Category Archives: Amnesty International

UK’s anti-terror chief fears rights group boycott threatens Prevent review

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Neil Basu says move to protest appointment of William Shawcross could harm process

Britain’s best chance of reducing terrorist violence risks being damaged amid a huge backlash to the government’s choice of William Shawcross to lead a review of Prevent, the country’s top counter-terrorism officer has told the Guardian.

Assistant commissioner Neil Basu’s comments came after key human rights and Muslim groups announced a boycott of the official review of Prevent, which aims to stop Britons being radicalised into violent extremism.

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UK failing to protect human rights defenders abroad, says Amnesty

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New report finds lawyers, journalists and health workers at risk during pandemic have struggled to get help from embassies

The UK government has failed in its pledge to help those on the frontline of the global fight for human rights during the pandemic, according to a new report.

Amnesty International said health workers, lawyers, journalists and rights activists from around the world who were living under constant threat during the Covid-19 pandemic struggled to get support or funding from British embassies.

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‘Zak’s an icon’: the long fight for justice over death of Greek LGBT activist

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Zak Kostopoulos’s family say murder charges must be brought in a case that has exposed deep homophobia

Days after his death in the heart of Athens, the image of Zak Kostopoulos began to appear across the city centre, on buildings and nondescript office blocks, the marble steps of neoclassical mansions, walls and columns.

On Gladstonos street there were also words, some sprayed, some stencilled, some handwritten, but all amounting to the same thing: a memorial to a man who dared to be different.

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Revealed: 1,500 people in limbo under Australia’s ‘bizarre and cruel’ refugee deterrence policy

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Australia declared in 2013 that asylum seekers who arrive by boat would never settle here. Hundreds of people’s lives are still on hold to prove that point

For more than seven years, Australia’s policy has been clear: if you seek asylum by boat you will never be settled here. You will be sent offshore and have your asylum claims heard there.

Between the declaration of that policy by prime minister Kevin Rudd on 19 July 2013 and the last transfer offshore in December 2014, Australia sent 3,127 people seeking protection as refugees to Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island.

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Swedish-Iranian scientist faces ‘imminent risk of execution’ in Iran

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Ahmadreza Djalali had been sentenced to death on espionage charges

A Swedish-Iranian scientist sentenced to death in Iran on espionage charges may face execution as early as Wednesday, human rights groups and his wife have warned.

Ahmadreza Djalali was due to be taken from Evin prison to Rajai Shahr prison on Tuesday, a normal preliminary to an execution. Death sentences in Iran are often carried out on Wednesdays.

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Trump could label Oxfam and Amnesty antisemitic over criticism of Israel

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Trump administration reportedly considering move against organisations that documented Israeli rights abuses

The Trump administration is reportedly considering labelling a number of leading international humanitarian organisations as antisemitic after they documented Israeli rights abuses against Palestinians, including settlement building in the occupied territories.

The groups include the UK-based Amnesty International and Oxfam as well as the US organisation Human Rights Watch. Amnesty International accused the Trump administration, and the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, of attempting “to silence and intimidate international human rights organisations”.

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Threat of home demolitions sparks protests among Egypt’s poorest

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Amnesty International says two killed in unrest over law demanding residents pay fines to legalise homes

Rights groups say two Egyptians have been killed and hundreds more detained in a recent wave of protests as anger mounts against a law some of those hit hardest by the economic fallout from coronavirus say now threatens their homes.

The protests, mostly in impoverished remote areas, were spurred on by a growth in anti-government sentiment, in particular over a law demanding residents pay fines to legalise homes built on agricultural land. Many say they cannot afford the fine, despite government threats to demolish the homes of those who can’t pay.

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Amnesty to halt work in India due to government ‘witch-hunt’

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Authorities froze bank accounts after criticism of government’s human rights record

Amnesty International has been forced to shut down operations in India and lay off all staff after the Indian government froze its bank accounts.

The Indian enforcement directorate, an agency that investigates economic crimes, froze the accounts of Amnesty’s Indian arm this month after the group published two reports highly critical of the government’s human rights record.

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Amnesty investigation links brewer Kirin to Myanmar military crimes

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Billions in dividends from ventures with conglomerate MEHL funnelled to army units implicated in Rohingya crackdown

One of the world’s largest brewers, Kirin – whose subsidiaries include San Miguel and craft beers brewed in the US and UK – has been linked to crimes committed by the Myanmar military following an Amnesty International investigation.

Kirin is partnered with a Myanmar-based conglomerate with interests in mining, beer, tobacco, garment manufacturing and banking, whose shareholders include military units directly implicated in serious human rights crimes against Rohingya people, analysis by the human rights group found.

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Iran suspends execution of three anti-government protesters in death row

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Trio who participated in November demonstrations received public support following request of retrial

Iran’s supreme court has agreed to suspend the executions of three men on death row for their participation in anti-government protests in November, whose sentences sparked an online outcry last week.

Lawyers for the trio – Saeed Tamjidi, 26, Mohammad Rajabi, 28, and Amirhossein Moradi, 26 – said in a statement on Sunday the country’s supreme court had agreed to examine the men’s application for a retrial.

