Newsroom

Update

Abdolfattah Soltani, an Iranian human rights defender, was one of hundreds of people who were rounded up and imprisoned in the crackdown that followed Iran’s presidential elections.  Plain clothes Iranian security officials arrested the leading human rights activist in June along with countless others -- students, opposition politicians, journalists and rights activists -- and threw them in prison. Soltani has for years stood by victims of Iran's repression. And by putting himself in the line of fire, he too has become a target of the Iranian government crackdown. Tens of thousands of Amnesty members took action in response to news…

September 2, 2009

Update

I was shocked this morning when I heard the news that J.S. Tissainayagam, the detained Sri Lankan journalist, was sentenced to 20 years rigorous imprisonment by the Sri Lankan High Court.  Tissainayagam has been detained for the last 18 months and was tried under Sri Lanka's draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act for writing two magazine articles in 2006 critical of the government's conduct of the war against the opposition Tamil Tigers.  Amnesty International considers Tissainayagam to be a prisoner of conscience, detained and prosecuted solely for his legitimate work as a journalist, and has been calling for his immediate, unconditional release. Tissainayagam…

September 1, 2009

Update

First off, apologies for the title. I couldn't stop myself. That being said, South African President Jacob Zuma traveled to Zimbabwe last week for either one of two reasons, depending on who you were asking. According to South Africa and the current majority political party MDC, Zuma was there in his role as Chair of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), guarantors of Zimbabwe's unity government, to encourage resolution on outstanding issues of contention between MDC and the former ruling party ZANU-PF regarding the political agreement structuring the unity government. However, according to President Robert Mugabe of ZANU-PF, Zuma was only…

August 31, 2009

Update

President Ruplah Banda signed new legislation today regulating the activities of all Zambian NGO's.  This is the Zambian government's second attempt to pass such legislation after the first was withdrawn in 2007 following widespread protests. Coming on the heels of the arrest and trial of The Post editor Chansa Kabwela, the NGO bill is seen as yet another mechanism to suppress government critics. NGOs are now required to register with the government every five years, reporting on organizational funding, activities and the personal holdings of their officials.  A newly established authorizing board will be responsible for instituting a "code of…

August 31, 2009

Update

The departing Force Commander of UNAMID (United Nations - African Union Mission in Darfur), General Martin Luther Agwai, has been widely quoted as saying so. And if "over" is taken to mean the end of large-scale clashes between heavily armed forces, then this statement is true. In his view, the problems are now essentially related to "security issues... banditry, localised issues, people trying to resolve issues over water and land at a local level. But real war as such, I think we are over that". Is this assessment substantially new? Not necessarily. In the most recent July 13, 2009 Report…

August 31, 2009

Update

(Originally posted on Huffington post.) Though Alyce Driver worked three jobs, none of them provided health insurance. Regular teeth cleaning and yearly physicals for her five children were a luxury she could not afford. One day her twelve-year-old son Deamonte complained of a headache. Seven weeks later, Deamonte was dead. The diagnosis? An abscessed tooth. While death from tooth decay may have been common in the middle ages, this was 2007. And while one certainly still hears of such things in some of the more underserved areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America, this was in the capital of the…

August 31, 2009

Update

Today, Aug. 30, is the International Day of the Disappeared, observed by Amnesty International and other human rights groups around the word to remember the disappeared and to press for justice for the victims of enforced disappearance and their families.  An "enforced disappearance" occurs when agents of the state arrest a person and the state then denies any knowledge of the person's status or whereabouts.  Over the past several decades, Sri Lanka has experienced tens of thousands of enforced disappearances, most of which remain unresolved.  Most of those responsible for these enforced disappearances have never been held accountable.  Please remember…

August 30, 2009

Update

The Sri Lankan government is facing renewed calls for an investigation into human rights abuses after a graphic video was released showing extra-judicial killings. Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, which obtained the material, said this video was filmed in January - when the international media were prevented by the Sri Lankan government from covering the conflict zone. The video shows a uniformed soldier shooting a naked man in the head. Eight dead bodies can be seen in the video as well. Although Amnesty International is not able to verify the footage on this video, it raises important questions about violations committed…

August 27, 2009

Update

NIGERIA - Instability Despite an Amnesty Deal Hundreds of militants in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, including one of the main rebels group’s (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND) top commanders Ebikabowei Victor Ben, have begun to hand over their weapons as part of an amnesty deal offered by Nigerian president Umaru Yar’Adua. According to the BBC, the weapons handed over included hundreds of assault rifles, several rocket launchers and at least 12 gunboats. However, factions of MEND have rejected the government’s amnesty offer and have pledged to resume attacks once the ceasefire is over on September…

August 25, 2009

Update

In 2004, Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in Texas for setting a fire that killed his three children.  He maintained his innocence to the end, and those who looked into his case, including the Chicago Tribune, have concluded that he was in fact wrongfully executed.  His was one of the 200+ executions under Rick Perry, a governor who has remained willfully oblivious to the huge flaws in his state’s death penalty.   Yet recently, to its credit, the Texas Forensic Science Commission reopened the case.  A nationally known fire expert, Craig Beyler, was hired to assess how Texas authorities investigated the fire. …

August 25, 2009

Update

To our deep disappointment, Leonard Peltier was denied parole on Friday, nearly a month after his July 28 parole hearing. In addition to our online action, Amnesty International had sent an open letter to the parole board in early July urging that Peltier be granted parole, and Amnesty continues to call for his immediate release on parole. You can read more about Leonard's case in this blog post, and in the full AI press relase. The US Department of Justice also issued a lengthy press release on Friday.

August 24, 2009

Update

You may not have been aware of it, but this past Wednesday, Aug. 19, was the first World Humanitarian Day.  August 19 was designated by the U.N. General Assembly last December as a day each year to honor aid workers around the world, especially those who have given their lives in the line of duty. The UN website about the World Humanitarian Day noted that in Sri Lanka, 17 staff of the French aid agency Action contre la Faim (ACF) (Action Against Hunger) were killed in August 2006.  While the Sri Lankan government has blamed the opposition Tamil Tigers for the killings, a…

August 23, 2009