The rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression remained severely limited. Critics of the authorities faced politically motivated prosecution. Torture and other ill-treatment remained widespread. Human rights defenders faced harassment and civil prosecution for libel. LGBTI people faced...

Responding to warnings that the smoke from more than 400 wildfires burning across Canada poses risks to the health of tens of millions of people in North America, Marta Schaaf, Amnesty International’s Director of Climate, Economic and Social Justice, and Corporate Accountability Programme, said:...

The Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and a pervasive focus on ‘traditional values’ have contributed to a deterioration in human rights and rising levels of domestic violence and other forms of gender-based violence in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Amnesty International said...

• Information severely restricted• Concern over arbitrary arrests and detainees’ treatment• Death toll still unknown The Kazakhstani authorities must release journalists and activists who have been arbitrarily detained for their coverage of mass protests across the country over the past week,...

Reacting to a televised address this morning (7 January) by Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev calling for security forces to “fire without warning” at any further disturbances following the recent mass protests and violence, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern...

Responding to the ongoing protests in Kazakhstan over soaring energy prices, deteriorating living standards and the repression of peaceful protest, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said: “The protests unfolding in Kazakhstan, which have turned...

Amnesty International’s Security Lab has confirmed that at least four Kazakhstani civil society activists have had their mobile devices infected with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. A forensic analysis shows that all four activists had been targeted and their devices infected from as early as June...

Reacting to news that Kazakhstan has signed the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, committing it to abolish the death penalty, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said: “This news encourages us as...

Reacting to news that a court in Almaty sentenced prisoner of conscience Alnur Ilyashev, a human rights activist, to three years of restricted freedom and a ban on political and civic activism for five years for criticizing the government’s handling of COVID-19, Heather McGill, Amnesty...

 Heather McGill is Amnesty International’s Central Asia Researcher. On 2 April, around a hundred people in the Kazakh city of Ust Kamenogorsk woke to find they had become prisoners overnight. The lock on the front door of their apartment block had been welded shut, trapping everybody inside and...

Governments in Eastern European and Central Asian countries are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic with repressive and abusive measures which fall far short of their human rights obligations, Amnesty International said today. The organization has released a new briefing Eastern Europe and Central...

Kazakhstani authorities must immediately and unconditionally release all peaceful protesters who were arrested during a massive crackdown on demonstrations today, Amnesty International said. At least 70 people were detained in Almaty when protesters took to the streets demanding the registration of...

By Nicholas Bequelin, Regional Director at Amnesty International Mesut Ozil’s social media post about the political situation in Xinjiang has prompted an angry response from the Chinese authorities. The Arsenal footballer’s accusation that China is persecuting the predominantly Muslim Uyghur...