, and held without charge until September 6, 2021.  For the first four months of his arrest, his family were not told where he was or if he was alive.  He has had almost no access to a lawyer. On September 6, 2021 he was charged with High Treason (which carries the death penalty).  Sherwan and other political prisoners immediately staged a hunger strike after the charges were read.  Tragically, his mother died the day before his trial from a heart attack due to the stress from the situation. Sherwan is an adult educator committed to social justice, and we call on all who read this to campaign on his behalf.  Please contact your elected officials in your country - Members of Parliament, Senators - and ask for your government to intervene.  His trial is October 6, 2021.

Please circulate this petition widely.   Thank you.