Below you’ll find breaking news as well as reports, updates on our campaigns, and victories.
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Update
Big Oil Finally Pays in Nigeria: A Victory for Corporate Accountability
By Anna Phelan, Amnesty International USA’s Business & Economic Relations Group My mom called me to tell me that a settlement was reached in the Wiwa v. Shell case. She saw a report on the nightly television news earlier this week. That’s how I knew this story was really big news. In Tuesday’s Guardian (UK), Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr. talks about the families’ decision to accept the settlement with Shell. He says, the choice “enabled [the plaintiffs] to advertise the settlement as a living, breathing example of how and why the commitment to peace, non-violence and dialogue is the best way…
June 12, 2009
Update
Wake Up, Humans!
Hidden cameras and fake police! See how Amnesty International woke people up to human rights in Belgium:
June 11, 2009
Update
Victory for Women's Rights!
Earlier this week we asked you to take quick action for women’s rights. Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to make the U.S. Office for Global Women's Issues permanent. This major victory just proves that when you speak up for human rights, the people in power do listen. It may have taken us a lot of effort to seal the deal, but today, the fight seems well worth it. The doors are now opened for major advancements in combating violence against women and improving women's health care, education, and economic stability. The bill still needs to move on to…
June 11, 2009
Update
Sri Lanka: judicial independence threatened
The Sri Lankan Foreign Minister reportedly told Parliament yesterday that the government would address within the Sri Lankan legal system any alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law during the recent fighting between the military and the opposition Tamil Tigers. Thus, there would be no need for an international investigation. The Foreign Minister pointed to a long, well-established tradition within Sri Lanka of an independent judiciary. Before anyone gets too sanguine about the prospects of an effective investigation being carried out by the Sri Lankan government of the human rights abuses and war crimes committed by both sides during the…
June 10, 2009
Update
UN v. USA re: Death Penalty
On May 26, the United Nations released a report by the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, which highlights, among other things, some of the major flaws in the US judicial system related to the death penalty. The report focuses particularly on the sates of Texas and Alabama, where the research of the Special Rapporteur was concentrated. The report rightfully notes that the current judicial system in those two states is significantly flawed as it leaves room for the wrongful conviction and execution of innocent people, something that was confirmed even by interviews with public officials. In that…
June 10, 2009
Update
Help Release Laura Ling and Euna Lee
On Tuesday, we heard from T. Kumar about what U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee face in their 12 year sentence in a North Korean labor camp. They got the maximum sentence of 10 years of hard labor for hostile acts and an additional two years for illegal entry, according to analysts. But exactly what hostile acts they committed remains unclear. The two women, both of whom were investigating human rights abuses of North Korean women for the California-based Current TV media venture in San Francisco, were arrested on March 17 near North Korea's border with China. They were…
June 10, 2009
Update
The June 12 Elections in Iran: A New Future?
Enormous crowds throng the streets of Tehran and great excitement is in the air. Commentators note that the June 12 presidential elections in Iran could be the most important election in thirty years. In the previous presidential election of 2005, only a minority of eligible voters actually went to the polls. No one expects that to be the case this year as the country’s young people—most Iranians were born after the Revolution of 1979—are expected to turn out in large numbers. As Iranians prepare to go to the polls to elect their president, human rights has surprisingly emerged as a…
June 10, 2009
Update
Life Inside a North Korean Prison Camp
The news has been buzzing with reports of the two U.S. journalists who were sentenced to 12 years imprisonment with hard labor in North Korea. Laura Ling and Euna Lee were convicted of an unspecified “grave crime” after they were arrested in March while investigating human rights abuses of North Korean women. The conviction is outrageous and Amnesty International is calling for the pair's immediate release. The U.S. government is also scrambling to negotiate their release. But in the mean time, what do Lee and Ling face in a North Korean labor camp? Amnesty’s own T. Kumar was asked just…
June 9, 2009
Update
Amnesty On-the-Ground in Kenya
This week, Amnesty International kicked off a high level research mission to Kenya to launch our first Demand Dignity campaign action. Irene Khan, Amnesty’s Secretary General, visited to two informal settlements in Nairobi – where almost two million people live in slums – asking residents to tell the Kenyan government what dignity mean to them via a free SMS service. The responses have been inspiring, take a look at a few: For me, living with dignity means “setting principles to your ways and standard of living and be true to them.” “Dignity is having three meals a day. Clean water.…
June 9, 2009
Update
Women's Rights on the Line
A vote in Congress tomorrow (6/10) will decide the fate of a new Office of Global Women’s Issues, a key provision of the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA). The creation of this office would mean major advancements in healthcare, poverty reduction and U.S. foreign policies aiming to empower and improve the lives of women worldwide. But opposition groups are trying to de-rail this piece of legislation by spreading misinformation about what this office would really do. They claim that this legislation would hurt women’s rights. Nothing could be further from the truth. This new office is about: helping the…
June 9, 2009
Update
Exposing the Truth is Dangerous
Since writing Los Demonios del Edén -- a book that exposed child prostitution and trafficking in Cancun, Mexico -- Lydia Cacho has been under constant harrasment and intimidation. In 2005, she was taken from the women’s shelter she runs and transported more than 900 miles across Mexico at gunpoint to a jail in Puebla, Mexico. After her release, audio tapes surfaced showing that then Puebla Gov. Mario Marín was involved in her mistreatment. Given Lydia’s accomplishments as human rights activist and determination under pressure, Amnesty International awarded her the Ginetta Sagan Human Rights Award in 2007. This video explains more…
June 8, 2009
Update
Amnesty Int'l Blocked from Chevron Shareholder Meeting
By Tony Cruz, member of Amnesty International USA’s Business & Economic Relations Group On Wednesday, May 27th, I traveled to Chevron’s Annual Shareholder Meeting to represent Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) and its interests as a shareholder of Chevron Corporation (CVX) and to join other NGOs in a delegation to address the company’s role in some of the most well publicized human rights abuses across the globe. Maybe you’ve heard the good news that Toxic Waste Won’t Make You Sick! Unfortunately, I was turned away at the door. I had the AIUSA proxy (ticket) in hand, but I did not have…
June 8, 2009