Human rights don’t start at the water’s edge – there’s urgent work to be done here at home.
Amnesty International works to protect human rights in the United States. Amnesty International advocates for human rights-oriented approaches to national security, criminal justice and police accountability; works to abolish the death penalty; and campaigns for individuals at risk.
In 2014, President Obama acknowledged that torture had been carried out following the 11 September 2001 attacks (9/11) under a secret detention program authorized by his predecessor and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). However, accountability and remedy for the crimes under international law committed in that programme remained absent. The declassified summary of a Senate report into the program was released in December. Scores of detainees remained in indefinite military detention at the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, while military commission trial proceedings continued in a handful of cases. Concern about the use of prolonged isolation in state and federal prisons and the excessive use of force by police continued. Thirty-three men and two women were executed during the year.
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October 20, 2021 • Report
Few Routes to Safety for Afghans at Risk of Taliban Reprisals
Nearly two months since airlift operations in Afghanistan ended, those left behind face formidable obstacles to seeking safety outside the country, Amnesty International said today. In an advocacy briefing, the organization highlights how neighboring countries have closed their borders to Afghans without travel documents, leaving many with no choice but to make irregular crossings. Instead of granting protection to people who arrive on their territory in this way - as required by international law - countries across Europe and Central Asia have subjected Afghans to illegal pushbacks, detention and deportation.
September 28, 2021 • Press Release
U.S. Backsliding on Global Gains in Abortion Rights
The past few months have underscored that American’s rights to abortion remain under attack. Earlier this month, S.B. 8 went into effect in Texas, effectively banning abortions as early as six weeks – before many people even know they are pregnant – and privatizing enforcement against abortion providers. Later this year, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in response to a Mississippi legal case that threatens to overturn decades-old abortion protections established under Roe v. Wade.
September 24, 2021 • Press Release
Biden Administration Must Hold CBP Officers Accountable and Restore Access to Asylum for All Haitian Migrants
In response to the mass deportation of Haitian migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and horrific reports of Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) inhumane treatment against Black asylum-seekers, Paul O’Brien, Executive Director at Amnesty International USA said: “The horrific conduct by CBP in Del Rio, Texas, including officers charging into crowds of Haitian asylum-seekers on horseback, violently dispersing them, taunting them, and forcing them away from safety, is reprehensible and underscores a deeper problem of systemic and racist treatment against Haitian and other Black migrants in the U.S. and at the southern border.
September 22, 2021 • Press Release
States Must Take Immediate Action and Deliver Surplus COVID-19 Vaccines Now, Not Next Year
In response to today’s Global Covid-19 Summit: Ending the Pandemic and Building Back Better, where US President Biden and EU President Von der Leyen announced new commitments to donate an additional 900 million to low and lower-middle income countries by September 2022, Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard, said: “Fair access to Covid-19 vaccines across the world is our only pathway out of this crisis so we welcome the news that the USA and the EU have committed to new targets in the fight against this pandemic.
April 7, 2020 • Report
Amid COVID-19 pandemic, authorities must release immigration detainees
The Trump administration is failing to protect people in immigration detention during the COVID-19 public health emergency, Amnesty International said today in a new report, ‘We are adrift, about to …
March 24, 2020 • Report
AMERICAS AT A CROSSROADS IN RESPONSE TO COVID-19
Faced with an unprecedented pandemic, governments across the Americas have begun to respond to COVID-19 in a variety of ways, ranging from calling for states of emergencies, to imposing travel …
February 27, 2020 • Report
Countries cracked down on asylum and the right to protest in the Americas in 2019
As millions took to the streets to protest rampant violence, inequality, corruption and impunity, or were forced to flee their countries in search of safety, states across the Americas clamped …
October 18, 2019 • Report
Comprehensive Health Services Contributing to the Violation of Children’s Rights by Operating the Homestead Facility in Florida
Amnesty International USA today called on U.S. government contractor, Comprehensive Health Services, to end its operations at the Homestead detention center in Florida. A new briefing, No Home for Children: …
July 17, 2019 • Report
No Home for Children: US Government Detention of Children at Homestead Facility Cruel and Unlawful
The Homestead facility housing children who traveled alone to the United States must be shut down as quickly as possible, a new Amnesty International USA report finds, and children should immediately be placed in licensed, small-size shelters and released to appropriate sponsors. The unlawful conditions at this facility are a direct result of US government policies designed to punish rather than protect people trying to rebuild their lives.
July 11, 2019 • Report
Scars of Survival: Gun Violence and Barriers to Reparation in the USA
Survivors of gun violence in the USA suffer years of trauma and pain due to a destructive combination of government policies which ignore their needs, Amnesty International said today as …
