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Press Release

Amnesty International today launches a global campaign to ban the use of facial recognition systems, a form of mass surveillance that amplifies racist policing and threatens the right to protest. The Ban the Scan campaign kicks off with New York City and will then expand to focus on the use of facial recognition in other parts of the world in 2021. Facial recognition systems are a form of mass surveillance that violate the right to privacy and threaten the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression. The technology exacerbates systemic racism as it could disproportionately impact people of color,…

January 25, 2021

Press Release

The Department of Defense announced last week that the Convening Authority of the Guantánamo Military Commissions will charge three Guantanamo detainees for alleged involvement in bombings in Indonesia in 2002 and 2003. They are Encep Nurjaman, Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, and Mohammed Farik Bin Amin. Daphne Eviatar, the director of the Security With Human Rights program at Amnesty International USA, released the following statement: “The military commissions at Guantánamo Bay are a human rights calamity and a complete failure. For almost two decades, the United States has denied justice to the dozens of men the country has kept detained at…

January 25, 2021

Press Release

On Tuesday, January 26 the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), Amnesty International, New York City Public Advocate, Legal Aid Society, National Action Network, Warriors In The Garden, Immigrant Defense Project, New York Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other advocates will hold an online press conference calling on New York City and New York State to “Ban The Scan” and outlaw government use of facial recognition. Advocates say that facial recognition is an immediate threat to New Yorkers’ safety and civil rights, particularly BIPOC communities. New York would join a growing number of cities and states that have…

January 25, 2021

Update

On January 22, 2021, Amnesty International USA wrote to Dr. Elizabeth Cameron, Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense at the National Security Council, to share the organizations' top global health and human rights priorities and urge the Biden administration to ensure its response to the pandemic respects human rights. Click here to read the letter January 22, 2021 Dr. Elizabeth Cameron Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense National Security Council White House Dear Dr. Cameron: On behalf of Amnesty International (“Amnesty”) and our 10 million members, activists, and supporters worldwide, we commend President Biden’s executive actions…

January 25, 2021

Press Release

Responding to Executive Order XX, ceasing withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) and signed today by President Joe Biden, Interim Executive Director of Amnesty International USA Bob Goodfellow said: 

January 20, 2021

Press Release

Responding to executive actions signed by United States President Joe Biden today on termination of border wall construction, rescission of interior enforcement policies and the Muslim and the African bans, the Interim Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, Bob Goodfellow said: “Walls can no longer define what the United States stands for – it’s time for us to build bridges again. The U.S. must work towards recognizing that all people have the right to seek safety and to receive a fair hearing, like generations of people before us once sought, and received, safety here. We must never again see a…

January 20, 2021

Press Release

Responding to a report finding that the Department of Justice – and in particular then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions – was a driving force behind the family separation policy that intentionally and cruelly separated families at the U.S. southern border, Denise Bell, the researcher for refugee and migrant rights at Amnesty International USA said: “This is a damning condemnation of the Trump administration’s inhumane family separation policy. This report reinforces what we already knew: the cruelty was the point and the government ripped families apart intentionally to keep families from seeking safety here. This utter disregard for people’s lives caused irreparable…

January 14, 2021

Press Release

Responding to the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) shutting down access to social media services in the run up to the January 14 general election, Sarah Jackson, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, said:

January 13, 2021

Press Release

In response to the events of last week and in anticipation of more gatherings by white supremacists ahead of the inauguration, Amnesty International USA has sent a letter to 3,500 United States mayors and governors calling on them to protect people from armed groups and to denounce white supremacy.

January 12, 2021

Press Release

Amnesty International has released a new report highlighting ongoing and historic human rights violations at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, as detentions there enter their 20th year and as a new President prepares to enter the White House.    “This is about more than just the 40 people still held at Guantánamo – it is also about the crimes under international law committed over the past 19 years and the continuing lack of accountability for them. It is about the future, too, as we move towards the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and strive for enduring justice,” said Daphne Eviatar, Director of…

January 11, 2021

Report

Amnesty International has released a new report highlighting ongoing and historic human rights violations at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, as detentions there enter their 20th year and as a new President prepares to enter the White House.    “This is about more than just the 40 people still held at Guantánamo – it is also about the crimes under international law committed over the past 19 years and the continuing lack of accountability for them. It is about the future, too, as we move towards the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and strive for enduring justice,” said Daphne Eviatar, Director of…

January 11, 2021

Update

On January 7, 2021, Amnesty International USA addressed a letter to Members of Congress outlining the organization's top international human rights priorities for Congress in 2021. Click here to read the letter January 7, 2021 Re:  Top International Human Rights Priorities for Congress in 2021   Dear Members of Congress: On behalf of Amnesty International and our 10 million members, activists, and supporters worldwide, I am writing to share our international human rights priorities for 2021. At a December 9 House Foreign Affairs (“HFAC”) Subcommittee hearing, I testified about three disturbing global human rights trends: (1) internet shutdowns and restrictions; (2)…

January 8, 2021