Press release me, let me go

Chaos would be one word to describe the situation in Pakistan at the moment. More than 65,000 people in the country’s North West Frontier Province have been caught up in the fighting between the Taleban and Pakistan’s government forces...

Stealing an idea from the BBC’s Justin Webb , today I’m doing exactly 100 words on Obama’s first 100 days! So here’s my (super-brief!) evaluation. Good things: promising Guantánamo's termination within a year, announcing the closure of...

Great news this morning, that Marnie Pearce, a British woman jailed in Dubai for adultery, has been released. Amnesty has supported Marnie Pearce’s case from the outset and repeatedly called for her unconditional release. The Sunday...

Heavy claims have been laid at the feet of the Pakistani government over the past few days as the Taleban have increased their hold on towns across the country. Senator Hilary Clinton described the Pakistan government as ‘ abdicating...

I had one of those strange Amnesty moments today when you’re a bit fed up for all the wrong reasons. I was meant to be accompanying our Campaigns Director down to the embassy of the United Arab Emirates to hand in a petition for Marnie...

Good discussion on the Today programme this morning on what is likely to happen next in Sri Lanka. Even if the Tamil Tigers are militarily defeated in the next few days or so, the conflict will not be ended because no political...

I’ve had a soft spot for Fiji ever since my dad took me to see my first rugby international at Twickenham when I was about 10 – England versus this island that I’d never heard of. They played a really exciting, open passing game, they...

It’s Monday morning, I’m just back from holiday – and sadly some things just seem to show no sign of getting any better. What am I talking about? Sri Lanka of course. The humanitarian disaster there has once more brought London’s Tamil...

President Obama has his foot firmly on the brake. In fact, he's already been footling around with the reverse gear. Famously fast out of the traps with his second-day-in-office “executive orders” against torture and Guantánamo Bay...

The Iranian media is reporting that Delara Darabi, an Iranian girl facing execution whom Amnesty’s been been campaigning for since 2007, could be executed as soon as Monday 20th April. We’re asking people to take urgent action to try...

So there you are – facing Chris Tarrant, you’re one correct answer off the big one (a cool million) and you don’t know the answer to the question. You know what you’re going to do, don’t you? Yes – phone a friend. Instead, try this one...

I've blogged before about “honour killings” in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq – the area seems blighted by them. And, as blog readers will recall, it was a Kurdish family living in London who in 2006 killed Banaz Mahmod, the 20...

Yesterday’s decision taken by the High Court not to extradite four men suspected of involvement in the Rwandan genocide may have been an historic step, but it is deeply unsatisfactory. The High Court was quite right to insist that...

Lots of talk about protest today- not least the shocking footage that the Guardian’s got hold of, showing riot police shoving Ian Tomlinson to the ground shortly before he died of a heart attack. Some witnesses are saying that he has...

When Niluccio used the term ‘the g-word’ in our morning roundup today, I quickly whispered to another colleague, asking what he meant. Genocide. Yes, a word with serious charges and devastating consequences – definitely not a term to...

So, why are our troops in Afghanistan if they’re helping to defend a government like this one? … was the question in a couple of interviews I’ve done since I last blogged on Friday. Bearing in mind that interviewers were referring to...

It’s an echo of that (even grimmer, horribly grotesque in fact) mobile phone footage of another teenage girl being punished, filmed and then broadcast around the world as a “warning” and an “example”. A couple of years ago a teenager...

Who are the most difficult group of people to campaign onbehalf of? Who do people care least about? Prisoners. Why? The argument goes something like: Otherpeople who suffer injustice, poverty or disease have done nothing to deserveit...

A reflection: many years ago, back in my early days at Amnesty (a very long time ago, actually) there was a leaflet which asked people to think about everyday household items and how they can be used for non-conventional means. Well...

At last some of the leaders of the notorious Khmer Rouge are on trial for the numerous atrocities they committed during their reign in 1970s Cambodia. It’s only taken 30 years… An estimated two million people were killed by the regime...