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Policing of European Covid-19 lockdowns shows racial bias – report

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Amnesty says pandemic has led to greater ‘marginalisation, stigmatisation and violence’ in 12 countries including UK

The “disinfecting” of Roma communities by low-flying planes and the high number of fines handed to minority groups has been cited in a report as evidence of the racial bias in the policing of the coronavirus lockdowns in Europe.

The report by Amnesty International, examining the enforcement of physical distancing measures in 12 European countries, concludes that the pandemic has led to greater “marginalisation, stigmatisation and violence”, echoing the long-standing concerns aired by the Black Lives Matter movement.

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Israeli spyware used to target Moroccan journalist, Amnesty claims

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Amnesty alleges phone of Omar Radi in Morocco was infected by NSO’s Pegasus software

As NSO Group faced mounting criticism last year that its hacking software was being used illegally against journalists, dissidents and campaigners around the world, the Israeli spyware company unveiled a new policy that it said showed its commitment to human rights.

Now an investigation has alleged that another journalist, Omar Radi in Morocco, was targeted with NSO’s Pegasus software and put under surveillance just days after the company made that promise.

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Militant crackdown in Sahel leads to hundreds of civilian deaths – report

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Amnesty records 200 state killings and forced disappearances in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, state members of internationally-backed G5 group

Hundreds of civilians have been killed by their own governments in Africa’s Sahel region since countries pledged a surge against militant groups at a regional meeting held by France in January.

Amnesty International said on Wednesday that it had documented 200 cases of unlawful state killings and forced disappearances in February and March in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, which are members of the internationally backed G5 force set up to fight militants in the Sahel.

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Nigerian forces accused of torture and illegal detention of children – report

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Amnesty International alleges that at least 10,000 died while being wrongly held – some of them in a centre part funded by the UK

Widespread unlawful detention and torture by Nigerian security forces has aggravated the suffering of a generation of children and tens of thousands of people in north-east Nigeria, according to a new report.

At least 10,000 victims – many of them children – have died in military detention, among the many thousands more arrested during a decade-long conflict with jihadist groups, according to Amnesty International.

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Egypt has made journalism a crime with crackdown, says Amnesty International

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Egyptian government using pandemic to tighten control of media and quash dissent, rights group reports

Journalism in Egypt has effectively become a crime over the past four years, Amnesty International says, as authorities clamp down on media outlets and muzzle dissent.

As the number of coronavirus infections in Egypt continues to rise, the government is strengthening its control over information instead of upholding transparency, the London-based rights group said in a report released on Sunday.

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Malaysia and Thailand urged to help stranded Rohingya refugees

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Amnesty International makes plea over hundreds of people stuck on as many as five boats

Hundreds more Rohingya refugees remain stranded at sea, rights groups have warned, just one day after it emerged that dozens of people died onboard a boat that was refused entry to Malaysia and left adrift for two months.

On Friday, Malaysia’s air force confirmed it had denied entry to a second boat carrying about 200 Rohingya people, claiming it had done so to prevent further spread of the coronavirus within the country, which remains under lockdown.

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Saudi Arabia using secret court to silence dissent, Amnesty finds

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Activists handed long prison sentences or death penalty by court set up for terror cases

Saudi Arabia is using a secretive special court set up for terrorism-related cases to systematically prosecute human rights activists and other dissenting voices who defy the country’s absolute monarchy, a new report has found.

The human rights watchdog Amnesty International spent five years investigating 95 cases heard at the Specialised Criminal court (SCC) in Riyadh, concluding in a report published on Thursday that the court is routinely used as a weapon to silence criticism despite the kingdom’s recent attempts to cultivate a reformist image.

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Behrouz Boochani calls Christchurch welcome a ‘reminder of kindness’

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Official reception highlights New Zealand’s differences with Australia over immigration

The city of Christchurch has welcomed Behrouz Boochani with a civic reception and a traditional Māori mihi whakatau – a formal welcome – as his presence, and liberty, in New Zealand once again underscores the country’s political differences with Australia over immigration.

Boochani was formally greeted from the plane by the mayor of Christchurch and the city’s Māori leaders, who told him he was welcomed by the mountains, the rivers, and the people of the city.

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Jordan urged to stop imprisoning women for defying the wishes of men

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Amnesty calls for end to detentions under male ‘guardianship’ system

Amnesty International has called on Jordan to end what it has described as an abusive system that jails women if they disobey their male “guardians” or have relationships deemed inappropriate.

Despite recent efforts to give women better protections, Amnesty said in a new report published on Wednesday that Jordan still allows the arbitrary detention of women, including when male family members – usually fathers or brothers – complain to the authorities that they have been absent without permission.

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Amnesty International staff to vote on strike action over redundancies

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Employees urge charity to consider using donations to fund jobs as management say job losses are unavoidable

Staff at Amnesty International are to vote on whether to strike over a dispute about redundancies.

The trade union Unite will ballot its 300 members at the human rights organisation next week.

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