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TOPSHOT - Venezuelans opposed to President Nicolas Maduro hold a demonstration in Medellin, Colombia in support of opposition leader Juan Guaido's self-proclamation as acting president of Venezuela, on January 23, 2019. (Photo by JOAQUIN SARMIENTO / AFP) (Photo credit should read JOAQUIN SARMIENTO/AFP/Getty Images)

Press Release

More than a dozen people killed in protests in Venezuela

In response to reports that at least a dozen people were killed in the context of the protests in Venezuela,…

January 24, 2019

Press Release

Amnesty and Sofar Sounds partner for Write for Rights concert and letter writing event

On Saturday, December 8, human rights organization Amnesty International USA in partnership with live music events startup Sofar Sounds will…

November 30, 2018

Nawal Benaissa, 36 yeards-old, is a mother of 4 who joined Hirak early on and became one of its main female leading voices. She took part to several protests with her husband and children and has been very active on social media. Her Facebook profile gained more than 80 000 followers, before authorities asked her to shut down during one of her detention in custody. She was arrested and held in custody for few hours four times between June and September 2017. This last time she was sued and on mid-February 2018, she was sentenced to 10 months suspended sentence and a fine of 500 hundred dirhams for inciting to commit an offence (by speech, cries or threats made in the places where public meetings, either through posters exposed to the public or by any means fulfilling the condition, advertising, including electronically, on paper and by audio-visual channel, if the provocation has not been followed by effect. Article 299 of the penal code). Her lawyer has appealed the sentence, the Court of Appeal has yet to rule. Benaissa responded to the court's decision on her Facebook page by expressing her continued support for the Rif protests. "I am proud to take part in the protests in the region and I denounce the imprisonment of Hirak activists. I demand their immediate release," she wrote. Few weeks ago, she moved from the northern city of Al Hoceima to another Moroccan city in order to flee harassment from authorities.

Press Release

Amnesty International launches world’s biggest human rights campaign

Women human rights defenders around the world are facing unprecedented levels of abuse, intimidation and violence, said Amnesty International as…

November 28, 2018

Sheet of paper Report

Curaçao: Authorities are denying protection to people fleeing the crisis in Venezuela

Authorities in the Caribbean island of Curaçao, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, must protect people who are fleeing…

September 9, 2018

Venezuela Protestors
RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP/Getty Images

Press Release

Americas: Summit leaders must prioritize solving grave human rights challenges

Regional leaders must prioritize the protection of human rights in their final declaration at the VIII Summit of the Americas…

April 11, 2018

Press Release

Venezuela: Unattended health rights crisis is forcing thousands to flee

Severe violations of the right to health, as well as difficulties accessing food and other basic services, are putting thousands…

March 9, 2018

Members of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) patrol Caracas as an operation to capture Oscar Perez, the Venezuelan helicopter pilot who dropped grenades on the Supreme Court last year during anti-government protests, is carried out on January 15, 2018. Several people, including two police officers, were killed in an operation to capture Oscar Perez, A ministry statement said members of a "terrorist cell" were killed, and five were arrested in the operation, but did not say whether the pilot, was among the dead or detained. / AFP PHOTO / JUAN BARRETO (Photo credit should read JUAN BARRETO/AFP/Getty Images)

Press Release

Venezuela must respond for deadly security operation

The operation by security forces to arrest the former CICPC (Scientific Investigation Police) official Óscar Pérez and others who had…

January 17, 2018

Opposition activists shout slogans while members of the National Orchestra System hold a demonstration in rejection of the recent deaths of young people by security forces -within opposition protests- in Caracas on May 7, 2017. The last death in Venezuela's unrest, of a 22-year-old man, occurred during looting in Valencia, one of Venezuelan cities hardest hit by a worsening economic crisis. Demonstrators blame Maduro for the country's plight and the shortages of food and medicine, and demand elections to remove the leftist president. / AFP PHOTO / JUAN BARRETO (Photo credit should read JUAN BARRETO/AFP/Getty Images)

Press Release

Venezuela: Wave of arrests as government turns against elected opposition

The arrest of four officials from the opposition in Venezuela, the removal from office of a further 11 and the…

August 11, 2017

Opposition activists shout slogans while members of the National Orchestra System hold a demonstration in rejection of the recent deaths of young people by security forces -within opposition protests- in Caracas on May 7, 2017. The last death in Venezuela's unrest, of a 22-year-old man, occurred during looting in Valencia, one of Venezuelan cities hardest hit by a worsening economic crisis. Demonstrators blame Maduro for the country's plight and the shortages of food and medicine, and demand elections to remove the leftist president. / AFP PHOTO / JUAN BARRETO (Photo credit should read JUAN BARRETO/AFP/Getty Images)

Press Release

Venezuela at breaking point as opposition leaders seized from homes

The seizure of two opposition leaders in Caracas late last night is a telling sign that the Maduro administration is…

August 1, 2017

Since 4 April, there have been at least 60 people reported dead and 1,000 injured in the context of the political crisis, according to official figures. According to local NGOs, hundreds of people have been unfairly imprisoned in the context of massive anti-government demonstrations that have been taking place across Venezuela. More than 300 people are believed to have been taken to military courts, accused of crimes such as “rebellion”, “terrorism” and “treason”, and effectively treated like soldiers in an armed conflict. Over recent weeks, security forces have used undue force to prevent peaceful demonstrations from taking place. Individuals living in residential areas, and not taking part in demonstrations, have also reported being victims of indiscriminate tear gas attacks. The community in La Isabelica, Carabobo, is a striking example of the extent of the indiscriminate use of violence against people not involved in the recent wave of protests. Amnesty International has received direct reports of random shootings against civilians, tear gas being shot straight into homes, and a sense of generalized fear to report these incident to the authorities.

Press Release

Venezuela: Acts of violence highlight government’s disregard for human rights

The dramatic increase in illegal use of force, scores of arbitrary detentions and the killing of at least 10 people,…

July 31, 2017

Opposition activists shout slogans while members of the National Orchestra System hold a demonstration in rejection of the recent deaths of young people by security forces -within opposition protests- in Caracas on May 7, 2017. The last death in Venezuela's unrest, of a 22-year-old man, occurred during looting in Valencia, one of Venezuelan cities hardest hit by a worsening economic crisis. Demonstrators blame Maduro for the country's plight and the shortages of food and medicine, and demand elections to remove the leftist president. / AFP PHOTO / JUAN BARRETO (Photo credit should read JUAN BARRETO/AFP/Getty Images)

Press Release

Venezuela: Ban on protests lays groundwork for mass human rights violations

The security plan announced ahead of the elections for the Constituent Assembly in Venezuela this Sunday banning protests against the…

July 28, 2017

Press Release

Venezuela using lethal violence as a state policy to strangle dissent

Recurrent attacks against the Venezuelan population and speeches inciting violence by the authorities indicate a premeditated policy of violent repression…

July 10, 2017