Rights chief also warns Britain will be ‘judged harshly by history for its failure to help prevent civilian slaughter in Gaza’
The UK has been accused by Amnesty International of “deliberately destabilising” human rights on the global stage for its own political ends.
In its annual global report, released today, the organisation said Britain was weakening human rights protections nationally and globally, amid a near-breakdown of international law.
Continue reading...Saudi Arabia is likely to host the 2034 tournament, but a Guardian investigation has revealed there are already a high number of ‘unexplained’ migrant worker deaths in the Gulf kingdom
Human rights organisations are warning that another World Cup will be tainted by the deaths and suffering of low-paid workers if Fifa does not take urgent steps to ensure that Saudi Arabia deals with the widespread abuse of its migrant workforce.
As the sole bidder, Saudi Arabia is almost certain to be anointed by Fifa this year as host of the World Cup in 2034, but rights groups said “workers cannot afford a repeat of Qatar 2022”.
Continue reading...Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International claim that authorities failed to mobilise ‘appropriate resources’, while Greece says the ship’s crew refused assistance
Human rights groups have deplored the lack of progress made by Greek authorities in their investigation into the controversial circumstances in which a migrant ship sank off the Peloponnese – leaving more than 500 dead – in one of the Mediterranean’s worst ever boat disasters.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International claim there are credible allegations that the Hellenic Coast Guard’s “actions and omissions” contributed to the 14 June shipwreck.
Continue reading...While there is broad consensus on the need for a break in hostilities, people are divided on its extent, its duration, and how to label it
Most of the world agrees that the intensity of Israel’s attack on Gaza, while aimed at Hamas, is causing unbearable suffering to its civilians, pummelled from the air and running out of food, water and medical supplies.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, the top diplomat for Israel’s staunchest ally, delivered a personal message in Tel Aviv last week that more must be done to “protect Palestinian civilians” trapped after Israel laid siege to the territory.
Continue reading...Corporation says accusations span a number of years, including 2006 to 2008, when comedian worked for Radio 2
The BBC has said it is “urgently looking into the issues raised” by the publication of allegations of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse against Russell Brand.
The Sunday Times published allegations this weekend that Brand had sexually assaulted four women after a years-long investigation into claims about his behaviour in collaboration with Channel 4’s Dispatches.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Witnesses say federal forces have been looting villages and shooting farmers in their hunt for defiant Fano militiamen
Ethiopian soldiers killed more than 70 civilians and looted properties in a town in Amhara, multiple witnesses have claimed.
The killings took place in Majete, a rural town in north-eastern Ethiopia, after two weeks of heavy fighting between federal soldiers and the Fano, an Amhara militia.
Continue reading...Iwao Hakamada, 87, was convicted of four murders in 1968 but granted ‘temporary release’ in 2014 after new evidence emerged
A court in Japan has granted a retrial to a man – thought to be the world’s longest-serving death row inmate – who was sentenced to hang for the murders of a family of four almost six decades ago.
The Tokyo high court ruled on Monday that Iwao Hakamada, 87, should be tried again for the crimes in a decision campaigners said was a “step towards justice”.
Continue reading...Amnesty International hits out at ‘shocking’ annual figure reaped through sale of fossil fuel
Saudi Aramco has reported a record $161bn (£134bn) profit for 2022, the largest annual profit ever recorded by an oil and gas company, fuelled by soaring energy prices and rising global demand.
The largely state-owned company’s profits rose by 46% year on year and it made more than the recent bumper results reported by Shell, BP, Exxon and Chevron combined.
Continue reading...Ten public figures arrested since Saturday as President Kais Saied pursues what Amnesty calls a repression of dissent
Rights groups have expressed grave alarm at a crackdown on opposition figures and the media in Tunisia, where 10 public figures have been arrested since Saturday as President Kais Saied seemingly moves to stamp out dissent.
“We’re witnessing the increasing repression of dissent in Tunisia,” said Amna Guellali, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and north Africa. “Saied is using all the resources of the state to signal his absolutist agenda. Anyone who opposes him, either politically or in the media, is at risk in this witch-hunt,” said Guellali, who is based in Tunisia’s capital, Tunis.
Continue reading...In a damning report, human rights group says state permitted ‘excessive and lethal use of force’ against Indigenous groups
Peru used “excessive and lethal force” driven by “marked racist bias” against a largely indigenous and campesino population, Amnesty International has concluded, following an investigation into more than two months of anti-government protests which have claimed at least 60 lives.
An Amnesty International fact-finding mission investigated 46 possible cases of human rights violations and documented 12 cases of deaths from the use of firearms – all the victims appeared to have been shot in the chest, torso or head – following visits to the capital Lima and the southern cities of Chincheros, Ayacucho and Andahuaylas.
