Press release me, let me go

As anyone who’s visited our office in east London will know, Amnesty UK HQ is located in an untidy area of Shoreditch. But I like it. It’s hip, it’s happening and it’s got a lot of messy – and sometimes quite attractive – graffiti all...

The conflict bubbling across the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo between rebel groups and the government’s armed forces is dominating much of the international news agenda. Channel Four News opened last night's...

No, it’s not one of the lesser-known stories from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, but a Radio 4 programme from last night. I don’t catch as much R4 evening radio as I’d like to (whenever I tune into this 8pm slot I nearly always stumble...

Now this year is a little bit special for us at Amnesty International. Why? I hear you ask. Well, it’s the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (try saying that in a snappy way). And tonight sees the launch of...

Our new “Blogger Swap” with the Telegraph got off to a flying start yesterday with a slightly-inflammatory blog about the death penalty by yours truly, which (predictably) stirred things up a bit. Comments were still coming as of this...

I’ve written about it a couple of times already so won’t go through all the ins and outs, but just pose this question? Is the US state of Georgia really going to execute Troy Davis ? Yes, I know a trial jury found him guilty, a judge...

My first day back at work after a year’s maternity leave – with a horrible feeling of being back at school and not having done my homework! I might foolishly have hoped that after a whole year away from Amnesty I’d come back to find...

Although I’ve worked at Amnesty for nearly three years, I never stop being shocked at some of the reports we receive about the dreadfully cruel and inhumane way people are treated around the world. And today’s report about life for men...

You can almost pass over the seemingly endless reports of yet more Taliban killings in Afghanistan or Pakistan. That, sadly, is how it seems to go with a bleak “fixed” situation. “Oh, more Taliban killings. Right”. You almost need to...

Ever had that moment when you suddenly realise you’re getting old? Alexander Chancellor writes in the Guardian of how he refuses offers of a seat on the tube because he doesn’t want to be thought of as old. The people offering their...

What’s the first thing you think of when you think of General Pinochet? Dictator? Military junta? Chile? Well for us at Amnesty, we would probably agree with most of that, but we would defnitely have to add one other element: the...

There’s very worrying news around about the possible poisoning of leading Russian human rights lawyer Karinna Moskalenko. The French police have started an investigation after she and her family became ill on Monday. It seems the...

There was a sort of collective gasp in the office last week. People were circulating a news report about an influential Saudi cleric called Sheikh Habadan. He was on Saudi TV saying women should wear a niqab (full veil) but with only...

Today we released a fantastic new online film called "Sleepwalk", the next phase in our campaign against UK government plans to extend detention without charge limits to 42 days. It feels like Ive been working on nothing else for the...

Big up to the people of Pakistan. We at Amnesty always talk about creating mass movements, but frankly we’ve been dwarfed by what’s happening there. A campaign called Yeh Hum Naheen – This is Not Us – and financed by British and...

Every morning the media team comes together to run through what’s happening in the world. And for the last few weeks I’ve been banging on about India and the unfolding crisis in the northern state of Orissa. Dozens of people have been...

So, the US is angry because a US judge has ruled that 17 ethnic Uighur detainees held at Guantánamo Bay should be released into the United States. And who wouldn’t be in their place? What’s the world coming to when you can’t hold a few...

At first glance there’s something ridiculous about news of Iran’s “gender sensitive car ”. Could it even be a hoax story? (Well, apparently not). A government-backed Iranian car company called Iran Khodro is launching it next June, to...

Is 42 days ‘politically dead’? Nick Robinson of the BBC says so , and the UK political blogosphere have all reported as much – though most are just reiterating what he said. If its corpse still seems to be twitching it may just be...

Pick up a newspaper any day of the week and youll likely find at least one story about violence against women. Sad but true, and today there are some startling examples. In the Independent , Kim Sengupta reveals that of five prominent...