Zimbabweans had little to celebrate on Friday 18 April, the 28th anniversary of their country’s independence. Since the country went to the polls on 29 March 2008, nearly three weeks ago, the results of the presidential vote have still not been announced and violent attacks on opposition...

The Chinese authorities have engaged in a number of troubling crackdowns on activists and minority groups in the past week. On Tuesday, eyewitnesses reported that Chinese police used teargas and electric prods to disperse 500 demonstrators in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. The demonstrators were...

“Intensified censorship and attacks and abductions of peaceful activists by suspected security officials in Beijing make a mockery of official promises to improve human rights in the run-up to the Olympics,” said Tim Parritt, Deputy Program Director of Amnesty International’s...

“It is the journalists that are telling the world what is happening… This is why everyone wants to silence us. I have thought I will die in this job, but even when I am scared I can’t be silent because, if I do not tell these stories, no one will protect the civilians. We are […]

Amnesty International today urged the Chadian government to stop persecuting senior members of political opposition parties, journalists and supporters – actual or perceived – of opposition political groups. Lol Mahamat Choua, Ngarlegy Yorongar and Ibno Mahamat Saleh were all arrested on 3 February...

Children live in peril in the northern Central African Republic (CAR). In the ongoing armed conflict there, children have been abducted by armed bandits locally known as Zaraguinas. Most of the abducted children are from the Mbororo (Peulh) ethnic group, a nomadic cattle-rearing people. Many...

Environmentalists Aldo and Misael Zamora were attacked allegedly by a group of illegal loggers on 15 May in Santa Lucía, municipality of Ocuilán, Mexico State. Aldo Zamora was shot dead, and his brother Misael was seriously wounded and had to be hospitalized. Their father, Ildefonso Zamora, who has...

Action by lawyers, combined with pressure from Amnesty International and other groups, has forced the suspension of eviction orders affecting more than 1,000 families in Pará state. “Without doubt the letters sent through the coordinated campaign of Amnesty International to the authorities...

Carlos Humberto Guarquez, prominent member of indigenous rights group the Fundaci ó n Maya (FUNDAMAYA), Maya Foundation, local mayor Dominga Vásquez and her husband journalist Alfonso Guarquez, have received death threats in an apparent effort to intimidate them into stopping their opposition to...

The report focuses on the need for protection of the rights to personal security from killing by militias, rape and kidnapping for ransom; humane treatment of prisoners; protection of human rights defenders; protection of humanitarian workers and NGOs; and protection of vulnerable groups. The...

The paramilitaries who carried out the 4 November raid are believed to be, looking for the relative of a victim of the 1998 massacre in the city, who has been campaigning to bring those responsible to justice. He is believed to be named on a death list. Another relative has since been shot dead. At...

At least seven people have been killed in a paramilitary raid on the city of Barrancabermeja, in Santander department. The army-backed paramilitaries reportedly abducted the two brothers, who have not been seen since. A group of about 50 gunmen reportedly entered the city, killing the following men...