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  • China

Chinese activists Lu Yuyu and Li Tingyu: Love in the time of censorship

Lu Yuyu and Li Tingyu were picking up a catnip plant pot for their cat, Little Stinker, when their romance was abruptly ended. Waiting at the pick-up point were the police who had been tracking them for the entire three years of their relationship. “Jane (Li) went in to pick up the delivery, and I waited for her outside. Suddenly several men came around,” Lu recounted to Amnesty International from his home in Guizhou province, southwestern China.

Date:
1 February 2021
  • News
  • Myanmar
  • Detention

Myanmar: Aung San Suu Kyi, others arrested as military coup underway

Responding to the arrest of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and others amid reports that a military coup is underway in Myanmar, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns, Ming Yu Hah, said: “The arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, senior officials and other political figures is extremely alarming. Unless those detained can be charged with a recognizable criminal offence under international law, they must be immediately released.

Date:
1 February 2021
  • News
  • France
  • Torture and other ill-treatment

Global: Fresh evidence of police misuse of tear gas leading to protesters’ deaths and injuries – updated investigative website

Amnesty International today published new evidence of the misuse of tear gas by security forces in several countries in the second half of 2020, including during protests around the election in Uganda, the Black Lives Matter movement in the USA, and in the repression of protesters in Lebanon. The organization’s interactive website Tear Gas: An Investigation has now been updated to include new cases of police committing human rights violations against peaceful protesters around the world.

Date:
1 February 2021
  • News
  • Russian Federation
  • Unlawful Detention

Russia: Appalling use of force and arrests of peaceful protesters

All peaceful protesters detained today in Moscow and other Russian cities must be released immediately and unconditionally, and all instances of unlawful use of force by police promptly and effectively investigated, Amnesty International said. Today’s arrests and violent dispersals were the latest crackdown by Russian authorities on overwhelmingly peaceful protesters demanding the release of Alexei Navalny.

Date:
31 January 2021
  • News
  • Russian Federation
  • Torture and other ill-treatment

Russia: Vicious government campaign to crush political opposition ahead of Sunday protests

Reacting to the mounting reports of searches and arrests in Russia of prominent political and civil activists associated with imprisoned Aleksei Navalny, Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Moscow Office Director, said: “The crackdown on dissent in Russia has become increasingly brutal – and desperate – even compared to vicious reprisals in recent years. The authorities appear shamelessly bent on violating human rights by silencing their critics.

Date:
28 January 2021
  • News
  • Yemen
  • Arms Trade

Yemen: Biden temporary freeze of arms sales to Saudi Arabia and UAE is welcome

Responding to President Joe Biden’s decision to temporarily suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Philippe Nassif, advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International USA, said: “President Biden’s decision to freeze arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE represents a welcome relief in an otherwise shameful chapter of history. Almost six years of conflict in Yemen, fueled by irresponsible arms transfers, have left 14 million Yemenis in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

Date:
28 January 2021
  • News
  • Africa
  • Censorship and Freedom of Expression

Nigeria: Denials and cover up mark 100 days since Lekki shooting  

No justice for victims   Supporters of #EndSARS movement continue to face intimidation  Authorities yet to initiate concrete police reforms  Nigerian authorities have failed to bring to justice those suspected to be responsible for the brutal crackdown by security forces on peaceful #EndSARS protesters at Lekki toll gate and Alausa in Lagos in October 2020 and have brazenly attempted to cover up the violence, said Amnesty International Nigeria today, 100 days on from the attacks.

Date:
28 January 2021
  • News
  • Tunisia
  • Demonstrations

Tunisia: Investigate circumstances of a young man's death following reckless tear gas use by police

Tunisian authorities must conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into the death of a young man and the serious injury of another, after reports that they were hit by tear gas canisters in Sbeitla, west Tunisia, during protests that have gripped much of the country since 15 January. The authorities must also instruct their security forces not to use tear gas indiscriminately. Relatives of Haykal Rachdi and Aymen Mahmoudi, both 21, told Amnesty International that the two young men, who were injured under similar circumstances on the night of 18 January, bore head wounds and had told their relatives they were struck in the head by tear gas canisters fired by anti-riot police at close range.

