The NGO’s chief says last month’s ceasefire ‘risks creating a dangerous illusion that life in Gaza is returning to normal’
Amnesty International has said Israel is “still committing genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, despite the ceasefire agreed last month.
The fragile, US-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas came into effect on 10 October, after two years of war.
Continue reading...Sports personalities including Martina Navratilova and the swimmer Sharron Davies sign letter condemning Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani’s death sentence
More than 20 Olympic medallists, coaches and other international athletes, including the tennis player Martina Navratilova and the swimmer Sharron Davies, have signed a letter calling for a halt to the execution of a boxing champion and coach, who is on death row in Iran.
Amid growing international outrage over Iran’s escalating use of capital punishment as a tool of oppression, the strongly worded letter condemns the Iranian regime’s decision to uphold the death sentence of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.
Continue reading...Many of 1 million residents say they will not leave as they do not believe al-Mawasi humanitarian zone is safe
The Israeli military has killed at least 41 people in Gaza, including 12 aid seekers, over the last 24 hours as it continued to order the population of Gaza City to evacuate before its planned offensive.
The evacuation orders were accompanied by intensified Israeli bombing of the city, the Israeli military interspersing orders with announcements of high-rise towers they had bombed.
Continue reading...Negotiators in Cairo receive proposal calling for 60-day truce and hostage release in two batches, says Palestinian official
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, said on Monday it had decided to exclude six companies with connections to the West Bank and Gaza from its portfolio, following a review of its Israeli investments.
The $2tn wealth fund did not name the companies it had decided to exclude, but said these would be made public once the divestment was completed, Reuters reports.
Continue reading...Stinging rebuke from Amnesty International follows EU ministers declining to endorse any sanctions over Gaza war
The EU has been accused of a “cruel and unlawful betrayal” of Palestinians and European values after failing to take action to impose sanctions on Israel over the war in Gaza.
The stinging rebuke from Amnesty International, echoed by other human rights organisations, came after EU ministers meeting in Brussels on Tuesday declined to endorse any measures to sanction Israel over the brutal war in Gaza and endemic violence in the West Bank.
Continue reading...Policy review of intelligence-sharing with foreign countries risks leaving ‘very serious flaws’, say NGOs and MPs
Labour has been accused of rubber-stamping torture policy it criticised while in opposition for enabling UK complicity in serious human rights abuses overseas.
The policies regulating British support for foreign security and intelligence services were blamed for facilitating injustices in cases such as those of Jagtar Singh Johal and Ali Kololo, and it was hoped Labour would strengthen them in government.
Continue reading...World now in era of repressive regimes’ impunity, climate inaction and unchecked corporate power, says report
The first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency have “supercharged” a global rollback of human rights, pushing the world towards an authoritarian era defined by impunity and unchecked corporate power, Amnesty International warns today.
In its annual report on the state of human rights in 150 countries, the organisation said the immediate ramifications of Trump’s second term had been the undermining of decades of progress and the emboldening of authoritarian leaders.
Continue reading...Chadema spokesperson says party’s vice-chair John Heche and secretary general John Mnyika held on way to protest over treason charges
Tanzania’s main opposition party said on Thursday at least two of its officials had been arrested on their way to a rally to support the leading government opponent Tundu Lissu, who refused to appear at a virtual court hearing to face a charge of treason.
Authorities in the east African country have increasingly cracked down on the opposition Chadema party ahead of presidential and parliamentary polls in October.
Continue reading...Police go door-to-door arresting Afghans as government pledges to send millions back home to Taliban rule
More than 50 prominent female Afghan women’s rights activists sheltering in Pakistan are facing deportation home, where they fear they will be imprisoned or killed under Taliban rule.
Under a draconian policy, the Pakistan government has pledged to deport millions of Afghan nationals, after relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan severely deteriorated and attacks by militants in the border areas surged.
Continue reading...Amnesty International describes legislation as ‘full-frontal attack’ on country’s LGBTQ+ community
MPs in Hungary have voted to ban Pride events and allow authorities to use facial recognition software to identify attenders and potentially fine them, in what Amnesty International has described as a “full-frontal attack” on the LGBTQ+ community.
The legislation – the latest by the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, and his rightwing populist party to target the community – was pushed through parliament on Tuesday. Believed to be the first of its kind in the EU’s recent history, the nationwide ban passed by 136 votes to 27 after it was submitted to parliament one day earlier.
Continue reading...Human rights group says Israel ‘brazenly, continuously and with total impunity … unleashed hell’ on strip’s 2.3m population
A report from Amnesty International alleges that Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip constitutes the crime of genocide under international law, the first such determination by a major human rights organisation in the 14-month-old conflict.
The 32-page report examining events in Gaza between October 2023 to July 2024, published on Thursday, found that Israel had “brazenly, continuously and with total impunity … unleashed hell” on the strip’s 2.3 million population, noting that the “atrocity crimes” against Israelis by Hamas on 7 October 2023, which triggered the war, “do not justify genocide”.
The unprecedented scale and magnitude of the military offensive, which has caused death and destruction at a speed and level unmatched in any other 21st-century conflict;
Intent to destroy, after considering and discounting arguments such as Israeli recklessness and callous disregard for civilian life in the pursuit of Hamas;
Killing and causing serious bodily or mental harm in repeated direct attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, or deliberately indiscriminate attacks; and
Inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction, such as destroying medical infrastructure, the obstruction of aid, and repeated use of arbitrary and sweeping “evacuation orders” for 90% of the population to unsuitable areas.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Rights group expresses concerns as it emerges US spy tech company has been lobbying UK ministers
The US spy tech company Palantir has been in talks with the Ministry of Justice about using its technology to calculate prisoners’ “reoffending risks”, it has emerged.
