Below you’ll find breaking news as well as reports, updates on our campaigns, and victories.
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Update
Thousands of Unmarked Graves Discovered in Kashmir
Thousands of unmarked graves containing the bodies of people subject to enforced disappearances have been found in Kashmir.
August 23, 2011
Update
Refugees in Turkey: Unsafe Harbor
This year is the Sixtieth Anniversary of one of the landmarks of human rights, the 1951 Refugees Convention. Turkey has ratified the convention but only accepts a small handfull of refugees. Turkey can and must do better.
August 23, 2011
Update
Close Gitmo and Help Solve the Debt Crisis
The post-9/11 bill for Guantanamo is almost $2 billion, but so far it has escaped the financial meltdown unscathed.
August 23, 2011
Report
Bangladesh: Government must act now to stop police unlawful killings
Hardly a week goes by in Bangladesh without people being shot in Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) operations. RAB is a special police force, created to combat criminal gang activity. But since its inception in 2004, RAB has been implicated in the unlawful killing of at least 700 people. In this document Amnesty International calls on the authorities to set up an independent and impartial body to thoroughly investigate allegations of RAB abuses.
August 23, 2011
Press Release
Amnesty International Urges Brazil to Improve Health Services for Women Following U.N. Ruling
Contact: AIUSA media relations, 202-509-8194 (Washington, D.C.) - Brazil must urgently improve the health services available to women during and after pregnancy, Amnesty International said today, after a United Nations body determined the country failed to prevent the death of a pregnant Afro-Brazilian woman. Alyne da Silva Pimentel Teixera, a 28-year-old Brazilian woman of African descent, was six months pregnant with her second child in late 2002 when she died following inadequate treatment at a local health center in one of Rio de Janeiro's poorest districts. Following a complaint filed by da Silva's mother, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination…
August 23, 2011
Press Release
Civilians at Risk Amid New Attacks in Israel and Gaza, Says Amnesty International
Contact: AIUSA media relations, 202-509-8194 (Washington, D.C.) - Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups must refrain from indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks harming civilians, Amnesty International said today, following several attacks in southern Israel and a series of Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. Palestinian armed groups reportedly fired at least 10 indiscriminate rockets into southern Israel today, injuring at least six people - one seriously - in the Israeli town of Ashdod. Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued air strikes on multiple locations in Gaza, following a series of strikes on Thursday and overnight that killed at least seven people, including…
August 23, 2011
Press Release
Amnesty International Urges Human Rights Council to Act on Crimes Against Humanity in Syria
Contact: AIUSA media relations, 202-509-8194 (Washington, D.C.) - As the Human Rights Council prepares to hold a special session on Syria next Monday, August 22, Amnesty International urges that U.N. body to add its voice to calls for the U.N. Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court. Amnesty International believes that, given what it considers to be a growing body of crimes against humanity, the Human Rights Council should support a move which would demonstrate to Syria's leaders that the international community intends to hold those who have committed such crimes individually criminally responsible…
August 23, 2011
Press Release
Syrian Authorities Target Prominent Dissident and Teenage Son, Says Amnesty International
Contact: AIUSA media relations, 202-509-8194 (Washington, D.C.) - Syrian authorities are feared to be torturing a prominent dissident and his teenage son, his lawyer has told Amnesty International. Walid al-Bunni has been detained incommunicado since he was arrested from his Damascus hiding place on August 6 along with his 18-year-old son Mu'ayad, who is not believed to have taken part in the demonstrations. "I'm very worried that they may be keeping Mu'ayad in prison with his dad just to cause Walid pain by watching his son being tortured," Walid's lawyer told Amnesty International. Walid al-Bunni, aged 46, is one of…
August 23, 2011
Press Release
Libyan Civilians Must be Protected Amid Tripoli Fighting, Says Amnesty International
Contact: AIUSA media relations, 202-509-8194 (Washington, D.C.) - Amnesty International has today urged all sides in Libya to protect the rights of civilians and safeguard them from attack as forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC) continued to battle for control of the capital Tripoli. "These are momentous but extremely dangerous days for the people of Libya. All forces must respect the rights of civilians and ensure that the fighting in Tripoli and elsewhere does not result in reprisals," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa director. "NTC forces must make sure that Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi is…
August 23, 2011
Press Release
Angola to Forcibly Evict Hundreds of Families, Says Amnesty International
Contact: AIUSA media relations, 202-509-8194 (Washington, D.C.) - Hundreds of families in Angola’s southern city of Lubango could be left destitute, as authorities prepare to demolish their homes on Thursday to build a new road. Local authorities have offered to relocate some 750 families in the Arco Iris area to an isolated area outside the city center without access to public transport, schools and medical services, water, electricity or sanitation. The Lubango city administrator wrote to the residents of Arco Iris on June 29, ordering them to leave the area within 30 days. "Pushing people out of their homes at…
August 23, 2011
Press Release
Cuba’s ‘Ladies in White’ Targeted with Arbitrary Arrest and Intimidation, Says Amnesty International
Contact: Wende Gozan Brown, 212-633-4247 (New York) - The Cuban authorities must end their intimidation of a group of women campaigning for the release of political prisoners, Amnesty International said after 19 of the group's members were re-arrested yesterday. The latest detentions took place yesterday in and near the south-eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, where the women were due to march silently and pray for the end of political imprisonment. Over the last month, the "Ladies in White" (Damas de Blanco) and their supporters have repeatedly faced arbitrary arrest and physical attacks as they staged protests in several towns…
August 23, 2011
Press Release
Amnesty International Finds Forced Evictions, Discrimination Against Women in New Report on Egyptian Housing Crisis
Ahead of Elections, Human Rights Organization Calls on Egyptian Authorities, Political Parties to Consult Slum Dwellers, Review Cairo 2050 Resettlement Plan Contact: AIUSA media relations, 202-509-8194 (Washington, D.C.) - Egyptian authorities and political parties must rapidly consider the rights of the country's 12 million slum-dwellers if they are to meet the demands for social justice and human dignity championed during the "January 25 Revolution," Amnesty International said today in a new report. We are not dirt: Forced evictions in Egypt’s informal settlements released ahead of the country’s first elections since the fall of former President Mubarak, documents cases of forced…
August 23, 2011