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Update

The New York Times reported this morning that in the past two years the US military has killed more than 400 militants in 80 drone strikes for the loss of only 20 civilian casualties. Pentagon sources credit the increased sophistication of modern weapons systems and intelligence collection platforms for this record of success. This is a bold claim and one that Amnesty International has been trying to investigate on the ground in a very hostile operational environment. At present, reliable facts are hard to come by. However, we can say with the confidence derived from hard-earned experience that these numbers…

December 4, 2009

Update

Yesterday on World AIDS Day, South Africa was in the news quite a bit. The executive director of UNAIDS was in Pretoria for the commemoration and along with South Africa's President Jacob Zuma, called for greater HIV prevention measures. South Africa has the largest population of person's living with HIV-nearly 6 million people. Globally, women are disproportionally affected by HIV and AIDS as the fastest rising group contracting the virus. In South Africa, women account for approximately 62% of all persons over age 15 living with HIV. South Africa has a sad history of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. Despite relentless calls…

December 3, 2009

Update

This posting is part of our Write-a-Thon Cases Series. For more information visit www.amnestyusa.org/writeathon/ Human rights defenders Alisher Karamatov (aged 41), and Azam Farmonov (aged 30), were detained on 29 April 2006 as they defended the rights of local farmers who had accused district farming officials of extortion and corruption. They were allegedly tortured, charged with extortion and subjected to an unfair trial where they were denied adequate legal representation. Alisher and Azam are regional heads of the independent Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan. They said that after they started investigating the farmers' allegations and confronted local officials with their findings,…

December 3, 2009

Update

Everything and nothing has happened in Zimbabwe over the past month. Prime Minister Tsvangirai briefly boycotted the unity government. His goal: force the hand of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to step up in its role as guarantors of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that forms the basis of the unity government. It worked; SADC held emergency meetings and appointed President Zuma of South Africa as the new negotiator, but the people in Zimbabwe who need to be talking are only grudgingly doing so. Tsvangirai's boycott led to an emergency meeting in Mozambique with Tsvangirai, Mugabe, the SADC Troika (Organ on Defense and Security comprised of…

December 2, 2009

Update

I wish, I really wish, that I had only good news to report today.  Today was the day the Sri Lankan government promised that the displaced civilians who'd been held in military-run camps for the last 6 months would be free to leave the camps "sans any conditions being imposed."  But it hasn't worked out that way.  The civilians were told today they could leave but they also have to return to the camps soon.  As the war ended in May this year with the Sri Lankan government's defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels, about 280,000 civilians displaced by the fighting were placed in overcrowded, military-run camps…

December 2, 2009

Update

(Originally posted onYouTube Blog) YouTube can be a powerful tool championing the rights of individuals and promoting free expression. This month, during International Human Rights Day, [YouTube is] partnering with Morgan Freeman and Amnesty International to encourage you to become advocates for equality and justice, through Video Volunteers. Here's how you can help. Create a video about the nonprofit of your choice working on a human rights issue that you care about -- it could be genocide, human trafficking, refugee protection, gender equality or something else -and submit it to the Video Volunteers channel by December 21. Amnesty International and…

December 2, 2009

Update

By Anna Phelan, Amnesty International USA’s Business and Economic Relations Group Last week President Obama and Prime Minister Singh met to discuss U.S.-India relations; it was the first state visit of President Obama's administration. According to news reports, the two heads of state discussed working together as natural allies on intelligence issues as well as energy security, clean energy, agriculture and climate change issues. Did President Obama use this opportunity to also address human rights concerns in India? And in particular, did they discuss Bhopal? Twenty-five years ago, a toxic gas leak at Union Carbide's pesticide plant in Bhopal, India…

December 1, 2009

Update

A day before President Obama is to announce plans for escalating troop deployments in Afghanistan, the US Supreme Court issued an important ruling concerning returning veterans overwhelmed by the trauma of combat. The Court on Monday sent the death penalty case of George Porter back to the state of Florida for re-sentencing, without bothering to hold a hearing.  The 15-page order featured a passionate (by Supreme Court standards) honoring of Porter’s Korean War service and a compassionate recognition of the debilitating effects of the subsequent trauma he suffered.  The Justices ruled that the Porter’s lawyer was constitutionally deficient for failing…

December 1, 2009

Update

This posting is part of our Write-a-Thon Cases Series. For more information visit www.amnestyusa.org/writeathon/ A State of Emergency has existed in Egypt since 1981 following the assassination of President Anwar Sadat, but these days the greatest emergency in Egypt is the state of civil society.  Writers, scholars, intellectuals, political opponents and a range of non-governmental organizations are all under attack by the government. But novelist Musaad Suliman Hassan Hussein, known by his pen name Musaad Abu Fagr, refuses to be muzzled. His courage in face of government oppression offers American activists an answer as to how to promote human rights in…

November 30, 2009

Update

I finally have good news to report:  the Sri Lankan government announced this past Saturday that the displaced civilians unlawfully trapped in internment camps will be free to come and go as of December 1!  Amnesty International has been calling for this for the past several months in our "Unlock the Camps!" campaign. However, while the government announcement and a Sri Lankan newspaper article said that the civilians were being given total freedom of movement as of Dec. 1, other accounts of the government's announcement have been less positive.  Another Sri Lankan government report referred to the civilians being allowed freedom of movement only…

November 25, 2009

Update

This posting is part of our Write-a-Thon Cases Series. For more information visit www.amnestyusa.org/writeathon/ Threatened with rape, death, and kidnapping, Rita Mahato has courageously continued her work to stop violence against women in Nepal. A health counselor at the Women's Rehabilitation Center (WOREC) in Bastipur Village Development Committee, Mahato has been repeatedly harassed by men from the village who tell her that an uneducated woman should not be doing a man's job and that men can suppress women. Mahato has been an adviser to women who have suffered from violence and ensures that their cases are reported and filed, as they…

November 25, 2009

Update

When the father of Dr. Ramin Pourandarjani was contacted by Iranian authorities, telling him that his 26-year-old son had broken his leg in an accident, and that his permission was needed for an operation, the concerned father rushed to Tehran.  Upon his arrival he discovered that his son was in fact dead. The government has claimed that the young doctor committed suicide, even that a note had been found near his body suggesting that he had been suffering from depression. But Reza-Qoli Pourandarjani insists that he talked to his son the night before his death and that he had been…

November 25, 2009