Newsroom

We put a human face on complex issues to hold governments accountable.

Below you’ll find breaking news as well as reports, updates on our campaigns, and victories.

If you are a member of the press, please reach out to [email protected]

Update

I will not be safe until all Congolese women are safe

In 2007, armed soldiers broke into my house in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), held my children hostage and assaulted two of them. They did this not to rob my family, but to punish me for providing services to women who are sexually assaulted.

September 24, 2010

Update

Act Now to Stop the Execution of Brandon Rhode

[Update 12:15 am (Sept. 27): Brandon Rhode was granted a stay of execution by the Georgia Supreme Court on Friday afternoon, a few hours before his second execution date.  The stay will be in effect until Monday, Sept. 27 at 4pm.  He has been scheduled again for execution for Monday, Sept. 27 at7pm.  Please continue to take action!] The state of Georgia wants to execute Brandon Rhode tonight at 7pm. Please take action – ask the Parole Board to stay the execution. Amnesty International just released a new document about the cruelty of the death penalty, highlighting this case and underlining the…

September 24, 2010

Update

Amnesty Activists Raise Their Voices on the MDGs

This week, leaders from around the globe met at the United Nations to review the world's progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). While there's been some improvement, it's been uneven. The world won't win the fight against poverty until it puts human rights at the heart of the struggle. In the last several weeks, tens of thousands of Amnesty International activists have raised their voices in support of that message. Last Thursday, in advance of the MDGs summit, Amnesty International Secretary-General Salil Shetty delivered more than 20,000 signatures and postcards from around the world to Joseph Deiss, the incoming…

September 24, 2010

Update

Former Prisoner of Conscience Releases Film, Tibet in Song

Former Prisoner of Conscience Ngawang Choephel's beautiful documentary, Tibet in Song, opens September 24th. Tibet in Song is both a celebration of traditional Tibetan folk music and a harrowing journey into the past fifty years of cultural repression inside Chinese controlled Tibet.

September 23, 2010

Update

Why is California Rushing to Kill Albert Brown?

California has not put anyone to death in nearly 5 years. Litigation around the state’s lethal injection procedures has led to a de facto moratorium on executions. But that moratorium may come to a sudden end this Wednesday, when Albert Greenwood Brown is scheduled to be killed shortly after midnight.

September 23, 2010

Update

"The Injustice of Extreme Poverty"

Yesterday, at the United Nations summit on the Millennium Development Goals, President Obama unveiled a new U.S. approach to global development. It was encouraging to see the president frame poverty as an issue of rights and justice: “In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, [the international community] recognized the inherent dignity and rights of every individual, including the right to a decent standard of living. And a decade ago, at the dawn of a new millennium, we set concrete goals to free our fellow men, women and children from the injustice of extreme poverty.” Amnesty International – along with Realizing…

September 23, 2010

Update

Please Stay Alive, We Are Supposed to Kill You

Brandon Rhode was rushed to the hospital to prevent him from dying following his suicide attempt delaying his scheduled execution by the state of Georgia.

September 22, 2010

Update

Jenni Williams of WOZA Arrested in Zimbabwe

Jenni Williams, National Coordinator of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), was arrested this morning. We are calling for her immediate release.

September 22, 2010

Update

The Great Experiment?

In a recent report to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,  the US touted its human rights record and argued that: The American experiment is a human experiment; the values on which it is based, including a commitment to human rights are clearly engrained in our own national conscience... Yet US commitment to the death penalty, which only a shrinking minority of other nations still supports, belies these grandiose words.  A commitment to executions fundamentally conflicts with a commitment to human rights. There have been around a thousand executions since former Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun famously declared that…

September 22, 2010

Update

Zimbabwe Irony: WOZA Protest Police Violence, Arrested

Human rights activists took the streets of Zimbabwe to protest police misconduct. They were met with police violence and apprehensions.

September 21, 2010

Update

Maternal Death Clock Ticks in Times Square

As world leaders began a summit at the United Nations to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals, Amnesty International activists converged on Times Square to launch a "maternal death clock", keeping track of the number of women who are dying in childbirth worldwide.

September 21, 2010

Update

Congress: Pass the 9/11 Health & Compensation Act

The 9/11 Heath & Compensation Act would ensure medical treatment and compensation for 9/11 responders and other survivors.

September 21, 2010