The COVID-19 pandemic exposed chronic under-resourcing in health care. The authorities used the pandemic as a pretext to continue the crackdown on all dissent, including through amendments to a vaguely worded law on “fake news” and tightening restrictions on public gatherings. Peaceful protesters,...

A new history textbook which, amongst other things, justifies Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine as a legitimate act of self-defence and violates children’s rights to appropriate and quality education, is a dangerous attempt to indoctrinate future generations, Amnesty International said today....

An appeal hearing at a Moscow court on Tuesday (22 August) which has upheld the 13-year sentence imposed on Maksym Butkevych, a Ukrainian human rights defender, is a grave miscarriage of justice Amnesty International said today. The decision to imprison him for 13 years was taken by the so-called...

Responding to the news that Aleksei Navalny, a prisoner of conscience and a leading figure in Russia’s political opposition movement, has been sentenced to 19 years in a penal colony on trumped-up “extremism”-related charges, adding at least 10 years to his current 9-year prison term, Marie...

Responding to the Russian armed forces’ latest attack on Odesa’s port infrastructure and grain facilities, and subsequent thinly veiled threat to attack sea vessels attempting to transport Ukraine’s grain, Anna Wright, Amnesty International’s Researcher for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said:...

Russian authorities are using increasingly vicious tactics to crack down on anti-war activists at home, as its full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine has passed its 500th day. Amnesty International’s new publication exposes the various repressive laws and practices employed by Russia to...

Amnesty International South Africa has been admitted as an amicus curiae, friend of the court, in the application for a declaratory order that if Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the BRICS Summit in South Africa due to take place in August, the South African authorities are obliged to...

Reacting to the news that Russian State Duma passed the legislation imposing a blanket ban on “sex change” procedures, Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Russia Director, said: “The adoption of this abominable transphobic legislation shows an utter disregard for the human rights of...

Responding to news that the US is to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine, Patrick Wilcken, Amnesty International’s Researcher on Military, Security and Policing issues said: “Amnesty International has long stressed that cluster munitions are inherently indiscriminate weapons which have caused...

Responding to the vicious beating of Elena Milashina, a journalist working with Novaya Gazeta, an independent Russian newspaper, and Aleksandr Nemov, a human rights lawyer, that took place this morning in Chechnya, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director,...

Reacting to the news that Russian migrants’ rights defender Tatyana Kotlyar has been convicted and fined with 650,000 roubles (US$7,500), Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Russia Director, said: “Tatyana Kotlyar is being punished simply for helping hundreds of people, including migrants and...

As the consequences of the Kakhovka dam destruction continue to unfold, the occupying Russian forces have been endangering lives in flood-afflicted areas following the destruction of the dam, while upstream water shortages and an upheaval  of livelihoods point to an impending ecological and...

Responding to the start of a trial in Moscow against Oleg Orlov, a prominent human rights defender, who is charged with the newly instituted “crime” of “repeatedly discrediting” the Russian Armed Forces and risks up to three years in a penal colony, Natalia Zviagina, Amnesty International’s Russia...