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The international community’s chilling complacency towards wide-scale human rights violations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has emboldened governments to commit appalling violations during 2018 by giving them the sense that they need never fear facing justice, said Amnesty International as it published a review of human rights in the region last year. The report Human rights in the Middle East and North Africa: A review of 2018 describes how authorities across the region have unashamedly persisted with ruthless campaigns of repression in order to crush dissent, cracking down on protesters, civil society and political opponents, often with tacit support…

February 26, 2019

Press Release

Responding to the Australian Defence Force’s (ADF) admission that its air strikes in Mosul, Iraq may have caused up to 18 civilian deaths in 2017, Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Middle East Research Director, said: “The Australian Defence Force’s latest admission that its air strikes killed civilians during the battle for Mosul in 2017 is a step in the right direction. Once again, the Australian government has proven more willing to take responsibility for causing loss of civilian life than its coalition partners, including the UK, USA and France. “The matter must not end here, however. The ADF should continue to…

February 1, 2019

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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

Press Release

In response to news that Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege and Yezidi human rights activist Nadia Murad have jointly won the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, Amnesty International’s Secretary General Kumi Naidoo said: “Warmest congratulations to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad for this recognition of their courageous work standing up for the victims of sexual violence in conflict. They are beacons of hope in a world where rape and other forms of sexual violence continue to be a frequent and horrific feature of wartime attacks, often used to brutalize, silence and spread fear. “We understand Denis Mukwege was in surgery when the…

October 5, 2018

Press Release

The US-led coalition has today issued a press release accepting responsibility for all civilian deaths documented in Amnesty International’s June 5th report into the aerial bombardment of Raqqa. Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Response Adviser, said: “After weeks of obfuscation and denials, the US-led coalition has finally admitted responsibility for the deaths of approximately a hundred civilians in Raqqa. Raqqa’s residents have faced years of unimaginable suffering, first under the brutal rule of so-called Islamic State, and then under relentless bombardment from the coalition, whose operation to retake the city left it in ruins." Daphne Eviatar, Amnesty International USA’s…

July 26, 2018

Press Release

Rather than be sent to a third country where he may face torture, a U.S. citizen held in for seven months in Iraq as a suspected fighter for the Islamic State must be either formally charged and given a fair trial in U.S. courts, or released if no charges are forthcoming, said Amnesty International today following a hearing on the man’s case. The United States gave notice earlier this week that it intended to send the detainee, who holds both U.S. and Saudi citizenship, to another country, possibly Saudi Arabia. “No one should be held for so long without charge…

April 19, 2018

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As the Trump administration prepares to further expand the US’s lethal drone program, increasing the risk of civilian casualties and unlawful killings, Amnesty International is calling on four European countries to urgently overhaul the crucial operational and intelligence assistance they provide to the program. Amnesty International and others have documented cases, under successive US administrations, where US drone strikes have killed people who were not directly participating in hostilities or posed no imminent threat to life, including children. In a new report, Deadly Assistance: The role of European states in US Drone Strikes, Amnesty International uses open source information to map out…

April 18, 2018

Press Release

The situation faced by an Iraqi man stranded in Egypt and in danger for his life despite being cleared to travel to the United States is emblematic of the cruelty of President Trump’s refugee policies, said Amnesty International USA today.

April 18, 2018

Press Release

In response to Senator Corker’s proposed authorization for use of military force (AUMF) intended to replace the 2001 and 2002 authorizations, Daphne Eviatar, director of Security with Human Rights for Amnesty International USA, made the following statement: “Since 2001, the U.S. has been operating as if the world is a permanent battlefield, at the costs of thousands of lives, including large numbers of civilians. Despite this, President Trump has reportedly expanded authority for air strikes outside of war zones, and expressed shockingly callous disregard for civilian casualties. The last thing President Trump needs is a renewed open-ended authorization that gives…

April 17, 2018

Report

Iraq: Women and children with perceived ties to IS denied aid, sexually exploited and trapped in camps  Iraqi women and children with perceived ties to the armed group calling itself the Islamic State (IS) are being denied humanitarian aid and prevented from returning to their homes, with an alarming number of women subjected to sexual violence, Amnesty International said in a new report published today. The Condemned: Women and Children Isolated, Trapped and Exploited in Iraq reveals widespread discrimination against women living in camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) by security forces, members of camp administrations and local authorities, who believe…

April 16, 2018

Press Release

Responding to an Associated Press report that Iraqi authorities have detained or imprisoned at least 19,000 people accused of links to the armed group calling itself the Islamic State (IS) or other terror-related offences, and sentenced more than 3,000 of them to death, Lynn Maalouf, Middle East Research Director at Amnesty International, said:

March 21, 2018

Press Release

Satellite images, videos, photos and dozens of testimonies collected by Amnesty International show that civilians were forced to flee their homes after fierce clashes erupted between Iraqi government forces, supported by the Popular Mobilization Units, and Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq’s multi-ethnic city of Tuz Khurmatu on October 16, 2017.

October 24, 2017