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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

Following this evening’s airing of Showtime’s, Who Is America, host Sacha Baron Cohen will be auctioning off the “Water Board Kit” seen in his interview with former Vice President Dick Cheney to benefit Amnesty International. The auction is now live here and will run until Tuesday, July 24. In the piece, Cohen asked former Vice President Dick Cheney about interrogation and torture. Amnesty International has long called for the use of simulated drowning and other acts of torture to be banned as interrogation techniques.  

July 22, 2018

Press Release

In an interview with Fox News following the Helsinki Summit on 16 July, Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized the high civilian death toll from the US-led Coalition’s aerial bombardment of Raqqa, Syria. Amnesty International’s Middle East Research Director Lynn Maalouf responded: “The US-led Coalition should absolutely face heightened scrutiny for its conduct in last year’s four-month Raqqa offensive. Our field investigations in the bombed-out city revealed hundreds of civilians were killed and thousands injured in the battle to oust the armed group calling itself Islamic State. The Coalition must own up to its record on civilian casualties and pave the way for meaningful investigations and reparations…

July 17, 2018

Press Release

The US-led Coalition’s flurry of responses rejecting the findings of a recent Amnesty International report on the devastation wrought by their aerial bombardment of Raqqa last year demonstrates how deeply in denial they are about the large number of civilians killed and injured by Coalition strikes, the organization said today. Since the publication of “War of annihilation”: Devastating Toll on Civilians, Raqqa – Syria on 5 June, senior figures in the Coalition and its member governments have taken to social media, the airwaves and even the UK Parliament in a bid to dismiss the report’s findings that there was prima facie evidence that…

July 16, 2018

Press Release

As arguments begin in the case of Toffiq al-Bihani and ten others seeking release from arbitrary detention in Guantanamo Bay, Amnesty International reiterated its call for their release and the closure of the facility. “It is unconscionable that Mr. al-Bihani remains imprisoned without charge or trial at Guantanamo eight years after being cleared to leave, and having never even been accused of a crime” said Daphne Eviatar, Amnesty International USA’s Director of Security with Human Rights. “Toffiq al-Bihani’s case highlights how the United States continues to employ arbitrary imprisonment, while offering impunity to those responsible for torture.” Al -Bihani, who…

July 11, 2018

Report

Zimbabwe's election at the end of the month will take place in the context of decades of politically motivated gross human rights violations, including mass killings, the forced disappearance of critics and suppression of peaceful protesters, Amnesty International said in a new briefing published today. The briefing, Breaking away from the past: A human rights manifesto for Zimbabwe’s political parties and candidates, offers seven human rights recommendations for the candidates and political parties battling for control of Zimbabwe in the 30 July election. “As the country holds its first elections without former president Robert Mugabe on the ballot paper, it…

July 9, 2018

Press Release

Israel’s forcible transfer of Palestinians from their homes and settling of Israeli civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories violate the Fourth Geneva Convention and are war crimes, Amnesty International said as it continues to monitor the fast-changing situation on the ground in the Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar. This morning Israeli security forces closed off the areas surrounding the Khan al-Ahmar community in preparation for the demolition of the entire village, including schools, farmland, a mosque and the homes of all families living in the village. “Going ahead with the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar is not only profoundly cruel; it…

July 5, 2018

Report

Indonesian security forces have unlawfully killed at least 95 people in little more than eight years in the restive eastern provinces of Papua and West Papua, with the overwhelming majority of perpetrators never being held to account for these crimes, Amnesty International reveals in a new report today. All but 10 of the victims were of Papuan ethnicity.  The report, “Don't bother, just let him die": Killing with impunity in Papua, describes how police and soldiers have shot dead peaceful independence activists and protesters, as well as dozens of other Papuans in non-political contexts, including a mentally disabled young man. Despite President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo promising to…

July 1, 2018

Report

Millions of lives are at risk because the entry of essential goods such as food, fuel and medical supplies into war-torn Yemen is being restricted by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition and their distribution then delayed by the country’s Huthi de facto authorities, Amnesty International warned in a new report released today. The report, Stranglehold, documents how the coalition has imposed excessive restrictions on the entry of essential goods and aid, while the Huthi authorities have obstructed aid movement within the country. These obstacles – compounded by a deadly Saudi-led military assault on the vital port city of Hodeidah – have…

June 21, 2018

Report

Armed separatists in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions have stabbed to death and shot military personnel, burned down schools and attacked teachers, while security forces have tortured people, fired on crowds and destroyed villages, in a spiral of violence that keeps getting more deadly, Amnesty International said today. In a new report on Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis, ‘A turn for the worse: Violence and human rights violations in Anglophone Cameroon’, which is based on in-depth interviews with over 150 victims and eye-witnesses, and material evidence including satellite images, the organization documents how general population is paying the highest price as violence escalates in the North West…

June 11, 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

Students from the National University of Engineering who were defending their campus in Managua, Nicaragua, were attacked with firearms today, confirmed Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International, in a live broadcast from her Facebook account.

May 28, 2018