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  • News
  • Belarus
  • Unlawful Detention

Belarus: Leaked audio allegedly exposing top Interior Minister official ordering use of illegal force against peaceful protesters must be effectively investigated

Reacting to the publication of an audio recording, in which one of the most senior Interior Ministry officials in Belarus apparently gives criminal orders to police to use unlawful force against peaceful protesters and disregard international law, Amnesty International said: “Of the string of incriminating leaks showing that Belarusian authorities crushed peaceful protest through pre-meditated human rights violations, this recording – if authentic – is the most damning.

Date:
15 January 2021
  • News
  • Human Rights Defenders and Activists

Amnesty International and Advocacy Assembly launch new online courses on open source human rights investigations

Human rights researchers, activists and journalists are among those who will benefit from two new free online courses developed by Amnesty International and hosted by Advocacy Assembly to train people in how to carry out open source research for human rights investigations and advocacy. Based on the rigorous methodologies employed by Amnesty International’s Digital Verification Corps – an award-winning partnership with seven global universities – the courses will train people in investigative techniques used to verify digital content and tackle disinformation.

Date:
15 January 2021
  • News
  • Cambodia
  • Unfair Trials

Cambodia: 150 opposition politicians and supporters face jail in mass trials

Ahead of a series of mass trials of approximately 150 individuals affiliated with the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Regional Director Yamini Mishra said: “These mass trials are an affront to international fair trial standards, Cambodia’s human rights commitments and the rule of law. “This onslaught of cases is the culmination of a relentless campaign of persecution against Cambodia’s political opposition and other dissenting voices.

Date:
14 January 2021
  • News
  • Europe and Central Asia
  • Armed Conflict

Azerbaijan/Armenia: Scores of civilians killed by indiscriminate use of weapons in conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh

Field investigators visited dozens of strike sites in Azerbaijan and Armenia Evidence refutes both sides’ denials they launched indiscriminate strikes, including with cluster munitions Other weapons used include ballistic missiles and volleys of notoriously imprecise rockets and artillery The Armenian and Azerbaijani forces’ repeated use of notoriously inaccurate and indiscriminate weapons – including cluster munitions and explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated civilian areas – violated international humanitarian law and killed scores of civilians, injured hundreds and destroyed homes and key infrastructure in the recent conflict, Amnesty International said today.

Date:
14 January 2021
  • News
  • Tunisia
  • Censorship and Freedom of Expression

Tunisia: Struggle for justice and reparation continues for victims 10 years after the revolution

Ten years after Tunisia’s Revolution, which sparked a wave of uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa, victims are still struggling to obtain justice and reparations for grave human rights violations committed during the revolution, between 17 December 2010 and 14 January 2011, said Amnesty International today in a detailed statement. Successive Tunisian governments have failed to prioritize accountability for human rights violations committed by security forces.

Date:
14 January 2021
  • News
  • Zimbabwe
  • Censorship and Freedom of Expression

Zimbabwe: Authorities must drop malicious charges against opposition leaders and journalist

Zimbabwean authorities must immediately and unconditionally release opposition leaders and a journalist and drop the malicious charges against them, Amnesty International said today as one of the three appeared in court for bail application. Journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and opposition Movement for Democratic Change – Alliance (MDC-A) leader Job Sikhala and spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere, were arrested between 8 and 11 January on charges related to “publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the state”.

Date:
13 January 2021
  • News
  • Uganda
  • Censorship and Freedom of Expression

Uganda: Authorities must lift social media block amid crackdown ahead of election

Responding to the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) shutting down access to social media services in the run up to the 14 January general election, Sarah Jackson, Amnesty International's Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, said: “Amid concerns over threatening rhetoric from high-ranking government officials, use of violence and an escalating crackdown on political opposition, human rights defenders, activists, journalists and civil society actors, it is alarming that the Ugandan authorities have suspended social media networks including Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp and restricted people’s right to freedom of expression and access to information.

Date:
13 January 2021
  • News
  • Sri Lanka
  • Justice Systems

Sri Lanka: Collapse of Joseph Pararajasingham murder case a failure of justice

Responding to the acquittal today of MP Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan and four others in the 2005 assassination of Tamil MP Joseph Pararajasingham, following an announcement by the Attorney General’s Office that it would be dropping the charges against the suspects, David Griffiths, Director of the Office of the Secretary General at Amnesty International, said: “The collapse of this case marks yet another sorry milestone in the Sri Lankan authorities’ continued failure to ensure justice for crimes committed during the armed conflict.

