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The recent murder of a Liberian national who had settled in Ontario has made one thing clear: Canada is failing to bring those suspected of crimes against humanity and war crimes to justice. In late June, Bill Horace was shot dead in London, Ontario. He had been widely accused of committing mass murder, rape and torture in Liberia during the 1990s. Despite a mountain of evidence against him, Canadian officials never charged Horace, allowing him to live freely in this country since he first arrived in 2002. On the heels of Horace’s murder, Amnesty International is releasing a new report in the No…

September 8, 2020

Update

For PDF, click here. Tony H. Pham Acting Director, Immigration and Customs Enforcement 500 12th Street, SW Washington, DC 20536   September 4, 2020   RE: Case of Pastor Steven Tendo, A# 201-520-012   Dear Acting Director Pham:   On behalf of Amnesty International USA, I write to urge you to immediately halt the imminent deportation of Pastor Steven Tendo (A# 201-520-012), an asylum-seeker and Ugandan national. Pastor Tendo was tortured in Uganda because of his political activism, and he has received credible threats that he will be killed if he is returned. His health has rapidly deteriorated for the…

September 4, 2020

Press Release

Responding to news of the death of Daniel Prude, an unarmed Black man who died in Rochester, New York State in March after being hooded by police and held face down for two minutes following a call for help when he was in mental health crisis, Justin Mazzola, the deputy director of research at Amnesty International USA said: “The appalling circumstances of Daniel Prude’s death illustrate many of the problems within the police force, including systemic racism, the use of potentially dangerous spit hoods, and excessive use of force against a man exhibiting signs of mental illness. People should not…

September 3, 2020

Press Release

Responding to today's announcement of U.S. sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC), Daniel Balson, advocacy director at Amnesty International USA, said: "The Trump administration's decision to enact sanctions against senior ICC staff is another brazen attack against international justice. The court is made up of legal professionals who have dedicated their professional lives in pursuit of justice for victims and survivors of some of the most horrific crimes, including crimes against humanity. They should be commended for their commitment, not subjected to a punitive campaign of intimidation. Grotesquely, the White House’s actions may dissuade survivors of human rights abuses…

September 2, 2020

Press Release

Advocates were informed today that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will deport Pastor Steven Tendo, a Ugandan asylum-seeker who faced torture for his human rights and electoral activism, back to his home country where he could face persecution, torture, attack, or death. Pastor Steven has been sent to the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana, and scheduled for deportation on Thursday, September 3. Denise Bell, the researcher for refugee and migrant rights at Amnesty International USA said: “Pastor Steven fled his home country as he was persecuted for supporting voting rights in response to government repression and corruption. We should be…

September 2, 2020

Report

Iran’s police, intelligence and security forces, and prison officials have committed, with the complicity of judges and prosecutors, a catalogue of shocking human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment, against those detained in connection with the nationwide protests of November 2019, said Amnesty International in a damning new report published today. The report, Trampling humanity: Mass arrests, disappearances and torture since Iran’s 2019 November protests, documents the harrowing accounts of dozens of protesters, bystanders and others who were violently arrested, forcibly disappeared or held incommunicado, systemically denied access to their lawyers during interrogations, and repeatedly tortured to…

September 1, 2020

Report

On 7 April 2020, Amnesty international issued the report ‘We are adrift, about to sink': The looming COVID-19 disaster in US Immigration Detention facilities.  As of 28 August 2020 – over four months since this report – the number of people who have contracted confirmed cases of COVID-19 in US immigration detention facilities has skyrocketed more than 200-fold, to 5,300 cases (850 of whom remain in detention, and have not been deported). Among those cases are some of the approximately one hundred families held in detention centres, which a US federal judge has said were “on fire” with confirmed cases…

September 1, 2020

Press Release

As the United States District Court for the Central District of California prepares to hear arguments on September 4 in the case of Flores v. Barr on the enforcement of the Flores Settlement Agreement during COVID-19, international human rights organizations Amnesty International USA and Human Rights Watch have filed an amicus brief urging the Court to do everything within its power to safeguard the best interests of the children it its custody and mitigate the harms flowing from the government’s policies. 

August 31, 2020

Update

August 24, 2020 Dear Representative: On behalf of Amnesty International USA, I am writing to share our top foreign policy and human rights policy recommendations. The list of issues that follows is not meant to be exhaustive but should be high priorities for the next HFAC Chair and Ranking Member’s agenda. Amnesty International’s experts stand ready to provide briefings on any issues outlined below Please do not hesitate to contact me at 202/281-0017 or [email protected]. Sincerely,   Joanne Lin National Director Advocacy and Government Affairs Amnesty International USA 202/509-8151 Email: [email protected] Twitter:@joannelindc   Protect Persecuted Populations Around the World: The…

August 28, 2020

Press Release

Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) and its members will join the historic 2020 March on Washington to demand an end to the killings of Black people by the police and systemic reform to root out racism and radically change our approach to law enforcement.

August 28, 2020

Press Release

The Delhi police personnel were complicit and an active participant in the violence that took place in Delhi in February 2020, yet in the last six months not a single investigation has been opened into the human rights violations committed by the Delhi police - before, during and after the violence, said Amnesty International India today as it released a new investigative briefing. The riots in North-East district of Delhi between February 23 and 29 claimed the lives of more than 50 people, the majority of whom were Muslims and injured more than 500. After speaking to 50 riots survivors,…

August 27, 2020

Press Release

Following reports indicating that two protestors were killed and one was injured during protests in Kenosha, WI, Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) released the following statement from End Gun Violence Campaign Manager Ernest Coverson. The protests come after local police shot and severely injured Jacob Blake as he tried to get into his car. 

August 26, 2020