Newsroom

Update

After enduring eight years of torture and abuse as a child at Guantanamo, Omar Khadr is slated to face an unfair trial held by Guantanamo's military commissions - a system that President Obama denounced as being unconstitutional. Please join us in our efforts to call on President Obama to reject military commissions in this case.

August 3, 2010

Update

Should a client suffer the consequences because his lawyers screwed up?  Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court for the New York Times, wrote an interesting piece today about a new petition that asks this rather basic question.  In this case, the consequences are plenty severe, since the client in question – Cory R. Maples – is facing execution in Alabama. Bad lawyering is one of the main reasons people end up on death row, rather than serving lesser sentences, but the bad lawyering in this case extended into the appeals process, when the high-priced law firm handling Mr. Maples’ appeal failed…

August 3, 2010

Update

Last Thursday afternoon, I had the privilege of attending a special ceremony at the White House where President Obama signed into law H.R. 725 – the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010. This law entering into force marked an important step forward in beginning to address some of the many continuing injustices that Native American and Alaska Native communities - particularly women - face in this country.

August 2, 2010

Update

Throughout South Asia, women face rape at the hands of men who will almost certainly get away with it.  Rafia Zakaria, a columnist for Ms Magazine writes of one case in particular (worth clicking to read the whole article): It is in this fraught atmosphere of political intrigue and crushing human need that Magdalene Ashraf worked as a nurse trainee. A member of the Catholic religious minority in Pakistan, 23-year-old Ashraf was receiving nursing training with the hope of obtaining a permanent job. She was on duty July 13 when a fellow nursing student, Sajida Fatima, approached her with a…

July 31, 2010

Update

It's been one year since three U.S. hikers were captured and imprisoned by Iranian forces while hiking near the Iraq-Iran border.

July 30, 2010

Update

The Amnesty International section in the UK announced today that Bianca Jagger (ex-wife of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger) has submitted 30,000 signatures on a petition asking Vedanta Resources, a large UK-based company to respect the human rights of the Dongria Kondh people of the Indian state of Orissa (see more, here and here). The petition adds yet more voices to a chorus of criticism of Vedanta’s governance and ethical standards. Last week responsible investment research specialists EIRIS published recommendations to address investors' concerns about Vedanta’s environmental, social and governance practices. Dutch pension manager PGGM divested their £11m stake in…

July 29, 2010

Update

Colombia has one of the highest number of internally displaced people in the world. A resolution making its way through the US House of Representatives would help address the needs of those displaced.

July 29, 2010

Update

Back when I lived in Texas there was an TV ad (it may have run nationally) for a certain picante sauce made in San Antonio.  In the ad, a cook for a bunch of cowboys sitting around a campfire makes the mistake of using a picante sauce made in … New York City!  The last line of dialogue is, “Get a rope!”  Ha ha ha.  You used a New York hot sauce, therefore we will kill you. The new Chairman of the Texas Forensics Science Commission demonstrated much the same mentality when he dismissed attention on the case of Cameron…

July 29, 2010

Update

In a welcome, 11th hour order that prevents Arizona from putting into place much of its immigrant profiling law [SB1070], Judge Susan Bolton ruled that the offensive sections of the state law will not go into effect July 29th as scheduled.

July 29, 2010

Update

There is something remarkably similar about the passion that drives a human rights activist and the passion that inspires a musician. A person who is willing to stand beneath the summer sun at a rally to hold signs and wave petitions again and again, and one who performs at their very best beneath the summer sun day after day must surely be made of similar stuff. Amnesty International, of course, has known about this overlap for fifty years, and has used music to inspire human rights activists, and human rights work to inspire musicians for nearly that entire time. This…

July 28, 2010

Update

The death of Khaled Said has moved the Egyptian public in a way that few other cases have.

July 28, 2010

Update

We reported last month that Iran halted the stoning of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. And while this may seem like cause for celebration, an uneasy cloud of uncertainty has shrouded this potential victory.  We still fear that Ashtiani may be hanged, as charges against her have surfaced in connection to the murder of her husband. But this is not the only unsettling development for those involved in the case.  Yesterday, we denounced the arrest of Mohammad Mostafaei’s wife and brother-in-law, Fereshteh and Farhad Halimi, urging the Iranian authorities to stop harassing Mostafaei. Mostafaei, a leading human rights lawyer, is defense counsel…

July 28, 2010