Date:
13 January 2021
  • News
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Refugees

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Long-term solutions needed to end recurring humanitarian crisis

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Long-term solutions needed to end recurring humanitarian crisis Approximately 2,500 people, including 900 residents of temporary camp Lipa, remain without basic shelter in perilously cold conditions in Bosnia and Herzegovina as authorities fail to provide adequate accommodation to migrants and asylum-seekers, and EU agencies continue to support short-term solutions. In a statement issued today, leading human rights organizations, Amnesty International, Jesuit Refugee Service Europe, Médecins du Monde Belgique and Refugee Rights Europe have called for immediate humanitarian support to address the current emergency as well as durable institutional solutions to meet the needs of people transiting through the country.

Date:
12 January 2021
  • News
  • Americas
  • Unlawful Detention

USA: New Amnesty International report details ongoing human rights violations at Guantánamo Bay detention facility

Amnesty International has released a new report highlighting ongoing and historic human rights violations at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, as detentions there enter their 20th year and as a new President prepares to enter the White House. “This is about more than just the 40 people still held at Guantánamo – it is also about the crimes under international law committed over the past 19 years and the continuing lack of accountability for them.

Date:
11 January 2021
  • News
  • China

Hong Kong: Mass arrest of opposition figures highlights repressive power of national security law

Responding to the arrests of around 50 Hong Kong opposition figures on Wednesday morning for violation of the city’s national security law, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Regional Director Yamini Mishra said: “This shocking crackdown on Hong Kong’s political opposition – sweeping up candidates, activists and pollsters alike – is the starkest demonstration yet of how the national security law has been weaponized to punish anyone who dares to challenge the establishment.

Date:
6 January 2021
  • News
  • United Kingdom
  • Detention

UK: Decision to refuse Assange bail renders his continued detention “arbitrary”

Today’s decision by the Magistrate’s Court in London to deny Julian Assange’s request for bail has rendered his continued detention arbitrary, said Amnesty International. “Today’s decision to refuse Julian Assange’s bail application renders his ongoing detention ‘arbitrary’, and compounds the fact that he has endured punishing conditions in high security detention at Belmarsh prison for more than a year,” said Nils Muižnieks, Amnesty International’s Europe Director.

Date:
6 January 2021
  • News
  • Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories
  • COVID-19

Denying COVID-19 vaccines to Palestinians exposes Israel’s institutionalized discrimination

The Israeli government must stop ignoring its international obligations as an occupying power and immediately act to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines are equally and fairly provided to Palestinians living under its occupation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, said Amnesty International today. On 23 December, the Israeli Health Ministry began the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. Having already given initial jabs to more than a 10th of its population, Israel has been hailed as the country that has to date achieved the widest vaccination coverage in proportion to its population size.

Date:
6 January 2021
  • News
  • Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories
  • Detention

Israel/OPT: Drop politically motivated charges against Palestinian activist Issa Amro

A military judge at Israel’s Ofer Military Court in the occupied West Bank is expected to give tomorrow his verdict against Issa Amro, a prominent Palestinian activist who is facing politically motivated charges for his peaceful activism against Israel’s military occupation and illegal settlements; some of the charges date back to 2010. Amnesty International fears that Issa Amro will be given a long prison sentence.

Date:
5 January 2021
  • News
  • United Kingdom
  • Censorship and Freedom of Expression

UK: Assange extradition decision welcome but exposes “politically-motivated process”

Responding to the decision by the Magistrate’s Court in London not to approve the extradition of Julian Assange to the US where he would face a risk of ill-treatment in prison, Amnesty International’s Europe Director, Nils Muižnieks, said: "We welcome the fact that Julian Assange will not be sent to the USA and that the court acknowledged that due to his health concerns, he would be at risk of ill-treatment in the US prison system.

Date:
4 January 2021
  • News
  • China
  • Unfair Trials

China: Hong Kong youths at risk of torture after being convicted in unfair trial

Responding to China’s sentencing of 10 Hong Kong residents who have been detained in mainland China since attempting to leave Hong Kong by speedboat in August, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Regional Director Yamini Mishra said: “These sentences meted out after an unfair trial lay bare the dangers faced by anybody who finds themselves tried under the Chinese criminal system. This group of young Hongkongers will be at risk of torture and other ill-treatment in Chinese jails.

Date:
30 December 2020