Latest News
Scores made homeless by house demolitions in Nigeria
Scores of Nigerians lost their homes on Friday morning when Rivers state authorities began bulldozing buildings in Port Harcourt, Amnesty International has learned.
2009-11-06
Background: Foreign nationals on death row in Saudi Arabia
Amnesty International is aware of at least 137 people currently on death row in Saudi Arabia, of which 106 are foreign nationals. The true figures are believed to be much higher.
2009-11-06
Nicaragua's Constitutional Court must decide on legality of new abortion law
Amnesty International has expressed concern that the Nicaraguan Supreme Court continues to delay its judgment on the legality of new criminal laws on abortion which entered into force in 2008.
2009-11-06
Turkey: No to safe haven for fugitive from international justice
Amnesty International has condemned an invitation extended by Turkey to Sudanese President Omar al Bashir to attend a meeting in Turkey.
2009-11-06
Kenya's post-election violence suspects must be brought to justice
The Kenyan government has failed to implement a fair and credible judicial process to try those accused of carrying out human rights violations, including possible crimes against humanity, during last
2009-11-06
UN vote on Goldstone report a defining step for accountability
The vote adopting key recommendations of the report on the conflict in Gaza and southern Israel earlier this year, is vitally important for ensuring that those who committed war crimes will be held accountable, said Amnesty International.
2009-11-06
Tunisia releases prisoners held over Gafsa protests
Sixty-eight people held in connection with protests against unemployment and high living costs in the resource-rich Gafsa region have been released.
2009-11-06
Kenya: Post-election violence suspects must be brought to justice
The Kenyan government has failed to implement a fair and credible judicial process to try those accused of carrying out human rights violations, including possible crimes against humanity, during last year’s post-election violence, said Amnesty International.
2009-11-06
Turkey: No to safe haven for fugitive from international justice
Amnesty International today condemned an invitation extended by Turkey to Sudanese President Omar al Bashir to attend a meeting in Turkey, even though he is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
2009-11-06
Europe: Governments to act on human rights 20 years after the Berlin Wall
Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin wall, European governments must act urgently to tackle human rights abuses against migrants, asylum seekers, detainees and minorities, Amnesty International said today.
2009-11-06
Amnesty International welcomes decision to not transfer Côte d'Ivoire toxic waste compensation
Amnesty International has welcomed the decision of a Côte d’Ivoire court not to transfer $45 million in compensation owed to victims of the toxic waste dumping in Abidjan in 2006 to the account of an organization which was falsely claiming to represent all 30,000 of them.
2009-11-06
USA: Amnesty International Welcomes Defeat of Graham Amendment
Amendment could have barred any Guantanamo detainee from receiving a trial in U.S. federal courts.
2009-11-05
Egypt: Convictions in Abu Omar Rendition Case a Step Toward Accountability
US and Italian intelligence agents are convicted for their involvement in the abduction of Usama Mostafa Hassan Nasr (better known as Abu Omar).
2009-11-05
EU and India must work together at UN to protect human rights
The European Union and India should work together at the United Nations to protect human rights in places of crisis, Amnesty International has said in a letter ahead of the EU India summit in New Delhi.
2009-11-05
Saudi Arabia executes three more foreign nationals
Amnesty International has strongly condemned the beheading of two Sri Lankan nationals and one Indian national in the city of Jeddah this week.
2009-11-05
Côte d'Ivoire: Authorities must ensure toxic waste compensation reaches victims
Amnesty International today urged the authorities in Côte d’Ivoire to ensure that $45 million compensation paid by an oil trading company to victims of one of the worst toxic dumping scandals in recent years reaches the people to whom it is owed.
2009-11-05
Turkmenistan: Andrei Zatoka sentenced in unfair trial
On 29 October 2009, the city court of Dashoguz imposed a five-year prison sentence on Andrei Zatoka, a well-known environmentalist and civil society activist in Turkmenistan, for the intentional infliction of medium injuries
2009-11-05
Iran: Renewed wave of intimidation and harrassment of women's rights activists must end
In recent days, at least 10 members of the Campaign for Equality -- a grassroots women's rights initiative - have been summoned to appear before a branch of the Revolutionary Court in connection with their peaceful activities on behalf of women's rights in Iran
2009-11-05
USA: Amnesty International Welcomes Introduction of
Amnesty International Welcomes Introduction of "Effective Death Penalty Appeals Act"
Bill Would Provide Critical Options to Death Row Inmates with New Evidence of Innocence
2009-11-04
Syria: Veteran Human Rights Lawyer Faces up to 15 Years in Syrian Prison
Amnesty International believes that charges have been brought against Haytham al-Maleh simply because he exercised his right to freedom of expression.
