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View of a fire near Charagua in Bolivia, on the border with Paraguay, south of the Amazon basin, on August 29, 2019. - Fires have destroyed 1.2 million hectares of forest and grasslands in Bolivia this year, the government said on Wednesday, although environmentalists claim the true figure is much greater. (Photo by Aizar RALDES / AFP) (Photo credit should read AIZAR RALDES/AFP/Getty Images)

Press Release

Bolivian Government Must Suspend Presidential Decree and Investigate Causes of Forest Fires

In an open letter published today, Amnesty International called on the government of President Evo Morales to suspend the July…

September 9, 2019

Credit: Micah Farfour, Remote Sensing Expert on Amnesty's Crisis Team.

Press Release

Brazilian Government’s Failures are Fueling Wildfires Across the Amazon

Responding to the news of the wildfires that have been raging in the Amazon rainforest for several weeks, Kumi Naidoo,…

August 22, 2019

March to mark one month of the killings of the human rights defender and city councilor Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Press Release

Brazil: After a year of impunity, authorities must bring Marielle Franco’s killers to justice

One year on from the killing of the human rights defender and Rio de Janeiro city councillor Marielle Franco and…

March 10, 2019

Hundreds of indigenous Hondurans and peasants march on August 17, 2016 in Tegucigalpa in Tegucigalpa demanding justice for the murder of indigenous environementalist Berta Caceres last July. / AFP / ORLANDO SIERRA (Photo credit should read ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP/Getty Images)

Press Release

Honduras: Authorities must bring all those suspected of responsibility for the murder of Berta Cáceres to justice

Three years after the murder of Berta Cáceres, the Honduran defender of environmental and Indigenous rights, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director…

February 28, 2019

Nawal Benaissa, 36 yeards-old, is a mother of 4 who joined Hirak early on and became one of its main female leading voices. She took part to several protests with her husband and children and has been very active on social media. Her Facebook profile gained more than 80 000 followers, before authorities asked her to shut down during one of her detention in custody. She was arrested and held in custody for few hours four times between June and September 2017. This last time she was sued and on mid-February 2018, she was sentenced to 10 months suspended sentence and a fine of 500 hundred dirhams for inciting to commit an offence (by speech, cries or threats made in the places where public meetings, either through posters exposed to the public or by any means fulfilling the condition, advertising, including electronically, on paper and by audio-visual channel, if the provocation has not been followed by effect. Article 299 of the penal code). Her lawyer has appealed the sentence, the Court of Appeal has yet to rule. Benaissa responded to the court's decision on her Facebook page by expressing her continued support for the Rif protests. "I am proud to take part in the protests in the region and I denounce the imprisonment of Hirak activists. I demand their immediate release," she wrote. Few weeks ago, she moved from the northern city of Al Hoceima to another Moroccan city in order to flee harassment from authorities.

Press Release

Amnesty International launches world’s biggest human rights campaign

Women human rights defenders around the world are facing unprecedented levels of abuse, intimidation and violence, said Amnesty International as…

November 28, 2018

Thousands of ethnic Mapuches, Chile's largest indigenous group, participate in a protest rally in Santiago on October 15, 2012. Hundreds of indigenous Chileans and members of social organizations marched demanding the restitution of their ancestral lands -- just days after the 520th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in America. AFP PHOTO/Martin BERNETTI (Photo credit should read MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/GettyImages)

Press Release

Chile: Life of imprisoned Indigenous leader is in imminent danger

In response to the dry hunger strike that Machi Celestino Córdova, a Mapuche spiritual leader who is currently imprisoned, convicted…

July 26, 2018