Below you’ll find breaking news as well as reports, updates on our campaigns, and victories.
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Update
US Must Investigate Detainee Abuse Claims in Wikileaks Files
Amnesty International calls on the USA to investigate how much US officials knew about the torture of detainees held by Iraqi security forces after new evidence emerged in files released by Wikileaks.
October 23, 2010
Update
Write for Rights
Join the 2010 Global Write-a-thon. Write a letter, save a life.
October 22, 2010
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Thousands Waiting for Compensation After Toxic Waste Dumping in Côte d'Ivoire
More than one year after reaching a $45 million settlement regarding toxic waste dumping in Côte d'Ivoire, victims are still waking to receive compensation.
October 22, 2010
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Good News for International Justice
For years, rebel group leader Callixte Mbarushimana has been living in France, enjoying impunity for heinous crimes committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Callixte leads the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a rebel group operating in the eastern part of the DRC, that has been responsible for innumerable killings of civilians, rape, abductions of women and girls for sexual slavery, recruitment of child soldiers, destruction of villages and other human rights abuses. But fortunately, Mbarushimana's spate of good luck may be ending. On October 11, French police arrested him on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court…
October 22, 2010
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Urge Your Representative to Join the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission
The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (formerly known as the Congressional Human Rights Caucus) enhances and coordinates the activities of Members of Congress with a strong interest in human rights. Recently the Commission has held hearings on the status of human rights in North Korea, Morocco and Sudan, bringing in human rights defenders such as Su-Jin Kang from the Coalition for North Korean Women’s Rights, and Vincent Cochetel from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to speak with members of Congress.
October 22, 2010
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Texas: Execution Drugs Should Be "State Secret"
Tired of taking a back seat to Arizona in death penalty zeal, Texas today upped the ante in the high stakes game of keeping secrets from the public in whose name they are enthusiastically killing prisoners. According to the Austin American-Statesman, a lawyer for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has asked Texas' Attorney General to declare information on lethal injection drugs to be a “state secret.” A letter requesting this designation says in part: "We submit that the release of any of the information would be akin to a local DPS office providing a requestor (a potential terrorist) with…
October 22, 2010
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Archbishop Desmond Tutu on "Dignity"
In the foreword to "Dignity: In Honor of the Rights of Indigenous People", Archbishop Desmond Tutu explains the importance and contributions of indigenous people. Tutu says that indigenous people remind us that all of humanity is connected and only together can we prosper.
October 21, 2010
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Court Allows Arizona to Kill Prisoner with Secret Drugs
Secretly trafficking and then openly using unapproved drugs is now A-OK. That’s the message sent out yesterday by the Arizona Supreme Court, which allowed state officials to conceal their source for sodium thiopental (we know only that it’s NOT Hospira, the one FDA-approved supplier), and to continue with plans to execute Jeffrey Landrigan on October 26. It is already well known that the death penalty compromises the integrity of the medical profession. Doctors, nurses, and EMTs are all bound by an oath to “do no harm” but all are involved, in a variety of ways, in the deliberate killing of prisoners. …
October 21, 2010
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Countdown to Burma's Elections
On November 7, 2010 Myanmar will hold its first national elections in two decades against a backdrop of political repression.
October 20, 2010
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Arizona's Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy for Executions
Arizona today admitted that it acquired the execution drug sodium thiopental from a non-FDA approved source, but continues to seek to execute Jeffrey Landrigan on October 26. The state refuses to say how they scored their new stash of the drug, citing a state law guaranteeing secrecy for executioners. The state also continues to claim that they got the drug lawfully, though this is difficult to reconcile with the admission that it was obtained from a source other than Hospira Inc., its only FDA-sanctioned provider. There are plenty of other problems with Arizona’s plans to kill Jeffrey Landrigan, including that his…
October 20, 2010
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Senate to Vote on 9/11 Health and Compensation Act
The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act will be voted on in the Senate in November. Please urge your Senator to support the Act which ensures medical treatment for first responders still suffering the ill-effects from that day.
October 19, 2010
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Roma Community in Romania Still Treated like Waste Six Years On
By Fotis Filippou, EU Team Campaigner for Amnesty International Amnesty International recently visited Romania, where we met with a Romani community living behind a sewage treatment plant in Miercurea Ciuc, central Romania. More than six years after they were forcibly evicted from their homes, around 75 Roma people, including families with children, are living in unsanitary conditions in metal cabins and shacks. Back then they were told that the move would be temporary but it has started to feel very permanent. Many have said how unbearable it is to live there and how afraid they are for their and their…
October 18, 2010