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Press Release

The on-going uncertainty around Brexit poses serious human rights issues, Amnesty International said today.

September 9, 2019

Press Release

Today marks huge progress for the rights of Northern Irish citizens, said Amnesty International, as MPs voted through amendments to the Northern Ireland Executive Formation Bill which will see same-sex marriage legalized, while the UK Government is forced to legislate for abortion reform, including decriminalization.

July 9, 2019

Press Release

Climate change activist Greta Thunberg and the Fridays for Future movement of school-children have been honored with Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award for 2019, the human rights organization announced today. “The Ambassador of Conscience Award is Amnesty International’s highest honor, celebrating people who have shown unique leadership and courage in standing up for human rights. I can think of no better recipients this year than Greta Thunberg and the Fridays for Future climate strike movement,” said Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General of Amnesty International. “We are humbled and inspired by the determination with which youth activists across the world are…

June 7, 2019

Press Release

Following the announcement of Julian Assange’s arrest, and request for extradition to the United States, Massimo Moratti, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Research in Europe, said the following.

April 11, 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

Press Release

The US-led Coalition’s ongoing failure to admit to, let alone adequately investigate, the shocking scale of civilian deaths and destruction it caused in Raqqa is a slap in the face for survivors trying to rebuild their lives and their city, said Amnesty International a year after the offensive to oust the armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS). On October 17, 2017, following a fierce four-month battle, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – the Coalition’s Kurdish-led partners on the ground – announced victory over IS, which had used civilians as human shields and committed other war crimes in besieged Raqqa.…

October 14, 2018

Press Release

Responding to a scathing report published today by the United Nations Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen (GEE) which concludes that all parties to the conflict may be guilty of war crimes, Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Middle East research director, said: “The GEE, in its first report, confirms what we have known for the past three years, namely that all parties to the conflict in Yemen have acted with utter disregard for civilian lives. The Saudi Arabia-led coalition and allied forces, Huthi and Yemeni government aligned forces have consistently carried out unlawful attacks, restricted access to humanitarian aid, carried out…

August 28, 2018

Press Release

The Department of Defense should investigate thoroughly all claims of civilian casualties caused by its Raqqa offensive as well as all US military operations going forward Amnesty International urged in a letter to Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis following the US-led Coalition's acknowledgement of 77 civilian casualties as a result of military operations in Raqqa. Following Amnesty International's report 'War of annihilation’: Devastating Toll on Civilians, Raqqa – Syria, in June, Amnesty's researchers have cause to believe many civilian causalities remain unacknowledged based on conversations conducted with survivors and witnesses in Raqqa. "Victims and survivors in Raqqa are living with the unimaginable pain of having…

August 21, 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

Ahead of President Trump’s visit to the UK this week, Amnesty International is calling for Theresa May to “stand up to Trump” and to put the Anglo-American diplomatic relationship on a new “intelligently critical” footing. Amnesty International UK called on the Prime Minister to take up key human rights issues when she meets the president for talks, including the US administration’s policy of detaining child migrants and the reinstatement and expansion of a highly controversial “global gag rule” affecting funding for international women’s health programs. Meanwhile, Amnesty International, a host of other groups and thousands of members of the public…

July 12, 2018

Press Release

Responding to news that the prominent British human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has been arrested and charged with a criminal offence after staging a protest near Moscow’s Red Square about LGBTI rights in Chechnya, Kate Allen, Amnesty International UK’s Director, said: “The response to Peter Tatchell’s protest is straight out of the Russian authorities’ playbook - protest in a high-profile location like Red Square, hold a placard criticising Putin or speak in support of LGBTI right in public, and face immediate arrest by the police. “In present-day Russia, there’s no right to peacefully protest, no right to publicly stand up…

June 14, 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