Category Archives: Amnesty International

Amnesty International restores Alexei Navalny’s prisoner of conscience status

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  • Human rights group apologizes to Russian opposition leader
  • Navalny’s past nationalist statements had been at issue

Amnesty International has apologized to the jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny for stripping him of its “prisoner of conscience” status and said it would restore the designation.

Amnesty announced on 24 February that it would stop referring to Russia’s most prominent opposition activist as a prisoner of conscience on the grounds that in the past he had made comments that qualified as advocacy of hatred.

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Biden urged to end US aid ‘abortion ban’

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More than 140 rights groups call for repeal of 1973 Helms amendment widely misinterpreted as total ban on funding abortion services overseas

Joe Biden is being urged to clarify a longstanding US law restricting overseas aid that has been misinterpreted by successive administrations as an outright ban on funding abortion for any reason.

As the US president marked his first 100 days in office on Friday, more than 140 human rights and global health organisations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International US and the Global Justice Center, signed a letter asking him to confirm that US aid can be used for abortion care in cases of rape, incest and when the woman’s life is in danger.

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Female political prisoners in Iran facing ‘psychological torture’, say campaigners

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Reports of deteriorating treatment of human rights activists, with an increase in moves to ‘dangerous’ jails often far from families

Female human rights activists imprisoned in Iran face increased jail terms and transfers to prisons with “dangerous and alarming” conditions, hundreds of miles away from their families, according to campaigners.

Warnings of the deteriorating treatment of female prisoners in Iran come days after Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian national who has served a five-year prison sentence in Iran, was sentenced to a further year in jail and a year-long travel ban by the Iranian courts.

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Hidden human rights crises threaten post-Covid global security – Amnesty

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‘Crises will multiply’ if escalating repression by governments under pretext of pandemic ignored, says secretary general

Neglected human rights crises around the world have the potential to undermine already precarious global security as governments continue to use Covid as a cover to push authoritarian agendas, Amnesty International has warned.

The organisation said ignoring escalating hotspots for human rights violations and allowing states to perpetrate abuses with impunity could jeopardise efforts to rebuild after the pandemic.

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UK’s ‘headlong rush into abandoning human rights’ rebuked by Amnesty

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Covid failings, crackdown on protest, police discrimination and resumed arms trade with Saudi Arabia all listed in annual report

Amnesty International has published a stark rebuke of the UK government’s stance on human rights, saying that it is “speeding towards the cliff edge” in its policies on housing and immigration, and criticising its seeming determination to end the legal right for the public to challenge government decisions in court.

In its annual report on human rights around the world, Amnesty International says the UK’s increasingly hostile attitude towards upholding and preserving human rights legislation raises “serious concerns”.

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Myanmar: UN calls for ‘utmost restraint’ from military as more deaths reported

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British-drafted UN statement watered down by China, Russia, India and Vietnam, as Amnesty says military using battlefield weapons on protesters

The United Nations has condemned the Myanmar military’s violent crackdown against anti-coup demonstrators as seven more people were reported shot dead in protests on Thursday.

Local media, witnesses and medics said six people were shot dead in the central town of Myaing when security forces opened fire on anti-junta protests and domestic media said one man was killed in the North Dagon district of Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city.

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Hundreds died in Axum massacre during Tigray war, says Amnesty

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Group says soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in northern Ethiopian city

Hundreds of unarmed civilians were massacred in less than 48 hours by Eritrean troops during the war in the restive northern Ethiopian province of Tigray last year, Amnesty International has said.

The soldiers systematically killed hundreds of civilians in the northern city of Axum, opening fire in the streets and conducting house-to-house raids in a massacre that may amount to a crime against humanity, it said in a report.

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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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