Europe and Central Asia
Censorship and Freedom of Expression
Riot police prevented a peaceful vigil by human rights defenders demonstrating on behalf of people who have been forcibly disappeared in Turkey. Police handcuffed and detained the head of the Human Rights Association, Öztürk Türkdoğan, prominent human rights lawyer, Eren Keskin, and several...
June 25, 2022
Middle East and North Africa
Human Rights Defenders and Activists
Justice remains elusive one year on from the death of Nizar Banat, a Palestinian activist who died shortly after he was arrested and brutally assaulted by Palestinian security forces in June 2021, Amnesty International said today. The organization is calling on Palestinian authorities to ensure...
June 24, 2022
Iran
Censorship and Freedom of Expression
Arbitrarily detained Iranian human rights defender Narges Mohammadi is being tortured and otherwise ill-treated in Shahr-e Rey prison in Varamin, outside Tehran, including by being intentionally denied the specialized healthcare she requires in reprisal for her human rights work. She is a prisoner...
June 23, 2022
Americas
Human Rights Defenders and Activists
Wet’suwet’en land defenders in Canada are at risk of serious human rights violations and could be arrested on their territory by Canadian Police. Hereditary chiefs oppose a liquified natural gas pipeline and have not given their consent to the project. Wet’suwet’en and other land defenders have...
June 22, 2022
Americas
Censorship and Freedom of Expression
President Lasso must address the structural causes of the demonstrations The repression by President Guillermo Lasso’s government of demonstrations called by Indigenous, trade union and social organisations as part of a national strike since 13 June 2022 is causing a human rights crisis with...
June 21, 2022
Russian Federation
Human Rights Defenders and Activists
The trial against Yulia Tsvetkova, an artist and activist from Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Russian Far East, is coming to an end. On 14 June, the prosecution requested a jail term of three and a half years under the absurd charges of “production and dissemination of pornography” for posting online...
June 20, 2022
Europe and Central Asia
Censorship and Freedom of Expression
Unlike most premieres at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the debut screening of Turkish political thriller “Burning Days” was noticeably muted. In a symbolic gesture, a solitary chair had been left empty, as one person, associate producer Çiğdem Mater, was absent from the red carpet. Rather than...
June 17, 2022
Europe and Central Asia
Censorship and Freedom of Expression
Seven people who were imprisoned in Turkey on trumped-up charges have been named prisoners of conscience (POCs) by Amnesty International today. The decision comes two months after the activists, including prominent philanthropist and human rights defender Osman Kavala, were convicted at the end of...
June 17, 2022
Americas
Human Rights Defenders and Activists
Amnesty International is deeply saddened by the news of the killing of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips. We join their families, their partners Beatriz and Alessandra, and the members of the Observatório dos Povos Indígenas (OPI) and the União dos Povos Indígenas do Vale do Javari (UNIVAJA) in...
June 16, 2022
Americas
Human Rights Defenders and Activists
On the morning of 5 June, Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips, environmental and Indigenous peoples’ rights defenders, were disappeared in the Javari Valley, in the Brazilian Amazon. On 15 June, the Federal Police reported that one of the two people arrested on suspicion of involvement in their...
June 16, 2022
Americas
Censorship and Freedom of Expression
In response to reports that the Brazilian authorities are now treating the search for Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira as a homicide investigation, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International, said: “The Brazilian authorities must ensure complete transparency in the search for Dom...
June 15, 2022
Americas
Demonstrations
On 14 June around 0:29 a.m., security forces detained Leónidas Iza, president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, in the province of Cotopaxi. He was held incommunicado and criminally charged with “blockage of public services”, before being released that night. His...
June 15, 2022