Press release me, let me go

It is not often that people feel sorry for lawyers. But a new Amnesty report , made public today, details the concerted campaign in China to break the law; to suppress, intimidate and persecute lawyers who take up human rights cases...

The new clashes in Tahrir Square are a blunt reminder of the fact that Egypt’s “25 January” revolution is unfinished business. To say the least…. Many of the people protesting in the square and surrounding streets are reported to be...

What do Julianne Moore, Meryl Streep and Katie Holmes have in common? They’ve all recently played politicians and none, so far as I am aware, has been blacklisted as a result.If they’ve upset anyone it will have been fans of the women...

David Cameron meets Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao today as part of Mr Wen’s 3-day visit to the UK. There were always going to be two issues to discuss and they’ve both been mentioned in media reporting so far: trade and human rights. Some...

Like a lot of people, I’ve occasionally been guilty of tweeting in haste and repenting at leisure. When I say repent, I mean: feel slightly embarrassed that I’ve sent a tweet marred by a spelling mistake or containing a faulty link...

So hes out. With uncharacteristically few words, Ai Weiwei addressed the waiting hordes of journalists, saying simply Im out, Im happy. And then Im on bail, please understand. Thinly-veiled code for the conditions of his release that...

The fighting has subsided, the television news crews have departed and to the casual observer normality has returned to the West African state of Ivory Coast. Given the ongoing unrest and turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, it...

A new report we’ve launched today reveals that hate crimes in Turkey towards gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people, including violent attacks and murders, are prevalent but largely ignored by the authorities. Transgender...

When I heard the announcement of Brian Haw’s death on Radio 2 I was saddened and impressed – impressed that the death of this ordinary man should be announced by the BBC. And there’s lot of coverage in the papers today too. It’s a rare...

This Sunday, is Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday. She will be 66. I wonder how she will choose to spend it. Having spent 15 of her last 20 years under house arrest in Rangoon, one might imagine this would be a time for celebration. This...

“Free Ayat now, Amnesty tells Bahrain regime”, says a headline in the Independent today, and yes, that’s exactly what ought to happen. Ayat al-Qarmezi (sometimes transliterated as Gormezi) is the 20-year-old Bahraini student and poet...

In the UK we often take for granted what we consider small freedoms, and while there is certainly a long way to go in terms of equality, women are relatively free to do and say as they please without fear. But this just isn’t the case...

There has been a lot of debate recently about what is appropriate, what is gratuitous, what is deliberately alarming and what is necessary for broadcast. From films which were deemed too graphic and disturbing to screen, to the...

The media today is full of stories from the thousands of refugees who have fled Syria across the border into Turkey , many of them it seems from the town of Jisr al-Shughur in northwest Syria. Bloomberg News reports that there are now...

As attentive readers of this blog may have noticed (well, very attentive), I’ve made the occasional mention of how I’m often in Italy (Italian girlfriend, I have to keep her happy). Her place is in the north, not far from Milan. In...

Allegations that Colonel Gaddafi has used a new aspect of repression by ordering his forces to use rape as a weapon of war have reminded us once again that women and girls are so often used as a pawn in bloody battles. Hundreds of...

Having worked at Amnesty for a few years I’ve come across a few so-called “crimes” in my time which various countries have devised to serve as a reason to imprison (or execute) people, normally those who are causing a nuisance to the...

When people heard about the punitive conditions that the US soldier Bradley Manning was enduring in prison in Virginia there was (rightly) an international outcry. The same can be said – multiplied by nearly four decades – about Albert...

Cast your mind back to last October, when a tide of toxic sludge leaked into rivers (including the Danube) in Hungary from an alumina refinery’s ‘red mud pool’, causing massive environmental damage, displacing villagers and causing the...

When I was getting into music in my teens in the late 70s it was deeply uncool to like "old" stuff. The Sex Pistols, The Buzzcocks, The Stranglers, Blondie, The Undertones, The Ruts, The Specials, Stiff Little Fingers. This was all...