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Press Release

WTA’s Decision Should Push for Effective Investigation of Sexual Violence in China

Responding to the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA)’s decision to halt all competitions in China, Doriane Lau, Amnesty International’s China researcher said: “Amnesty International shares the WTA’s concern about the state censorship around allegations made by Peng Shuai and the related online discussion. The Chinese government has a track record of silencing women who make allegations of sexual violence. 

December 2, 2021

Press Release

Senate Must Take Action to Protect Human Rights

This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (JWHO), a challenge to Mississippi’s abortion ban that could decimate the right to an abortion established by Roe v. Wade. If Roe is overturned or further gutted, millions of people in 26 mostly southern and midwestern states could lose access to safe abortion.

December 1, 2021

(Photo by LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Press Release

Asylum Seekers Being Illegally Detained in New EU-Funded Camp in Greece

Asylum-seekers staying in a new EU-funded refugee camp on the island of Samos are being detained illegally by Greek authorities following a yet unpublished decision from the Greek Minister for Migration and Asylum, based on information received by Amnesty International. 

December 1, 2021

Sheet of paper Report

NGO Letter to Secretary Austin on Civilian Harm

We write to express our grave concerns about the Department of Defense’s civilian harm policies and practices and their impact, as evidenced most recently by the August 29 drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan that killed 10 civilians, including an aid worker and seven children; the Air Force Inspector General’s investigation into that strike; and a New York Times report in November that the U.S. military hid the effects of a 2019 airstrike in Baghuz, Syria that killed dozens of civilians and was flagged as a possible war crime by at least one Defense Department lawyer. These strikes, and the Defense Department’s…

December 1, 2021

Press Release

Cameroon Advocacy Network to Congress and Biden Administration: Why is TPS for Cameroon Taking So Long?

Yesterday, the Cameroon Advocacy Network (CAN), in collaboration with Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), held a Congressional briefing on the need for a temporary protected status (TPS) designation for Cameroon. The briefing had country conditions experts as well as impacted community members from CAN, Amnesty International, CASA, and the Center for Research, Education and Resources Distribution to the Rural and Underprivileged People. These individuals highlighted the deteriorating country conditions in Cameroon that make safe return impossible as they described the ongoing armed conflict, massive internal displacement, dangerous political conditions, and severe consequences for Cameroonians who have thus far been deported…

December 1, 2021

(Photo by Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Press Release

“Exceptional Measures” Normalize Dehumanization of Asylum Seekers in Europe

In response to today’s proposals from the European Commission which would allow Latvia, Lithuania and Poland to derogate from EU rules, including by holding asylum-seekers and migrants at the border for 16 weeks with minimal safeguards, Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s European Office said: “The arrival of people at the EU’s borders with Belarus is entirely manageable with the rules as they stand. Today’s proposals will further punish people for political gain, weaken asylum protections, and undermine the EU’s standing at home and abroad. If the EU can allow a minority of member states to throw out the rule…

December 1, 2021

Residential building destroyed by an airstrike by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition on 25 August in Faj Attan, Sana’a, killing 16 civilians and injuring 17 more. This photo was taken on 25 August. On 25 August, an air strike by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition hit a cluster of houses in Sana’a, severely damaging three of them, and killing seven children including all five of Buthaina’s brothers and sisters. The bomb that destroyed a residential building in Yemen's capital last month, killing 16 civilians and injuring 17 more - including five-year-old Buthaina who lost her entire family in the attack - was made in the USA.

Update

Joint Letter: Congress Must Block Biden Administration’s Wrongful $650 Million Arms Sale to Saudi Arabia or Risk Fueling Further U.S. Complicity in Rights Violations and Yemeni Civilian Suffering

In a joint letter released today signed by 50 international, Yemeni-led, and U.S. human rights and advocacy organizations, Amnesty International USA and other signatories are calling on Congress to block the Biden administration’s wrongful $650 million arms sale to Saudi Arabia by passing the joint resolutions led in the House by Rep. Ilhan Omar and in the Senate by Sen. Rand Paul by December 4th. With this sale, the U.S. government would risk further fueling suffering of civilians and complicity in Saudi force’s violations in Yemen—already one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises rife with unaccountable war crimes, including with…

November 29, 2021

A woman walks past the entrance of a closed vaccination centre that was shut due to stock shortage of Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine in Mumbai on July 9, 2021. (Photo by Punit PARANJPE / AFP) (Photo by PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP via Getty Images)

Update

Joint Statement: U.S. Civil Society Letter to President Biden on WTO TRIPS Waiver for COVID-19 Products

