Severe restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly continued in 2010. Repression of dissidents intensified with new arrests of political and human rights activists, most of whom had criticized widespread corruption and government policies relating to China. Bloggers were briefly detained. In most cases, national security concerns were cited as a pretext for arrests and criminal investigations. Peaceful protests by Catholics over land ownership were met with excessive force and arrests by police. Members of ethnic and religious minority groups were threatened and harassed. The National Assembly approved the removal of the death penalty for eight crimes, but 21 capital offences remained. At least 59 death sentences were handed down, and nine executions were reported in the media. No official statistics on the death penalty were made public.
Saudi Arabia executed a record number of people in 2019, despite an overall decline in executions worldwide, Amnesty International said in its 2019 global review of the death penalty published today. The Saudi authorities put 184 people to death last year, the highest number Amnesty has ever recorded in a single year in the country. …
Responding to the effective expulsion of journalists working for three major U.S. newspapers in China, the Head of Amnesty International’s China team, Joshua Rosenzweig, said: “This shameful assault on freedom of expression targets journalists who have uncovered the reality of numerous human rights violations in China, from Xinjiang to Hong Kong. These publications have also …
China is systematically harassing Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups even after they have left the country, according to new testimonies gathered by Amnesty International. The case studies, published online today, reveal how China targets members of the Uyghur and other diaspora communities across the globe through pressure from its embassies abroad, as well as through messaging …
The outbreak of the coronavirus (2019-nCov) that started in the Chinese city of Wuhan (Hubei province) in late 2019 has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO). As of early February, the epidemic is estimated to have infected more than 24,500 people worldwide. The Chinese authorities have reported 490 deaths, mostly in …
Responding to the passage of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act in the United States Senate and House of Representatives, Francisco Bencosme, the Asia Pacific advocacy manager at Amnesty International USA said...
Responding to the official signing of S.2710, the PROTECT Hong Kong Act, Amnesty International USA and Amnesty International Hong King issued the following joint statement: Francisco Bencosme, the Asia Pacific advocacy manager at Amnesty International USA said: “This bill will help ensure that the U.S. halts its moral complicity in the violence and abuses committed by the Hong Kong police using U.S. …
Amnesty International has today launched Write for Rights, the world’s biggest human rights campaign, which this year champions children’s rights and youth activists.
Antonio Guterres should publicly and unequivocally condemn the Chinese authorities’ abusive policies in Xinjiang and call for an immediate closure of camps containing an estimated one million Turkic Muslims, a coalition of five human rights groups, including Amnesty International, said in a letter to the UN Secretary-General.
Google must now go one step further and commit to never aid China’s large-scale censorship and surveillance. The company’s past evasiveness on this issue leaves the door open to future abuses. CEO Sundar Pichai should make a definitive statement that it will not engage in any project in China that undermines human rights full stop.
In response to the Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal ruling on Thursday that the government’s refusal to grant same-sex couples access to spousal employment benefits is unlawful, Man-kei Tam, Director of Amnesty International Hong Kong, said the following.