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Update

Amnesty International said yesterday that the recommendations of the United Nations Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict, if implemented, offer the best hope for justice and accountability. The UN-mandated report by Judge Richard Goldstone found that both Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups committed grave violations of international law, including war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity, during the Gaza conflict this year.    The report supports Amnesty International’s own findings of war crimes committed by both sides. Donatella Rovera, who headed Amnesty International’s fact finding mission last winter in Israel and the Gaza Strip, said: "The UN Security…

September 16, 2009

Update

In Iran, in January of this year, a man being stoned to death for adultery managed to survive his ordeal by digging his way out of the pit in which he had been buried.  According to an Amnesty International report, citing Iran’s penal code, “if the condemned person manages to escape from the pit, they will not be stoned again if they had been sentenced after confession.” The man who escaped in January was not stoned again that day, though it is believed he was taken back into custody. Today, Ohio faces a similar dilemma.  Romell Broom survived the Buckeye…

September 16, 2009

Update

The UN Human Rights Council started its twelfth regular session in Geneva today.  I'm hoping that this time, unlike last May, we'll see the Council take some effective action to protect the human rights of the displaced civilians in Sri Lanka. In her statement today to the Council, Navanethem Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, had the following to say of the displaced civilians in Sri Lanka: "In Sri Lanka, internally displaced presons are effectively detained under conditions of internment.  Humanitarian agencies' access to these camps remains restricted, and the mandates of relief agencies are increasingly coming under…

September 15, 2009

Update

This posting is part of our Forced Evictions in Africa Series. Amnesty International researchers just completed a research mission to Chad to investigate the recent mass housing demolitions and forced evictions being conducted by Chadian authorities.  Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty Canada, has been documenting the mission: "We are broken, just like our houses." Those heartbreaking words were shared with us by a woman describing the agonizing days that led to the destruction of her home, alongside the homes of hundreds of her neighbors, in one of the many parts of N'Djamena that have been cruelly razed to the…

September 15, 2009

Update

AFGHANISTAN - Election Recount The United Nations Electoral Complaints Commission has ordered a recount of about 10 percent of votes from Afghanistan's recent president election. The recount could reduce President Hamid Karzai's lead to below the 50 percent threshold, which would in turn force a second-round runoff. The recount will involve polling stations throughout Afghanistan and not only in the south, where Karzai finds his strongest ethnic support and where the worst of the cheating is alleged to have happened. Second-place candidate Abdullah Abdullah has welcomed the move but believes that a higher percentage of votes should be recounted, claiming…

September 15, 2009

Update

The FBI’s annual crime report – Crime in the United States, 2008 – which was released Monday reveals that, like death sentences and executions, murder rates in the U.S. declined slightly in 2008.  This has been the trend for a number of years, as has been the fact that homicide rates vary from state to state, with the states of the Deep South generally having the highest murder rates. As usual, states without capital punishment generally had lower homicide rates than the states that execute.  In fact, all but one of the 14 states with no death penalty in 2008 had murder rates…

September 15, 2009

Update

Journalist Fernando Lelo was released from prison on August 21st. Lelo spent nearly 2 years in prison, convicted by the Cabinda Military Court for crimes against the security of the State. Amnesty International considered Lelo a Prisoner of Conscience; convicted for his non-violent expression of criticism and opinion against the government of Angola. On appeal, the Supreme Military Court released Fernando and acquitted him of all charges, ordering his immediate release. Amnesty International spoke to Fernando since his release, who thanked AI for all the work done on his behalf and encouraged us to continue to work for the release of other prisoners of conscience. In addition to…

September 14, 2009

Update

If you're interested in getting an update on the displaced civilians held in internment camps in northern Sri Lanka, I'd highly recommend the statement issued by Amnesty International today entitled, "Sri Lanka's Displaced Face Uncertain Future as Government Begins to Unlock the Camps".  It's a good summary of the hurdles the Sri Lankan government is placing in the path of the civilians being able to leave the camps.  (For background on this story, please visit our Sri Lanka page.) If you've been following this story, you know the numbers of the civilians involved can get confusing.  Amnesty issued another statement today, "Counting the…

September 12, 2009

Update

This posting is part of our Forced Evictions in Africa Series. A few days ago we published a new report on housing demolitions and forced evictions in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad. Here is a little background info about how to conduct such a project. 1. Becoming aware of the problem In my case, that meant reading the news. IRIN published an article this past January, describing the frightening scale of housing demolitions in N’Djamena. A few weeks before, Amnesty International had published a comprehensive report on human rights violations in connection with the attack by armed opposition groups on N’Djamena…

September 11, 2009

Update

The 2009 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has received a lot of attention this week after over 50 film makers, actors, academics, and activists signed and released a statement called the “Toronto Declaration: No Celebration of Occupation”. The 2009 festival chose to highlight Tel Aviv with 10 films by local filmmakers for its City to City Program and this prompted the protests because the individuals felt that “TIFF, whether intentionally or not, has become complicit in the Israeli propaganda machine.” The Jerusalem Post reported that some of the various individuals who signed the statement include American Actors Jane Fonda and…

September 10, 2009

Update

A new report by Human Rights Watch, entitled "Denied Dignity", outlines how Shia Muslims of Saudi Arabia struggle against “systematic discrimination”.  The Shia community, which comprises about 10% to 15% of the Saudi population, faces "unfavourable treatment" in areas including religion, education, employment, and the justice system. A recent Human Rights Watch report highlights an incident this past February where Shia Muslims clashed with religious police in the holy city of Medina. The report found that at this incident, “Security forces shot a 15-year-old pilgrim in the chest, and an unknown civilian stabbed a Shia religious sheikh in the back with a…

September 10, 2009

Update

The British news company, Channel 4, has released another shocking video on Sri Lanka, this time on the terrible conditions facing Sri Lanka's displaced Tamils in the internment camps they're currently held in.  (For background on this story, see the Sri Lanka page on the AIUSA website.)  Like the earlier execution video released by Channel 4, Amnesty International cannot confirm whether the video and pictures reportedly shot inside the camps two weeks ago are authentic.  We could do so if the Sri Lankan government would allow aid workers and independent human rights observers full, unimpeded access to the camps and their civilian…

September 9, 2009