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Press Release

Responding to the appointment of Win Myint as the new President of Myanmar, James Gomez, Amnesty International’s Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said: “The Myanmar authorities should use the appointment of a new President as an opportunity to step back from the brink. We’ve seen a dramatic deterioration in the human rights situation in the last year, most especially for the Rohingya community who have been targeted in a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing involving crimes against humanity. “While the military still wields considerable power, the civilian-led government most do more to end discrimination and ensure that perpetrators of…

March 28, 2018

Press Release

Responding to eyewitness accounts of journalists and demonstrators being subjected to physical and verbal attacks by security forces in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq where there have been widespread anti-austerity protests since Sunday, Lynn Maalouf, Middle East Research Director at Amnesty International, said: “Eyewitnesses we’ve interviewed, including a teacher and a journalist, have described scenes of chaos in Erbil and Dohuk as Kurdish security forces and armed individuals in civilian clothes used violence to disperse peaceful protests. “Peaceful demonstrators have been beaten up and insulted. Journalists using cameras or mobile phones to document the protests have been attacked. This is totally unacceptable…

March 28, 2018

Report

An irresponsible Chinese mining operation in Mozambique has put an entire coastal village of more than a thousand people at serious risk of being washed into the Indian Ocean, Amnesty International revealed today in a new report. Our lives mean nothing: the human cost of Chinese mining in Nagonha, Mozambique exposes how the operations of mining company, Haiyu, likely contributed significantly to a flash flood in 2015 in the village of Nagonha, which destroyed 48 homes and left 270 people homeless. The Mozambican authorities’ failure to regulate the industry in the wake of this disaster has also contributed to the…

March 28, 2018

Press Release

Reacting to a news conference by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry stating the Louisiana Department of Justice would not prosecute the two police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling, Kristina Roth, Senior Program Officer at Amnesty International USA stated: “The decision of the Louisiana Department of Justice is a reflection of the urgent need to review both state and federal laws governing when and how police should use deadly force. “Neither Louisiana, nor any other US state, complies with international standards that maintain deadly force can only be used when there is an imminent threat to life…

March 27, 2018

Press Release

Israel’s policy of deporting African asylum-seekers to two unnamed African countries is an abdication of its responsibility to refugees and an example of the vicious political measures feeding the “global refugee crisis”, Amnesty International said today as the Israeli Supreme Court considers new evidence on the legality of the policy. Israel has allegedly reached agreements with two countries – widely understood to be Uganda and Rwanda. The terms of the agreements are classified. Under the government’s new “Procedure for Deportation to Third Countries”, launched in January, those who agree to leave are given US$3,500 and a ticket to either their…

March 26, 2018

Press Release

Responding to reports that the Huthi armed group in Yemen fired seven ballistic missiles at airports in Riyadh and other Saudi Arabian cities overnight on Sunday, killing one civilian, Samah Hadid, Middle East Deputy Director for Campaigns at Amnesty International, said: “Launching indiscriminate attacks is prohibited by international humanitarian law and can constitute a war crime. A high death toll may have been averted, possibly due to the missiles being intercepted, but that doesn’t let the Huthi armed group off the hook for this reckless and unlawful act. These missiles cannot be precisely targeted at such distances, so their use…

March 26, 2018

Press Release

Amnesty International USA will have member and staff-led delegations in 14 cities around the country as part of the March for Our Lives event this Saturday, March 24. Amnesty International USA is not an organizer of the event, but has endorsed the march.

March 24, 2018

Press Release

In response to the fatal shooting of Stephen Clark, a 22-year old unarmed man, who went by Stephon, killed on March 18 by officers of the Sacramento Police Department in the backyard of his family home, Amnesty International sent a letter to Chief of Police, Daniel Hahn. The letter detailed the organization’s concerns that the shooting violated international standards, which state that lethal force can only be used as a last resort when faced with an imminent threat of death or serious injury. “We are concerned that the footage, both from aerial cameras and a body camera, depict a use…

March 23, 2018

Press Release

In an extraordinary move, fifteen-year old Astrid and her father Arturo were ordered released today. This morning, Amnesty International USA delivered petitions to the Philadelphia Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office, urging Acting Field Office Director Gregory Brawley to release the family.

March 23, 2018

Press Release

Responding to reports that an alleged Russian air strike using an incendiary weapon burned to death 37 civilians – mainly women and children – hiding in an air-raid shelter in the Syrian town of Arbin on Friday, Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Senior Advisor Rawya Rageh said the following.

March 23, 2018

Press Release

Responding to news that John Bolton will replace H.R. McMaster as National Security Advisor, Zeke Johnson, Senior Director of Programs at Amnesty International USA, stated:   "This is a reckless decision. Bolton's influence over national security policy could result in even more civilian deaths and potentially unlawful killings given his disdain for international law and international institutions.   “Bolton’s appointment could be a disaster for human rights. Bolton was a proponent of “un-signing” the international treaty establishing the International Criminal Court -- referring to the United States as the only real power.   “We are particularly concerned how his replacement…

March 22, 2018

Press Release

A Saudi Arabia-led coalition attack with a US-manufactured bomb, which turned a civilian home into rubble and killed or injured six members of the same family, is the latest in a long string of potential war crimes Amnesty International has documented over the past three years of Yemen’s devastating conflict.

March 22, 2018