2009-11-04
United States: Amnesty International Urges Obama Administration to Repudiate Extraordinary Rendition as Italian Court Convicts American Spies
Tom Parker, Amnesty International USA?s policy director for (counter)-terrorism and human rights, issued the following statement in response to the Italian court?s decision to convict 23 Americans in the CIA kidnapping case of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, known as Abu Omar
2009-11-04
Acts of torture by Guyanese police must be punished
Amnesty International has urged the Guyanese authorities to charge police officers involved in the torture and ill-treatment of three individuals who were detained in relation to a murder investigation.
2009-11-04
Ethiopia: African Governments Must Reaffirm Commitment to International Criminal Court
Government representatives meeting in Addis Ababa have been urged by Amnesty International to clearly state they would prevent any officials accused of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes from seeking safe haven in their countries.
2009-11-04
Nigeria: Demolition Set to Leave Hundreds Homeless in Nigeria
Hundreds of people have been forced from their homes to make way for a commercial development in Rivers State, Nigeria, Amnesty International has learned.
2009-11-03
United States: Open Letter to Barack Obama
On behalf of Amnesty International USA, I urge you to candidly address grave human rights concerns in the People's Republic of China during your upcoming first official visit to China and press the President of China to make substantive improvements. Failure to discuss human rights abuses in a meaningful way would send the wrong signal about the seriousness with which the United States views the human rights situation in China.
2009-11-03
Iran:Iranian Activist Banned from Receiving Human Rights Award in Geneva
A longstanding travel ban on journalist Emadeddin Baghi, has prevented him from travelling to Switzerland to recieve his Martin Ennals prize in person.
2009-11-03
UN: General Assembly Must End War Crimes Whitewash
Judge Richard Goldstone's report on war crimes committed in Gaza and southern Israel is to be debated by the General Assembly this week. Amnesty International has urged the UN to grasp the opportunity to address accountability.
2009-11-03
Tunisia: Student Activist Held in Tunisia at Risk of Torture
Mohammed Soudani has been detained incommunicado since he met with two French radio journalists who were covering the presidential and legislative elections that took place on 25 October.
2009-11-03
Tanzania: Four Tanzanians Sentenced to Death for Killing an Albino Man
Amnesty International has welcomed the government's efforts to bring the killers to justice but has said that it deplores the use of the death penalty.
2009-11-03
Nigeria: Rivers State Government Set to Demolish More Homes
Amnesty International today warned hundreds of people ? including many women and children ? may be left homeless tomorrow morning if plans to demolish their homes to make way for a commercial development go ahead.
2009-11-02
Latest Reports
Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories: Demand Dignity: Troubled waters - Palestinians denied fair access to water
Lack of access to adequate, safe and clean water has been a longstanding problem for Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), principally as a result of discriminatory Israeli policies and practices. Some 180,000-200,000 Palestinians in rural communities in the West Bank have no access to running water. The water shortage has hindered social and economic development for Palestinians in the OPT and has resulted in violations of their right to an adequate standard of living, including the rights to water, food, health, work and adequate housing.
2009-10-27
Out of Reach: The Cost of Maternal Health in Sierra Leone
This report is about maternal mortality as a human rights issue. It focuses on: 1, the urgent need to remove financial barriers to health care and in particular emergency obstetric care; 2, the accountability of the government of Sierra Leone, given its obligations to address maternal health care and to ensure the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of health care services, facilities and goods; and 3, discrimination and other social factors that contribute to undermining women's right tohealth.
2009-10-08
Turkmenistan: Shed light on the disappeared - Postcard
2009-09-23
Spain: End Incommunicado detention in Spain (postcard)
2009-09-15
Spain: Out of the shadows: End incommunicado detention in Spain
Spanish law allows people to be held incommunicado, which means they have no effective access to a lawyer or to a doctor of their choice, and their family is not informed where they are or that they have been detained. It is one of the strictest detention regimes in the European Union. Many detainees held incommunicado say that they were tortured or otherwise ill-treated. Amnesty International is calling for the Spanish authorities to abrogate legislation that allows incommunicado detention and to investigate allegations of torture.
2009-09-15
Spain: Out of the shadows - Time to end incommunicado detention
Amnesty International considers that the incommunicado regime in Spanish law is a violation of Spain’s obligations under international human rights law. No other European Union country maintains a detention regime with such severe restrictions on the rights of detainees. The continuing allegations of torture and other ill-treatment demonstrate the grave consequences detention in this regime may have. Amnesty International calls on parliament to abrogate the existing legislation and to ensure the effective protection of the rights of all persons deprived of their liberty.
2009-09-15
Saudi Arabia: Countering terrorism with repression
Since the 11 September 2001 attacks in the USA, carried out by a group that included Saudi Arabian nationals, and in the wake of bombings and other attacks inside Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Arabian authorities have imposed a range of counter-terrorism measures that have swept aside embryonic legal reforms and left people in Saudi Arabia almost completely devoid of fundamental freedoms and rights. In this document, which includes case studies, Amnesty International is calling on the Saudi Arabian authorities to stop the endemic abuse of human rights.