Date:
28 January 2021
  • News
  • Lebanon
  • Arms Trade

Lebanon: New evidence reveals French law enforcement equipment unlawfully used to crush protests

New Amnesty International research today exposes the shameful role that French law enforcement equipment has played in the crackdown on largely peaceful protests in Lebanon since October 2019, as well as in repression of the August 2015 protests. The research documents Lebanese security forces’ unnecessary or excessive use of force against protesters using French-manufactured weapons, with no accountability for the serious injuries caused.

Date:
28 January 2021
  • News
  • Europe and Central Asia
  • Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Poland: Roll back of reproductive rights is dark day for Polish women

Following the publication by the Polish Constitutional Tribunal of the ruling invalidating the constitutionality of access to abortion on the ground of “severe and irreversible foetal defect or incurable illness that threatens the foetus’ life”, Esther Major, Senior Research Adviser at Amnesty International, said: “Today is a terrible day for women and girls in Poland. This harmful ruling roll back on pregnant people's sexual and reproductive rights and puts their health at risk.

Date:
27 January 2021
  • News
  • International Organizations

Sri Lanka: Damning UN report stresses need for urgent international action on accountability

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) must take urgent steps to address the worsening human rights situation in Sri Lanka, said Amnesty International, following the release of a damning UN report on the country’s efforts to ensure accountability for crimes committed during the civil conflict. Almost twelve years on from the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war, the report, from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), warns that the country’s persistent failure to address historic crimes is giving way to ‘clear early warning signs of a deteriorating human rights situation and a significantly heightened risk of future violations.

Date:
27 January 2021
  • News
  • Peru
  • Migrants

Peru: Militarization of borders puts human rights at risk

In light of the increased militarization of Peru’s borders in an effort to fortify them and limit the flow of migrants into the country, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International, said: “The use of military personnel for immigration enforcement work poses a serious risk to migrants and refugees’ human rights, because they lack the appropriate training and tools for such a role.

Date:
27 January 2021
  • News
  • France

France: Systemic Police Discrimination Requires Reforms

France: Systemic Police Discrimination Requires Reforms Groups Initiate Class Action Suit on Discriminatory Identity Checks Police in France engage in a longstanding  and widespread practice of ethnic profiling that constitutes systemic discrimination, a group of six French and international human rights organizations said today, as they initiated action  the first class action against the French state over the practice.

Date:
27 January 2021
  • News
  • Morocco and Western Sahara
  • Censorship and Freedom of Expression

Morocco: Release human rights defender prosecuted on trumped up charges

The Moroccan authorities must immediately and unconditionally release human rights defender Maati Monjib, and drop all charges against him including from a previous trial ongoing since 2015 in relation to his work on freedom of expression, Amnesty International said today. Following years of unlawful digital surveillance and judicial harassment, Monjib was detained on 29 December and his next investigation session before an investigative judge is scheduled for 27 January.

Date:
27 January 2021
  • News
  • Belarus
  • Detention

Belarus: Impunity for perpetrators of torture reinforces need for international justice

A new report by Amnesty International reveals how the Belarusian authorities have weaponized the justice system to punish victims of torture rather than perpetrators, as part of a widespread and brutal crackdown on dissent in the wake of post-election protests. The organization described the pursuit of justice inside Belarus as ‘hopeless’, and called on the international community to take active steps to deliver justice for victims and hold perpetrators to account.

Date:
27 January 2021
  • News
  • United States of America
  • Technology and Human Rights

Ban dangerous facial recognition technology that amplifies racist policing

Amnesty International today launches a global campaign to ban the use of facial recognition systems, a form of mass surveillance that amplifies racist policing and threatens the right to protest. The Ban the Scan campaign kicks off with New York City and will then expand to focus on the use of facial recognition in other parts of the world in 2021. Facial recognition systems are a form of mass surveillance that violate the right to privacy and threaten the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression.

Date:
26 January 2021