Newsroom

Press Release

In response to a decision by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to pull 71 staff out of Yemen due to ongoing insecurity, threats and blocks to their work, Samah Hadid, Amnesty International’s Middle East Director of Campaigns, said: “It is an unquestionably bleak moment when humanitarian workers, who are in Yemen to save lives, are themselves forced to flee in fear for their own lives. Yemeni civilians caught up in war and one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises have just lost a precious lifeline. “The ICRC has served victims of armed conflict and violence in Yemen for more…

June 8, 2018

Press Release

Responding to reports that Russian aircraft carried out an attack in Idlib province last night, killing at least 44 people, Lynn Maalouf, Middle East Research Director at Amnesty International, said: “This outrageous attack, the deadliest in Idlib so far this year, targeted the village of Zardana overnight while people were breaking the Ramadan fast. Among those killed were at least six children, and the death toll is expected to rise as the wounded succumb to their injuries. Deliberately attacking civilians violates international humanitarian law and is a war crime. “We are deeply troubled by reports that this was a ‘double-tap’ strike,…

June 8, 2018

Press Release

The Nigerian military is increasingly resorting to threats, intimidation and smears to discredit Amnesty International’s work documenting the human rights violations it has committed, Amnesty International said today. On May 24, 2018 the organization released a report, “They Betrayed Us”, which documented the prevalence of sexual violence against starving women and girls detained in satellite camps under the control of Nigerian soldiers and militia. The Nigerian military responded by organizing smear campaigns and issuing threats to “take action against Amnesty International”. “Rather than taking action to address the issues raised in this report, like investigating countless allegations of rape and other…

June 7, 2018

Press Release

The Mozambican authorities must take immediate steps to end a killing spree in the Cabo Delgado Province, which has seen at least 37 people brutally killed by a group known as ‘Al-Shabab’ in the past two weeks, Amnesty International said today. The organization said that an increasing number of people are fleeing their homes in fear of the group, which has no known link to the Somalian armed group of the same name. The latest attack took place last night in Namaculo village in Quissanga district. Witnesses told Amnesty International that around 10 people were hacked to death and an…

June 7, 2018

Press Release

A transgender woman and LGBT rights activist who suffered persecution and sexual assault in El Salvador is being unreasonably held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and must be released from the Cibola County Correctional Center in New Mexico, said Amnesty International today. Alejandra (last name withheld for her protection) struggles to receive the adequate medical care she needs while in detention.

June 7, 2018

Press Release

Despite the government’s cynical crackdown on human rights, activists for justice and freedom will not be silenced, Amnesty International said on the first anniversary of the detention of Taner Kılıç. The Honorary Chair of Amnesty International Turkey was arrested on 6 June 2017 on a baseless charge of belonging to a terrorist organization. More than a million people have since raised their voices and backed Amnesty’s campaign for his immediate release. “Today we mourn the year of Taner Kılıç’s life that Turkey’s government has unjustly taken from him, but this is also a moment to redouble our efforts to secure his…

June 6, 2018

Press Release

In a response to the “Draft Declaration of Support for the People of Nicaragua” presented by the permanent missions of the United States and Nicaragua, to be discussed and voted at the 48th General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International, said the following:

June 5, 2018

Report

From amid the rubble of Raqqa, civilians are asking why US-led Coalition forces destroyed the city, killing hundreds of civilians in the process of “liberating” them from the armed group calling itself “Islamic State” (IS), Amnesty International said in a new report ahead of the offensive’s anniversary. Amnesty International researchers visited 42 Coalition air strike sites across the ruined city and interviewed 112 civilian residents who had survived the carnage and lost loved ones. The accounts detailed in the report, ‘War of annihilation’: Devastating Toll on Civilians, Raqqa – Syria, leave gaping holes in the Coalition’s insistence that their forces…

June 4, 2018

Press Release

The international community and allies of the Saudi Arabian government must speak up to help secure the immediate and unconditional release of the women’s rights defenders currently detained in Saudi Arabia, Amnesty International said today. More than two weeks have now passed since a number of prominent women’s rights activists, including Loujain al-Hathloul, Iman al-Nafjan and Aziza al-Youssef were arrested, and yet they remain detained without charge and incommunicado with no access to their families or lawyers. Yesterday, the European Parliament issued a resolution calling for their unconditional release and that of all human rights defenders. It also called for a more…

June 1, 2018

Press Release

Responding to the Pentagon’s report on US civilian casualties to Congress, Daphne Eviatar, Director of Security with Human Rights at Amnesty International USA stated: “The Defense Department has deemed that the vast majority of claims of civilian casualties are not credible without ever investigating them. Its numbers therefore likely severely undercount the actual civilian death toll. “The investigations that do occur by the Defense Department also do not appear to involve interviews with witnesses nor survivors, nor visits to the locations of the strikes. This further undermines their credibility. “We call on the U.S. government to meaningfully investigate all claims…

June 1, 2018

Press Release

The European Court of Human Rights has found that Romania and Lithuania violated the human rights of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, also known as Abu Zubaydah, with their complicity in the ill-treatment of the pair while they were held in US secret detention facilities in the two countries. The judgments are a key milestone in holding European governments accountable for their involvement in illegal CIA activities in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks. “The US could not have operated the rendition and secret detention program without its European allies. Today’s landmark rulings break the…

May 31, 2018

Press Release

Responding to a package of punitive laws tabled in Parliament today that will criminalize migration-related work by activists and NGOs, Amnesty International’s Europe Director, Gauri van Gulik said:

May 29, 2018