Press release me, let me go

As our office is situated just up the road from Liverpool Street, I’ve been following reports predicting that it’s going to ‘kick off’ in the City during this week’s G20 meeting with considerable (self) interest. And if the Met really...

…. said reporter Andy Davies on Channel 4 News, last night. Why? Because, he reckons, the Binyam Mohamed investigation will put to the test the intelligence service’s commitment to the rule of law. “This is a very important moment for...

It’s not even been a month and yet President Omar El-Bashir is blatantly defying the international arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court. In the space of a few days the President of Sudan has visited Egypt and Eritrea, and...

IMHO, there are four funny moments in Monty Python’s “Life Of Brian”. Namely – the famous “What have the Romans ever done for us?” scene (though it’s not as funny as you probably remember!), Brian’s mother (the excellent Terry Jones)...

How to spend Mothers’ Day? Breakfast in bed for your wife, lovingly attended to by your own little ones, or lunch out for your own Mum? Not big questions and certainly not as big as those posed by the big BBC 1 programme, The Big...

To me it’s one of those annoying – almost childish – examples of political bluster beloved by political leaders the world over – we’re the best, that’s it. Best army, best legal system, best food, best climate. Best, superior...

Can you imagine being told you have a few minutes to leave your home before it is bulldozed and destroyed forever? This has happened to thousands of people in Cambodia – as the latest documentary in the brilliant Channel 4 series...

Back in 1977 when the punk band The Adverts did their snotty (and excellent) “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes” they were obviously going for a bit of (then very vogue-ish) post-Ramones/Sex Pistols shock value. Strangely enough, thinking about what...

It's not everyday that we here in the Amnesty press office come across bizarre stories, but today is definitely one of those days. As highlighted on BBC News Online today, we've discovered that there is a witch-hunt in Gambia, which is...

It was going to get better when they invaded Iraq – and in one way, for a while, it did. Say what you like about the US-led invasion of Iraq (and it certainly wreaked havoc in many, many ways), but at least the Coalition Provisional...

A new exhibition launching this week lifts the lid on a world that few of us know about. Thousands of people in the UK are living a hand-to-mouth existence – sleeping rough or on people’s floors, begging for food and turning to...

Well, he hasn’t exactly got Max Clifford working for him, but after his big Mail On Sunday interview at the weekend we’ve now got his first broadcast interview today: Binyam on the BBC. Several other big human rights cases I’ve worked...

It’s almost a blast from the past with the Independent front-paging a powerful human rights story – but this one certainly deserves to be highlighted. Perwiz Kambakhsh, the 23-year-old student journalist from Afghanistan who was...

It’s not often that we get to link to the Sun but today they carry a harrowing video of Marnie Pearce, a British woman jailed in Dubai for adultery, handing over her children to her estranged husband, perhaps for ever. She denies the...

It’s fifty years today since a failed uprising in Tibet led to widespread repression and the Dalai Lama fleeing the country to India. Protests have continued throughout the year, with the Chinese authorities on high alert for a repeat...

Great news coming out from the Government this morning. For years we’ve been calling for a new integrated strategy to tackle violence against women – and now it appears it could well happen. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, has...

This Sunday marks International Women’s Day. I know 8 March isn’t a date which many mark off on their calendar, and I doubt Clinton Cards will be selling cards celebrating Women’s Day. But this anniversary definitely deserves greater...

It’s interesting that saying somebody’s behaviour is “unhelpful” amounts to hard-hitting condemnation in some people’s books. (Stop stabbing me, that’s unhelpful …). But, in the highly charged atmosphere of the Israel-Palestine...

Momentous news from The International Criminal Court today. For the first time a sitting head of state has been issued with an international arrest warrant . But how long it will take before the President of Sudan is arrested is quite...

Yule E’s blog yesterday flagged up the shocking story of the Afghani equivalent of Angelina Jolie being forced into hiding because of the Taleban’s increasing dominance in the region, and the shocking story of girls in Mauritania being...