Newsroom

Update

Last month I had the opportunity to meet with Tamil human rights defenders working to protect the rights of Tamil civilians displaced by the Sri Lankan government’s military campaign against the violent Armed Group known as the Tamil Tigers. Displaced Tamils are confined to government run camps where conditions are harsh and there is no end to their detention in sight. Tamil and Sri Lankan human rights defenders are operating under great threat from the authorities and Sinhalese nationalist paramilitaries. Journalists have been killed and activists have disappeared. An unmarked white van has been associated with several disappearances, evoking memories…

October 14, 2009

Update

What’s Up This Week: Sri Lanka: Humanitarian Disaster Looms Pakistan: New Violence Upcoming this week Sri Lanka: Trapped Between Military and Monsoon The quarter of a million Sri Lankans locked up in military-run internment camps are facing a humanitarian disaster with the arrival of monsoon rains. Living situations in the overcrowded camps are likely to further deteriorate in the following weeks. The camps lack even basic sanitation facilities. During previous heavy rains, water flooded the camps and forced residents to wade through overflowing sewage. We had heavy rains about a month ago. It was hell. The ground here cannot absorb…

October 13, 2009

Update

Jordanian journalist Rana Husseini’s new book examines the charged issue of honor killings of women that occur in Jordan, Syria, Pakistan, and other countries. Murder in the Name of Honor chronicles many years of careful research and reporting carried out by Ms Husseini, who writes for the English-language Jordan Times, and has won numerous awards, including the Reebok Human Rights Award. Honor killings of women and girls are carried out by their male relatives in order to restore the honor of the family due to a woman’s perceived unchaste behavior. The issue is understandably highly sensitive, and until the intrepid…

October 13, 2009

Update

Over the past thirty years, tens of thousands of Zimbabweans have died, faced torture, or been assaulted at the hands of the State. Yet the legal system has refused to hold the perpetrators of these human rights violations accountable. That is, perhaps, until now. Justina Mukoko, Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, spent ten years documenting such incidents of state-sanctioned violence. On December 13, 2008, she was kidnapped by persons then unknown from her home. She spent almost three weeks in incommunicado detention, enduring long rounds of interrogation punctuated by beatings on the soles of her feet. The purpose of…

October 11, 2009

Update

If you've been keeping up with the news in Honduras, you know about the crackdown on protesters, crackdown on media outlets, and slow diplomatic talks. You also might know it's a pretty emotional issue for Hondurans, many of whom stand completely with Zelaya or the de facto government. Just read the comments on my last blog and you'll get the idea. But did you know about an executive decree that bans all public meetings and gives incredible power to police? Yep, it's true. According to a new AI story: Honduran de facto president Roberto Micheletti must rescind a decree that…

October 9, 2009

Update

This posting is part of our Forced Evictions in Africa Series Luanda, Angola hosted World Habitat Day last year. UN Habitat's Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka called upon President dos Santos to allocate 10% of Angola's oil income to upgrading vital social services such as housing, plumbing, clean water and electricity and praised Angola's stated commitment toward a slum revitalization program. Approximately 85% of Angolans live in slum conditions surrounding major cities. In response, President dos Santos stated his government was waging "a sustained war against chaotic urbanization." I would agree with that analysis. It certainly looks like a battleground when armed forces enter a…

October 9, 2009

Update

By Anna Phelan, Amnesty International USA’s Business and Economic Relations Group Since the release of Amnesty International’s report Petroleum, Pollution and Poverty in the Niger Delta (30 June 2009), our global membership has acted to get Shell’s new CEO Peter Voser to come clean on the impacts of its operations in the Niger Delta, during his first 100 days on the job. Here's one of my favorite actions: Parisian AI-ers show Shell how to clean up AI’s report looks at the impact of pollution and environmental damage caused by the oil industry on the human rights of the people living…

October 8, 2009

Update

I heard some very disturbing news last night.  Dileesha Abeysundera, a Sri Lankan journalist and media rights activist, is in danger.  Several unidentified people traveling in white vans tried to break into her compound in Colombo (Sri Lanka's capital city) at 11:45 P.M. on Sept. 28.  While they didn't succeed and Dileesha wasn't harmed, I'm very worried for her.   The use of white vans was particularly chilling; they've been used in many abductions and enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka since 2006.  Dileesha had organized a meeting on Sept. 28 calling for the abolition of the Press Council Act, a law which…

October 8, 2009

Update

Amnesty International has been calling on the Sri Lankan government to grant freedom of movement to over 250,000 displaced civilians now being held in internment camps in the north.  The government has said that it can't allow civilians to leave the camps until they've been screened to determine if any of them are connected to the opposition Tamil Tigers.  (For more information on this subject, please see our Sri Lanka page.)  The Sri Lankan government has announced releases of some of the civilians.  But are they actually being released? Amnesty has received reports that some of those released have apparently been transferred to…

October 8, 2009

Update

This posting is part of our Forced Evictions in Africa Series Nairobi is the world headquarters for both the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the UN Human Settlements Program (UN Habitat), which are responsible for promoting green development, sustainable cities and adequate shelter for all. Yet these agencies' presence hasn't prevented the widespread pollution of the Nairobi River Basin or the growth of Kibera into the 2nd largest slum in Africa. More than one million people live in Kibera, crowded onto just 550 acres of land, most living in tin shacks without electricity or access to basic services like…

October 8, 2009

Update

When I was around 10-years-old, I somehow caught a few minutes of Christine, the film based on Stephen King's novel about a killer car. And it freaked me out. To this day, I've still never gotten a driver's license. Anyway, Stephen King knows a lot about horror. So if he is freaked out about the U.S. government's use of torture, then you know it's serious. Recently, Mr. King took the time to write a personal letter to President Obama calling for an independent commission of inquiry into the U.S. torture program, and that letter will be published tomorrow as an ad in the…

October 8, 2009

Update

I have two issues on my mind about the displaced civilians being held in internment camps in Sri Lanka:  (1) will the camps be able to cope with the coming monsoon rains, and (2) are the civilians safe in the camps now? On the first issue, a British minister visiting the camps said Tuesday that freedom of movement for the displaced was critical now, especially with the rains expected soon.  (Amnesty International has been calling on the Sri Lankan government to allow the civilians to leave the camps if they wish; for more information on this topic, please see our Sri Lanka page.)   The BBC was allowed…

October 7, 2009