Below you’ll find breaking news as well as reports, updates on our campaigns, and victories.
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Update
Amnesty-Co-Chaired Coalition to End Violence Against Women and Girls Globally calls on President Biden to Urgently Increase Efforts to Support Afghan Women and Girls, Evacuate Women’s Rights Defenders
On August 24th, the Coalition to End Violence Against Women and Girls Globally - co-chaired by Amnesty International USA, Futures Without Violence, Promundo-US, and the Women’s Refugee Commission - wrote to President Biden with deep concern about the growing threat to the rights and safety of women and girls in Afghanistan, and call on the Biden administration to urgently increase efforts to support Afghan women and girls. This includes by prioritizing the urgent evacuation of women’s rights defenders, particularly those already being targeted for harassment, abuse, and violence by the Taliban. The Coalition consists of more than 180 organizations dedicated…
August 27, 2021
Press Release
Deadline for evacuations must be extended amid Taliban reprisal attack threats in Afghanistan
The Taliban and the international community must urgently reach an agreement to extend the August 31 deadline for completing evacuations out of Afghanistan, Amnesty International said today, to help protect thousands of Afghans who are increasingly at risk of violent reprisal attacks. President Joe Biden has said the U.S. is on track to pull its troops out of Afghanistan in five days, despite calls to delay the withdrawal following reports of escalating Taliban threats to human rights defenders, women and girls, ethnic and religious minorities, lawmakers and journalists. In a recent on-the-ground investigation, Amnesty International researchers revealed that nine Hazara men…
August 26, 2021
Press Release
Shameful failure of UNHRC special session to address escalating human rights crisis in Afghanistan
The UN Human Rights Council today failed the people of Afghanistan after neglecting to establish an independent mechanism to monitor ongoing crimes under international law and human rights violations and abuses, Amnesty International said today. At the opening of today’s UNHRC special session, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Special Procedures and a host of other civil society speakers - including Amnesty International - unequivocally called for the creation of a robust investigative mechanism. Such a mechanism would allow for monitoring and reporting on human rights violations and abuses, including grave crimes under international…
August 24, 2021
Press Release
President Biden Has the Political Support to Close the Guantanamo Detention Center
In response to the news that a Congressional letter was sent to President Biden by 75 Representatives urging him to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay ‘once and for all,’ Daphne Eviatar, Director, Security with Human Rights at Amnesty International USA said:
August 4, 2021
Press Release
New IRAP Report Recommends Actions to Tackle Climate Displacement
Today, the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) released a new report, “Opportunities to Address Climate Displacement in the U.S.,” which outlines the legal protection gaps that prevent people displaced by climate change from finding safety and what the United States can do to address them. The report’s publication coincides with the report prepared by the President’s National Security Advisor on the impact of climate change on migration, which the White House is expected to receive by August 4.
August 2, 2021
Update
Amnesty International Calls on President Biden to Address Repression, Human Rights Abuses in Iraq in Meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Kadhimi
On July 23, 2021, Amnesty International USA wrote to President Joe Biden urging him to raise unlawful repression and worrying human rights abuses in Iraq towards peaceful protesters, press, religious minorities, and internally displaced persons on Monday, July 26th's during Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi's scheduled White House visit. Click here to download a copy of the letter, or read below. July 23, 2021 President Joseph R. Biden 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20500 RE: Amnesty International urges President Biden to raise rights abuses against press, protesters, religious minorities, internally displaced persons (IDPs) in visit by Iraqi Prime Minister…
July 23, 2021
Press Release
Guantánamo Bay Has Been Allowed to Remain Open Too Long
Responding to the Biden administration transferring its first detainee out of Guantánamo Bay, Daphne Eviatar, the director of the Security With Human Rights program said: “The Biden administration’s first transfer out of Guantánamo is a welcome step. Now we need to see the remaining ten detainees already cleared for release transferred quickly. And we need to see clear plans for shuttering this unlawful facility once and for all. “The detention facility has been allowed to stay open for far too long, now holding thirty-nine people for almost two decades, most without charge or trial.” Amnesty International USA continues to campaign…
July 19, 2021
Update
Amnesty International Statement for the Record on Impacts of COVID-19 in MENA Region, Need for U.S. Action – House Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee
On June 22, 2021, Amnesty International USA’s Middle East and North Africa advocacy director Philippe Nassif and Mustafa Kassem Fellow Amit Dadon submitted the following statement for the record to the House Foreign Affairs Committee's Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee June 23 hearing on “COVID-19 in the MENA Region: Addressing the Impacts of the Pandemic and the Road to Recovery”. In the statement, Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) details our research on and human rights concerns relating to the COVID-19 pandemic in the region, especially as pertaining to its compounding effect of existing devastating crises and armed crises on countries'…
June 24, 2021
Press Release
Executives of surveillance companies Amesys and Nexa Technologies indicted for complicity in torture
Responding to the news that four executives of French surveillance companies Amesys and Nexa Technologies have been indicted for complicity in torture over the sale of surveillance technology to governments in Libya and Egypt, Amnesty Tech Director, Rasha Abdul Rahim, said: “The indictments are unprecedented. When left unchecked, the activities of surveillance companies can facilitate grave human rights violations and repression, including the crimes of torture and enforced disappearance. “These indictments send a clear message to surveillance companies that they are not above the law, and could face criminal accountability for their actions. “This case also shows the urgent need…
June 22, 2021
Report
Draconian repression of Muslims in Xinjiang, China, amounts to crimes against humanity
Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region face systematic state-organized mass imprisonment, torture and persecution amounting to crimes against humanity, Amnesty International said as it launched a new report and campaign today. In the 160-page report, ‘Like We Were Enemies in a War’: China’s Mass Internment, Torture, and Persecution of Muslims in Xinjiang, Amnesty International’s Crisis Response team released dozens of new testimonies from former detainees detailing the extreme measures taken by Chinese authorities since 2017 to essentially root out the religious traditions, cultural practices and local languages of the region’s Muslim ethnic…
June 10, 2021
Press Release
United States Must Halt Arms Sale to Israel and Commit to Ending Violations in Gaza
Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) supports joint resolutions in the House and Senate, introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders, to block the United States’ pending $735 million weapons sale to Israel. Israeli forces have carried out airstrikes in Gaza targeting residential buildings and family homes, in some cases killing entire families. These attacks may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity and must be investigated. By planning to supply hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons to Israel, the United States government stands to help carry out war crimes and kill or injure more people with…
May 21, 2021
Press Release
UN Human Rights Council Special Session Must Address Violations in Israel/OPT
Welcoming the news that the UN Human Rights Council has today announced it will hold a special session to address the rapidly deteriorating situation across Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) on May 27, Amnesty International’s representative to the UN in Geneva, Kevin Whelan said: “Within a matter of weeks, the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories has escalated from a crackdown by Israeli forces against peaceful Palestinian demonstrators in East Jerusalem to a full-scale armed conflict between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza.
May 20, 2021