Press release me, let me go

The case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, facing execution in Iran by stoning or hanging, for adultery or murder, is as complicated as it is unjust. This situation is not helped by recent statements by Iranian officials, including...

It’s taken a while, but tomorrow could signal the start of change in the secretive state of North Korea. Tomorrow, the ruling Workers’ Party are expected to anoint Kim Jong-un as the country’s new leader. The 27-year-old will replace...

It is three years on from the iconic “Saffron Revolution” when protestors swept through the streets of Burma. The world watched with bated breath, as footage captured by brave and clandestine reporters revealed the largest show of...

The Guardian’s front page today carries some interesting allegations that that David Miliband, when he was Foreign Secretary, personally authorised interrogations of detainees in countries with poor human rights records. Apparently he...

To me it’s an unexpected twist. The Iranian establishment has launched an apparently calculated counter-attack over the Ashtiani stoning case. First Iranian MPs and official Iranian news agencies have issued seemingly coordinated...

Attention? Resources? Commitment? Finances? Or perhaps all of the above and of course, Greater focus on human rights. Today’s media is abuzz with the opening of the United Nations Summit in New York where world leaders will meet to...

Tomorrow is decision time for the people of Afghanistan, as the people of the war-torn country go to the polls. And to be honest the prospect of the elections going smoothly has never been more remote. We’ve already heard of harrowing...

The UN announced yesterday that the number of women dying each year due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth has dropped by 34 per cent, from about 546,000 in 1990 to 358,000 in 2008, according to their report "Trends in...

“Ethical” foreign policy. Putting human rights “at the heart of” our foreign policy. Successive foreign secretaries have promoted – or end up being associating with – foreign policies with particular labels. Judging by early reaction...

Is the international outcry, against Iran sentencing Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani to be stoned to death, having an impact? It’s what has kept her alive, according to a story in the Times today. They report that Hossein Alizadeh, an...

A Briton going on a “mission” to get a relative “out of a foreign jail” is one of those media staples that you see every now and again. These stories can be a little queasy – there’s often a whiff of chauvinism in the standard...

Thehotly anticipated release of Tony Blair’s memoirs last week created a mediastorm and brought the subject of the Iraq war back into the news. Much lessreported is the plight of the refugees who have fled the conflict. Today’s...

The release from prison of prominent Chinese human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng is a tiny drop in an ocean of repression in China. But a drop is better than nothing at all. Chen is relatively well-known as the blind, self-taught...

That seems true for the Democratic Republic of Congo at the moment. Papers, blogs and broadcasts have been awash with a variety of news stories from the DRC in recent days. And they've not been particularly positive. Over the weekend...

The latest news on Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani , the woman at risk of stoning in Iran, is far from reassuring. It's being claimed that she’s been lashed – 99 times – because a photograph of her without a chador covering has been...

As I said during the general election campaign (remember that?!), none of the parties were really talking about human rights then. And the same is basically true in the Labour leadership contest now. Yesterday’s one-and-half-hour...

It’s been all go today at the Human Rights Action Centre. The building has been swamped by over 100 student journalists from across the country. The reason? Amnesty and the National Union of Students’ two-day media summit. It’s a...

Is prejudice against Gypsies the last vestige of "acceptable" racism in Britain? Seems to me that it is. Lately I’ve heard acquaintances of mine (including Facebook friends I can’t exactly vouch for) railing against “thieving Gypos”...

Loose lips sink ships went the old WW2 adage, and Vladimir Putin’s remarks that protestors in Russia who don’t have official permission can expect to be hit over the head can pretty obviously lead if not to sunk ships, then certainly...

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has at times blurted out an inappropriate remark or two. Never intended to be harmful or malicious, but sometimes it’s just the wrong thing. For example when meeting the brother of one of my friends...