Press release me, let me go

Amnesty’s new report on how Tunisia is rounding up, torturing and imprisoning alleged Islamic terrorists is the sort of thing that any Amnesty blog reader will have heard before. Right, big surprise, you may think. I kind of thought...

The UK Government really needs to tighten its arms exports controls. That’s the message which rang out loud and clear from today’s report by the four Parliamentary Select Committees. And it’s something which Amnesty would definitely...

The media team’s been particularly busy in responding to today’s news surrounding the changing events in Afghanistan in the run up to Thursday’s elections and also the Home Office’s disclosure on the number of Tasers. Amnesty’s...

It would be little exaggeration to say there’s only one story in town right now: Afghanistan. Well OK, there’s the business of the insanely fast “Lightning Bolt” (forget that old joke about languorous Jamaicans dahn at the beach ), and...

Are you enjoying the US debate about whether a universal healthcare system guaranteeing basic cover for everyone is a good thing or socialism gone mad? Some of us whinge about the NHS from time to time but it’s glorious to watch...

A senior US diplomat has urged the Sri Lankan government to allow more freedom to the more than a quarter of a million Tamil people detained in camps in the north of the country. The military conflict has ended and Sri Lanka is making...

Well that wasn’t very unexpected, was it. After a lovely piece of political theatre, the Burmese authorities this morning sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to 18 months of house arrest – all because an American swam over a mile across a lake...

The man was completely immersed in the water. When he emerged he gasped for air. He looked frightened. Was I watching waterboarding that method of torture in which a detainee is made to think they are drowning? Actually no, this was...

This time last year I wasn’t in a sweaty Amnesty office in London, I was … in a sweaty Amnesty office in Edinburgh . It comes to mind today because last August I was beavering away PR-ing Amnesty’s presence at the Edinburgh Festival...

If you’re heading to the Big Chill this weekend you may want to pack a pair of flip flops along with your wellies! Not only is the weather forecast looking much more favourable for festival-goers, Amnesty will be at the Big Chill for...

What relief the two US journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who had been facing 12 years imprisonment with hard labour, must be feeling after their sudden and dramatic ‘rescue’ by Bill Clinton . The two have been used as pawns by the...

Listen to Ivan Lewis stonewalling on the Today programme (8.10 interview) and you get the distinct impression that the government has … how can I put this, got something to hide . There, I’ve said it. I know, shocking isn’t it? A...

By which I mean … are the mass trials in Iran ‘political’ and are people being set up by the Iranian authorities? OK, the authorities are certainly putting a lot of politicians – past and present – on trial, so they’re literally...

Some positive news from China for a change – Zhang Jun, vice-president of the supreme people's court, said this week that there would be a move to reduce the number of people sentenced to death and executed. If this is the case it...

There are some articles I have to read twice because I simply cannot believe the story, and that was most certainly the case for story in today’s Daily Mail among other news outlets of a woman in Sudan who is at risk of being flogged...

We’ve had Shirin Ebadi – Nobel Peace Prize winner and one of Iran’s most high-profile human rights activists – visiting Amnesty’s International HQ in London this week. Look out for an interview with her on Channel 4 News tonight. In a...

Never an easy decision for a woman to make, but here in the UK women can rest assured in the knowledge that the option to carry out an abortion is available should her life be at serious risk as a result of the pregnancy or if she is a...

As the verdict of Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial edges nearer, Amnesty International will later today name the Burmese leader as its “Ambassador of Conscience”. Aung San Suu Kyi is a long-standing Amnesty International prisoner of conscience...

So how did yesterday’s webchat with Shell go? At Amnesty, lots of us sat together in a lively hub submitting questions to Shell and chatting online with others who are concerned about the impacts of the oil industry in the Niger Delta...

A friend told me a couple of weeks ago that he once went on one of those ‘all expenses paid’ holidays to the Caribbean with a girlfriend and hated it. They were on a compound surrounded by barbed wire, “to keep out the locals” and his...