Continue reading...Amnesty does not apply to dual nationals, prisoners on death sentence or those that do not regret their crimes, say officials
A limited amnesty is to be offered to many of those detained in the recent Iranian protests, the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has agreed.
But the amnesty does not apply to dual nationals, those convicted of offences carrying the death penalty or those that refuse to admit and regret their crimes, the Iranian officials said.
Continue reading...Two teenagers and 31-year-old man were subjected to torture including rape and beatings and denied fair trial, says group
The alleged torture of three young Iranian men facing the death penalty has been detailed in a report by Amnesty International that raises deep concerns about the country’s judicial system.
One of the men, Mehdi Mohammadifard, was raped by prison guards and severely beaten, the rights group said. Amnesty said it had learned that Mohammadifard suffered anal injuries and rectal bleeding that required treatment in a hospital outside the prison where he was being held.
Continue reading...Sahand Noor Mohammadzadeh is accused of damaging public property during anti-government riots and ‘waging war against God’
Iran’s supreme court has accepted a protester’s appeal against his death sentence for allegedly damaging public property during anti-government demonstrations, and sent his case back for review, the judiciary said on Saturday.
Sahand Noor Mohammadzadeh, 25, was arrested on 4 October and sentenced to death two months later on the charge of “waging war against God” for allegedly trying to break a highway guardrail in Tehran and setting a rubbish bin on fire.
Continue reading...Group says Moroccan and Spanish police failed to provide even basic first aid for hours after deadly crush at enclave
The “widespread use of unlawful force” by Moroccan and Spanish authorities contributed to the deaths of at least 37 people who perished during a mass storming of the border fence between Morocco and Spain’s north African enclave of Melilla in June, according to a report.
The Amnesty International report also accuses Moroccan and Spanish police of failing to provide even basic first aid to those injured in the crush as they were left “in the full glare of the sun for up to eight hours”. It says Moroccan authorities prioritised moving corpses and treating security officials above the needs of injured migrants and refugees.
Continue reading...Uncle of Mohsen Shekari, who was convicted of ‘waging war against God’, says family have not been told location of body
Iran has conducted the first known execution in relation to the anti-government protests that have rocked the country, hanging a man who was found guilty by a revolutionary court of “waging war against God”.
Mohsen Shekari was accused of blocking a street and wounding a member of the pro-regime Basij militia on 25 September, during the early phase of the protests triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.
Continue reading...Critics claim latest effort to reduce Channel crossings is ‘throwing good money after bad’
Conservative MPs have joined unions and refugee groups in condemning a £63m deal signed by Suella Braverman with her French counterpart to reduce the number of people attempting to cross the Channel in small boats.
Natalie Elphicke, the member for Dover, and Tim Loughton, a senior home affairs select committee member, questioned whether the bilateral agreement will do enough to address a surge of new arrivals after it failed to establish joint patrols or guarantee that people smugglers are detained.
Continue reading...Video apparently shows crowds marching in Zahedan to condemn 30 September massacre of activists
Thousands of Iranians protested in the restive south-east to mark a 30 September crackdown by security forces known as “Bloody Friday” as the country’s rulers faced persistent nationwide unrest.
Amnesty International said security forces unlawfully killed at least 66 people in September after firing at protesters in Zahedan, capital of flashpoint Sistan and Baluchistan province. Authorities said dissidents had provoked the clashes.
Continue reading...Global spotlight on host country has heightened scrutiny of human rights record, with Biden due to meet Sisi
As Egyptian officials strive to control the narrative and isolate the case of the detained British Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, pressure is mounting on world leaders at Cop27 to acknowledge Egypt’s poor human rights record and raise his case.
The Egyptian authorities have engaged in a sweeping public relations campaign to try to discredit Abd el-Fattah, including a digital campaign depicting him as a threat to national security.
Continue reading...Crowds in Mahabad also fired on during rally held after funeral of protester Ismail Mauludi
Iranian security forces have opened fired on protesters in Zahedan a month after a massacre that killed scores of people in the restive south-eastern city.
Crowds were also fired on in Mahabad, another city with a long history of resistance against the regime, in renewed deadly violence at the end of the sixth week of unrest sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini on 16 September.
Continue reading...Tehran says film-makers, athletes and actors who have backed demonstrations ‘fanned flames of riots’
Iran has stepped up pressure on celebrities and journalists over the wave of women-led protests sparked by outrage over the death of Mahsa Amini, after she was arrested by the Islamic republic’s morality police.
Film-makers, athletes, musicians and actors have backed the demonstrations, and many saw it as a signal when the national football team remained in their black tracksuits when the anthems were played before a match in Vienna against Senegal.
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