Press release me, let me go

It really doesn’t feel like a year to me. And I’m living in the UK. I bet that the people of Darfur are really struggling to believe that it was a year – a whole year, since the UN Security Council agreed to deploy the world’s largest...

So, the countdown to the Games is now in single figures, the athletes are arriving at Beijing’s glossy new airport, and China is ratcheting up yet another broken promise to its ever-increasing list . Today it’s been revealed that the...

Today marks the start of the ten-day countdown to the Olympic Games in Beijing and Amnesty has been studying the Chinese authorities’ human rights performance very carefully since they won the right to host the Games back in 2001. We...

This weekend the sun was out, the sky was blue, and your Amnesty press officer was dashing round like a mad thing. The reason? Baha Mousa, the Joint Committee on Human Rights , and a little dash of Iran. For those who don’t remember...

They went barmy in Berlin. It was delirium in Deutschland. Ok, so Barack Obama is looking like the world’s “hottest” politician. Or at least the most popular foreign one in Germany. The “JFK in ’63” comparisons are everywhere. This is...

The Chinese authorities announced yesterday that Beijing will set up specially designated zones for protesters during next month's Olympics . This then became a massive media story, with many seeing it as a sign that China's government...

I always think those posters of missing dogs or cats on lampposts are unbearably sad. Someone loves those animals. The owners are heartbroken and desperate. They go to the trouble of putting up posters. They offer rewards. And then...

After more than twelve years on the run, Radovan Karadzic – who stands accused of crimes against humanity and genocide for his role in the appalling abuses in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early nineties – has been arrested. The...

I think it would be fair to say that the nation is rarely riveted to the Parliament Channel. Aside from the very punchiest Punch and Judy moments of PMQs, it doesn’t really have too many watercooler moments. Or any. But human rights...

Supporters of the death penalty often claim that it’s a way of achieving “closure” for relatives of the victims of the crimes concerned. I know, “closure” is a terrible Americanism but let’s not get into that right now.Of course, there...

The ability, or failure to protect women from all violence is on the news agenda today. China’s patting itself on the back as a new law has recently resulted in the first successful prosecution in a sexual harassment case. This is...

I signed up to Blogcatalog today, to try to get more people to see us. They require us to include a link from our blog to their site, so here it is: http://www.blogcatalog.com/directory/politics Interestingly, Amnesty USA is already...

Im old enough to remember the first pop video. Or at least the first really popular one. Vienna, Ultravoxs ice-cold classic (This means nothing to me / Ohhhh, Vienna!) might not be quite as a cool as it was in 1981 ok, it hasnt been...

Issues around freedom of expression and the right to protest have been in the news more and more recently, from the brutal clamp-down in Burma witnessed by the world to the erosion of civil liberties in the UK, with the right to...

It can’t be denied that the International Criminal Court’s move to accuse Sudan’s President of committing war crimes in Darfur is a very bold step as it's the first time the ICC has issued charges against a sitting serving head of...

Gordon Brown recently asked members of the public to pose questions tohim on Youtube, which he’s then responded to in a Youtube clip. Rathera nice idea. One of those selected was a colleague of mine who askedabout 42 days pre-charge...

Two things today, neither nice. Rape and racism. Yesterday the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police John Yates (“Yates of the Yard”!) called for all police forces to set up a specialist unit to investigate rape allegations...

It seems that the “people want 42 days pre-charge detention” argument may have been punctured somewhat by the Rowntree Reform Trust’s survey , released today, showing 60% against 42 days. Sky News kindly reprinted the poll results...

Beijing is failing to honour the promises it made when bidding for the Olympics in 2001, says the BBC , that air quality would meet World Health Organisation standards. The beeb has done its own (scientific?) tests using a hand-held...

Lord Ahmed has a piece on the Telegraph website today, setting out the reasons why he's going to vote against 42 days pre-charge detention when the Lords debate it tomorrow. Good for him. But he's getting a bit of a barracking from...