Below you’ll find breaking news as well as reports, updates on our campaigns, and victories.
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Update
Mao Hengfeng Is Free In China!
We have great news to report — Mao Hengfeng was released unexpectedly yesterday, six months before the end of her sentence. She had been detained since March 2010 for protesting the arrest of Liu Xiaobo, a prominent human rights defender and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
February 24, 2011
Update
Welcome UN Women!
Today, we have great cause for celebration because February 24th, marks the official inauguration of UN Women. Launched on January 1, 2011, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, to be known as UN Women, began its work to integrate gender into the UN and global foreign policy. UN Women is headed by Under-Secretary-General Michelle Bachelet, the former President of Chile, who has years of experience both as a pediatrician and former Chilean Minister of Health. Bachelet has a strong commitment to women and women’s health and we look forward to her leadership in ensuring…
February 24, 2011
Update
The Algerian Government's Strike Against Democracy
In spite of several weeks of discussion and dialogue, the government continued to insist that no demonstration would be allowed, and so on Saturday, the world had the opportunity to witness "hogra," or confrontation with state bureaucracy in Algeria, on a very large scale.
February 24, 2011
Update
Report from Cote d'Ivoire
After spending four weeks in Côte d’Ivoire investigating human rights violations, our research team just returned a few days ago with a gruesome report. Since the November 2010 elections, human rights violations – which have included extrajudicial executions, ill-treatment, arbitrary detentions, disappearances and sexual violence – have been rampant. These violations and abuses are being committed both the security forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, the outgoing Ivoirian President, and the Forces Nouvelles (FN), loyal to Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognized winner of the election. One rape victim told our researchers: On the 19 December, they came to my house in…
February 23, 2011
Update
We Stand For Justice In Libya
My Twitter feed was a string of indictments on Monday. Libyans were telling the world that they are being massacred. On my screen were the names of Libyans’ killed friends, new ones appearing every few hours. Messages in Arabic and in English all said the same thing: It seems that the world is not watching, that Arabs are looking the other way, and that the Libyan people have been forsaken by human rights organizations, the United Nations and all the countries and peoples of the world, western and Arab.
February 23, 2011
Update
U.S. Veto of UNSC Resolution Gives Israel a 'Green Light' to Continue to Expand Illegal Settlements in OPT
Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) issued a press release late Friday (2/18/2011) after the United States, a permanent member of the UN Security Council vetoed a UNSC resolution reaffirming that Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) are illegal and demanding that Israel cease all settlement activities in the OPT, including East Jerusalem. Amnesty believes the U.S. veto gives Israel a ‘green light’ to continue building settlements in the OPT. Israel welcomed the veto while Palestinians were disappointed, angry and frustrated saying the veto has set back the peace process. The other 14 members of the UN Security Council voted…
February 22, 2011
Update
Security Council and Arab League Must Act on Libyan Crimes Today
Update, February 23: Call on US government officials to play a leadership role at the United Nations to ensure that it imposes a total arms embargo on Libya and sends a mission there immediately to investigate the violence. Read a coalition letter that urges the UN Human Rights Council to act. The letter is sent to Foreign Ministries around the world (pdf) The UN Security Council and the Arab League have to launch an immediate mission to Libya to investigate events that have left hundreds of protesters dead, Amnesty International said in a press release today. Over the last few…
February 22, 2011
Update
More Violence in Yemen
At least 10 people have been killed during peaceful demonstrations in various cities in Yemen over the past three weeks. In Taiz on Friday a grenade was thrown at the protestors, injuring 78 people according to a Yemeni human rights organization.
February 21, 2011
Update
Join Demonstrators in Chicago – Call for an end to Violence!
Death tolls continue to rise in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Iraq and other Arab countries as protesters demand their rights. Join demonstrators in Chicago and call on all governments to stop the violence every day until the violence ends: 6:30 - 7:30 pm at Daley Plaza Dearborn and Washington, Chicago Updates are on Facebook.
February 21, 2011
Update
Workers Have A Right To Organize
Amnesty International USA is concerned by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s proposal to limit collective bargaining for most public employees to wages. Under international law, all workers have a right to organize and to bargain collectively.
February 19, 2011
Update
Yemen Must Halt Attacks On Protesters
Demonstrations in Yemen continued for the third week. But in the last week the peaceful protests and call for political reform turned violent.
February 18, 2011
Update
Maryland Death Penalty Meets Globalization
Due to a global market that increasingly rejects participation in executions, lethal injection drugs have become harder to obtain, turning the death penalty in states like Maryland into even more of a false promise for victims' families. This makes it all the more important for Maryland to repeal capital punishment, and bills to do just that have been filed with record numbers of cosponsors.
February 18, 2011