Belfast and Beyond

Some good news: I’ve just heard that Hicham Yezza has been freed from prison. Hicham, a member of staff in the Faculty of Modern Languages at Nottingham University, was arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 on 14 May 2008. As reported...

In my day, a snog at the end of the ceilí at Loch an Iúir during Irish language summer camp – Donegal Gaeltacht-style – would get you no more bother than a ribbing from your house mates and a red face when you met the girl at class the...

As human rights activists we all strongly believe in the values contained within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Therefore when I read an article in the Belfast Telegraph with a rather muddled argument that the death penalty...

And so my time has come to leave Amnesty International as a campaigner, I have been involved with Amnesty in Northern Ireland for just short of five years, in a variety of roles. Five challenging, fascinating years which have only...

The First Minister and DUP leader Peter Robinson has been making a bid for his party's representatives to have seats on the Equality Commission when they come up for appointment later this year. If the DUP want to be taken seriously on...

Last Thursday and Friday I went to see Mirrorball, a drama group from Rathmelton, Donegal, perform Caryl Churchills controversial play "Seven Jewish Children ". The play was perfomed by a cross border cast from L'Derry and Donegal and...

With her green silk headscarf, designer sunglasses and classic Persian features, she was every inch the Iranian beauty. Yet when the UTV camera crew hoved into view, she moved off to the side. When Donal, our photographer for the day...

Sonia Sotomayor , the soon-to-be-confirmed , Obama-nominated US Supreme Court judge, has been the subject of much debate in the American (and indeed local ) blogosphere. Is she liberal, conservative, pro-choice, anti-death penalty...

New revelations have emerged from Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) that the Bush White House may have helped to cover up a reported massacre in Afghanistan in 2001 by a CIA-payrolled warlord. Using forensic analysis and satellite...

As another 12th of July passes marking the busiest part of the marching season, the people of Northern Ireland have watched as parts of the country have once again descended into widespread sectarian rioting and attacks against the...

As NASA's PR machine gears up to mark the fortieth anniversary of the moon landings, it's time to take an alternative look ( also see previous blog: 'Moonwalk this: rockets or rickets? ' ) at this stunning human achievement. It's my...

When yesterdays report by Israeli NGO " Breaking the Silence " was released it was another report confirming the findings of the Amnesty report "Operation Cast Lead 22 Days of Death and Destruction." Both reports found a...

This blog has previously noted the suspicious shadow cast over intelligence about the Omagh bombing. There is little doubt who caused the death of 29 people and two unborn children – the 'dissident' republican paramilitary group known...

The Immigration Minister’s failure to engage with genuine criticisms of new immigration controls betrays his appeasement of the far right minority and constitutes a failure for freedom of expression, cultural association and freedom of...

Amnesty International is using the latest in advertising technology to challenge the scourge of domestic violence. This Amnesty bus stop advertisement, recently erected in Hamburg, changes whether or not someone's looking at it. Using...

Will the outgoing Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde leave a multi-million pound, Taser-sized headache behind for his successor and the NI Policing Board? That could be the prospect facing the new PSNI chief following the settlement of a...

There was a fascinating footnote to last night's BBC4 programme, Man on the Moon , which told the story of the US space programme and the billions spent to put a man on the moon before the Soviets. On the eve of the Apollo 11 mission...

A whopping 83% of people in Northern Ireland now think that a Bill of Rights is important for the region. That's the finding of a survey published today by the Human Rights Consortium , a campaign coalition which Amnesty International...

My old friend, former colleague and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire was among the peace and justice activists aboard a Greek cargo ship intercepted, rammed and boarded by the Israeli navy yesterday. The Amnesty office in...

Conall (who's been providing plenty of food for thought recently on Belfast and Beyond ) notes that the Belfast, unlike Dublin, does not yet fly rainbow flags to mark the city's Gay Pride. But the numbers participating in the Belfast...