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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

(Photo by Sebastian Barros/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Press Release

Only a Robust and Coordinated State Response Will Resolve the Situation of Grave Risk Faced by Human Rights Defenders in Colombia

Colombia has failed to comply with its international obligation to guarantee a safe and enabling space for the defense of human rights in the country, but today it has the opportunity to change this, Amnesty International will say at a public hearing in Congress on the situation of human rights defenders in Colombia today.

November 19, 2021

Guns sold in a Walmart in Louisiana. Photographs taken during research missions to Louisiana in 2018 and 2019. Amnesty has been conducting research on gun-related domestic violence and its impact on women, and in particular women with intersectional identities. The research examines the laws on gun ownership in situations of domestic violence and the gaps in the legal framework, but it focuses on implementation and its discriminatory impact. The main focus of this work is on how inadequacies in the criminal justice system, including policing and prosecution, fail to ensure protection of survivors of violence as well as, in some cases, actively harming them. In particular, the research focuses on negative impacts on survivors with intersectional aspects of their identity such as Black women, undocumented women, Indigenous women, women living in poverty, LBTI women, etc. The research also seeks to examine how gender stereotypes and patriarchal attitudes shape agencies’ response to domestic violence.

Update

Vote Recommendation: Amnesty International USA Recommends a YES Vote on the Build Back Better Act and Supports Funding for Community Violence Intervention Programs

On November 18, 2021, Amnesty International USA wrote to members of the House of Representatives to urge them to vote YES on H.R. 5376, Build Back Better Act. The bill includes $5 billion funding (over eight years) to support community violence intervention (“CVI”) programs, as requested by President Biden in his American Jobs Plan. Studies have demonstrated the lifesaving value of CVI programs, which include street outreach, community call-ins, and hospital intervention providing gun violence survivors and families with counseling, support, and mediation. H.R. 5376 would transform CVI programs nationwide and would reduce gun violence in Black and brown communities.…

November 18, 2021

Sheet of paper Report

Perpetrators Must Face Justice in Nigeria After #EndSARS Panel Confirms Shootings of Protesters at Lekki Toll Gate

Responding to the findings of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS and Related Abuses, set up to investigate the shooting of #EndSARS protesters at Lekki toll gate in Lagos on October 20, 2020, Osai Ojigho Director Amnesty International Nigeria said:   “Amnesty International welcomes the panel’s report, which confirms that Nigerian army and police shot peaceful protesters at the Lekki toll gate on October 20, 2020. The panel’s findings reveal the truth about what happened at Lekki toll gate and contradict the blatant denial by the Nigerian government that deadly force was used…

November 16, 2021

Press Release

Biden Administration Must Prioritize Human Rights in US-China Policy

On Monday evening, President Biden will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss US-China policy. In advance of this virtual summit, Carolyn Nash, Asia Advocacy Director at Amnesty International USA, said: “The Biden administration must decide if they are going to defend human rights, and if President Xi will see clearly that human rights are central to US-China policy. 

November 15, 2021

(Photo by AMANUEL SILESHI/AFP via Getty Images)

Press Release

Tigrayans Targeted in Fresh Wave of Ethnically Motivated Detentions in Addis Ababa

Security forces in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, have targeted Tigrayans, including children and the elderly, with arbitrary arrests and mass detentions as part of an escalating crackdown, Amnesty International said today. Most detainees are being held without charge or access to a lawyer.

November 12, 2021

Photo by ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images

Update

Human Rights on Capitol Hill – November 2021 Newsletter

Amnesty International USA is proud to join human rights groups, refugee resettlement agencies, veterans groups, and Afghan-Americans for lobby days on Nov. 9-10 in support of an Afghan Adjustment Act.

November 10, 2021

(Photo by AMANUEL SILESHI/AFP via Getty Images)

Press Release

Survivors of TPLF Attack in Amhara, Ethiopia Describe Gang Rape, Looting and Physical Assaults

Sixteen women from the town of Nifas Mewcha in Ethiopia’s Amhara region told Amnesty International they were raped by fighters from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) during the group’s attack on the town in mid-August 2021.

November 9, 2021

(Photo by NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Press Release

#MeToo journalist and labor activist facing ‘subversion’ charge in China must be released

Responding to Chinese #MeToo activist Sophia Huang Xueqin and labor activist Wang Jianbing being officially detained under the charge of “inciting subversion of state power,” Amnesty International’s China Campaigner Gwen Lee said: “The Chinese government’s disdain for human rights has once again been laid bare by these unjustifiable charges for two activists whose only so-called crime has been to peacefully advocate for the welfare of others.

November 9, 2021

Update

Joint Statement: Biden Administration Must Meet With Palestinian NGOs Targeted by Israeli Authorities, Demand Gantz Rescind Appalling “Terrorist” Designations During DC Visit

In a joint statement released today, Amnesty International USA, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), and Human Rights Watch call on the Biden Administration to publicly challenge and demand the rescinding of Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz's appalling "terrorist" designation of six Palestinian civil society organizations—a decision based on secretive "evidence" allegedly obtained through torture of detainees—and raise its dangerous impact on both Palestinians and Israelis in any engagement with Israeli authorities. The administration must also urgently meet with the six targeted organizations. The groups are Addameer, al-Haq, Defense for Children Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Bisan…

November 5, 2021