Tag: Amnesty International

Ukraine forces endangering civilians: Amnesty

  LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Ukrainian forces are violating international law and endangering civilians by establishing bases in residential areas, including in schools and hospitals, Amnesty International said Thursday, drawing a furious response from Kyiv. Kyiv said the rights group was drawing a “false equivalency” between the actions of Russia’s invading forces and Ukrainians defending their homeland. Amnesty had tried to “amnesty the terrorist state and shift the responsibility from the aggressor to the […]

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Moscow shutting down Amnesty, Human Rights Watch in Russia

  MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia said on Friday it was shutting down the local offices of more than a dozen international organisations including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Fifteen organisations have been taken off Russia’s registry of international organisations and foreign NGOs due to “violations of the current legislation of the Russian Federation,” the justice ministry said in a statement without providing further details. Russia also shut […]

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Russian invasion of Ukraine a ‘repeat’ of Syrian war: Amnesty

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) – Russia’s assault on Ukraine is similar to its actions in the Syrian war, Amnesty International said Tuesday, raising concerns of “war crimes” as the civilian toll grows a month after Moscow’s invasion. “What is happening in Ukraine is a repetition of what we have seen in Syria,” Agnes Callamard, secretary general of the global rights watchdog, told AFP. She was speaking in Johannesburg at the launch of the group’s annual […]

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Amnesty Int’l urges UN, ICC to probe HR violations in Duterte drug war; asks UN to hold PHL leader “accountable”

(Eagle News) — Amnesty International urged the United Nations to “immediately open an investigation into gross human rights violations and possible crimes against humanity committed as part of the ‘war on drugs’ of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte. It also urged the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to “expedite its examination into the situation and open a full and thorough criminal investigation.” The Amnesty report was entitled “They just kill: […]

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Amnesty urges ICC to probe ‘crimes against humanity’ in Venezuela

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) — Amnesty International said Tuesday it believes the Venezuelan authorities have committed crimes against humanity in their crackdown on anti-government protests, and urged the International Criminal Court to investigate. The rights group said President Nicolas Maduro’s government responded with “a systematic and widespread policy of repression” in late January, when anti-government protests swept the country after opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself acting president. Maduro opponents were tortured and killed during […]

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Amnesty Int’l calls on PHL to reject attempts to lower minimum age of criminal responsibility

(Eagle News) — Amnesty International is urging the Philippine Congress “to reject attempts to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility” as it aired its deep concern at renewed efforts by the Philippine government to lower the minimum age of responsibility from 15 to 12 years old. The London-based non-governmental organization focused on human rights views current moves in Congress on lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility as “disturbing.” “Amnesty International calls on the […]

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Amnesty Int’l: Duterte’s two years in power “a human rights calamity”

(Eagle News) — Amnesty International described on Monday, July 23, President Rodrigo Duterte’s two years “in power” as a “human rights calamity.” “President Duterte has presided over a disturbing regression on human rights that has left the Philippines a more perilous place than when he came to power,” the group said in a statement released ahead of Duterte’s third State of the Nation Address. Rachel Chhoa Howard, Amnesty International’s Philippines researcher, noted that Duterte’s “disastrous […]

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Palace on Amnesty Int’l claim Duterte made PHL a “far more dangerous place”: There is no truth to it

(Eagle News) — The Palace on Friday, July 20, denied  Amnesty International, after the group said President Rodrigo Duterte had made the country “a far more dangerous” place. “There is no truth to the statement of Amnesty International that President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has made the Philippines ‘a far more dangerous place,’” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said. According to Roque, the administration’s campaign against illegal drugs, for instance, was conducted through “legitimate police enforcement operations.” […]

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Myanmar erects security posts on burned Rohingya land: Amnesty

YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Myanmar is building security installations on top of razed Rohingya villages, Amnesty International said Monday, casting doubt on plans to repatriate hundreds of thousands of refugees. Nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled northern Rakhine state to Bangladesh since Myanmar launched a brutal crackdown on insurgents six months ago that the US and UN have called ethnic cleansing. Myanmar rejects that term, saying it was responding to attacks by the Arakan Rohingya […]

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China detains rights lawyer after call for reform

BEIJING, China (AFP) – Chinese authorities detained a prominent human rights lawyer on Friday, people familiar with the case said, just hours after he provided journalists with a letter calling for constitutional reform. Around a dozen people, including a SWAT team, seized Yu Wensheng as he left his Beijing apartment to walk his child to school, two sources told AFP. Local police said they were unaware of his detention. Yu has been a persistent voice for reform in […]

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Amnesty accuses Myanmar of imposing ‘apartheid’ on Rohingya

YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Myanmar’s suffocating controls over its Rohingya population amount to “apartheid”, Amnesty International said Tuesday in a probe into the root causes of a crisis that has sent 620,000 refugees fleeing to Bangladesh. Scenes of dispossessed Rohingya in Bangladeshi camps have provoked outrage around the world, as people who have escaped Rakhine state since August recount tales of murder, rape and arson at the hands of Myanmar troops. Myanmar and Bangladesh have […]

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Palace blasts Amnesty International for “vilification” campaign vs PDEA

(Eagle News) — Malacañang on Saturday blasted Amnesty International for what it said were its “vilification” efforts against the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. “The (PDEA), which has been now recently assigned by (President Rodrigo Duterte) as the sole agency in charge of the government’s anti-illegal drug campaign, is now being demonized by (AI),” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said. He noted that the group, which was “known to be disparaging of the frontline role of the […]

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