Newsroom

Update

Right-wing Republicans have reportedly been mobilizing to block the appointment of two prominent lawyers to advisory positions in the Obama administration: Indiana University constitutional law Professor Dawn Johnsen and the Dean of the Yale Law School Harold Koh. Johnsen is the administration's nominee to head for the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice and Koh is nominated to be the Legal Counsel at the State Department. Both have a strong human rights record, Johnsen was Legal Director of the National Abortion & Reproductive Rights Action League and Koh served as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human…

April 8, 2009

Update

Today, in a landmark decision, former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was convicted for torture, kidnapping and forced disappearances committed during the early 1990s. This is a crucial victory in the struggle against impunity for human rights violations in Peru and a triumph for justice worldwide. Javier Zúñiga, an Amnesty International delegate who observed the trial noted: “Justice has been done in Peru. This is historic. Now it is vital that all of those responsible for human rights violations committed in Peru, including those perpetrated prior to the government of Alberto Fujimori, be brought before the courts.” Peru’s Supreme Court ruled…

April 7, 2009

Update

Today is the 60th World Health Day, which the World Health Organization uses to highlight a different health theme each year. Today it's making hospitals safe in emergencies, which WHO Director-General Margaret Chan promoted at an event in China, nearly a year after the Chengdu earthquake. The WHO's activities to mark the anniversary of the disaster seem to have been warmly received, unlike those of environmental activist Tan Zuoren, who last week was detained by the police in Chengdu, apparently because he planned to publish a list of children who died and a report on the role corruption played in the schools that…

April 7, 2009

Update

Yesterday, the Seattle Times reported that Washington State’s execution team resigned, out of concern that their identities might be revealed during the course of a pending lawsuit over that state’s execution protocol.  This follows the resignation at the end of last year of the chief physician for Washington’s Department of Corrections, who quit out of concern that participation of his staff in executions would be unethical. In the wake of the US Supreme Court’s Baze decision, which found lethal injection to be constitutional (not cruel and unusual punishment) as long as it is properly administered, lawsuits and investigations have focused on…

April 3, 2009

Update

Judge John Bates took a stand for human rights and common sense when he ruled yesterday that foreign prisoners held in the U.S. prison at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan who had been brought there from outside Afghanistan may challenge their continued detention in the U.S. courts. The petition before the U.S. District Court had been brought by four inmates at Bagram seeking to extend the Supreme Court’s Boumediene decision, that recognized habeas corpus rights for detainees at Guantanamo, to detention facilities in Afghanistan. The four inmates include Amin al-Balri, a Yemeni national, who was detained in Thailand; Redha Al-Najar, a…

April 3, 2009

Update

Despite reports of US weapons used in human rights violations in Gaza, another shipment has arrived and been unloaded in Israel. In January, Amnesty International along with other groups in Greece were able to divert and delay this shipment of arms, but on January 12, in the midst of the conflict, the ship disappeared from the radar near Greece. It reappeared March 23, traveling from Israel to the Ukraine.  The Pentagon confirmed that on March 22, the cargo ship unloaded 300 containers of munitions to the Israeli port Ashdod. There is not too much to add to the statement of…

April 2, 2009

Update

Although the UN initiated a Board of Inquiry into allegations of war crimes in Gaza, Dion Nissenbaum, Jerusalem Bureau Chief for McClatchy news company, says  "I'm not sure what impact this UN report is going to have." He continues to explain, "I think the only thing that the Israeli government will look at is reports from Israeli soldiers. Israel has always been skeptical of the United Nations, the international press, and they are certainly skeptical of what comes out of the Palestinians." Stories from members of the Israeli forces came out recently and created a firestorm of discussion within Israel about…

April 1, 2009

Update

Proving that there truly is no prerequisite for intelligence in pageant winners, Miss Universe either just revealed her deep ignorance of global issues or her utter lack of humanity. Either way, the situation is not good. She is the only person (that I am aware of) who has been appointed to represent our universe, so it's a little embarrassing. In case you missed it, Miss Universe, Dayana Mendoza and Miss USA, Crystle Steward recently enjoyed a little vacation... at Guantanamo Bay. Unfortunately, I’m serious. In her blog on missuniverse.com, Dayana raved about her new favorite Caribbean getaway: "we had a…

April 1, 2009

Update

Last week the National Court in Madrid received a complaint filed on behalf of five Spanish nationals formerly detained in Guantanamo who have charged that they were tortured in U.S. custody. The complaint was referred for investigation to one of Spain’s most high-profile law enforcement officials, Judge Baltasar Garzon. Judge Garzon is best known for bringing similar charges against the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and seeking his arrest and extradition from the United Kingdom. In 2002, Judge Garzon also sought unsuccessfully to question Henry Kissinger concerning alleged U.S. complicity in acts of state sponsored assassination carried out by Latin…

March 31, 2009

Update

Today, Holland starts a one-year trial of arming police with Tasers.  This sounds like a familiar story, but here's the twist:  The Dutch police don't want the them.  According to Dutch Public TV, the Federal Police issued a statement documenting their objections to using a weapon so rife with problems. And why should they want to use this weapon?  The controversy surrounding Tasers is well-documented.  Between July 2001 and August 2008, Amnesty International studied more than 334 deaths that occurred after police-use of Tasers.  So many of the deaths were needless.  Police frequently used Tasers inappropriately, especially considering that in…

March 27, 2009

Update

In case you haven’t heard, Google announced a few days ago that YouTube had been completely censored in China. According to the New York Times, "Google said it did not know why the site had been blocked…" "We don’t know the reason for the block," a Google spokesman, Scott Rubin, said. "Our government relations people are trying to resolve it." Give us a break, Scott. It's widely speculated that the Chinese government was less than happy about footage of Chinese soldiers beating Tibetans appearing on the site. But this is old news. Really old news. China has been censoring the…

March 27, 2009

Update

Here's the clip - you have to watch until the end - where Amnesty's new report on immigrants in detention, Jailed without Justice, is featured by Keith Olbermann on MSNBC:

March 26, 2009