Newsroom

Update

By Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada.  Neve is currently at Guantánamo to observe the military commissions proceedings against detainee Omar Khadr. This is his third in a series of posts from the field. The rumours did indeed prove to be true.  Yesterday evening the government did finally approve and release a 280-page Manual for Military Commissions, laying out the rules that are to govern the conduct of Omar Khadr’s and all military commission proceedings.  But his legal team did not receive a copy of the new rules – essential to mounting any legal strategy – until shortly…

April 29, 2010

Update

UN peacekeepers that have been crucial in protecting civilians in eastern Chad and northern Central African Republic (CAR) are being asked to leave once the mission’s mandate ends on May 15th. Without these peacekeepers, human rights abuses in the region will almost certainly increase, further endangering the lives of the refugees and internally displaced people living in camps. Both the conflict in neighboring Darfur, Sudan, and Chad’s own internal conflict have created hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced people, many of which now live in refugee camps in the eastern part of Chad, close to the border with…

April 29, 2010

Update

Six years on Abu Ghraib victims still fight for justice, while the private military contractors involved appear to be immune from criminal prosecution and continue to win multi-million dollar government contracts.

April 29, 2010

Update

Is this America or the Twilight Zone? According to Amnesty International’s new report, President Obama’s new rules for military commissions at Guantanamo allow for a defendant who is found NOT guilty to be locked up. Potentially forever.

April 29, 2010

Update

On April 17, Detroit hosted the second stop of the maternal health speakers tour. In this post, Reuben Metreger, a law student at Wayne State University and Amnesty International state legislative coordinator for Michigan, looks back on the event. As I reflect on the Deadly Delivery Detroit event I am reminded of what long time Detroit co-group 78 leader and new area coordinator Ken Grunow said. In Detroit we will all need to become midwives and mid-husbands to deliver the rebirth of our city. Amnesty International leaders from around the world gave us a good first push. As we begin…

April 28, 2010

Update

Earlier this month, I attended the Congressional Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing on Violence Against Women.  This hearing and the witnesses’ testimonies demonstrated the immediate need for passage of the International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA), a bill that was introduced in February in both the House and the Senate.  In a great showing of solidarity, the room was filled past “standing room only;” people were even sitting on the floor! Demonstrating their bipartisan support, I-VAWA champions Congressmen Delahunt (D-MA) and Poe (R-TX) testified and spoke of their support for the bill’s passage.  Congressman Delahunt referred to domestic violence…

April 28, 2010

Update

By Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada.  Neve is currently at Guantánamo to observe the military commissions proceedings against detainee Omar Khadr. I’ve arrived at Guantánamo Bay and spent much of the afternoon attending to a variety of practicalities and formalities.  I’m here with observers from three US-based NGO’s as well and we’ve been escorted everywhere we’ve gone today by a very helpful US military officer.  Tomorrow will be largely downtime as the start of Omar Khadr’s hearing has been postponed to Wednesday. Guantánamo is truly a surreal place to be.  Hidden away from where we’ve spent the…

April 27, 2010

Update

Update (4/30/10):  Troy's evidentiary hearing has been moved up to June 23rd We just got word that Troy Davis will finally get his day in court.  A federal judge has scheduled an evidentiary hearing  for June 30 in the Savannah-based federal district court for southern Georgia. Troy Davis was convicted of murdering a Georgia police officer in 1991. Nearly two decades later, Davis remains on death row – even though the case against him has fallen apart. On August 17th, the Supreme Court issued an order mandating a new evidentiary hearing for death-row inmate Troy Anthony Davis. With its ruling, the nation's highest…

April 27, 2010

Update

The evidentiary hearing date for Troy Davis that we’ve been waiting for is now scheduled!   Judge Clark Moore in the Savannah-based federal district court for southern Georgia has set it for June 30, 2010.   There is a chance that the date could change if the two legal teams try to negotiate with the judge around possible issues in their schedules.   We will provide an update if the date changes. Thanks to supporters who have been following this case and have been on alert since the hearing was ordered on August 17, 2009.   This comes after several…

April 27, 2010

Update

Seventeen young Indian men from the state of Punjab were convicted of killing a young Pakistani national in the Sharjah emirate (part of the United Arab Emirates or UAE).  You can take action by navigating to a pdf of the Urgent Action, here. You can also email the UAE Minister of Justice at http://ecomplaint.moj.gov.ae/WComplaintEnglish.aspx and asking to commute all 17 death sentences. They were sentenced to death on March 29, by a lower court in the emirate of Sharjah, for the murder during a fight over the trade in alcohol among migrant workers, in which three other Pakistani nationals were injured. The…

April 26, 2010

Update

Last week, the Supreme Court of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) upheld the death sentences of a woman and three men who were convicted for crimes they committed as minors.  The four individuals, Khawla, Fahd, Mukhtar, Abdullah Hussein, are now waiting in Sharjah central prison for confirmation as to whether they will face execution by firing squad. Khawla, her alleged boyfriend, Fahd and two others had been sentenced to death in 2003 for premeditated murder of Khawla’s husband in 2003. At the time of the killing, Khawla, Mukhtar and Hussein were 17 years old. Khawla confessed to the police at…

April 26, 2010

Update

Amnesty International is extremely disappointed that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law SB1070, a bill that will significantly increase the likelihood of racial profiling, arbitrary arrests, and detentions in the state. By forcing Arizona police, the vast majority of whom opposed this law, to implement it or face lawsuits is bad policy and will drastically undermine communication between communities of color and the police who are supposed to keep them safe. As the governor said when signing the bill, national immigration legislation is desperately needed, but the absence of it does not abdicate the governor's own responsibility to preserve,…

April 24, 2010