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Press Release

Responding to the decision by Instagram to take down an account featuring comic strips about the life of a Muslim man, at the Indonesian government’s request, Amnesty International Indonesia’s Executive Director Usman Hamid said: “By complying with the government’s request to remove this account, Instagram has caved to the growing repression of LGBTI people in Indonesia. This account did not publish pornography, as the government claims. It did nothing other than publish harmless illustrations featuring a character’s daily life, including references to his sexual orientation. “At a time when Indonesian people face hateful homophobic rhetoric and discrimination, Instagram has failed…

February 13, 2019

Press Release

The Iranian authorities carried out a shameless campaign of repression during 2018, crushing protests and arresting thousands in a wide-scale crackdown on dissent, said Amnesty International, a year after a wave of protests against poverty, corruption and authoritarianism erupted across the country. The organization has today revealed staggering new figures showing the extent of the Iranian authorities’ repression during 2018. Over the course of the year, more than 7,000 protesters, students, journalists, environmental activists, workers and human rights defenders, including lawyers, women’s rights activists, minority rights activists and trade unionists, were arrested, many arbitrarily. Hundreds were sentenced to prison terms…

January 23, 2019

Press Release

Responding to news that the UN have granted refugee status to Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, an 18-year old Saudi woman, and put her forward for resettlement to Australia, Amnesty International’s Middle East Director of Campaigns Samah Hadid said: “Rahaf’s story sends an important message: people around the world rallied to support her plea for protection, and people power prevailed over those who tried to oppress her. Rahaf took incredible risks to flee her family home and break Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship rules. In just a few days, her story became an inspiration to millions worldwide. Let it remind the world of…

January 9, 2019

Press Release

Amnesty International released a ground-breaking study into abuse against women on Twitter today, conducted with Element AI, a global artificial intelligence software product company. The findings showed that although the abuse cut across the political spectrum, women of color were much more likely to be impacted, and black women are disproportionately targeted. More than 6,500 volunteers from 150 countries signed up to take part in Troll Patrol, a unique crowdsourcing project designed to process large-scale data about online abuse. Volunteers sorted through 228,000 tweets sent to 778 women politicians and journalists in the UK and the US in 2017. Amnesty…

December 18, 2018

Report

As part of its brutal campaign against northern Iraq’s Yezidi minority, the armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS) committed war crimes and crimes against humanity when it sabotaged irrigation wells and destroyed other farming infrastructure, Amnesty International said in a new report today. A year after Iraq’s government declared military victory over IS, Dead Land: Islamic State’s Deliberate Destruction of Iraq’s Farmland details how the armed group also burnt orchards, looted livestock and machinery and laid landmines in farming areas. “The damage to Iraq’s countryside is as far-reaching as the urban destruction, but the consequences of the conflict on…

December 12, 2018

Report

Women activists around the world have been at the forefront of the battle for human rights in 2018, Amnesty International said today as it launched its review on the state of human rights over the past year. The human rights group also warns that the actions of “tough guy” world leaders pushing misogynistic, xenophobic and homophobic policies has placed freedoms and rights that were won long ago in fresh jeopardy. “In 2018, we witnessed many of these self-proclaimed ‘tough guy’ leaders trying to undermine the very principle of equality – the bedrock of human rights law. They think their policies…

December 9, 2018

Press Release

This statement has been updated to reflect that seven families have been released from the South Texas Family Residential Center, rather than eight.  Seven families seeking a better life in the United States have been released from the South Texas Family Residential Center in the town of Dilley, including Andrea* and her 7-year-old son, Mario,* who left Guatemala after years of being targeted because they belong to the Q’eqchi Indigenous group and were detained in the Dilley facility in July. The releases are especially significant in light of the Trump administration’s hostility toward asylum-seekers, including moves to bar asylum-seekers from entering…

December 3, 2018

Press Release

Women human rights defenders around the world are facing unprecedented levels of abuse, intimidation and violence, said Amnesty International as it launched its global Write for Rights campaign, in a bid to shine a spotlight on brave women who have been harassed, jailed, tortured or even killed for their human rights work. Women continue to face multiple forms of discrimination, targeted because of their gender and other characteristics, as well as for their human rights work. However, women refuse to stay silent and have been at the forefront of the battle for human rights in 2018. “Across the world, women are…

November 28, 2018

Press Release

Several Saudi Arabian activists, including a number of women, who have been arbitrarily detained without charge since May 2018 in Saudi Arabia’s Dhahban Prison, have reportedly faced sexual harassment, torture and other forms of ill-treatment during interrogation, Amnesty International said today. According to three separate testimonies obtained by the organization, the activists were repeatedly tortured by electrocution and flogging, leaving some unable to walk or stand properly. In one reported instance, one of the activists was made to hang from the ceiling, and according to another testimony, one of the detained women was reportedly subjected to sexual harassment, by interrogators wearing…

November 20, 2018

Press Release

Ahead of World Children’s Day on November 20, Amnesty International is calling for all children currently being held at the Dilley Detention Center to be freed with their families, and for the USA to end its plan of expanding family detention centers. The South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, is currently the largest immigration detention center in the United States, holding hundreds of families. The capacity for the Center is now at 2,400 beds. Seven-year-old Mario is one of the children that remains behind bars at Dilley after being separated from his mother, Andrea, for 73 days for…

November 19, 2018

Press Release

Libyan, European and Panamanian authorities must ensure that at least 79 refugees and migrants who are on board a merchant vessel at the port of Misratah are not forced to disembark to be taken to a Libyan detention centre where they could face torture and other abuse, said Amnesty International today. The refugees and migrants, including a number of children, were found as they attempted to reach Europe by boat across the Mediterranean. Amnesty International understands that Italian and Maltese maritime authorities were involved in the operation, carried out by the merchant ship Nivin. Flying a Panamanian flag, the Nivin…

November 16, 2018

Press Release

Bangladesh and Myanmar authorities must immediately halt plans to send Rohingya refugees back to Rakhine State, Amnesty International said today.

November 14, 2018