Press release me, let me go

If on the evening of 6 May you've cast your vote (or not) and are in need of respite from election fever, and you’re near Shoreditch then head along to Amnesty’s Human Rights Action Centre for a free screening of Crude. The film...

I’m not, as the old cliché has it, a betting man (no, no, I’m really not a betting man, hate it …) but …isn’t that Paddy Power bet where you can try to guess which is the first country mentioned in the leaders’ debate wide open to...

Amnesty released a report today detailing the horrific dangers faced by migrants attempting to reach the US by crossing Mexico. Some powerful accompanying images feature in the Guardian’s gallery . To many of us reading it, this is...

Wow. We’ve gone from Britain being an ash-infested no-fly-zone, to British airspace opening up again, even for planes from that former no-fly-zone – Iraq. The fact that a passenger flight flew from Bahgdad to Britain for the first time...

Azerbaijan looks set to defy the European Court of Human Rights and refuse to free Eynulla Fatullayev, a jailed journalist from Azerbaijan for whom we’ve been campaigning for some time. The Court ruled last week that Eynulla’s trial...

What happened to human rights last night? Or indeed, last week? The leaders’ debates have been a virtual human rights-free zone. Last night Nick Clegg’s preamble referred to allegations of UK torture complicity but neither he nor...

Having just braved the ash chaos and been to Paris for a few days I was struck by (1) how quiet Paris was at night (no jets overhead, just pigeons cooing in Arr16 where I was) and (2) how multicultural ( multiculturel ) it is. Even...

It isn't often that the news cycle has an opportunity to reflect on the USA’s civil rights movement. So it’s refreshing to be able to pay tribute to the strength and courage of some of the defenders of that time now and again. And...

Yesterday, Amnesty called for all sides in Thailand’s widening political conflict to immediately commit to ending human rights abuses, yet today the BBC reports that the Thai army has made explicit its determination to use live...

Loads of ash piles out of an Icelandic volcano, northern Europe’s airports grind to a halt, thousands of Brits are left stranded as the Daily Mail among others has reported. There’s only one option. Step forward the Cobra Committee...

You may have already spotted a few stories marking 30 years of independence in Zimbabwe which falls this Sunday. Petina Gappah provided a thoughtful account of Zimbabwe over the last 30 years in the Guardian , where she highlighted...

It is all too easy to forget that you are not watching actors. The leaked footage of members of a Mexican drug cartel, meeting in a lay-by, guns casually slung over their shoulders, sauntering around, apparently taking a drug doled out...

Oh dear. Using some of Keane’s music at the Conservative manifesto launch was maybe not the best move. Amnesty-supporting drummer Richard Hughes took an immediate swipe with one of his drumsticks – “Told the Tories played Keane at...

The Telegraph today carries a story revealing that pregnant women living in the UK are more likely to die in childbirth or for pregnancy related factors than women in Poland, Hungary or the Czech Republic. This is certainly surprising...

The other day I watched six episodes of TheThick Of It straight off the reel. Now after a l-o-o-o-o-o-ng week of the election campaign. I’m starting to … feel the burn. Probably what’s preventing my head exploding in a Malcolm Tucker...

I reckon the tributes to punk impresario Malcolm McLaren have been selling the old rascal short. Too much focus on the music, too little attention being paid to the spectacle, the protest and the deliberate stage management of outrage...

OK, it’s not a surprise that countries have “hit lists” (not music charts) and that their intelligence services bump people off, as the deceptively cosy phrase has it. But what to make of the US giving a special media briefing to...

“Men are superior to the woman because they have paid ‘bride price’ to bring the woman into the man’s household. He can therefore do with her as he pleases.” That was the view of one man in Uganda who took part in an Amnesty-run group...

So at last here it is the countdown to the election has finally begun. And the big question is which of the two main parties can really make a difference. Enough of the small talk, who’s going to win? Will it be the ruling United...

Best April Fool of the day? The Guardian’s page three on Labour’s “ Gordon gets violent” election campaign ? Not bad. The Times’ page 19 ad for anti-sweat “Miracle Shirts” (a “real” spoof from Gillette”)? Yes, quite good (like the eye...