2009-09-11
Canada still refusing to seek Omar Khadr's repatriation from Guantánamo; Mohammed Jawad returned to Afghanistan
By refusing to seek the repatriation of its national, Omar Khadr, from US custody in Guantánamo Bay, the Canadian government is betraying human rights principles and perpetuating injustice, while also failing to offer a remedy for its own participation in the violation of his human rights.
At the same time as the Canadian authorities were continuing on their path of resisting calling for Omar Khadr?s repatriation, Afghan national Mohammed Jawad ? like Omar Khadr taken into US custody in 2002 in Afghanistan when he was still a child ? was released from Guantánamo and has been reunited with members of his family in Afghanistan.
2009-08-28
Europe and Central Asia: Stop enforced disappearances in Europe and Central Asia
International Day of the Disappeared, 30 August 2009, is the time to demand justice for victims of enforced disappearances. In this document Amnesty International is urging governments to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Only three of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe have so far done so. The context and scale of enforced disappearances vary in European and Central Asian countries; this document includes illustrative examples.
2009-08-25
Africa: Stop enforced disappearances in Africa
International Day of the Disappeared, 30 August 2009, is the time to demand justice for victims of enforced disappearances. In this document Amnesty International is urging governments to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance: only two African countries have so far done so. In some countries in Africa enforced disappearance is used in course of policing activities; and in some, enforced disappearances are used as a means of retaliation against a particular political or ethnic group. This document includes illustrative examples.
2009-08-25
Honduras: Human Rights Crisis Threatens As Repression Increases
A delegation from Amnesty International visited Honduras from 28 July ? 1 August 2009 to investigate reports of human rights violations following the military-backed coup d?etat on 28 June.
The delegation held meetings with representatives from across a wide range of civil society and visited persons in detention and several people receiving medical treatment in hospitals. Where requested, the identity of those interviewed has been withheld for their own safety.
2009-08-20
North Korea: The right to food and monitoring human rights - Information sheet
2009-08-02
North Korea: Freedom of movement, opinion and expression - Information sheet
2009-08-02
North Korea: Torture, death penalty and abductions - Information sheet
2009-08-02
India: Don't take my home away: A healthy environment is a human right: Demand Dignity - postcard
2009-07-29
India: Our land, our choice: A healthy environment is a human right: Demand Dignity - postcard
2009-07-29
China: Briefing for the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: 75th Session, August 2009
Amnesty International has prepared this briefing for the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) to assist their consideration of China?s 10th to 13th periodic reports. The scope of this briefing is confined to mainland China. The briefing highlights some of the most egregious aspects of racial discrimination, in law and practice, including the on-going repression of Tibetans and Uighurs in China.
2009-07-27
Nicaragua: The Total Abortion Ban in Nicaragua
Pregnant women and girls in Nicaragua are being denied life-saving medical treatment as a result of the country's total ban on abortions because doctors are afraid of harming fetuses, which would leave them open to being criminally prosecuted under the severe new law.
2009-07-27
Saudi Arabia: Assaulting human rights in the name of counter-terrorism
2009-07-22
USA: Trials in error. Third go at misconceived military commissions experiment
In a September 2002 report, the assistant commander of the US Army Intelligence Center described the detention facility at the US Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba as "America?s Battle Lab" in the global "war on terror".
According to the then head of the Pentagon's Criminal Investigative Task Force (CITF), two commanders in charge of the Guantánamo detentions, Major General Michael Dunlavey and his successor, Major General Geoffrey Miller, adopted the "Battle Lab" description. They were among those officials who sought approval for, or approved, interrogation methods that violated the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
2009-07-16
USA: Not too late to abandon military commissions
Amnesty International continues to urge the USA, as part of the shutting down of the Guantánamo detention facility, to abandon its military commission experiment, begun by President George W. Bush in November 2001 and revised under the MCA in September 2006. The organization believes that the military commissions cannot be a part of any real solution to the disregard for human rights that has marked the USA?s response to the attacks of 11 September 2001. De-militarizing trials of Guantánamo detainees and others accused of similar conduct should be a key part of bringing this regrettable chapter to a close and towards ensuring the USA?s future respect for its human rights obligations.
2009-07-16
Israel/Gaza: Operation Cast Lead - 22 Days of Death and Destruction
2009-07-02
Nigeria: Come clean about the impact of oil pollution in the Niger Delta [postcard 2]
2009-06-30
Nigeria: Come clean about the impact of oil pollution in the Niger Delta [postcard 1]
2009-06-30
Nigeria: Clean up the oil industry in Nigeria: A healthy environment is a human right [postcard]
2009-06-30
Nigeria: Petroleum, Pollution and Poverty in the Niger Delta - Summary
2009-06-30