On November 19, 2021, Amnesty International USA and 14 U.S. civil society organizations wrote to President Biden requesting his personal engagement in delivering a temporary waiver of certain World Trade Organization (WTO) rules so that countries can remove intellectual property barriers that are limiting the supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests necessary to end the pandemic. A meaningful WTO waiver that can facilitate the necessary scale-up in production will only be agreed if the Biden administration applies maximum diplomatic and political pressure ahead of the WTO Ministerial Conference beginning on November 30. Click here to read the letter…

November 29, 2021

Press Release

Biden Must Deliver COVID-19 WTO TRIPS Waiver at WTO Ministerial, Say Members of Congress, Health, Labor, Human Rights and Faith Leaders at Press Conference as Dozens of Civil Society Groups Deliver Three Million Petitions to Biden Administration

Today members of Congress joined health, labor, faith and development leaders in a press conference urging President Joe Biden to deliver on his pledge to remove intellectual property barriers that limit access to COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests and prolong the pandemic by securing a waiver at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial starting next week.  A meaningful WTO waiver that can facilitate the necessary scale-up in production will only be agreed if the Biden administration applies maximum diplomatic and political pressure to make it happen, the groups said. 

November 23, 2021

Press Release

Afghanistan Must Have Access to Funds to Avoid Humanitarian Disaster

The international community must urgently ease existing financial restrictions on Afghanistan that are blocking the provision of healthcare, food and other essential services, and expedite delivery of scaled-up humanitarian assistance to avert a mounting crisis that threatens the lives of tens of millions of people, said Amnesty International.

November 23, 2021

NEW JERSEY, USA - JULY 30: Mohamed Soltan, an Egyptian-American human rights Advocate who was a political prisoner in Egypt from August, 2013 to May, 2015 is seen in New Jersey, United States on July 30, 2017. Mohamed was shot, imprisoned, tortured, and sentenced to life in prison on trumped-up and politically motivated charges. The U.S. government intervened at the highest levels and successfully facilitated his release and return to the United States on 31 May 2015. He stated that I tried forgetting the feeling of guilt that I was taking up the time and effort of the doctors in the makeshift hospital for a minor bullet wound when others, who are critically injured, needed their attention. I tried forgetting the pain I walked around with after getting the wound stitched up or the sound of bullets for 11 straight hours. I tried forgetting the smell of death, the rusty iron smell of blood and the smoky sharp smell of gunpowder as I laid on the floor unable to move, feeling debilitated, hopeless and helpless unable to scream or even utter a cry for help, just waiting for the bullet that missed my head to take me far away from that bloody war zone. I tried forgetting being shot at while running back to the hospital hours later to try and take refuge in a place that is suppose to have some sanctity. I tried forgetting the feeling of suffocation as a ton of people like me got shoved into the hospital. I tried forgetting the broken smile on little Ali's face as he sat next to me on his injured dad's lap, gasping for air. I tried forgetting Ali's dad twisting his wrist holding the makeshift paper fan he was using to air his suffocating son so he could do the same for me. I tried forgetting drifting in and out of consciousness as tear gas was shot inside crowded room full of injured people. I tried forgetting being in excruciating pain and suffocating at the same time. I tried forgetting being told that a safe exit was negotiated 11 hours later, but it was every man/woman f

Update

Biden Administration’s U.S.-Egypt Strategic Dialogue Was a Human Rights Failure – Joint Statement from International, Egyptian Human Rights Groups

In a joint statement released today signed by 12 international and Egyptian human rights organizations, Amnesty International USA and other signatories criticized the Biden Administration's failure in its recent U.S.-Egypt "Strategic Dialogue" on November 8-9, 2021 to uphold seemingly any accountability on Egyptian authorities' myriad human rights violations. A dialogue during which several prominent human rights defenders and critics continued to be tried and sentenced in sham trials for exercising their rights to free speech. Amnesty and the signatories to the letter have thoroughly documented flagrant, systemic human rights abuses and crackdowns by the Egyptian government. The Biden administration’s lack…

November 23, 2021

(Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

Press Release

Amnesty International USA Condemns Racist Vigilantism and White Supremacy in the US Criminal Justice System

In response to today’s not guilty verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said: “Today, Kyle Rittenhouse walks free after arming himself, shooting, and killing two people at Black Lives Matter protests in Kenosha, WI in August 2020. The painful reality is that our country’s criminal justice system — and our society — is predicated on white supremacy and anti-Black racism.

November 19, 2021