Campaigns Blog

Update Wednesday 19 September Donatella has just returned from Syria where, in parts of the Idlib and North Hama regions, she again witnessed indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas with no apparent military target. As this video from...

It is true that one can say they want a new Syria where all people's human rights are respected AND cheer the brutal extrajudicial execution of members of the notorious Berri clan in Aleppo. This is possible but let’s be clear; it...

Update 7 November 2012 - An Arms Trade Treaty one step closer after resounding UN vote The 2012 UN General Assembly has seen the biggest showing of support for the Treaty yet - 157 governments have voted in favour of a final...

Update, 28 July: Despite a fantastic response from all of you and the UK government pulling out the stops in strengthening the treaty, the US showed stunning cowardice last night to stop the negotiations , opening the door for others...

Chair says "let's tango". China says "let's abandon our efforts". It is the day we have been waiting for. The day civil society has been working towards for decades, and many governments for six years. For some of us, with the way...

Update - thanks for adding your questions to the #AskFCO Q&A. Alistair Burt maintained throughout that the UK government is determined to get the strongest treaty they can, read the full transcript of the Q&A . It's our job now to keep...

Horrific footage has emerged of a woman being killed in Afghanistan. The Guardian and others are reporting that she had been accused of adultery , and that her murder seems to be in retribution for this alleged ‘crime’. The attack...

‘These three activists have now been behind bars for months, awaiting a trial that should not be taking place’ - John Dalhuisen Amnesty International has reiterated its call for the release of three members of the female punk group...

Arms Trade Treaty negotiations are at a crucial point. I can hardly believe that we’re already half way through. So much has happened and yet in terms of concrete decisions, Moritan (the president of the conference) sums it up nicely:...

‘[T]hey took me and five other women into a room. It was in the morning. There were three of them. They told us to undress. I refused. One of them hit me with his knife. I told him it was not human. He said: ‘We will see about that’...

Cesar Marin from Amnesty Venezuela offers our round up from the first week of Arms Trade Treaty negotiations in New York. Keep up-to-date on facebook

Time at the UN is a precious commodity. Being told by Chair Ambassador Moritan that there are just 99 hours of negotiation left for the Arms Trade Treaty was a sobering moment. The sceptics, countries like Syria, Egypt, Iran and others...

I have fireworks on the mind. I love fireworks. I love other people's reactions to them. Let’s see if that's still the case by the time these talks end on 27 July... Experiencing them here in NYC is a happy by-product of being part of...

Well, there’s good news and there’s bad news. The bad news is that a procedural stumbling block related to Palestine’s status at the UN laid waste to the first day of this 19 day long negotiation. The good news is that Foreign Office...

As part of a blog-swap with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Paul Arkwright, the UK Ambassador to the Netherlands , blogs on the start of the Arms Trade Treaty negotiations. Today marks the start of important negotiations in New York...

As negotiations begin in New York and world leaders meet to thrash out the first ever international treaty to control the arms trade, we thought it'd be nice to recap on all the amazing work you've been doing across the country. You...

On Saturday 30 June, the “Action group on Syria” met in Geneva to try to address the growing crisis in Syria – they did indeed “address the crisis” but what progress did they actually make and how is that reflected on the ground where...

It's hard to describe how I'm feeling right now. But I'll try. Nervous. Prepared. Raring to go. Hot (it's 34degrees in New York City right now...) The journey we've been on together to get here has been a long one but we are now on the...

Today is the 40th anniversary of the US Supreme Court briefly stopping executions. USA Researcher Rob Freer looks back at that ruling and the use of death penalty by the US today. For a brief moment four decades ago, it looked like the...

In a couple of hours, Londoners are in for quite a shock. We're going to be taking up a little extra room in the bus lanes with... a 17-tonne armoured tank. Try getting on one of those with a pay-as-you-go Oyster card. So, I hear you...