The proposals emerged in correspondence released under the Freedom of Information Act which showed how the company has also been lobbying new UK government ministers, including the chancellor, Rachel Reeves.
Continue reading...Group says it has identified the Galix defence system on armoured vehicles imported from the UAE and calls for government to investigate
France must investigate the use of its military systems by Sudan’s paramilitary forces, which could be in breach of an arms embargo, Amnesty International has said.
The group said it had identified the French-made Galix defence system being used in Sudan on armoured vehicles manufactured in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – considered a key supplier of weapons to the Rapid Support Force (RSF).
Continue reading...Military regime considering move after capital punishment abolished in west African country in 2018
Burkina Faso’s military regime wants to reinstate the death penalty after the west African country abolished it in 2018, a government source told Agence France-Presse on Saturday.
The last execution in Burkina Faso was carried out on 19 September 1988, according to Amnesty International. The nation’s final executions killed four leaders accused of an attempted coup d’état to depose the president, Blaise Compaoré, the defence minister, Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani, the minister of economic promotion, Henri Zongo, and two unidentified men.
Reintroducing capital punishment to the penal code “is being considered”, the source said. “It’s up to the government to discuss it, then make the proposal to the Transitional Legislative Assembly for adoption.”
Justice minister Rodrigue Bayala said on Friday, after parliament passed a bill introducing community service, that “the issue of the death penalty, which is being discussed, will be implemented in the draft criminal code”.
Bayala also said there could be further amendments to the criminal code “to follow the vision and the guidelines given by the head of state, Capt Ibrahim Traoré”, who seized power in a September 2022 coup.
In May this year, Burkina Faso’s military government announced it would extend junta rule for another five years despite Traoré, the country’s ruler, pledging that he would restore the civilian government by 1 July.
Instead, Traoré’s government passed a bill that month that included plans to ban homosexuality.
Amnesty International has found the use of the death penalty is rising in Africa, “recorded executions more than tripled and recorded death sentences increased significantly by 66%”, it said in October.
Conversely, Amnesty said: “Twenty-four countries across sub-Saharan Africa have abolished the death penalty for all crimes while two additional countries have abolished it for ordinary crimes only.”
“Kenya and Zimbabwe currently have bills tabled to abolish the death penalty for all crimes, while Gambia … has commenced a constitutional amendment process that will … effectively abolish the death penalty,” it said.
Top Iranian officials previously referred to an execution when reacting to Jamshid Sharmahd’s death on 28 October
Iran has claimed that an Iranian-German duel national who had been sentenced to death died last week before his execution could be carried out.
“Jamshid Sharmahd was sentenced to death, his execution was imminent, but he died before it could be carried out,” the judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told reporters without elaborating. It is understood Tehran claims he suffered a stroke.
Continue reading...Riyadh accused of killing hundreds of Ethiopian migrants, jailing women’s rights advocates and murdering critics
Saudi Arabia is on the brink of being elected on to the United Nation’s Human Rights Council, warn campaigners, in a move they say would undermine its ability to demand justice for rights violations and would feel like a “slap in the face” to the many victims of the Saudi regime.
While the Saudi Arabian government has attempted to present itself as a reformed country that has made progress on gender equality and human rights, its record on both has been fiercely criticised by activists.
Continue reading...Health of three of four detained a year ago has deteriorated sharply after medical care withheld, charity says
Amnesty International has urged authorities in Angola to free four activists who were detained a year ago for planning a peaceful protest, and an influencer who criticised the president in a TikTok video.
The four activists were arrested in September last year before a protest against restrictions on motorcycle taxi drivers. They were sentenced to two years and five months in prison for “disobedience and resisting orders”. The health of three of the four activists has deteriorated sharply in prison, Amnesty said.
Continue reading...Saudis living in the UK claim Riyadh is targeting them for speaking out on human rights and jailing of female activists
Saudi exiles living in the UK have spoken of threats to their lives and harassment over their support for improvements in human rights in their home country.
Saudi Arabia has been attempting to present itself as a reformed state since the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi hit squad at its consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
It has spent billions on sporting deals and promoting tourism in the country and was recently named host of a UN commission on women’s rights, despite what Amnesty International called its “abysmal” record on women’s rights.
Continue reading...Egypt forcibly returned 800 Sudanese detainees in first three months of this year, Amnesty International reports
The Egyptian authorities have used EU-funded security forces in a campaign of mass arrests and forcible deportations against refugees from the Sudan war, according to a human rights group report.
Amnesty International found Egypt “forcibly returned an estimated 800 Sudanese detainees between January and March 2024, who were all denied the possibility to claim asylum”.
Continue reading...Anthony Albanese should seek commitments for concrete action in his talks with Li Qiang, campaigners say
Human rights advocates have called on Anthony Albanese to place China’s human rights record ahead of economic and trade discussions in his meeting with China’s second most powerful leader on Monday.
They said it was time for Australia’s Labor government to demand concrete action from China in addressing human rights complaints against it as “statements of concern” were not achieving results.
Continue reading...